ArtiSynth Modeling Guide

Chapter 12 DICOM Images

Some models are derived from image data, and it may be useful to show the model and image in the same space. For this purpose, a DICOM image widget has been designed, capable of displaying 3D DICOM volumes as a set of three perpendicular planes. An example widget and its property panel is shown in Figure 12.1.

Figure 12.1: DICOM image of the heart, downloaded from http://www.osirix-viewer.com.

The main classes related to the reading and displaying of DICOM images are:


Describes a single attribute in a DICOM file.


Contains all header attributes (all but the image data) extracted from a DICOM file.


Contains the decoded image pixels for a single image frame.


Contains both the header and image information for a single 2D DICOM slice.


Container for DICOM slices, creating a 3D volume (or 3D + time)


Parses DICOM files and folders, appending information to a DicomImage.


Displays the DicomImage in the viewer.

If the purpose is simply to display a DICOM volume in the ArtiSynth viewer, then only the last three classes will be of interest. Readers who simply want to display a DICOM image in their model can skip to Section 12.3.