# NeighborTracker Plugin¶

This plugin, as its name suggests, tracks neighbors of every cell. In addition it calculates common contact area between cell and its neighbors. We consider a neighbor this cell that has at least one common pixel side with a given cell. This means that cells that touch each other either “by edge” or by “corner” are not considered neighbors. See the drawing below:

 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 4 4 4 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2

Figure 1. Cells 5,4,1 are considered neighbors as they have non-zero common surface area. Same applies to pair of cells 4 ,2 and to 1 and 2. However, cells 2 and 5 are not neighbors because they touch each other “by corner”. Notice that cell 5 has 8 pixels cell 4 , 7 pixels, cell 1 4 pixels and cell 2 6 pixels.

To include this plugin in your simulation , add the following code to the CC3DML

<Plugin Name="NeighborTracker"/>


This plugin is used as a helper module by other plugins and steppables e.g. FocalPointPlasticity plugin uses NeighborTracker plugin.