swctools — SWC parsing, modeling, analysis, geometry, and visualization

swctools is a Python toolbox for loading, parsing, modeling, analyzing, and visualizing neuronal morphologies stored in the SWC format. It is designed for interactive use in Jupyter notebooks and provides a graph-based core (NetworkX), computational geometry utilities (NumPy), and interactive 3D visualization (Plotly).

Status: pre-alpha, actively evolving. Core parsing, models, geometry, and basic visualization are implemented.

Docs: https://jmrfox.github.io/swctools/

Demo notebooks can be found in the notebooks directory.

Features

• SWC parser: parse_swc() with robust error messages, header reconnection directives, iterable/file/string sources
• Data model:
  • SWCModel (networkx.Graph) with undirected storage and an internal parent map for original SWC directed tree relations; supports make_cycle_connections() to apply # CYCLE_BREAK reconnect i j merges (union-find)
  • Shared graph metrics via _graph_attributes() and print_attributes() helpers
• Geometry:
  • Segment dataclass and frustum meshing utilities (frustum_mesh, batch_frusta)
  • FrustaSet.from_swc_model() to build a batched frusta mesh from an SWCModel
  • PointSet for low-res spheres at arbitrary xyz points (for overlay markers)
• Visualization:
  • plot_centroid(model, ...) for skeleton plotting (Scatter3d)
  • plot_frusta(frusta_set, ..., radius_scale=1.0) for volumetric frusta rendering (Mesh3d)
  • plot_frusta_with_centroid(model, frusta, ...) to overlay skeleton and mesh
  • plot_frusta_slider(frusta, min_scale, max_scale, steps) interactive radius scale slider
  • plot_model(...) master entry point combining centroid, frusta, slider, and PointSet overlays
  • plot_frusta_timeseries(frusta, values, ...) animate time-dependent per-segment scalars V_i(t) with a slider and playback controls
  • Global config via set_config(...) (equal axes enforced by default, width/height, template)
• Roadmap: morphometrics and analyses, I/O conversions, time-varying scalars and animations

Design overview

• SWCModel (networkx.Graph with parent map)

  • Nodes keyed by SWC id n
  • Node attributes: x, y, z, r (radius), t (tag), and optional metadata
  • _parents preserves the original directed parent of each node; roots(), parent_of(), path_to_root() use this map
  • make_cycle_connections() merges reconnection pairs and returns a merged model (can include cycles)

• Segment dataclass and FrustaSet (batched frusta mesh)

• FrustaSet ordering utilities: print_segment_order(), reordered(...), and per_segment_face_slices() to help align external per-segment arrays with mesh order

• PointSet (batched spheres for overlay points)

• Visualization functions in viz.py: plot_centroid, plot_frusta, plot_frusta_with_centroid, plot_frusta_slider, plot_model

• Use in Jupyter:

  • Launch a notebook and import swctools
  • Load or paste an SWC and use SWCModel, FrustaSet, plot_centroid, plot_frusta

Configuration (Plotly)

from swctools import set_config

# Enforce equal x/y/z scale globally (default True) and size
set_config(force_equal_axes=True, width=800, height=600)

Acknowledgements

• Community conventions around SWC and tools in the ecosystem
• NetworkX and Plotly for the backbone of graph analysis and 3D visualization