VET-PLAN Ortho
‹ Knowledge base

App overview and first steps

‹ Knowledge base

Getting started

VET-PLAN Ortho is a veterinary radiograph viewer and orthopaedic surgical planning tool. It supports TPLO planning, fracture repair planning, implant templating at true scale, and standard radiographic measurement.

What it does

  • View and annotate digital radiographs
  • Calibrate using a known-size reference (typically a radiopaque sphere)
  • Measure distances, angles, and tibial plateau angle (TPA)
  • Overlay manufacturer-correct implant templates (VOI, Knight Benedikt, and others) at true scale
  • Plan crescentic osteotomies and bone repositioning
  • Share cases with referring vets via secure links

Who it’s for

Small animal surgeons and clinicians doing orthopaedic surgical planning. The app assumes clinical knowledge — it doesn’t teach you when to perform a TPLO, just helps you plan one accurately.

Your first session

  1. Create a case. From the gallery, click New Case and give it a patient name. You can organise into folders later.
  2. Add a radiograph. Drag an X-ray into the case, or use the upload button. JPEG, PNG, and DICOM-extracted images work.
  3. Calibrate. Most other tools won’t unlock until you’ve set a real-world scale. See Calibrating radiographs.
  4. Measure or plan. Once calibrated, the sidebar tools (Calibrate, Measure, Plan, Reposition, Label) and the Templates tab become active.

Layout

  • Left sidebar — tools and templates library
  • Centre canvas — the radiograph workspace
  • Top bar — undo/redo, attachments, sharing, view settings
  • Bottom-left of canvas — appears when an implant is selected: name, swap controls, delete
  • Bottom-right — help, bug reports, feature requests

Key concepts

  • Calibration is per-radiograph. Each image needs its own scale set, because every exposure has different magnification.
  • The “active” radiograph has a cyan border. With multiple views open, tools act only on the active one — click a panel to make it active.
  • Templates are scaled to true mm dimensions. A 3.5 mm plate overlaid on your radiograph is exactly the size it would be in real life.
  • Placed implants are anchored to the bone, not to the screen. If you later rotate the radiograph to view from a different angle, the implant rotates with it.