Sounds like you would want to edit in Blender, or some type of 3d modeling software, and, with an anatomy textbook in hand, edit out the parts that are obviously not bone.

That sounds labor-intensive and error-prone, but it's probably still the best way to end up with an accurate result.

It's the only way to do it. (source, i do 3d tissue reconstructions sometimes)

Thanks for the insight!

Although there are readily available skeletons for purchase, I want to print my own skeleton for "profiling and debugging" purposes :)

Honestly as far as debugging your own skeleton goes I'd skip the 3D print part cause (1) its expensive and (2) you wanna minimise the number of steps between your skeleton and the product you use to debug.

Every one of the steps introduces heaps of error, there's error in the imaging resolution and voxeling, tooons of error in the segmentation process - no matter how good you are at it and a good full-body segmentation can take thousands of hours even by a team of anatomists, and then 3D printing with a commercial printer would introduce even more error.

I'd say a well-segmented digital model of your skeleton would be more than enough to figure out obvious issues :)

You could buy a skeleton, scan and print a copy, and then sell the skeleton to someone else.

Of course, if you do that you could get an accurate anatomical model (like those ones that show up in high school bio classrooms) for $200-$400 instead.

I wonder if there's a market in medical education for precise models of different body parts with one-click ordering from model->3D production->shipping to your education facility. This is distinct from the efforts of facilities who are using 3D manufacturing to create patient models on site for surgery planning.

There most definitely is. My significant other (who is training as an equine veterinarian) is frequently in contact with “synthetic cadavers” made by http://syndaver.com

This seems like it's just adding the extra step of 3D printing to anatomical models that are already made en masse.

Why 3D print if it's just going to be for education, not individualized patient models?

Ya know, I suppose in an ideal world you drive down the cost of on site manufacturing so you could spit out any model you wanted in the classroom. Want a healthy kidney? Boom, done. Want an organ that has a specific issue for a particular ailment being studied? Out it comes.