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Volumetric Analysis

3D Viewer

Explore orthogonal slices and spectral stacks in an interactive three-dimensional viewer.

1. Overview

The 3D Cube Viewer displays a loaded hyperspectral cube as an interactive three-dimensional scene. It lets you inspect a band image and spatial cross-sections together, or view bands as a spectral stack. Use it to explore how image content varies across position and wavelength, and to check the orientation and band order of a dataset.

Key points

  • Orthogonal Slices shows three perpendicular cross-sections through the cube.
  • Spectral Stack shows successive band images as layers along the spectral axis.
  • Rotate, zoom, and pan the view; adjust slice locations and the display colormap.
  • The viewer works with a loaded satellite or laboratory hyperspectral scene.

2. What the 3D Cube Viewer Does

1. Load a cube with height H, width W, and B spectral bands.

2. In Orthogonal Slices mode, choose one band, one row, and one column. The viewer extracts an XY band image, an XZ row cross-section, and a YZ column cross-section.

3. The selected colormap maps displayed intensity values to colors on each plane.

4. The three planes appear together in a scene that you can rotate, zoom, and pan. Moving a slider updates its corresponding slice.

5. In Spectral Stack mode, the viewer displays band images as successive layers along the spectral dimension.

3. Where to Find It

1. Load a dataset from My Files or the Satellite page.

2. Click 3D View in the toolbar.

3. The viewer opens in the main workspace; slice and display controls appear in the left sidebar.

4. Step by Step Workflow

Step 1 Load Data

Load a supported dataset such as MAT, ENVI, TIFF, HDF5, NIfTI, AVI, NPY, or NetCDF, or open a satellite scene. Check that the data has the expected spatial dimensions and band order.

Step 2 Open the Viewer

Click 3D View in the toolbar. Allow the scene to finish loading before interpreting the display.

Step 3 Choose a View Mode

Choose Orthogonal Slices or Spectral Stack using the toggle at the top of the viewer. Start with Orthogonal Slices when you need to inspect a particular band, row, or column.

Step 4 Position the Slices

Move the XY Slice (Band), XZ Slice (Row), and YZ Slice (Col) sliders in the sidebar. Each slider changes one cross-section while the other selected positions remain in view.

Step 5 Set the Display

Choose a colormap, such as jet, viridis, or gray. Toggle slices on or off to focus on an individual plane.

Step 6 Navigate the Scene

  • Drag to rotate the cube.
  • Use the scroll wheel to zoom.
  • Right-click and drag to pan.

5. View Modes

Orthogonal Slices

Three perpendicular slices reveal the spatial image at one band and the variation across bands at one row and one column.

Slice
Fixed position
Displayed plane
XY
Band
One spatial image at the selected band
XZ
Row
Values across columns and spectral bands at one row
YZ
Column
Values across rows and spectral bands at one column

Spectral Stack

Band images are layered along the spectral axis. This view helps you see how the appearance of the scene changes from band to band. Availability depends on whether the loaded data can be stacked.

6. Controls and Navigation

Action
Control
Rotate
Click and drag
Zoom
Scroll wheel
Pan
Right-click and drag
Move the band plane
XY Slice (Band) slider
Move the row plane
XZ Slice (Row) slider
Move the column plane
YZ Slice (Col) slider
Show or hide a plane
Checkbox beside its slice label
Change displayed colors
Colormap dropdown

7. Parameters Explained

Parameter
Purpose
Range or note
Colormap
Maps displayed values to colors
Examples: jet, viridis, gray
XY Slice (Band)
Selects the band image
Band index 1 through B
XZ Slice (Row)
Selects the row cross-section
Row index 1 through H
YZ Slice (Col)
Selects the column cross-section
Column index 1 through W
Slice visibility
Shows or hides each slice
Useful when planes overlap

8. Output and Interpretation

Observation
How to read it
Bright area on an XY band image
A relatively high displayed value at that band; its physical meaning depends on the dataset and scaling.
Features extending across an XZ or YZ plane
Variation with spatial position and band index. Compare with wavelength metadata before assigning a spectral feature.
Change in appearance across stacked bands
A change in scene values with spectral band; inspect calibrated spectra to identify possible absorption features.
Abrupt spatial boundary
A change between regions that may have different signals or materials; verify with spectra.

The colormap is a display choice. Colors in the 3D view do not by themselves establish material identity, reflectance, or an absorption mechanism.

9. Known Limitations

Limitation
Practical response
Large scenes may render slowly
Crop the scene before opening the 3D viewer if interaction is sluggish.
A slice appears gray or does not refresh
Wait for the scene to finish loading, then move the band slider to refresh the image. Check the display range if available.
Spectral Stack is unavailable for some datasets
Use Orthogonal Slices when the loaded data cannot be stacked.
Band index alone does not identify a wavelength
Use the dataset wavelength metadata when interpreting spectral changes.

10. Common Use Cases

Use case
Suggested workflow
Explore spatial and spectral structure
Open 3D View, rotate the scene, and move the band, row, and column slices.
Find candidate spectral features
Step through bands and inspect the corresponding spectra and wavelength labels.
Compare locations
Move row and column slices to different positions, then inspect the spectra for those locations.
Check loaded data
Review slice orientation, cube dimensions, and band ordering.

Part of the IDCubeCloud User Documentation. See also: PCA Guide, Clustering Guide, Vegetation Indices Guide.

Manual revision: September 2026

Related Guides

Workspace & InterfaceNavigate the IDCubeCloud workspace, toolbar, sidebar, visualizer, data panels, and analysis tabs. Principal Component AnalysisReduce spectral dimensionality and inspect variance, component images, and band contributions. MeasurementMeasure distances, areas, and perimeters in pixels or calibrated physical units.
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