BodyBuilder User Interface

BodyBuilder is controlled by a user interface. Choices and settings are retained between BodyBuilder sessions in the bodybuilder.ini file (located in the windows directory).

BodyBuilder Main Menu

The Main Menu is found at the top of the BodyBuilder main window.

File Submenu

The Write MCNP Input File… and Write Sabrina Input File… items perform the same function as the Write MCNP Input … and Write Sabrina Input … buttons described below.

When Include Moritz Hints is checked, Moritz commands, in the form of comments in the MCNP input, are included in the MCNP input file written by BodyBuilder. They are always included in the file sent to Moritz for display (View in Moritz). These commands enhance Moritz’s 3D display of the model.

The Write BodyBuilder File… and Read BodyBuilder File… items operate on files containing the state of a BodyBuilder model-organ selections and details, sex, age, extra fat, etc. These files carry a suffix of '.bbr'. The file reflects the state of BodyBuilder when written, and restores that state when read in.

The Viewer menu items point BodyBuilder to the Sabrina and Moritz programs. Sabrina Executable… brings up a file selection box for setting the location of the Sabrina executable (sabrina.exe). BodyBuilder remembers this location in subsequent sessions. Sabrina will run in the same directory as the executable (thereby facilitating Sabrina’s access to her help files) unless the Sabrina working directory is changed with the Run Sabrina in... menu item that shows a file selection box in which to choose the directory in which Sabrina will run. Selecting any file in the chosen directory will set the directory. BodyBuilder remembers this directory for future sessions. Making this choice is usually unnecessary. The Moritz items are similar.

The Quit item terminates BodyBuilder.

Organs Submenu

Extra Torso Fat … shows a window for defining a layer of additional tissue surrounding the torso.

Separate Components for All and No Separate Components affect the separate components model for all organs with such a model.

Wall+Contents for All and No Wall+Contents affect the Wall + Contents model for all organs that have such a model.

When Legs Up is checked, the legs are positioned horizontally in front of the torso. When Sitting is checked, the legs are bent with the top half of the legs as in the Legs Up posture. These two items cannot be selected in the 6 and 9 month pregnant models.

New Neck Model, when checked, includes the neck modifications described in the 1996 report. When unchecked, the original head model, without a distinct neck, is used. The figure shows the new (left) and old (right) neck models.

Clear Tallies sets the tally flag for all organs to No Tally.

Units Submenu

The weight can be shown as Kilograms, Grams, or Pounds. Dimensions, including the height and extra fat thickness, can be given as Centimeters or Inches.

Imp shows a dialog in which to enter the MCNP importance command that will be included in each cell definition.

Viewer Submenu

When Use Sabrina or Use Moritz is checked, that program is used as the external viewer.

The other items in the Viewer menu affect the state of Sabrina when writing a Sabrina file or viewing the model. They are disabled when Use Moritz is checked.

Initial Action determines what Sabrina will do with the model when it first receives or reads it:

Make a Color shaded image
Make an Etch image showing edges and intersections
Do Nothing

Sabrina’s initial ViewPoint can be towards the Front, Back, Right, or Left of the phantom, Down on the head, or Up from below. Regardless of the initial choice, all ViewPoints are defined and retrievable in Sabrina.

The Spatial Window is a bounding box that contains the portion of the model that will be imaged.

The Fixed Size for All Ages window facilitates comparison of phantoms of different ages.
With the This Model window, the scaling is adjusted so that the current phantom fills the image area.
Only the head and torso are shown with the Above Legs window.

Define Colors: The colors listed in the BodyBuilder organ color menus are the 16 default colors in Sabrina when Sabrina is running on a True Color or High Color (> 8 color planes) display. When Sabrina is to be run on a pseudocolor (8 color planes) display or less, checking Define Colors inserts the definitions of the 16 colors into the Sabrina input.

Super Resolution: Sabrina’s default imaging method is the calculate the colors and intensities at the corners and center of a 9¥9 pixel block. If these values match, the remainder of the block is filled by interpolation in the intensity. If not, the same game is played on subdivisions of the block. This method may result in noticeable gaps when image features are comparable in size to the 9¥9 pixel block. Selecting Super Resolution causes each pixel to be calculated, bypassing the averaging algorithm. Sabrina execution time increases in the super mode. The figure compares the two resolutions. Super Resolution is necessary if the transparency state of any organ is semi-transparent.

Help Submenu

BodyBuilder uses the standard Windows help facility.

Contents shows the BodyBuilder help epitome.

