Author Archive for Leon

How to Customize the Overlay in eFilm

Published
by
Leon
on October 23, 2008
in Tips and Tricks, eFilm 3.0 Features and eFilm Workstation
. 0 Comments

eFilm 3.0 now allows you to customize the overlay.  You can display any DICOM tag - as long as it is being stored in the DICOM header!!!!

Below is an explanation of how to do this.  We will use the example of the “Flip Angle” tag, which is not normally displayed in eFilm.   The Flip Angle is a tag commonly stored in the DICOM header of MR images.

To add “Flip Angle” to the Overlay: 

  • Open the desired image and make a note of the Group-Element of the desired Tag from a DICOM Dump. 
    • To view the DICOM header, select the specific image and click on Utility -> DICOM Dump
    • E.g.: Flip Angle has a Group-Element: (0018, 1314) 
  • Now close the DICOM Dump.
  • Click Edit-> Properties -> Modality Settings -> Overlay
  • Select the specific Modality Type. (MR in the above example) 
  • Now, we will define our own Display Item (Define the Tag) 
    • Under <USERDEFINEDITEMS> tag add a new <DISPLAYITEM> tag. 
    • In the above example the tag should look like this..

 ———————————

<DISPLAYITEM tag=”0×00540018″ item=”EnergyWindowName”/>

<DISPLAYITEM tag=”0×00540400″ item=”ImageID”/>

<DISPLAYITEM tag=”0×00181314″ item=”FlipAngle”/>

 </USERDEFINEDITEMS>

 ———————————   

Where 0×00181314 is the Group-Element of the Flip Angle tag.

 

  • Once the definition is done click on Save and make sure it’s saved without errors. 
  • Now place the defined tag to be displayed in a specific quadrant. 
    • There are four quadrants in any view port.
      • TL: TOP LEFT          TR: TOP RIGHT
      • BL: BOTTOM LEFT    BR: BOTTOM RIGHT

 For example let’s place the Flip Angle tag in Bottom Left quadrant.

——————————- 

<QUADRANT location=”BL”>

<ROW><OVERLAYITEM item=”SliceThickness” postfix=”thk/”/>

<ROW><OVERLAYITEM item=”RepetitionTime” prefix=”TR: “/></ROW>

<ROW><OVERLAYITEM item=”FlipAngle” prefix=”FLIP ANGLE: “/></ROW>

</QUADRANT>

——————————- 

  •  Postfix / Prefix are user defined and are used to name a tag on the overlay. In absence of this only the tag value will be displayed

 

Once complete, you should now be able to see this specific tag in all studies that match the modality in question!!

Changing the Font Size on the Image Display

Published
by
Leon
on September 25, 2008
in Tips and Tricks and eFilm 3.0 Features
. 0 Comments

Do you want to change the font size on any field that is displayed in eFilm?  In version 3.0, this is now possible!!

 To change the font size on the Image display:

1.  In eFilm, got to Edit -> Properties

2.  Ensure that you are on the “Modality Settings” tab (you should be by default)

3.  Click on the Modality scroll menu to select the desired modality

4.  Click on the “Overlay” tab 

 

5.  Under the “Modality Overlay” section (bottom half of screen), you can change the font size of any particular field by defining a “fontscale” value for each ROW element.

      For example:

     <ROW fontscale=”1.5″><OVERLAYITEM item=”PatientName”/>

 

The above example will change the font size of the Patient Name to 1.5x  the current size on the image display.

 To change ALL fields in the overlay for ALL Modalities to the same font size:

 1.  Go to the profile for the specific user in question. 

      Default location is “C:\Program Files\Merge eFilm\eFilm\Profiles\UserName”

2.  Make a copy of “ToolBarConfiguration.xml” for backup purposes

     (i.e. call it “ToolBarConfiguration_old.xml”)

3.  Open “ToolBarConfiguration.xml” with a text editor (such as WordPad)

4.  Go to Edit -> Replace

5.  Replace

      <ROW> 

       to

      <ROW fontscale=”X“>

 

where X is the Font size (i.e. 0.5 for half the default size)

Copying images from eFilm to another document

Published
by
Leon
on August 25, 2008
in Tips and Tricks
. 1 Comment

 Have you ever needed to incorporate an image from eFilm into a presentation or document?  

In eFilm 3.0, this is MUCH easier to do!!

 

To do this, simply click anywhere on the image in eFilm that you want to add to your document.   Then, press Ctrl-C on your keyboard to copy the image.

 In your document, press Ctrl-V to paste it.  

 

And that’s it!!

You’ve copied your image from eFilm to your document in a couple of simple steps.

Study Loading in eFilm 3.0

Published
by
Leon
on August 8, 2008
in Tips and Tricks
. 8 Comments

eFilm 3.0 is designed to load studies more efficiently than prior versions.

In previous versions (i.e. 2.1.2 and earlier), eFilm would load images into RAM as they were viewed (RAM is the memory on a computer that can be accessed the fastest).  This meant that until all of the images in a series had been displayed once, stacking was somewhat slower.  Once the images were viewed initially, stacking speeds improved greatly as all of the images were now loaded into RAM.

Are you experiencing a slow loading time when opening large studies?

eFilm 3.0 incorporates a new method of loading studies. When a study is opened, all of the images in the displayed series are preloaded into RAM in the background, so the first time you stack through a series will be very fast.  This saves you the time of having to stack through the entire series first before subsequent stacking becomes faster. 

However, if you are using a PC that does not have enough RAM, or if the study you are viewing is very large, it is possible that the “preloading” that is occurring may be slowing things down. If this is the case, it is very easy to change the way eFilm loads studies.

To change how eFilm 3.0 loads studies:

  1. Go to Edit - Properties
  2. Click on the “Preferences” tab
  3. Under “Responsiveness” change the value from 0 to something else (for example “20″).  A value of “0″ means to preload everything in the series. 

Now, when you open a study, only the number of images you specified will be preloaded into RAM!

Is this slow down something that has affected you?  Feel free to post a comment sharing your thoughts or  questions on this posting!