3D volume rendering

Render a CT or MR series as a rotatable 3D volume.

Volume rendering shows a whole CT or MR series as one 3D image instead of as slices. dcmage casts a ray through the volume for every pixel on screen and colours it through a preset, so you can rotate the result and look at bone, lung or vessels from any side. It runs in the browser and in the Mac app.

Steps

1. Open a multi-slice series (⌘O). The slices need consistent spacing.
2. Click 3D VR in the view switcher in the top bar. The view reuses the volume already built for MPR, so switching between MPR and 3D VR does not reload the series.
3. Pick a preset. A preset maps each intensity to a colour and an opacity, and decides which structures are visible. The view starts on CT-Bone.
4. Drag to rotate, right-drag to zoom and middle-drag to pan. The image coarsens while you move it and sharpens when you stop.

Limits

• No single slice lies behind the image, so the view has no slice index, frame strip or plane label.
• Measurement, annotation, redaction, overlays, image export, share and print stay on the 2D and MPR views.
• A preset tuned for one modality can render another as an empty or solid box. That is the preset missing the intensity range, not a load failure.

Result

A rotatable 3D rendering of the series. The data itself is not changed: a structure hidden by one preset is still in the volume.