Usually in a convolution we just multiply the kernel with the input and return the scalar, and then move the kernel and repeat the process. The problem I have is that instead of returning a scalar I have an “internal” 2d plane to convolve over, at each 3d point. So the 3d convolution has to return, instead of a scalar, a 2d convolution result.
I am not sure how to implement something like this. A good starting step for me would be if I could efficiently extract 3x3x3 chunks of the input in the same way that pytorch does for regular 3d convolutions. I have tried looking at conv3d in torch/nn/quantized/functional.py but cant seem to find the part the actual convolutions are being taken.