How to visualize DICOM files in 3D on 3Dicom Patient

When you load a DICOM file into 3Dicom Patient, you will be greeted by the 3D Visualization of the scan.

Top Menu

On the Top Menu, this is where you can open other scans, as well as exiting 3Dicom Patient.

Open Menu

When you click this, you will be opening the ‘Scan Database’

Share Button

When you click this, you will be sharing the scan to anyone who has a 3Dicom Account.

Exit Button

When you click this, you will close and exit 3Dicom Patient.

Tool Pane

On the Tool Pane, it contains the list of tools available for each feature, accessible through the Navigation Menu.

Tool Pane: Display Tab

The Display panel contains all the essential tools to display the anatomy of interest in the scan. View this panel after loading a scan to optimize the display of the 3D anatomical render and adjust the Density, Brightness, Contrast, Opacity, and slice in 3D.

Density Display	Different anatomical structures and organs are characterised by various degrees of density, which is generally lower for the skin and higher for the bone tissue. The different tissue densities lead to an unequal absorption and attenuation of the radiations used to capture the images. As a result, the resulting grayscale image and the derived Hounsfield Unit (HU) will depend on the anatomical region under medical investigation. The Density Display enables to adjust the HU and optimise the display of the 2D and 3D images.
Display Settings	CT and MRI scans are displayed in a greyscale, as a result of the different densities of various anatomical structures and organs. By removing lighter soft tissue from the scan, the image naturally becomes darker. The sliders in the Display Settings can be used to brighten the medical scan, edit the contrast and opacity to enhance the structures or organs of interest.
3D Intersect	The 3D Intersect tool enables cutting through the 3D volumetric model in the three planes, top-down (Axial Plane), side-to-side (Sagittal Plane), front-to-back (Coronal Plane) and intersection (Azimuth and Elevation) to expose the anatomical regions of interest.

Tool Pane: Capture Tab

The icon Icon

Description automatically generated is placed in close proximity of the 2D or 3D views and enables taking screenshots of the relevant view.

When a screenshot of the 3D view is taken, this includes the full screen of the 3Dicom MD interface, with any side panel and tool menu currently open. The tool menu can be hidden at any time by selecting the side arrow on the far right of the panel .

Any taken screenshot is locally stored in a folder on your device, and is easily accessible through the Media Gallery in the Capture tab.

To open the folder and select an image of interest to add it to a report, select the Graphical user interface

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Scan View

The Scan View is the central area of the screen where to interact with the image in either 3D or 2D. By default, the 3D volume rendering is displayed in this area, whereas the 2D views (sagittal, coronal, and axial planes) are accessible through the 2D View area. Any 2D views can be displayed in the Scan View area using the Expand Tool (refer to the 2D View section of this Manual for more details).

The following shortcuts can be used to interact with the 3D model displayed.

ROTATE the scan by CLICKING and DRAGGING the model.

ZOOM IN and OUT by using the SCROLL WHEEL of the computer mouse, the UP and DOWN ARROWS on the keyboard, or the on the top right corner of the Scan View area.

PAN the image by HOLDING THE SCROLL WEEL and DRAGGING the model or selecting .

RESET the 3D view’s position by pressing the SPACE BAR or the icon.

The model can also be rotated by moving the different faces of the Navigation Cube, or NavCube. The size of the NavCube can be customised in the General tab in Settings.

The selected view can be recorded using the screenshot function accessible through the Scan View area by clicking on the Graphical user interface, application, icon

Description automatically generated icon. Screenshots will be stored in the default folder that can be viewed and modified in the Capture tab in Settings.

2D View

The 2D View is located on the right-hand side of the screen and it displays the three (3) traditional 2D views:

axial (top-down)
sagittal (side-to-side)
coronal (front-to-back)

Individual slices of a 2D medical image in the 2D View can be viewed by scrolling through using the SCROLL WHEEL of the computer mouse, or the SLIDE BAR located at the bottom of each 2D scan both in the Scan View and 2D View.

On the far-right side of the 2D View, additional tools are available to record and manipulate the medical image of interest.

The 2D View will be explored more on 2D Visualization of DICOM files on 3Dicom Patient.

You have now covered the 3D Visualization of DICOM files on 3Dicom Patient!

	Camera Tool Click to capture screenshots of the current slice/view in the corresponding panel to the left. Click and hold until the camera turns red to video record the slices, stop recording by clicking on the camera again.
	Expand Tool Click to expand to enlarge the specific view (3D View, Sagittal Plane, Coronal Plane, Axial Plane) and display it in the Scan View. This step is required to use the measurements and interactive tools on the image under review.
	Rotate Tool Click to rotate the image clockwise by 90 degrees.
	Orientation Tool Click to change the orientation of the 2D view horizontally ( ) or vertically ( ), or the order of the slices ( ).
	Slice Value Tool Indicates which slice/pixel is currently displayed (Axial, Coronal and Sagittal Plane). DICOM images are typically acquired in the Axial Plane and are 512 x 512 pixels wide, so this number is likely to be 512 or less.