"Compare Volumes" module - display order

Support Feature requests
1

Hi everyone,
I recently discovered the “Compare volumes” module from this post: Link views in three over three configuration - Support - 3D Slicer Community

I find this module great for the rapidity with which it allows me to compare different clinical series (either different modalities acquired at the same time-point or same modalities acquired in different time-points). I have been using Slicer in my daily routine for several years to compare images for both clinical and research reasons, but till a few months ago I had to create layouts manually each time. So thank you very much for developing this module!

I have, however, two issues that I would like to ask your suggestions/help on.

  1. When I want to compare follow-up studies acquired at different time-points, the “Parameters” window does not allow me to select (and therefore view) them in the order most useful to me (for example a chronological order would be ideal). What should I change in the module script to have them listed by volume “name” instead of “MRML ID” (which only depends on the order I imported them in the dataset)? In the latter case, it would be sufficient for me to rename the sequences with the exam date to have them automatically displayed in the proper order.

  2. When there are many studies to be compared (≥6) using the AxiSagCor “Orientation”, the visualization of each study in the same line is no longer optimal (especially while using a “widescreen” resolution).

    Screenshot 2023-08-21 140005
    Screenshot 2023-08-21 1400051920×1044 242 KB

It would be probably better to have each study arranged in the same column (as in the following screenshot)

Screenshot 2023-08-21 150348
Screenshot 2023-08-21 1503481920×1041 242 KB

Is there a way for me to select/change how studies are displayed (lines or columns)?

I’m really sorry to bother you with these issues but, as a neurosurgeon, my expertise in scripting is quite limited and I have no one here to help me with that :sob: .
I understand that the second issue might require too much effort to be worth spending energy/time on it
if I am the only one experiencing problems with it. However, I hope, at least, that someone could help me with the first one without too much effort.

Thank you very much in advance!

2

Thanks for the feedback on the module. The data you are working with is exactly why the code was developed in the first place. Other than some odd bug fixes I haven’t worked with this code in a while and I’m not sure when I’d find time, but maybe someone else wants to give it a try?

it may not be documented, but you should be able to drag-and-drop the entries in the Volumes list to control the order they are displayed in the layout. If that’s not enough then probably adding some buttons or a menu to choose sorting orders could make sense.

That’s a good idea. Probably that would be a relatively small change but it would require python coding. The code in question is here.

Another option of course is to get a bigger monitor :eyes:

3

Many thanks for your reply. I didn’t know it was possible to drag and drop studies! This information is incredibly useful! Thank you very much.

The monitor is already quite big in terms of size and resolution. The main problem is that nowadays they all make them in 16:9 format, so they are much larger than tall :sob:
I understand however that this second issue would take too long to be implemented and probably not be worth it since (I think) I’m one of the very few people comparing such a large number of radiological studies simultaneously.
Thanks again for your support!

4

Just and idea but if you do this a lot you can rotate the monitor - most operating systems let you work with a rotated display.

It’s probably not a huge amount of work but the layout code is a little tricky so someone would need to figure the magic to make it work as you describe. Let’s see if this feature request gets a lot of votes. It’s very localized logic so this would be a “Good First Project” for someone who wants some programming experience.