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Bone 3D View

The Bone 3D view renders a three-dimensional volume from the DICOM data, allowing you to visualise bony anatomy and plan in 3D space.

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Volume Rendering Controls

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Threshold Slider

The threshold slider controls the minimum density value (in Hounsfield Units) used to render the bone surface. Adjust it to isolate cortical bone, include cancellous bone, or reveal soft tissue.
  • Higher threshold — shows only dense cortical bone
  • Lower threshold — includes softer tissue and cancellous bone

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Bone Opacity

The opacity slider controls the transparency of the rendered volume. Reduce opacity to see through the outer cortex and visualise internal structures or planned tunnels.

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Edge Enhancement

Toggle edge enhancement to sharpen the boundaries of the rendered bone. This improves visual clarity, especially when the threshold captures a range of densities.

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Blend Modes

Select a blend mode from the toolbar dropdown:
ModeDescription
CompositeStandard volume rendering with opacity transfer function (default)
MIPMaximum Intensity Projection — highlights the densest structures
MinIPMinimum Intensity Projection — highlights air and low-density regions
AverageAverages all values along each ray — produces a radiograph-like image

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Crop Volume

Use the crop sliders in the properties panel to cut away portions of the volume along any axis (Left/Right, Front/Back, Bottom/Top). This lets you isolate a specific region of anatomy.
Use a sagittal crop to expose the intercondylar notch when planning ACL femoral tunnels.

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Slice Plane

The slice plane indicator shows the position of the current Stack view slice in the 3D bone rendering. This links the 2D slice position to the 3D view.

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Controls

  • ⊞ Slice — toggle the slice plane on/off
  • ▲ / ▼ — move the slice position up or down by one increment
  • Slice counter — shows the current slice number (e.g. 89/267)

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Clip Above / Below

Use ✂ Above or ✂ Below to clip the volume at the slice plane position:
  • ✂ Above — hides everything above the slice, exposing anatomy from above (e.g. tibial plateau)
  • ✂ Below — hides everything below the slice, showing anatomy from below (e.g. femoral condyles)
Click the active button again to restore the full volume. The clip integrates with the crop volume settings — both are applied together.
Use ✂ Above at the knee joint line to examine tunnel exit points on the tibial footprint. Orbit the clipped view to inspect placement from any angle.

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Anatomical Views

Quick-access buttons orient the camera to standard anatomical positions: A (Anterior), P (Posterior), L (Lateral), R (Right), S (Superior), I (Inferior)

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Camera Controls

  • Left-click drag — orbit around the model
  • Right-click drag — pan
  • Scroll wheel — zoom in/out

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MRI Data

Volume rendering is optimised for CT data. MRI scans may produce suboptimal 3D renderings due to the lack of consistent Hounsfield Unit values. Use CT data for bone visualisation where possible.

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Export STL

Click Export STL in the toolbar to download the current bone rendering as an STL mesh file. The export respects the current threshold setting. See Exporting for details.