# painting function being clipped

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [April 9, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374 "2024-04-09T01:10:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/david)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/1 "2024-04-09T01:10:42Z")

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Operating system: Apple Sonoma 14  
Slicer version: 5.6.1  
Expected behavior: paint tool  
Actual behavior: paint tool effect being cropped

I’m new to 3D Slicer. When I use the paint tool, it is cropping.  
(Image of example below)

 ![question](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/e/a/eae15842f8907c57c75b9a10123142042047fca7.jpeg)

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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:** [April 9, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/2 "2024-04-09T15:55:20Z")

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Probably the segmentation geometry doesn’t match the background volume. Try starting by following tutorials and if you get to something you can’t explain provide the shortest step by step method that gets your to a point where things don’t behave as you expect.

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**Author:** ![david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/david)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/3 "2024-04-09T17:08:54Z")

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Thanks for your reply Steve.

I saw a background segmentation used in a “seeding” tutorial. Do I need to create a background segmentation in order to paint (or create) a new segmentation?

I’m learning on the test data provided within the software. (Dental Surgery)

Unfortunately I am only able to paint (or create brush-strokes) within a certain box or zone in on all 3 angles. (Y, R, and G)

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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:** [April 9, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/4 "2024-04-09T17:36:04Z")

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What I mean is that you should be able start with a fresh instance of Slicer, download any of the sample data (e.g. Dental Surgery), right click on it in the Data module and pick ‘Segment this’, add a segment and start painting. If this sequence isn’t working there’s something fundamentally wrong. But if it is working, then we’d need to know what steps you take that end up in the situation you are reporting.

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**Author:** ![david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/david)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/5 "2024-04-09T20:28:10Z")

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You are correct. Restarting Slicer worked. Thanks again for your time and response!

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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 10, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/painting-function-being-clipped/35374/6 "2024-04-10T04:12:42Z")

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See explanation of why restarting Slicer worked in the [Segment Editor documentation](https://slicer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/modules/segmenteditor.html#cannot-paint-outside-some-boundaries) (in short: default segment geometry is determined by the image that you selected _first_).