# Any way to control depth of scissor cut?

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** segmentation, python\
**Created:** [August 30, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415 "2021-08-30T15:35:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akshay\_pillai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/akshay_pillai/32/8301_2.png) [@akshay\_pillai](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/akshay_pillai)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415/1 "2021-08-30T15:35:28Z")

</div>

Is there any way to control the depth of the cut with scissors in segment editor in 3d programmatically or even using existing functions? Please let me know.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![muratmaga](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/muratmaga/32/3622_2.png) [@muratmaga](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/muratmaga)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415/2 "2021-08-30T15:55:16Z")

</div>

When cuttting in slice views, you can control if with the symmetric option.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akshay\_pillai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/akshay_pillai/32/8301_2.png) [@akshay\_pillai](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/akshay_pillai)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415/3 "2021-08-30T16:11:11Z")

</div>

Anyway I can control depth in 3d view?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![muratmaga](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/muratmaga/32/3622_2.png) [@muratmaga](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/muratmaga)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415/4 "2021-08-30T16:55:08Z")

</div>

I don’t think that’s available.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 11:52pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/any-way-to-control-depth-of-scissor-cut/19415/5 "2021-08-30T23:52:58Z")

</div>

There is not way to specify depth when cutting in 3D because there is no reference plane.

Instead, you can control the depth by rotating the view after the first cut by about 90 degrees, and remove the excess with a second cut. See step-by-step instructions in the [craniotomy segmentation recipe](https://lassoan.github.io/SlicerSegmentationRecipes/Craniotomy/).