Topics gives an index.

Using Help presents the Windows help on help package.

About BodyBuilder… shows a standard Windows About dialog.

BodyBuilder Sex Choice

The sex is specified from the pull-down menu. The choices are


   Male 
   Female 
   Androgynous 
   Neuter 
   3 Months Pregnant 
   6 Months Pregnant 
   9 Months Pregnant

A choice must be made if Undefined is displayed in the menu-the words Please Choose are displayed next to the menu as a reminder. The sex choice enables and disables the appropriate gender-specific organs; inappropriate organ choices are desensitized No gender-specific organs are included in the neuter model, and both male and female organs can be included in the androgynous model.

Male, Androgynous, and Neuter models may range in age from 1 to 21 years (and newborn). Following Cristy & Eckerman, an adult Female is taken to be 15 years old. Female models may thus range from 1 to 15 years (and newborn). If a larger Female model is desired, choose the Androgynous model and select the appropriate organs. The Pregnant models are restricted to a single age of 15 years.

The 6 and 9 Months Pregnant choices cannot be combined with the legs up or sititng postures.

BodyBuilder Organ Panel

Which organs to include in the model is controlled by a collection of check boxes on the organ panel. The organ will be included if the box is checked. The state of the checkbox is changed with the left mouse button (or spacebar). The right button (or <F5>) shows a dialog for selecting organ details; for example, the heart detail dialog.

Undifferentiated soft tissue-UnDef'd Tissue-is always selected; it fills the volume between defined organs. Extra Torso Fat is not a distinct organ, but rather an increase in the body thickness. Organs that cannot be selected because of the sex model are shown grayed (Ovaries, Uterus, and Breasts in the case of the Male model.)

The Select All button chooses all (non-grayed) organs.

The Reset button deselects all organs and sets the sex choice to Undefined (a sex model must be chosen before proceeding).

BodyBuilder Organ Detail Dialog

Selecting an entry in the organ panel with the right mouse button displays a dialog for setting attributes for that organ. (The right button on the Extra Torso Fat checkbox shows the Extra Fat window.) The detail dialog for the heart is shown here.

The first checkbox, Selected for Model, is tied to the selection checkbox on the organ panel. The organ can be included or excluded in either place.

Separate Components

The separate checkbox is shown for organs that can be either modeled as a single MCNP cell or as two or more cells. For bilateral organs-Lungs, Adrenals, Kidneys, Testes, and Breasts-the checkbox is labeled Separate Left/Right Components. When unchecked, the left and right components are treated as a single cell; when checked, they are modeled as two distinct cells. There is no provision to include the left or right component alone.

The Organs menu items Separate Components for All and No Separate Components affect the model for all applicable organs.

The Separate Components models for the skeleton and heart are not yet implemented. The model for the heart will have separate cells for each of its four chambers. The skeleton consists of separate cells for the skull/face, arm bones, rib cage, clavicles, spine, scapulae, pelvis, and leg bones. When implemented, the Separate Components model will give left and right cells for the bilateral components. Additional subdivisions could be made, depending on user requirements. We may also permit subdivision of the spine and other long bones for differential dose calculations.

Separate Wall + Contents

Some organs-Heart, Gall Bladder, Stomach, Small Intestine, the four Colons, (urinary) Bladder, and Pregnant Uterus-may be modeled as separate cells for the wall and contents. The contents of the Pregnant Uterus includes multiple cells describing fetal detail. When the Separate Wall + Contents checkbox is unchecked, the wall and contents are modeled as a single cell. The wall + contents model for the heart is not yet implemented.

The Organs menu item Wall+Contents for All and No Wall+Contents items affect the model for all applicable organs.

Tally Type

The Tally Type pull down menu associates an MCNP tally with the organ. Current choices are

 No Tally 
   F6N Neutron Cell Energy Deposition 
   F6P Photon Cell Energy Deposition 
   F6N,P Cell Energy Deposition

Further choices can be added according to user requirements. There are no Tally menus for Undifferentiated Tissue, Skeleton, and Skin. These also can be added. The MCNP input file will contain a MODE N card if only F6N tallies have been chosen, a MODE P card if only F6P tallies are present, and a MODE NP if both or a F6N,P tally are selected.

All tallies are reset to none with the Clear Tallies item under the Organs menu.

Sabrina Settings

The Sabrina Settings panel permits choice of the color assigned to the organ, from the pulldown menu, and the transparency state. These settings only affect the Sabrina input file, not the MCNP input file. For organs with a separate wall + contents model enabled, two Sabrina Settings panels are shown, one for the wall, the other for the contents.

