Fig. 1

Step-by-step workflow for converting DICOM images into a 3D model for preoperative surgical planning. (A) Segmentation phase and anatomical slice reference: On the left, a 3D rendering of the knee displays the proximal tibia segmentation mask in green, generated using D2P™ software (version 1.0.5). Green represents the segmented tibia. On the right, two coronal CT slices are shown to illustrate the anatomical level from which segmentation was performed. Green represents the segmented tibia; orange markers indicate segmentation control points. The slice thickness was 0.7 mm. (B) 3D mesh generation and export process: The segmented tibial mask was converted into a 3D surface mesh. The left panel shows the final refined mesh of the proximal tibia in light pink, with surface smoothing applied to enhance anatomical fidelity. The corresponding CT slices on the right illustrate the alignment and volume traced by the segmented region (outlined in green). The mesh was exported in STL format for the 3D printing