USER MANUAL OF THE FREE DICOM IMAGE VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE
Installation:
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In order to use this software (Vs.exe or Vseval.exe or Viewingstation.exe)
you need to have the microsoft library files: Mfc40.dll and Msvcp50.dll
Put these library files into C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Most PC's have
already these library files in their C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
The executable binary source file of our Dicom visualization
software is either Vs.exe or ViewingStation.exe or Vseval.exe
You can copy/place the Vs.exe file whichever directory you wish.
An important feature of our full version is the capability of exporting
the DICOM images into JPEG or BMP files. Once the file is in JPEG or BMP
format, you can use any image analysis software to analyze the images.
This feature is not available in evaluation versions. We ask for a
small donation ($130.00) for the full version so that I can support the grad
students working on this project. If you get the full version we will send
you all future updates.
How to Display DICOM image files:
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- Click on ViewingStation.exe or VS.exe or Vseval.exe
The main display appears.
- Click on "Load local" button.
A browser window appears. Go to the directory where the
dicom files are. If you want to display the dicom files from
a CD-R, then go to E: (which is usually reserved for the
CD-ROM drive).
- Double click on "Dicomdir" file.
The list of angio series appears on the browser. When you
click on the title of the series some details about the
series appears.
- Select the angio series that you wish to display and
click on "OK" button.
A new window "Select Pane For New Series" appears (this version
may let you display only one series at a time).
- Select the pane that you want the display the angio series on
and click on "OK" button.
The first image of the angio series appears.
- To display the images in cine mode click the play button.
In the first round the images will be displayed slower than
usual as the images are decompressed which is a computationally
demanding task. After the decompression the images will be displayed
much faster.
* You can increase or slow-down the speed of the display device
by clicking on the left mouse button and sliding the ruler to the
right or left, respectively.
* On the upper left hand corner of the displayed images you'll see
some information (image number, name of the patient, Time etc)
regarding the image series.
( "Time= "field in the evaluation version assumes that images are
taken at a rate of 12 frames/second. If the angio images are acquired
by other rates ignore this field). The regular version has the capability
of reading the image capture rate from CD-ROM and displays the
correct time.
* You can rewind or progress one image at a time, or jump to the
first (last) image of the sequence by clicking the appropriate
video control button.
* If you want to display more than one image sequences at the same time
you can divide the window into panes by clicking on the button with
a pane sign: This button looks like [+] and it is to the left of
video buttons. You can divide the window by entering appropriate
numbers into X and Y fields. For example, if you enter X=2 and Y=2
then the screen will be divided into 4 panes. If you enter X=2 and Y=1
then two panes appear and the screen will be divided horizontally.
* The software can support upto 4 monitors i.e., if more than one
monitors are connected to your PC, you can display images in these
monitors as well. You can control the pane strcuture of all of the
monitors using the pane button [+].
* If you display more than one series at the same time only one of them
can be displayed in the cine mode. If you want to run another image
sequence in a cine mode then click to the appropriate pane. A gold key
will appear on the upper left hand corner indicating that this pane
is now active.
- The slide just under the video buttons adjusts the speed of the
video. You can adjust the display rate by sliding this button
to the left (slow) or right (fast).
- The leftmost button displays the negative of the image.
- The buttons with mirror signs provides the mirror images.
- You can also rotate the images by 90 degrees by clicking the
buttons next to the mirror buttons.
- You can use the "Worklist" button to load other angio image sequences in
your work area.
- If you want to see an enlarged version of an image click on the
"Annotate" button.
A new window containing the enlarge image appears. You can
measure distances or areas in this image. The measurements
are in terms of pixels. A typical angio image has 512 horizontal and
512 vertical lines (It is a matrix of size 512 by 512).
HOW TO PRINT AN IMAGE OR IMAGES ON A PLAIN PAPER.
Connect a printer to the computer or to the network. Set the printer
parameters in the "control panel" directory of your computer.
After loading the image (or images) you want to print on the screen
do the following:
1. Click on the "PRINT" icon on the toolbar.
2. Click on the "NEW FILM BOX"
3. Click on "IMAGE DISPLAY FORMAT"
4. Press "STANDARD"
5. Choose number of rows and columns. Determine these parameters according to
the number of images that you want to print. If you want to print a single
image put 1 and 1 to the row and column boxes. If
6. Click "OK" to the questions asked by the computer (three or four times)
An image preview window containing empty panes appears.
7. Click on the regions where you want the images to appear.
As a result the empty panes are filled with images that you want to
print.
8. Click the right mouse button and choose "PRINT ALL"
9. A message box appears saying: "Do you want to print this film session?",
click "yes".
Important: Note that the message box appears behind the window with
the images, so you have to move that window to see the message box!
10. The usual print window appears and you can send the job to the printer.
Another way to print images is to use the "Print Screen" feature of the
windows. After loading the image (or images) you want to print on the screen
do the following:
1- Press "Print Screen" button.
2- Click on the toolbar and drag it so that you can start the Microsoft-paint
software (You can use ADOBE-photoshop or a similar software).
3- Paste the image into MS-Paint and use the regular print menu of the
MS-paint.
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Currently, most of the other buttons do not function. A newer
version of the software will be available in May 2000. It has the
capability of displaying the images in real-time (12 images/second or
25 images/second depending on the acquisition rate of the angio series).
Also, the newer version supports simultaneous viewing capability of
several angio sequences on the same computer or supporting
multiple monitors.
Please contact us (cetin@ee.bilkent.edu.tr) for the newer version.