Eclipse Scripting API Object Model

The Eclipse data model is presented in the Eclipse Scripting API as a collection of .NET classes with properties and methods. The class hierarchy is an abstraction over the ARIA Radiation Therapy Management (RTM) data model and uses similar terminology as the DICOM object model. The classes of the object model hide all the details of interacting with the database and creating the in-memory representations of the Eclipse data. Because the Scripting API is a .NET class library, all details of managing the memory and other low-level resources are also transparent to you when you create scripts.

Eclipse Scripting API Concepts

The most important concepts of the Eclipse Scripting API are described below.

Coordinate System and Units of Measurement

The Eclipse Scripting API uses the following coordinate systems and units of measurement.

Distances and Positions

In all methods and properties that work with distances and positions, the unit of measurement is millimeters. The positions in 3D space are returned using the DICOM coordinate system. Note that this differs from the Planning Coordinate system used in the Eclipse user interface, where the unit of measurement is centimeters. In addition, when the coordinate values are displayed in the Eclipse user interface, the following are taken into account:

• The possible user-defined origin of an image.
• The treatment orientation of the plan.
• The axis definition of the planning coordinate system.

Figure 1: DICOM Coordinate System	Figure 2: Standard Planning Coordinate System

The Eclipse Scripting API has methods that convert values from the DICOM coordinate system to the same representation that is used in the Eclipse user interface. For more information on the display of 3D coordinates in the Eclipse user interface, refer to Eclipse Photon and Electron Reference Guide. For more information on the DICOM coordinate system, refer to the DICOM standard.

Dose Values

In the Eclipse Scripting API, dose values are always represented with the separate VMS.TPS.Common.Model.Types.DoseValue type. In addition to the actual floating point value of the variable, this type also holds the measurement unit of the dose. The measurement unit can be Gy or cGy, depending on the selected clinical configuration. It can also be a percentage if relative dose is used.

Treatment Unit Scales

All methods and properties of the Eclipse Scripting API return the treatment unit and accessory properties in the IEC61217 scale. This feature allows you to create scripts despite the scale interpretation differences between treatment unit vendors.

User Rights and HIPAA

The Eclipse Scripting API uses the same user rights and HIPAA logging features as Eclipse. When a plug-in script is executed, the script applies the same user rights as were used to log into Eclipse. When you execute a stand-alone executable script, the user name and password are automatically passed via the new single sign-on technology implemented in the Eclipse release so that no additional dialogs are required to authenticate the user to the system. According to HIPAA rules, a log entry is made for each patient opened by a standalone script. Additionally, the Eclipse Scripting API follows the rules of department categorization of ARIA RTM.

Working with Several Patients

The context of the running Eclipse instance is passed to plug-in scripts. They work only for the one patient that is selected in that context. In contrast, stand-alone executables can open any patient in the database. However, only the object model of a single patient is available at a time. The previous patient data must be explicitly closed before another patient is opened. If you try to access the data of a patient that has been closed, an access violation exception is generated.

Overview of the Object Model

The following diagram gives an overview of the Image-related objects in the Eclipse Scripting API.

Figure 3: Image Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• A Patient that has a collection of Study, StructureSet and Registration objects.
• A Study that has a collection of Series objects.
• A Series that has a collection of Image objects.
• A StructureSet that has a collection of Structure objects. Another important section of the Eclipse Scripting API is the model of Plan-related objects shown in the following diagram.

Figure 4: Plan Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• A Patient that has a collection of Course objects.
• A Course that has a collection of PlanSetup and PlanSum objects. Each of them is derived from the common PlanningItem base class. Each PlanSetup object is an ExternalPlanSetup, a BrachyPlanSetup, or an IonPlanSetup.
• A PlanningItem class that has a direct (but nullable) relationship with a PlanningItemDose class.
• A PlanSetup that has a collection of Beam objects. Beam has a direct (but nullable) relationship with a BeamDose class.
• A PlanSetup that has a direct (but nullable) relationship with StructureSet and EstimatedDVH objects.
• A PlanSetup that has a collection of PlanUncertainty objects.
• A PlanUncertainty has a collection of BeamUncertainty objects, and a direct (but nullable) relationship with a Dose class.
• BeamUncertainty has a direct (but nullable) relationship with a Dose class. The object model related to Plan optimization is visualized in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Plan Optimization Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• A PlanSetup that has an association to the OptimizationSetup.
• An OptimizationSetup that has a collection of OptimizationParameter objects. Each OptimizationParameter object is an OptimizationNormalTissueParameter, OptimizationExcludeStructureParameter, OptimizationIMRTBeamParameter, or OptimizationPointCloudParameter.
• An OptimizationSetup that has a collection of OptimizationObjective objects. Each object is an OptimizationPointObjective, OptimizationEUDObjective, OptimizationLineObjective, or OptimizationMeanDoseObjective. The following diagram shows the objects related to an individual Beam:

Figure 6: Beam Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• An MLC and a ControlPoint collection of the Beam.
• An Applicator, a Compensator and a collection of Blocks and Wedges if defined for the Beam.
• A collection of FieldReferencePoint objects for the Beam.
• An ExternalBeamTreatmentUnit object that represent the treatment unit.

The following diagram shows the data model for brachytherapy plans:

Figure 7: Brachytherapy Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• A BrachyPlanSetup is derived from PlanSetup. The BrachyPlanSetup has a collection of Catheters, BrachySolidApplicators, and SeedCollections. Note that BrachyPlanSetups can be accessed through the Course in the same way as PlanSetups.
• A BrachySolidApplicator has a collection of Catheters.
• A Catheter (applicator channel central line or needle) has a BrachyTreatmentUnit and a collection of SourcePositions.
• A SeedCollection has a collection of SourcePositions.
• A SourcePosition has a RadioactiveSource.
• A RadioactiveSource has a RadioactiveSourceModel.

The following diagram details the proton plan data model:

Figure 8: Proton Plan Data Model

The diagram contains the following objects:

• An IonPlanSetup is derived from PlanSetup. The IonPlanSetup has a collection of IonBeams.
• IonBeam is derived from Beam. The IonBeam has collections of IonControlPoints, RangeModulators, RangeShifters, and LateralSpreadingDevices.
• The IonControlPoint is derived from ControlPoint. It provides access to the raw spot list IonSpot objects through property RawSpotList and access to the final spot list through property FinalSpotList.
• IonControlPoint has collections of LateralSpreadingDeviceSettings, RangeShifterSettings, and RangeModulatorSettings.
• LateralSpreadingDeviceSettings contains control-point-level settings for a LateralSpreadingDevice owned by the IonBeam. RangeShifterSettings contains control-point-level settings for a RangeShifter owned by the IonBeam. RangeModulatorSettings contains control-point-level settings for a RangeModulator object owned by the IonBeam.

The properties of each object are described in detail in Eclipse Scripting API Online Help.