BodyBuilder Age Panel

The age is set by using the slider or typing a value. The phantom age may be changed by typing in a value or moving the slider. When an age is typed in, the slider position reflects the age. It is not necessary to type a carriage-return (<CR>). If the value typed is outside the allowed range, the minimum or maximum of the range will be used, as appropriate.

The slider adjusts the age in 0.1 year increments. The slider bar may be moved directly by dragging with the mouse. Clicking on the arrows at either end changes the age in 0.1 year increments. Clicking in the space between the arrows and the slide bar changes the age in 5 year increments (or less if restricted by the allowable range).

The allowable age range is 1 to 21 years for Male, Androgynous, and Neuter models, and 1 to 15 years for Female models. The age for the Pregnant models is 15 years and cannot be changed. The New Born age of 0 years cannot be changed.

BodyBuilder Height and Weight

The Height and Weight fields are output quantities only-the values cannot be changed directly. The values are constantly updated as the model changes. Age alone determines the height. In addition to age and extra fat, the weight is affected by the inclusion of organs. The densities of the skeleton and lungs are different than soft tissue; those densities are used only if the organ is explicitly included. The external breasts and male genitalia contribute to the weight.

The Units submenu on the main menu gives alternatives for the choice of measure.

MCNP and Sabrina Input Files

The Write MCNP Input, Write Sabrina Input, and Write Moritz Input buttons show a standard Windows file selection dialog for choosing the filename for the output. The last directory used is saved in the bodybuilder.ini file. Suffixes .mcn and .sab are expected for MCNP and Sabrina/Moritz files, respectively.

The Sabrina and Moritz files is meant to be used with Sabrina and Moritz, not with MCNP. It includes only the geometry portion of the MCNP input file. It does not include material definitions, tally cards, and other MCNP data cards. It does include the cell colors and transparency states. To enable their color and transparency to be easily set by material, the Undifferentiated Tissue and Skin are assigned distinct material IDs (5 and 6) in the Sabrina file. (In the MCNP input, they share the same soft material composition with the soft organs-everything besides Skeleton and Lungs.)

Files sent to Moritz include comments in the MCNP input with commands to enhance the 3D display of the model. Most are similar to one of

c moritz alt 99 1 -2
3

c moritz st c
99 wire

The ‘c moritz’ string precedes a Moritz command. Alt specifies an alternate cell description that is used only for the 3D display. These descriptions often remove surfaces introduced to prevent small overlaps or exclusion of organs in container cells. The ST command specifies a wireframe style for a cell. The commands are also included in MCNP and Sabrina input files when Include Moritz Hints is checked in the File menu.

The MCNP input file does contain the material definitions, along with tally cards as chosen, a MODE card, and several typical data cards in the form of comments. To use the latter, delete the C in column 1 and supply the desired value.

BodyBuilder Extra Torso Fat

A layer of additional soft tissue may be placed around the torso. The extra dimensions that are added to the semi axes of the elliptical cross section of the torso specify the amount of additional tissue.

The Extra Torso Fat window is used to specify the extra dimensions. The window shows the outline of the original (before extra tissue is added) and the outer surface with the additional layer. The window is invoked by selecting Extra Torso Fat … under Organs on the main menu or by clicking with the right mouse button on Extra Torso Fat in the organ panel.

In the Figure, the original semimajor axis is 19.36 cm (the width of the torso is twice that, or 38.72 cm) and the semiminor axis, from front to back, is 9.95 cm. The fattened torso will have a semimajor axis of 20.46 and a semiminor axis of 12.95 cm.

All internal organs, the male genitalia, and the pregnant uterus remain in their original positions, unaffected by the fat layer. The breasts are moved outwards and apart, retaining their original shape. The breast volume written to the MCNP file is the nonfat value; the actual volume changes slightly due to the different curvature of the extended torso. The skin adjusts to remain on the outside of the model.

The Extra Torso Fat checkbox on the organ panel must be checked for the extra thicknesses to be used and to enable changing the values in the Extra Torso Fat Window.

Values for the extra thickness may be typed into the Extra fields; a carriage return (<CR>) is required for the values to take effect. The arrow keys adjust the extra thickness in 0.1 cm increments. The up and down arrow keys change the front to back thickness; the left and right arrow keys change the left to right width. The additional profile may be changed interactively by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the desired shape.

Negative values for the extra thicknesses are not permitted. The total weight is updated as the values are being changed.

