Thank you all for the suggestions. I will try this method.
I usually use printers with high accuracy like SLA, so the accurancy is up to 10 microns.
Have a nice weekend.
Hello, I have a GE Voluson E6. I wan’t to open .vol files on Slicer but I haven’t be able to do it.
I have been using the 4.11 nigtly version, I couldn’t find the extension “SlicerHeart”, Or, is there another way to import these files and get an image suitable for 3d printing?
There are some build errors preventing SlicerHeart extension to show up in latest nightly build. Until the error is fixed, you can use the latest stable Slicer version.
Hello I have a GE Voluson E8 ultrasound system and I want to extract an ultrasound file for 3D editing in 3D Slicer program. However, I know neither what exactly to extract nor how to do it. I have read some of your comments about inserting data in 3D Slicer program. Could you give me some instructions what to do?
Thank you in advance, Kostas.
Slicer can only import certain 3D ultrasound files, yours may or may not be among those that are supported. You need to install SlicerHeart extension and follow instructions described here: https://github.com/SlicerHeart/SlicerHeart.
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Hello, we own both an E8 and BT.16 E10 And are planning to 3-D print to PLA for our customers. We have both types of volume formats,.VOL and .VOL Cartesian. We have read through these posts and have slicer set up with slicer heart. From what I can gather, we should be exporting.VOL Cartesian format, was that correct? We plan to then export as an .STL file or .OBJ file. What are the steps for the export of those file types? We would also be happy to send you any types of files from this equipment to help streamline the process
Yes.
You need to segment the volume using Segment editor module. See tutorials here. If you have any questions then post them as new topics.
Once you are done with segmentation, use “Segmentations…” button’s drop-down menu and choose “Export to files…”.
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Thank you, that was helpful. I am referencing this video walkthrough but am running into some issues which are most likely user error, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHq0uyDvhaA&feature=youtu.be
When I move from Volume Rendering to to Segment Editor, the segments I create are not shown in the 3d rendering box 1. Not sure what I am doing wrong.
This means of course that any edits I try to make will not take effect (such as scissors/magic cut)
You need to paint the mask (using threshold, paint, scissors, etc. effects) and use Mask Volume effect to apply the mask to the volume (blank out regions). Install SegmentEditorExtraEffects extension to get Mask volume effect in Segment Editor.
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Really appreciate the help, that worked. How do you clear the 3D box when going from say Filtering/Volume Rendering/ ETC then to Segment Editor, I know I must be missing something simple?
You can show/hide the cropping ROI box in volume rendering module. You can show/hide any node in the Data module (subject hierarchy tab) by clicking on the eye icon.
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If you have E10 you should be able to export STL directly from ultrasound.
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Unfortunately, this is not the case. We have a BT.16 and only a BT.18 has the .STL .OBJ file export option. Appreciate the recommendation though.
I’ve actually had some success now after some deliberation to get this to work. I’m still having some issues getting the same resolution or quality that our E10 is getting. I am using the smoothing feature. If anyone else has any suggestions as far as improving the facial images for a later 3D print I’d love to hear it as I’m getting more familiar with this software.
I’m trying to print cardiac 3D volumes from TEE into slicer but i can’t load these files. I use GE Vivid E95 and E9. Any clue on how to load these files? Phillips cardio images load with no problems.
SlicerHeart can only read images exported in KretzFile format (or its DICOM-ized variant), which are mostly used by obstetrics and not cardiac systems. Last time we asked, GE would require us to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get specification of private DICOM fields that are required to read their TEE ultrasound volumes. However, such an agreement would prevent us from continuing our research and platform development work completely openly.
It would be great if GE changed their ultrasound systems to store image data in standard DICOM fields; or published how to retrieve image data from their private DICOM fields; or provided an export tool similar to Philips QLab (which creates DICOM files that store image data in standard fields). Make GE and your hospital administration aware of this issue and these potential solutions. Until GE does something about this, you may need to switch to Philips systems for research studies that require image data access.
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I asked GE engineers about this issue and they don’t have an answer yet. How can I put the images of Philips platform in scale? The stl files became too small.
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Philips systems store some essential information in private DICOM fields, therefore you need to follow these instructions to load them correctly: https://github.com/SlicerHeart/SlicerHeart/blob/master/README.md#philips
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