Best practices for using 3D models in live or recorded presentations

If you're a teacher, health care provider, or any type of educator, you may want to use 3D models  to guide learners through complex medical concepts in one of the following presentation settings:

• Lectures
• Trainings
• Conferences
• Trade shows
• Patient consultations/telemedicine

Whether you're presenting remotely or in person,  there are a few best practices for using 3D models effectively in live presentations:

1. Highlight key structures by clicking or double-clicking.
2. Zoom in on key structures with "long press."
3. Emphasize key structures and deemphasize others.
4. Emphasize key structures and deemphasize others in advance.
5. Recenter the model if you've zoomed in or rotated too far.
6. Reset the model to its original state after you've hidden or faded structures.
7. Use the Draw tool to draw on the model.

1. Highlight key structures by clicking or double-clicking.

Click once on an anatomical structure to highlight it and draw the user's attention to it. Double-click on a structure to "fly to" it, or zoom in on it and center it on the screen.

Single click

Double click

2. Zoom in on key structures with "long press." 

Our long press function enables you to "fly to" structures of interest (see above) without highlighting them in yellow, and it also results in a smoother zooming motion. To trigger a long press, hover over the structure you want to zoom in on, and then click and hold your mouse button down until it flies to that structure.

3. Emphasize key structures and deemphasize others.

Select the Hide and/or Fade options in  Explore Tools  and then click on a structure to remove it from view or make it transparent so you can see underlying structures, respectively. 

Alternatively, you can use the advanced actions menu available within the Search tool or the pop-up label associated with each structure to hide or fade individual structures or groups of structures.

• Pop-up label: Click on the structure you want to modify,  click more options   in the pop-up label, hover over Fade, and select Hide, Isolate, or Fade.

• Search: Open Search  from the toolbar, find the structure or group in the anatomy tree, click more options  next to it, and then select Hide, Isolate or Fade.

4. Emphasize key structures and deemphasize others in advance. 

Let your tour do the work for you. Instead of using the Explore Tools as described above to emphasize or deemphasize structures on the fly, prepare these custom views in additional chapters in your tour in advance. This way you can simply skip to the relevant chapter and can focus on speaking instead of playing around with the tools.

5. Recenter the model if you've zoomed in or rotated too far.

Click the 3D controls button in the lower-right corner and select Recenter 3D model to return to your starting position.

6. Reset the model to its original state after you've hidden or faded structures.

When you hide or fade structures, a Reset button  will appear underneath the 3D controls button  in the lower-right corner. Click this button to return the model to its original state.

7. Use the Whiteboard tool to draw on the model.

When you open the Whiteboard tool, the 3D model is converted into a 2D image, and you can use your mouse or trackpad (web) or finger (mobile) to draw anywhere on the image to point out key structures, shapes, relationships, or processes. You can find the Whiteboard tool under More Options  in the toolbar.