Mesh cutting algorithm for use in an orthopaedic surgery simulator

In order to develop a podiatric orthopaedic training simulator the obstacle of simulating podiatric bone surgery must be overcome. In order to simulate this surgery appropriately, it is necessary to be able to cut through a virtual representation of a patient’s foot on-screen in real-time. We investigate several methods of cutting through simulated objects in general, and evaluate their usefulness in simulating real-time interactive bone surgery. We determine that none of these conventional methods are fully suitable and instead propose, develop and test a method using planar slicing of polyhedral mesh geometry.