VAMToolbox — The Projection Engine

VAMToolbox is the open-source Python library that powers projection generation for Computed Axial Lithography. It is the engine underneath Tomo: everything Tomo does (voxelize a model, optimize the projection sequence, apply the resin physics, and produce the final light-projection video) is computed by VAMToolbox. Tomo is the graphical front end; VAMToolbox is the math.

Note

Use Tomo for a no-code desktop workflow. Use VAMToolbox directly if you want to script the pipeline, batch many jobs, or build your own tools on top of it.

Links

Source code: github.com/computed-axial-lithography/VAMToolbox
Documentation: vamtoolbox.readthedocs.io

What It Does

VAMToolbox generates the light projections (the sinogram) and models the DLP projector for tomographic VAM. Its core capabilities are:

Projection optimization — the OSMO and BCLP optimizers compute the projection sequence that deposits enough light dose inside the target geometry and nowhere outside it. BCLP additionally handles grayscale / continuous targets.
Physics models — light absorption (Beer–Lambert), cure/oxygen diffusion, and a GPU ray tracer for attenuation and refraction in graded-index media. Corrections are resolution-aware (they use the real physical voxel pitch).
High-resolution voxelization — a GPU OpenGL voxelizer that handles large parts at fine resolution.
ASTRA CUDA backend — fast projection/reconstruction operators via the ASTRA Toolbox.
High-level pipeline API — PrintConfig + VAMPipeline (the same API Tomo drives), so a full job (hardware detection, voxelize, optimize, rebin, video export) runs from a single Python call.

The optimization methods are described in the CAL/VAM literature; see Research Papers for the OSMO, BCLP, and deconvolution papers.

Using It Directly

VAMToolbox runs on Windows with Python 3.13. The recommended setup is the one-command installer, run from a checkout of the repository:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

This creates a virtual environment, downloads and installs the CUDA-bundled ASTRA build, installs the Python requirements and VAMToolbox, and verifies that CUDA works. (As of version 3.0.0, conda is no longer required.) See the VAMToolbox documentation for the full install guide, API reference, and examples.

Relationship to OpenCAL

VAMToolbox (and Tomo, its desktop GUI) produce the projection video your OpenCAL printer plays. Together they close the loop: design a part → generate its projections with VAMToolbox / Tomo → print it on OpenCAL.