# Moving FreeSurfer support to an extension

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390>\
**Category:** Development\
**Tags:** freesurfer\
**Created:** [December 4, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390 "2019-12-04T21:04:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sunderlandkyl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/sunderlandkyl/32/79987_2.png) [@Sunderlandkyl](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Sunderlandkyl)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/1 "2019-12-04T21:04:07Z")

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Hi All,

Recently, we’ve been development on an extension to import FreeSurfer models in the correct coordinate system, as well as to import other files at the same time (segmentations, scalar overlay, etc.).

As part of this development, is there any support for moving all FreeSurfer related classes from Slicer core (colormap, data importers, etc.) to an extension?

Benefits:

- Smaller Slicer core
- More frequent updates for FreeSurfer support

Downsides:

- Users need to install another extension to read FreeSurfer files

What are everyone’s thoughts?

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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:** [December 4, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/2 "2019-12-04T21:30:40Z")

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Additional benefit: when someone attempts to load a data set, the rarely useful “Scalar overlay” option would not be offered as the default option to everyone (only to those that install FreeSurfer extension because they want to load freesurfer files).

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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:** [December 5, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/3 "2019-12-05T02:02:44Z")

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@ljod @pieper @rkikinis

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**Author:** ![pieper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/pieper/32/8_2.png) [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/4 "2019-12-05T04:08:01Z")

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Moving all freesurfer related support to the extension makes sense to me 👍

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**Author:** ![rkikinis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/rkikinis/32/791_2.png) [@rkikinis](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/rkikinis)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/5 "2019-12-05T04:24:10Z")

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In terms of doing it, I see no downside at this point. We might want to think about how to communicate to neuroscience users.

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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:** [December 5, 2019, 4:42am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/6 "2019-12-05T04:42:36Z")

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Do you know if they read the Slicer forum? If not, it could be a good opportunity to invite them to participate in this and further discussions.

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**Author:** ![jcfr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/jcfr/32/17825_2.png) [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/moving-freesurfer-support-to-an-extension/9390/7 "2019-12-05T22:05:56Z")

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That makes sense. @Sunderlandkyl Thanks for working on this 🙏