Carimas PackedMasks format

Carimas can store and utilize image masks in simple text format files (*.mask). The format of the PackedMasks file is as follows:

Format-PackedMasks
[Number of VOIs in this file]
[Name of VOI 1]
[Width - Dimension of the masked image]
[Height - Dimension of the masked image]
[Depth - Dimension of the masked image]
[Frames - Dimension of the masked image]
[VOI color as uint where the Red, Green, Blue and alpha are coded inside the bits of integer 8bits each] 
[Number of run-length values (the lines for this one VOI coming after this line)] 
[Run-length of non-masked (negative number) or masked (positive) voxels]
[Run-length of non-masked (negative number) or masked (positive) voxels]
[Run-length of non-masked (negative number) or masked (positive) voxels]
...
[Name of VOI 2]
...

The color is coded as ARGB as follows: (uint)(Blue | Green << 8 | Red << 16 | Alpha << 24), in other words each component has value 0-255 as follows:

bits 0-8: Blue
bits 8-16: Green
bits 16-24: Red
bits 24-32: Alpha

so if you want to get the Red component, you can get it this way: red=(byte)((color >> 16) % 256)

Color is used when showing the mask on image in Carimas, and can be otherwise ignored.

For example, if we have a 4×3 pixel image, and the following single mask for it:

0	0	X	0
0	X	X	0
0	0	0	0

Then the PackedMasks file would be (comments starting with // should not be included in the file):

Format-PackedMasks
1          // Nr of VOIs/Masks
TestMask   // Name of VOI
4          // Width of the image/mask matrix (x dim)
3          // Height of the image/mask matrix (y dim)
1          // Depth of the image/mask matrix (z dim)
1          // Number of image frames
0          // Black color
5          // Mask is defined by 5 values each on their own line
-2         // First two voxels, starting from upper left corner, are not included in the mask
1          // Following one voxel belongs to the mask
-2         // Following two voxels are not included in the mask
2          // Following two pixels belongs to the mask
-5         // Following five pixels are not included in the mask

Carimas PackedMasks format

See also: