[SOLVED] How to route a pacemaker lead?

[gbgbha]

Hi all,
I need to route the leads of an artificial pacemaker along the subclavian vein, through the superior vena cava and eventually to the right ventricle. I have the human phantom ready (morphed Ella v3) and already placed the pacemaker housing above the left clavicle, and only toggle on the visibility of relevant organs (bones, veins & heart).
I am trying to route the leads with the spline tool; the points are always placed somewhere behind the vein, instead of snapping on it.
I appreciate any help, thanks!

[gbgbha]

Hi everyone, so I got an ad-hoc solution to this:
I created several solid objects (small spheres with radius 1mm) along the intended path and snapped the spline to those spheres. I don't know of any better way but it worked for me!

[bryn]

At IT'IS we typically use the planar cut tool and slice the model (e.g. vein) at multiple locations along some direction (e.g. z-axis). Then you can snap to the center of the vein. Here is a script to slice the selected entities:

import XCoreModeling
Vec3 = XCoreModeling.Vec3

make_manifold = False
normal = Vec3(0,0,1)
distance_between_slices = 10

selection = XCoreModeling.GetActiveModel().SelectedEntities
selection = [e for e in selection if XCoreModeling.IsTriangleMesh(e) or XCoreModeling.IsBody(e)]

p0, p1 = XCoreModeling.GetBoundingBox(selection)

def slice_entity(e, p0, p1, normal, distance):
    if XCoreModeling.IsTriangleMesh(e) and make_manifold:
        XCoreModeling.MakeTriangleMeshManifold(e)
        
    projected_len = (p1-p0).Dot(normal)
    len = 0.5 * distance
        
    while len < projected_len:
        p = p0 + len*normal
        slice = XCoreModeling.CreatePlanarSlice(e, p, normal, True)
        slice.Name = e.Name + "_%g" % len
        len += distance

for e in selection:
    slice_entity(e, p0, p1, normal, distance_between_slices)

Note: make_manifold may be useful if you slicing is not robust enough.

[gbgbha]

Thank you @bryn! I will adapt this to my needs.