BodyBuilder Legs Up & Sitting Postures

The MIRD phantoms are defined in a standing posture with the legs below and parallel to the torso. BodyBuilder includes the two additional postures shown above. In the Legs Up posture, the straight legs are in front of and perpendicular to the torso. In the Sitting posture, the legs are bent at a 90° angle at the midpoint of the legs; the upper half of the legs are the same as in the Legs Up posture. We refer to the lower half of the legs in the Sitting posture as the shins; legs will refer to the upper portion. Checking the Legs Up or Sitting item in the Organs menu selects an alternate posture.

The legs are positioned by applying a transformation (TR10) to the legs in the original standing model. The transformation positions the plane bounding the top of the legs to be just outside of the torso surface. The height (along the torso vertical axis) is chosen so that the bottom of the thickest portion of the legs is at the same level as the bottom of the original torso. The male genitalia and testicles are transformed along with the legs (above figure).

The leg transformation leaves a gap between the large end of the legs and the torso. The legs are extended to the midplane of the torso to fill the gap. The figure above shows the extensions. (The extensions are part of the leg cell; they are shown separately in the Figure for illustrative purposes only.) No extension is applied to the leg bones. The repositioning of the legs leaves the bottom of the torso bare. The alternate posture models add a bottom layer to the posterior of the torso. The thickness is 5 times the skin thickness. The outer layer (both sides and bottom) is skin if the model includes skin.

The leg extensions and bottom layer add additional soft tissue volume not present in the original MIRD specification. The legs were modified so that the combined volumes of the legs with extensions and the bottom are the same as the legs volume in the original model. The legs are truncated cones. The volume was adjusted by changing the opening angle of the cones. The volume fraction capability of the Moritz program was used to calculate both the original and modified volumes. The resolution of the volume calculation (set primarily by the number of paths used in the ray tracing technique) was set high enough to give an estimated accuracy of at least 0.1% for the leg volumes. The original (standing) and modified (legs up) volumes agree to within 1%. The volume matching procedure was performed for each of the BodyBuilder ages.

In the sitting model, the upper legs and shins are separated by a 45° plane (surface 853) that intersects the middle of the legs at 1/2 of their length. The shins are translated (TR11) from the original position. The translation parameters were chosen so that the shin length is 1/2 of the original leg length and the leg and shin bones are contiguous. The figure above shows the bones and outlines of the legs, shins, and torso for a sitting adult male. The leg surfaces do not match exactly at the leg/shin interface, but the model should be sufficient for most dose estimation studies. The leg volumes are within 10% of the original leg volumes.

The user can modify the angle of the legs and shins by adjusting their respective transformations (10 and 11). If either or both is modified, the models should be plotted and the translation parameters of the transformations adjusted if necessary. If the angle between the legs and shins is changed from 90°, the user may also want to consider changing the angle of the separating plane (853).

The legs up and sitting positions cannot be used with the 6 and 9 month pregnant models—the legs interfere with the extended belly. We could move the legs to accommodate the pregnant models if there is user demand. A more refined model would have the top of the leg bones closer to the pelvis (lowermost bone in torso in Figure 15). The alternate postures should work with extra torso tissue layers but have not been fully tested with thick extra layers.

BodyBuilder Cell Importances

BodyBuilder includes a string in each cell definition that is intended for the cell’s importance, such as ‘imp:n,p=1’. The string is entered by the user in the Importance dialog, shown below, that is invoked with the Imp item in the Units menu. The string can be blank or of zero length, in which case the importance specification does not appear. The string is limited to 64 characters. If the string length exceeds about 30 characters, the user should check that the length of cell lines in the input file does not exceed the MCNP limit of 80 characters. BodyBuilder does not check for correct syntax.

Interface Keyboard Navigation

A Main Menu item is opened with <alt>+X, where X is the underlined letter in the item name. <Alt>+f, for example, opens the File menu. Once opened, <alt>+X selects an item, or the arrow keys can be used to travel around the menu. <Enter> selects the highlighted item.

The <Tab> key moves from item to item in the main window and in dialogs; <Shift><Tab> moves in the opposite direction. The arrow keys move around the organ panel. A checkbox or button that has the focus-denoted by a rectangle around the item-is selected by the spacebar. The <F5> function key, serving the same function as the right mouse button, brings up the detail dialog in the organ panel. <F4> shows a pull down menu. The arrow and <Page Up> and <Page Down> keys move the slider. The arrow keys move among a group of radio boxes.

Last modified: September, 2004

Kenneth A. Van Riper / email