# Loading volume from .dat file format

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/loading-volume-from-dat-file-format/176>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [April 23, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/loading-volume-from-dat-file-format/176 "2017-04-23T11:05:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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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:** [April 23, 2017, 11:05am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/loading-volume-from-dat-file-format/176/1 "2017-04-23T11:05:53Z")

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(question moved from slicer-users)

Can I load the .dat datasets [https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/vis/datasets](https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/vis/datasets) in 3d slicer ? Or can I convert it to some other format supported by 3d slicer?

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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:** [April 23, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/loading-volume-from-dat-file-format/176/2 "2017-04-23T11:27:36Z")

</div>

The simplest is to create a text file in that describes the image in one of the standard formats, for example [NRRD](http://teem.sourceforge.net/nrrd/format.html).

For example, to load the [Stag beetle](https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2005/dataset-stagbeetle/) data set, create a text file named `stagbeetle.nhdr` in the same directory as the .vol file with the following content:

```
NRRD0004
# Complete NRRD file format specification at:
# http://teem.sourceforge.net/nrrd/format.html
type: unsigned short
dimension: 3
space: left-posterior-superior
sizes: 832 832 494
space directions: (1,0,0) (0,1,0) (0,0,1)
kinds: domain domain domain
endian: little
encoding: raw
space origin: (0,0,0)
byte skip: 6
data file: stagbeetle832x832x494.dat

```

To load the data set in Slicer, drag-and-drop the .nhdr file into the Slicer application window.