Montage: a system for three-dimensional reconstruction by personal computer.

This paper describes a simplified system for serial section three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction. A set of 9 software programs runs on a standard personal computer and produces camera-ready illustrations suitable for publication. The user enters trace points on a digitizing tablet from sections that have been already aligned. A 3-D view of the reconstructed object is generated which can be displayed with hidden lines removed. Analysis of volume, surface area and autoradiographic grain density are performed automatically. A relational database query language allows display and analysis of a selected subset of the data. The system runs under the UNIX operating system which allows the programs to be easily transported to new hardware or modified for other purposes.