[Paraview] How to do volume rendering of image data?

[Guillaume.Duclaux at csiro.au]

Hi Steve,

I don't know if what you describe can be achieved in Paraview, but actually you can do it easily with VolView [1] (another - bt not open-source - Kitware software).
Volume rendering is a standard technique for visualising X-Ray Computed Tomography data.
If you find out out to do this in Paraview, please share your knowledge!

Cheers

Gilly

[1] http://www.kitware.com/products/volview.html


 
On 15/07/2010, at 4:37 PM, Steve Huntley wrote:

> According to the Paraview FAQ, Paraview supports volume rendering of 
> image data.  But despite searching the Web and buying the Paraview book, 
> I have not been able to find any detailed descriptions of this feature, 
> let alone directions for or examples of how to do it.
> 
> I have several image stacks in png format which represent slices of 
> 3-dimensional objects.  I can convert an image stack into a vtk file and 
> open the file in Paraview, but after that I'm at a loss.  Is it possible 
> to do a volume rendering and end up with a photorealistic image of the 
> reconstructed 3D object?
> 
> After opening the vtk file created from the image stack and choosing 
> volume representation, all I see is a black block.  The black is 
> evidently the background image area surrounding my 3D object.  I would 
> like to make the black transparent and thus reveal the object, but it 
> seems to me that creating a custom color scale to control opacity would 
> result in color mapping and interpolation which would destroy much of 
> the original color in my image.  Is there a way to declare a single 
> color transparent without affecting the other colors in the image?  Is 
> this a valid way to pursue volume rendering of image data?
> 
> Up to now I have been using Osirix to reconstruct 3D objects from stacks 
> of slices and do photorealistic renderings of them.  But Osirix has not 
> been able to handle my larger image sets without crashing, and I would 
> also like to be able to script the process, as well as take advantage of 
> Paraview's parallel processing capabilities.
> 
> Is it possible to accomplish something like Osirix's 3D reconstructions 
> in Paraview?
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Steve Huntley
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