Surface viewer

The Surface Viewer interface is available from the toolbar when viewing three-dimensional image data. It allows investigation of a univariate (single variable, i.e. "gray scale") 3D image viewing the result as both slices through the 3D volume and as a 3D surface taken at a specific gray-scale threshold level.

The interface consists of two plots, an interactive colorbar threshold control, and several toolbar buttons (Hover the pointer over a toolbar button to view a tool-tip of the button's functionality).

The left-most plot shows the entire 3D space displayed as a surface where a point in space is "solid" if the corresponding value is at or above a given threshold. Points which are below the threshold are transparent "voids". The colorbar threshold control on the far right of the window shows the current surface threshold value as a heavy black horizontal bar. The threshold is also shown on the title of the 3D plot.

The plot between the 3D surface plot and the colorbar shows a 2D "slice" through the 3D space. It displays the corresponding gray-scale values in a false-color map (with color / value correspondence as shown in the colorbar). The location in which the slice is taken is shown as a semi-transparent gray "plane" in the 3D surface plot as well as in the title of the 2D surface plot.

Interactivity

• Clicking any point in the 3D surface plot moves the 2D slice location to that point.
• Clicking the "Slicing mode" toolbar button rotates the slice direction between the three spatial directions.
• Clicking the colorbar changes the 3D surface threshold to the value clicked.
• Clicking any point in the 2D slice plot changes the 3D surface threshold to the value at the point clicked.
• Clicking the "Opacity" toolbar button adjusts the opacity of the slice plane displayed in the 3D surface plot.
• Clicking the "Rotate 3D" toolbar button enables/disabled the 3D rotate mode in which a click/drag operation on the 3D surface rotates the surface.
• Right-Clicking either the 3D or 2D plot gives a context menu including the option to "Spawn Static View" which creates a copy the current view for the clicked plot.