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Neurolucida is a powerful tool for creating and analyzing realistic, meaningful, and quantifiable neuron reconstructions from microscope images. Perform detailed morphometric analysis of neurons, such as quantifying 1) the number of dendrites, axons, nodes, synapses, and spines, 2) the length, width, and volume of dendrites and axons, 3) the area and volume of the soma, and 4) the complexity and extension of neurons. See 10.3389/fnins.2012.00049

XuvTools (pronounced “ex-you-vee-tools”) is a fully automated 3D stitching software for biomedical image data, typically confocal microscopy images. XuvTools runs on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, Linux and Apple Mac computers. It supports 32 and 64bit operating systems (with 64bit highly preferred). XuvTools is free and open source software (see Licensing), so you can start using it immediately. Go to Downloads and give it a try. The goal of XuvTools is to provide tools, that combine multiple microscopic recordings to obtain a larger field of view (“stitching”) and a higher dynamic range (“HDR” recombination), or better resolution (multi view reconstruction), and to make these tools publicly available.

Auto-Bayes is a software package based on Bayesian statistics and requires no user dependent parameters for molecule detection and image reconstruction for Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM), including photoactivated localization microscope (PALM), stochastic optical reconstruction microscope (STORM), and direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM), etc.

Free-D (http://free-d.versailles.inra.fr/) is a 3D reconstruction and modeling software. It is multiplatform, free (but not open source) tool for academic research and teaching.

Here is how to proceed, using Free-D:

1. Segmentation:

* load (a collection of) individual 3d stacks

* (optional for serial sections) perform a 2D registration to align image slices

* segment/reconstruct 3D contours using snakes

* segment 3D spots

2. Construct average cell:

* normalize the contours to compute a average cell, by registering/warping 3D contours/surfaces

3. Quantification:

* project each individual cell to the average one

* build density maps to analyze (cartography)

A few notes for current software version (till 10/2016):

* input file format: tiff (not able to import bioformats)

* currently results are saved in customized format, but there is an exportor to convert this format into fiji readable one

* import already generated contours is on the software's TODO list

neuTube is a collection of neuron reconstruction tools from fluorescence microscope images. It has an interactive system with a 3D viewer, which can be clicked in 3D and perform neuron tracing automatically and semi-automatically. It can automatically recognize branching points as junctions. Traced neurons can be exported to swc format, which could be imported by various software packages. neuTube has Win and Mac OS standalone executable builds and may also be installed by manual compilation. In addition, neuTube can be used as a plugin in Vaa3D.