Dataset List
Up to Core widgets.
The dataset list shows all datasets loaded in the current window. Like any other core widget, it can be enabled or disabled and arranged freely within the window, based on personal preference. It allows loading additional datasets, and removing currently loaded datasets from display:
The icons next the base filename of each each entry in the list indicate (and control through also being toggle-able buttons), whether various Views of the dataset are shown or not; which views are available depends on the dataset type. For a volume dataset as shown in the screenshot above, all options are available, and they control (in order they are shown from left to right):
- Whether the dataset is shown in the 3D renderer
- Whether its bounding box is shown in the 3D renderer
- Whether this dataset is shown in the 3D magic lens (if it is enabled) - the magic lens needs to be enabled separately via a toolbar button with same icon
- Whether the 3D visualization of the dataset in the 3D renderer is cut at the positions of the axis-aligned slicers (Available only for volumes). Slice direction can be reversed through 'x', 'y' and 'z' keys when the 3D renderer view has the focus.
- Whether this dataset is movable (in dataset move mode; there is again a toolbar icon available which enables this mode)
- Whether the dataset is shown in the 2D slicer (Available only for volumes)
- Whether the histogram chart is shown for this dataset (Available only for volumes)
- Whether the profile plot is shown for this dataset (Available only for volumes)
- If ImNDT module is available: Whether this dataset is shown in VR (enabling the first dataset for this directly starts the VR mode, disabling it for the last remaining dataset shuts down VR mode)
A reference to all the datasets currently shown in this widget are stored when you choose the "Save Project" option from the file menu.
Two dataset Actions are available: With the red trash bin icon, you can remove a dataset from this list and from display (to add datasets to the list, choose "Open Dataset" in the "File" menu). When pressing the button with the pencil icon, a dialog appears with which you can modify the dataset parameters (see below).
You can change the displayed name, the position, orientation and spacing of the dataset. The dialog also shows the full file name in the edit box on top. In addition, you can change several aspects about the rendering of the dataset; which parameters exactly are available is depending on the type of dataset.
Selected options available for all datasets:
- Shading (default: true) - whether to use shading in 3D volume rendering (light options below are to a large extent only applicable if shading is enabled).
- Ambient lighting, Diffuse lighting, Specular lighting, Specular power (default: 0.2, 0.5, 0.7, 10) - parameters to the shading/lighting model used for volume rendering
Selected options available for volume datasets:
- Histogram bins (default: 2048) - the number of bins used for creating the histogram chart
- Histogram Logarithmic y axis (default: false) - whether the y axis of the histogram chart should be logarithmically scaled (can be useful if there is a single bin with a lot of values, and other bins contain far less values)
- Sample distance (default: spacing of the image) - distance of rays used for 3D volume rendering (the smaller the number, the more rays are used, and thus the better the image quality, but also the slower the computation).
- Interpolation (default: Linear) - whether rendering should use linear interploation (less block artefacts, but picture can look blurry).
- Renderer type - mode used for volume rendering. Typically you should use Default/GPU renderer, as it is faster, but in some instances, you may want to try RayCastRenderMode.
Other options not described above do have sane defaults and typically do not need to be modified; you can find more information on those in the respective vtk classes used for rendering the datasets. For volume dataset for example, consult vtkSmartVolumeMapper.