# Error in exporting .tiff images to DICOM

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 6, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378 "2021-01-06T18:14:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marianaslicer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/marianaslicer/32/8555_2.png) [@marianaslicer](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/marianaslicer)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378/1 "2021-01-06T18:14:49Z")

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Hello,

I have .tiff files of a lung phantom that I want to export to DICOM files using 3D Slicer (4.11.20200930 or 4.13.0). I was able to import the .tiff files into 3D Slicer and export them to DICOM. But when I tried to import the files from the DICOM database into the scene, the scene turns out all black. I do not understand why.

Thank you for your help.

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**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:** [January 6, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378/2 "2021-01-06T18:59:16Z")

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Are there any warnings or errors in the application log?  
Can you upload the exported data set somewhere and post the link here so that we can have a look?

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**Author:** ![marianaslicer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/marianaslicer/32/8555_2.png) [@marianaslicer](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/marianaslicer)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2021, 9:14pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378/3 "2021-01-06T21:14:27Z")

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Hi Andras,

Thank you for your prompt reply.  
No, there is a message saying ‘create a DICOM Series completed without errors’.

Here is the link for the .tiff files:

> **[Meet Google Drive – One place for all your files](https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=wise&passive=1209600&continue=https:%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1f32GzyiLeMN2Iuly7HvIqWgplWkqdlMN?usp%3Dsharing&followup=https:%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1f32GzyiLeMN2Iuly7HvIqWgplWkqdlMN?usp%3Dsharing)**

And for the exported DICOM data:

> **[Meet Google Drive – One place for all your files](https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=wise&passive=1209600&continue=https:%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1ujcs2GhS1ii0mDWMny9xva6EniuU3XQg?usp%3Dsharing&followup=https:%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Fdrive%2Ffolders%2F1ujcs2GhS1ii0mDWMny9xva6EniuU3XQg?usp%3Dsharing)**

I am sorry for not making the link public. They are part of a research project. So, I just shared the link with your email.

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<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:** [January 7, 2021, 12:29am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/error-in-exporting-tiff-images-to-dicom/15378/4 "2021-01-07T00:29:21Z")

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The problem is that values in these TIFF files are stored very poorly:

- it has floating-point values, while voxels have 15-20 discrete values, which makes it hard to assign any meaning to voxel values
- range of values is between -0.0048 and 0.0531 (until very recently DICOM only supported storage of integer values, and for compatibility reasons we still use only integers; since all input voxels are approximately 0, all voxels in the exported DICOM volume are set to 0, too)

You can fix everything by using Simple Filters module -\> RescaleIntensityImageFilter or ShiftScaleImageFilter. CT volumes typically scaled between -1000 and 1000. If you set this output range then everything will work well

I would recommend to notify the group that created the volumes to switch to using standard 3D volume file formats, such as NRRD, instead of multi-frame 2D TIFF image.