The exceptional mechanical and physical properties of carbon nanotubes have triggered the development of nanotube-based composite materials, but critical challenges exist to understanding the effect of the dispersion and alignment of nanotubes on the overall mechanical and electrical behavior of the composite. Addressing these fundamental questions requires a proper characterization tool that enables characterization of complex three-dimensional nanotube structures on the nanometer and micrometer scale. Mahdavi et al (2015 Nanotechnology 26 385704) develop a novel approach to visualize complex nanotube structures on a multiscale using data from neutron scattering. Thorough structural information generated by the approach lays the foundation to access structure-property relationships in nanotube nanocomposites and opens up new possibilities in numerical prediction of various properties of nanocomposites.