An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for acquiring images of differently oriented image planes of a patient in rapid succession comprising: a probe including a two dimensional array transducer; a beamformer (502, 116), coupled to the array transducer, for scanning beams over a variety of different directions and inclinations with respect to the array transducer; a beamformer controller programmable to scan the beams over the differently oriented image planes; an image processor coupled to the beamformer; a display coupled to the image processor; an image storage device (326, 328); a plane orientation control, coupled to the beamformer controller, for adjustment of the image plane orientation of an image plane relative to a selected anatomy, said plane orientation control further comprising a manually operated user control; and an image plane coordination and timing storage device responsive to the plane orientation control and operative to store scanning parameters defining a plurality of image plane orientations selected by manual operation of the user control of the plane orientation control, characterized in that the system further comprises: a source of patient heart waveforms coupled to the beamformer controller; and in that the image plane coordination and timing storage device is further operative to store triggering intervals for an acquisition of the image planes in synchronization with and at proper phases of a heart cycle; and in that the beamformer controller is programmed to, in response to a user activation of an acquisition control, automatically acquire and store on the image storage device the sequence of image planes in the selected image plane orientations in accordance with the stored scanning parameters and in accordance with the stored triggering intervals until acquisition of the image planes has been completed, wherein the beamformer controller is programmed to use the patient heart waveforms to trigger the acquisition of the image planes. a probe including a two dimensional array transducer; a beamformer (502, 116), coupled to the array transducer, for scanning beams over a variety of different directions and inclinations with respect to the array transducer; a beamformer controller programmable to scan the beams over the differently oriented image planes; an image processor coupled to the beamformer; a display coupled to the image processor; an image storage device (326, 328); a plane orientation control, coupled to the beamformer controller, for adjustment of the image plane orientation of an image plane relative to a selected anatomy, said plane orientation control further comprising a manually operated user control; and an image plane coordination and timing storage device responsive to the plane orientation control and operative to store scanning parameters defining a plurality of image plane orientations selected by manual operation of the user control of the plane orientation control, characterized in that the system further comprises: a source of patient heart waveforms coupled to the beamformer controller; and in that the image plane coordination and timing storage device is further operative to store triggering intervals for an acquisition of the image planes in synchronization with and at proper phases of a heart cycle; and in that the beamformer controller is programmed to, in response to a user activation of an acquisition control, automatically acquire and store on the image storage device the sequence of image planes in the selected image plane orientations in accordance with the stored scanning parameters and in accordance with the stored triggering intervals until acquisition of the image planes has been completed, wherein the beamformer controller is programmed to use the patient heart waveforms to trigger the acquisition of the image planes. a source of patient heart waveforms coupled to the beamformer controller; and in that the image plane coordination and timing storage device is further operative to store triggering intervals for an acquisition of the image planes in synchronization with and at proper phases of a heart cycle; and in that the beamformer controller is programmed to, in response to a user activation of an acquisition control, automatically acquire and store on the image storage device the sequence of image planes in the selected image plane orientations in accordance with the stored scanning parameters and in accordance with the stored triggering intervals until acquisition of the image planes has been completed, wherein the beamformer controller is programmed to use the patient heart waveforms to trigger the acquisition of the image planes.