# CrossSDF: 3D Reconstruction of Thin Structures From Cross-Sections

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04120 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04120/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 26 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Dec 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [Fourier Features Let Networks Learn High Frequency Functions in Low Dimensional Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10739/) (2020)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [Neural Sparse Voxel Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11571/) (2020)
- [Implicit Geometric Regularization for Learning Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10099/) (2020)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [The Medical Segmentation Decathlon](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05735/) (2021)
- [Neural Fields in Visual Computing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11426/) (2021)
- [Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03092/) (2023)
- [Neural Geometric Level of Detail: Real-time Rendering with Implicit 3D Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10994/) (2021)
- [SAL: Sign Agnostic Learning of Shapes from Raw Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10414/) (2019)
- [ABC: A Big CAD Model Dataset For Geometric Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06216/) (2018)
- [NeRF: Neural Radiance Field in 3D Vision: A Comprehensive Review (Updated Post-Gaussian Splatting)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00379/) (2022)
- [Neural-Pull: Learning Signed Distance Functions from Point Clouds by Learning to Pull Space onto Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13495/) (2020)
- [Points2Surf: Learning Implicit Surfaces from Point Cloud Patches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10453/) (2020)
- [POCO: Point Convolution for Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01831/) (2022)
- [Mosaic-SDF for 3D Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09222/) (2023)
- [Iso-Points: Optimizing Neural Implicit Surfaces with Hybrid Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.06434/) (2020)
- [Towards Better Gradient Consistency for Neural Signed Distance Functions via Level Set Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.11601/) (2023)
- [Deep Medial Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03804/) (2021)
- [Neural-IMLS: Self-supervised Implicit Moving Least-Squares Network for Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.04398/) (2021)
- [OReX: Object Reconstruction from Planar Cross-sections Using Neural Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.12886/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [VesselSDF: Distance Field Priors for Vascular Network Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.16556/) (2025)
- [SBP-Net: Learning Thin Structure Reconstruction with Sliding-Box Projections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.04251/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reconstructing complex structures from planar cross-sections is a challenging problem, with wide-reaching applications in medical imaging, manufacturing, and topography. Out-of-the-box point cloud reconstruction methods can often fail due to the data sparsity between slicing planes, while current bespoke methods struggle to reconstruct thin geometric structures and preserve topological continuity. This is important for medical applications where thin vessel structures are present in CT and MRI scans. This paper introduces CrossSDF, a novel approach for extracting a 3D signed distance field from 2D signed distances generated from planar contours. Our approach makes the training of neural SDFs contour-aware by using losses designed for the case where geometry is known within 2D slices. Our results demonstrate a significant improvement over existing methods, effectively reconstructing thin structures and producing accurate 3D models without the interpolation artifacts or over-smoothing of prior approaches.