Our group has used Amira for a while, even though it is expensive and can take some effort to learn. I thought it would be of interest to know about some free alternatives for image processing, segmentation, and analysis. As far as I know, no single free package does everything that Amira does, and there is always a learning curve for a new package, but some are actually better than Amira for their respective purposes.
All of the following are free. There are others of course, but the ones listed here have come to the top of my list. I will update this page as I learn more.
Fiji (is just ImageJ) https://fiji.sc/
Your best friend for general image manipulation (e.g. cropping, adjusting, and orienting image stacks), editing, and basic analysis. Many many plugins to do almost anything, some quite sophisticated. Open-source, easy multi-language scripting.
Dragonfly https://www.theobjects.com/dragonfly
Free for non-commercial research (license on request). Well-documented and extensively used. Easy to get started with video tutorials. Windows & Linux only.
Many of the manual segmentation tools also work directly in the 3D view. Includes a convolutional neural networks Deep Learning solution (www.theobjects.com/dragonfly/deep-learning) that lets users paint material phases of very complicated and low contrast materials and the software learns how to segment the rest of the image or similar datasets.
Drishti https://github.com/nci/drishti
Can make amazing visualizations, including key-frames-based animations. Powerful segmentation editor (DrishtiPaint). Steep initial learning curve, but the online tutorials are helpful. Drishti Prayog (https://github.com/nci/drishti#drishti-prayog ) makes spectacular interactive touch-screen presentations.
3D Slicer https://www.slicer.org/
An "open source software platform for medical image informatics, image processing, and three-dimensional visualization...built over two decades through support from the National Institutes of Health and a worldwide developer community.” Well-developed and widely used, with extensive documentation and training tutorials. Reasonably easy to get started.
Tomviz https://tomviz.org/
A "cross platform, open source application for the processing, visualization, and analysis of 3D tomographic data. Here the full pipeline of data processing steps from reconstruction to visualization to analysis of 3D data can be presented, saved, and restored." https://tomviz.readthedocs.io/en/latest/visualization/
ITK-SNAP http://www.itksnap.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php
Designed for 3D image segmentation, "emphasizes interaction and ease of use, with the bulk of the development effort dedicated to the user interface."
Microscopy Image Browser http://mib.helsinki.fi/index.html
A "high-performance Matlab-based software package for advanced image processing, segmentation and visualization of multi-dimensional (2D-4D) light and electron microscopy datasets."
ImageVis3D is a new volume rendering program developed by the NIH/NIGMS Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing (CIBC). The main design goals of ImageVis3D are: simplicity, scalability, and interactivity.
https://www.sci.utah.edu/software/imagevis3d.html
Seg3D is a volume segmentation and processing tool developed by the NIH Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing. It combines a flexible manual segmentation interface with powerful higher-dimensional image processing and segmentation algorithms from the Insight Toolkit.
It has a strong emphasis on manual and semi-manual segmentation, where filtered data guides the user in making decent segmentations of the data. The program is mainly intended for, but is not strictly limited to, segmentation of biological/medical data. BioMesh3D (part of SCIRun) can be used to turn segmentations into quality meshes which can be used to simulate biological processes on the segmented images.
https://www.sci.utah.edu/cibc-software/seg3d.html
VolViewer
http://cmpdartsvr3.cmp.uea.ac.uk/wiki/BanghamLab/index.php/VolViewer
Easy to use, key-frames-based animation. No longer actively developed but still useful.
ilastik https://www.ilastik.org/
"ilastik is a simple, user-friendly tool for interactive image classification, segmentation and analysis.... has workflows for automated (supervised) pixel- and object-level classification, automated and semi-automated object tracking, semi-automated segmentation and object counting without detection."
CDeep3M is a containerized tool, using deep learning for large-scale image segmentation tasks. It is an open source development and the software is free to use. You can run CDeep3M on your local platforms, on cloud providers, on GPU clusters or with free GPU resources on this website.
https://cdeep3m.crbs.ucsd.edu/cdeep3m
MeVisLab https://www.mevislab.de/
MeshLab http://www.meshlab.net/
Famous freeware for working with surfaces.
The site https://www.idoimaging.com/ has loads of imaging software listings.
The Scientific Community Image Forum at https://forum.image.sc/ is a discussion site for software-oriented aspects of scientific imaging, particularly (but not limited to) image analysis, processing, acquisition, storage, and management of digital scientific images.
Blog post on Free software for CT segmentation (2019)
https://peterfalkingham.com/2019/02/18/free-software-for-ct-segmentation-2019
For setting landmarks in 3D images:
(From ResearchGate, 6 years ago)
Hi Stefan. The best software for doing that is called TINA Landmarking Tool. It is pretty cool 'cause for placing landmarks you use the cross-sections of the structure (though you can also use the 3D volume) and therefore you can place landmarks in literally every place (internal or external). Besides that, it gives you the possibility of extreme accuracy. I work with mouse skulls and use that software for placing my 3D landmarks. You can get the package and the manual from Anja Schunke in the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Biology: schunke@evolbio.mpg.de
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