1. A method for splitting a potential three-dimensional compound object, comprising: projecting three-dimensional image data indicative of the potential three-dimensional compound object onto a two-dimensional manifold projection and recording a correspondence between the three-dimensional image data and the two-dimensional manifold projection; segmenting the two-dimensional manifold projection to generate a two-dimensional segmented manifold projection indicative of one or more sub-objects; and projecting the two-dimensional segmented manifold projection into three-dimensional image data indicative of the sub-objects utilizing the correspondence between the three-dimensional image data and the two-dimensional manifold projection.