Manage Annotations
Measurement sets are the primary way to persist and manage annotations in Flywheel. This page covers saving and loading measurement sets, managing their version history, and controlling access through permissions.
For instructions on creating annotations in the viewer, see Create Annotations.
Save annotations
Save a new measurement set
To save annotations as a measurement set in Flywheel for the first time, click Save Measurements > Save As... in the measurement panel.
Enter a name for the measurement set. If it is the first time measurements are being saved for that image file, the name is pre-populated with the Flywheel acquisition name. Names are limited to 100 characters.
Upon saving, the measurement set is added as an overlay for the related image file in the left-side panel. See also Load from a saved measurement set.
Save an existing measurement set
The Save Measurements menu provides two save options for a measurement set that has been saved at least once:
- Save: saves the current measurements as a new version of the existing measurement set, without changing its name.
- Save As...: saves the measurements under a specified name. If no measurement set with that name exists for the image file, a new measurement set is created. If a measurement set with the same name already exists, a new version of that set is created.
Each saved version is recorded in the measurement set's version history. See View all versions of a measurement set.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to save a new version of their own measurement sets. Users require the Edit Others' Annotations permission to save a new version of a measurement set created by another user. Saving annotations is not available in locked projects.
Annotations Quick View in Flywheel
When an image file has saved measurement sets, an annotations quick view icon is visible at the file level in Flywheel. The icon also has a badge with a count of the number of saved measurement sets for the image file.
Clicking on the annotations quick view icon displays a summary of all the measurement sets saved for that image file. For each measurement set, the annotations quick view provides the following information:
- Name of the measurement set
- User who saved the measurement set
- Date and time the measurement set was saved
- Number of measurements saved in the measurement set
- Summary of measurements grouped by label
For each label, the annotations quick view provides the number of annotations grouped under that label (see also Group measurements by label) and the total area if there are one or more area measurements under that label. If a saved measurement set contains measurements without a label, those are marked as Unlabeled in the annotations quick view.
When a measurement set has multiple versions, a version selector dropdown appears in the annotations quick view. By default, the latest version is displayed. Select a previous version from the dropdown to view that version's details.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to access the annotations quick view. Users require the View Others' Annotations permission to view measurement sets created by other users.
Load annotations
Load from a saved measurement set
Saved measurements sets can be loaded back into the viewer for review or editing. When an image file has saved measurements sets, an Overlays menu is available from that image file thumbnail in the left side panel of the viewer.
To load a measurement set in the viewer, select it in the Overlays menu and click Load. The annotations will be opened in the measurements panel and the associated image file will be loaded into the active viewport (if not already loaded). Multiple measurement sets can be selected and loaded simultaneously. Once a measurement set is loaded, it can no longer be selected from the Overlays menu.
When a measurement set has multiple versions, the Overlays menu includes a version selector. Select a specific version before clicking Load to load that version. Previous versions are loaded in read-only mode and cannot be saved.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to view saved measurement sets in the viewer. Users require the View Others' Annotations permission to view measurement sets created by other users.
Load from a DICOM Structured Report
If annotations were saved previously as DICOM Structured Report, they can be loaded in the viewer through the left-side panel file browser (see Load more files from the same acquisition). Simply load the DICOM Structured report into the left-side panel and drag and drop it into a viewport. Measurements will be restored in the measurement panel under the same measurement set.
Note
Once a DICOM Structured Report is loaded in the viewer, it can only be saved as a measurement set in Flywheel.
Manage annotations versions
View all versions of a measurement set
All versions of a measurement set are visible in the Annotations Quick View. Use the version selector dropdown to browse the full version history.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to view versions of their own measurement sets. Users require the View Others' Annotations permission to view versions of measurement sets created by other users.
Load a specific version in the Viewer
To load a specific version of a measurement set in the Viewer, open the Overlays menu for the image file in the left-side panel. Select the version you want to load from the version selector and click Load.
Previous versions are loaded in read-only mode and cannot be saved.
Restore a previous version
From the Annotations Quick View, use the version selector dropdown to select a previous version, then click Restore.
Restoring a previous version creates a new version based on the selected version. The version history shows that the latest version was restored from a previous version.
On validated instances, restoring a version is logged in the audit trail.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to restore versions of their own measurement sets. Users require the Edit Others' Annotations permission to restore versions of measurement sets created by other users. Restoring versions is not available in locked projects.
Delete a specific version
Individual versions of a measurement set can be deleted from the Annotations Quick View:
- Open the Annotations Quick View for the image file.
- Use the version selector dropdown to select the version to delete.
- Click the trash icon for that version.
- Click Delete in the confirmation dialog to confirm.
After deleting a version, it remains visible in the dropdown but can no longer be selected.
- A reason for deletion is required before confirming.
- Each version deletion is logged in the audit trail.
Note
Users require the Manage My Annotations permission to delete versions of their own measurement sets (including versions within that set created by other users). Users require the Delete Others' Annotations permission to delete versions of measurement sets created by other users.
Annotations in locked projects
In locked projects, the Save and Save As... options are disabled in the Viewer. Users can still view all versions of a measurement set and load previous versions in the Viewer in read-only mode. Restoring a previous version is not available in locked projects.
Delete measurement sets from Flywheel
Measurement sets can be deleted from Flywheel by users with the appropriate permissions, except if those measurements were created as part of a task.
To delete a measurement set, click on the trash icon next to the measurement set in the Annotations Quick View. Click "Delete" in the pop-up message to confirm the deletion. Deleting a measurement set cannot be undone.
On validated instances, a reason for deletion is required when deleting a measurement set, and each deletion is logged in the audit trail.
Note
Users with Manage my annotations permission are able to delete their own measurements sets. Users require Delete others' annotations permission to delete measurements sets created by other users.
Manage files with annotations
Move files with annotations
Annotations (measurement sets) are preserved when moving files between containers in Flywheel. Users with Move files permissions on both the source and destination containers can move sessions and acquisitions containing image files with annotations.
After a move, annotations can be viewed in the Flywheel annotations quick view and loaded in the viewer. The same annotation permissions apply in the destination container:
- Users require
Manage my annotationsto view their own annotations. - Users require
View Others' annotationsto view annotations created by other users.
For instructions on moving files, see:
Delete files with annotations
When image files get deleted, associated annotations (measurement sets) also get deleted. Permissions to delete annotations are not required for a user to delete a file that has annotations, only delete permissions for the files are required.
See also Deleting Data.
Create a new version of a file with annotations
Annotations are linked to a specific version of an image file. When a new version of an image file that has annotations gets created, the new version does not inherit the annotations.
See also File versioning.
Copy a project with annotations
When copying a project using Smart Copy, annotations are included by default. Only the most recent version of each annotation set is copied to the new project. To exclude annotations from the copy, deselect the annotations option in the Smart Copy dialog.
Annotations permissions
The following permissions control what users can do with annotations in Flywheel. See the Permission Matrix for a full list of Flywheel permissions.
| Permission | Description |
|---|---|
Manage My Annotations | • Save, view, and delete your own measurement sets. • View, restore, and delete all versions of your own measurement sets — including versions created by other users. |
View Others' Annotations | • View measurement sets created by other users. • View the version history of measurement sets created by other users. |
Edit Others' Annotations | • Save new versions of measurement sets created by other users. • Restore previous versions of measurement sets created by other users. |
Delete Others' Annotations | • Delete measurement sets created by other users. • Delete individual versions of measurement sets created by other users. |