1. Overview

pyCoilGen is an open source tool for generating coil winding layouts, such as gradient field coils, within the MRI and NMR environments.

pyCoilGen is based on a boundary element method and generates interconnected non-overlapping wire-tracks on 3D support structures.

The source code for pyCoilGen is available on GitHub.

A 3D rendered view of the `.stl` swept output. — A 3D rendering of the `.stl` output for the `shielded_ygradient_coil.py` example.

A colour plot showing the stream function and the corresponding contour groups. — A colour plot showing the 2D stream function and the corresponding contour groups for the `shielded_ygradient_coil.py` example.

1.1. Features

With pyCoilGen, you can:

Specify a target field (e.g., bz(x,y,z)=y) and a surface mesh geometry.
Use built-in surface mesh geometries or 3D meshes defined in .stl files.
Generate a coil layout in the form of a non-overlapping, interconnected wire track to achieve the desired field, exported as an .stl file.

For a detailed description of the algorithm, refer to the research paper CoilGen: Open-source MR coil layout generator.

1.2. Examples

The examples directory in the GitHub repository contains several usage examples for pyCoilGen. These examples demonstrate different scenarios and configurations for generating coil layouts.

1.3. Citation

Use the following publication if you need to cite this work:

Amrein, P., Jia, F., Zaitsev, M., & Littin, S. (2022). CoilGen: Open-source MR coil layout generator. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 88(3), 1465-1479.