Main Window | Qacd Quack

TUTORIAL:

The Main Window & Raw Data

View raw data

The application window is divided into two sections. In the left section there are a number of tabs (only one is displayed initially) containing lists and/or tables of items that you can select to be displayed in the right section. There are various controls above the right section to alter what is displayed there.
Select the first row in the list on the left, corresponding to Al. On the right will be displayed the raw aluminium element map with a histogram underneath. Both the element map and histogram are displayed using the same colourmap. The histogram has 100 bins, and the mean, median and standard deviations are displayed using solid and dashed vertical lines.
At the bottom of the application window is a line of text summarising how large the element map is, the number of valid and invalid pixels, and statistics such as minimum, maximum, mean, median and standard deviation.
You can choose to display just the element map, just the histogram or both by changing the Plot type in the dropdown box above the plots.
When, later on, you have stored one or more phase maps or regions, one of each can be selected in the Phase and Region dropdown boxes above the plots to filter the displayed element map and/or histogram to only include those pixels specified in the selected phase map and/or region.
You can zoom in the element map. If you move the cursor over the map it changes to a cross. Click and hold the mouse button to start selecting a zoom region, then move the mouse to select the rectangle of interest and release the mouse button. The element map will zoom to your specified rectangle. The histogram and text at the bottom of the window remain reflecting the statistics of the whole element map rather than the zoomed area shown.
You can zoom further, and each zoom rectangle is stored for reuse. Navigate back and forward through the zooms using the Undo and Redo buttons above the plot. If you switch to a new element map, the zoom is retained so that you are looking at exactly the same rectangle each time. This is handy for comparison between different elements, etc.
Select a different element in the list on the left and that element map will be displayed on the right using the current zoom level. As well as individual elements, there is a Total of all elements as well.
You can sort the items displayed in the list on the left by clicking on one of the column headings.

Zoom into colourmap

You can zoom into the colourmap so that only data between two thresholds is displayed. This is achieved using the mouse in either the colourbar or the histogram.
Move the cursor over the colourbar and it changes to a cross. Click and hold the mouse button, then move the mouse up and/or down to select the colourmap range of interest. Release the mouse button and the colourmap will zoom to the selected range. Undo and Redo buttons are provided above the plot to undo/redo colourmap zooming. If you change to a different element map, the colourmap zoom history is cleared.
You can perform the same colourmap zooming in the histogram, this time dragging the mouse to the left and/or right to select the colourmap range of interest.

Display options

Select Options | Display… in the menu to look at the various display options available. An extra window is displayed containing two tabs, the first is named Colourmap, the second Labels and scale.
Select the Colourmap tab. All of the available colourmaps are displayed. You can choose a new colormap and click the Apply button, or double-click on a colourmap to select it. There is also the option to Reverse the colourmap. The default colourmap is ‘rainbow’.
Select the Labels and scale tab. Here there are various options relating to labels and scales, the most important of which is the use of a physical scale rather than pixels. Tick the Use physical scale check box, and specify the size of a pixel in terms of number and units, e.g. 1.2 nm. If you apply this, the axes labels change from pixels to physical units and a scale bar is displayed. The size of the scale bar automatically adjusts to the size of the zoomed area displayed, and the location and colour of the scale bar can be altered.
The Display options window can be kept open whilst you select different element maps, zoom in on areas of interest, etc. You can close it by clicking on the Cancel or OK buttons.
Display options are saved in the project .quack file and are hence specific to a particular project.