Feature request: make mesh more amenable to other Julia datatypes?

[Ickaser]

One of the reasons I want to use this module is to be able to put together a pure-Julia data pipeline for micro-CT data. To that end, it would be helpful if I could take the mesh generated by this project, and pull it over to Makie.jl or some other Julia plotting software.

It seems to me like it shouldn't be too difficult to modify the code base to use Triangles from GeometryBasics.jl , then make the mesh compatible with Meshes.jl and therefore MeshViz .

I can help with this, I think (although maybe not very fast).

[t-bltg]

Hi,

I'm a bit puzzled on this one. The goal of this package was to be as light weight and universal as possible. This is why e.g. PlyIO is an optional [extras] dependency used only for the example scenario.

The representation using vertices, triangles and normals is quite universal, uses standard Julia types and pretty common StaticArrays, whereas GeometryBasics is already a level upwards in the abstraction, and oriented towards Makie.jl.

This package was written for https://github.com/JuliaPlots/UnicodePlots.jl, specifically for isosurface, and since we're not using GeometryBasics there, I don't see a reason to add extra dependencies (they will just pile up with more and more maintenance needed, e.g. when GeometryTypes was superseded by GeometryBasics).

Why not write a conversion method which maps vertices and triangles to GeometryBasics types (should be relatively straightforward) instead of modifying the internal algorithm types ? We can add it to README.md as an example application if you wish ...

[Ickaser]

That seems like a good way forward to me. I can start digging through to try and put something together.

[t-bltg]

We can eventually support GeometryBasics in the (optional) way I dealt with PlyIO(even if this is non standard), by passing the module to the function, as in example.jl:

MarchingCubes.jl/src/example.jl

Line 55 in d2ed53a

output(PlyIO::Module, m::MC, fn::AbstractString = "test.ply") = begin