PictureSnap Tips and Tricks

[dzakharov]

A question, John:

I use Picture Snap on my online PC and I display "currently acquired coordinates" and it works just fine. I took the file and went to my offline PC, and there the displayed points do not line up with the image any more. They are shifted. Why is that? Are there any ini files that might be different? Is it not just comparing the jpg calibration coordinates with the analyzed positions coordinates?

I had the same issue with my laptop monitor (Sony VAIO). When I go to see the picture snap with points of analysis I notice they are all shifted with respect to their original position. The computer is running under Windows 7. Screen's resolution is 1366x768 (recommended). I clicked "make text or other items larger or smaller" in screen resolution window and selected "Medium 125%" (see attachment). That resolved the issue.

[John Donovan]

Hm... Then it could be the dpi. The dpi is definitely different in the lab and in the office. There is no way around to have the points displayed correctly on different screens?

Good news. I finally found a solution for the PictureSnap screen DPI issue when displaying stage coordinates on an image, that was acquired on a monitor with a different screen resolution. It is now fixed.

Basically this is the Windows screen resolution parameter when, under Win 7, you right click the desktop, select the Screen Resolution menu, select the Make Text and other items larger or smaller link, and select one of the options. Usually one will see 100% (the default), 125% and 150%.



The new PictureSnap code saves this screen resolution DPI to the .ACQ file (along with the other calibration parameters) when the image is saved. When the image (in PictureSnap) is displayed on another monitor, the new code adjusts the screen calibration so the image and the stage coordinates are properly displayed.

This code will work on all ACQ files generated since 6/29/2017 (v. 11.9.4). If you have an older ACQ file, simply re-generate the ACQ file by exporting it again, or by re-running the calibration on the original computer/monitor. The ACQ file will be updated properly with v. 12.1.0 or higher of PFE.

Alternatively one can simply edit the old ACQ file for the new parameter as seen here:

[stage]
PictureSnap mode="0"
Number of calibration points="2"
Number of Z calibration points="0"
Screen reference point1 (twips)="7680,7680"
Screen reference point2 (twips)="0,0"
Stage reference point1="50.2185,50.6295"
Stage reference point2="50.4815,50.3705"
X_Polarity="-1"
Y_Polarity="-1"
Stage_Units=mm
ACQScreenDPI="1"

Where the ACQScreenDPI is the DPI of the monitor that the image was acquired on, and 1 = 100%, 1.25 = 125% and 1.5 = 150%. So just edit the ACQ file in any text editor for the DPI of the system it was acquired on and save the file. It should then load fine in PictureSnap on any DPI monitor now.

Odd that this different DPI monitor issue only showed up in PictureSnap, not any other places where stage coordinates are plotted on images.  And sorry it took me so long to find a solution, it was actually pretty simple once I understood the problem. Thanks.
john

PS Attached below are images with a stage coordinates plotted, for both 1.0 and 1.25 screen DPI.

[John Donovan]

I had forgotten that there was a PictureSnap Tips and Tricks topic already!

I wanted to ask if anyone has tried the new PictureSnap from the PFE Digitize Traverse or Digitize Grid dialogs, where there is now a PictureSnap button in each dialog that allows one to see a line (for digitizing traverses) or a rectangle (for digitizing grids) on the PictureSnap image.  Here is what it looks like for a traverse:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=42.msg6529#msg6529

and here is what is looks like for a grid:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=42.msg6527#msg6527

Has any one tried this feature yet?  What do you think?

[BenjaminWade]

Hi John
I desperately want to, but haven't had a working probe for over a month now so cant try out all the new cool features that were implemented last year. It looks like a cool feature which looks like it will definitely save a lot of time. I especially like the main PictureSnap window adjusting to where you move to. Once its all up and running I will have a play with it and let you know what the users think of it.

Cheers

[John Donovan]

Here is a new feature in PictureSnap suggested by Ben Vos.



Basically the software will now display the image extents of any images acquired and saved in the currently open PFE probe database. To use the feature acquire some images in PFE and save them to the database. Then load an image into the PictureSnap window that includes the area the images are located in. Normally this will be a "basemap" image which could be a camera image of the sample, a slide scanner image or even a low mag image. Then click the Display | Display Acquired Image FOVs menu as seen here:



The images areas and the image number will be displayed in both the main PictureSnap image window and the full view window as seen here:



Let me know what you think after you all have tried it out. Thanks!

[John Donovan]

The image calibration accuracy display in PictureSnapApp is so useful that we added it to Probe for EPMA also:

[John Donovan]

Paul Carpenter suggested adding a feature to PictureSnap in Probe for EPMA that allows one to select an already existing ACQ file for calibrating a new image.



The idea being that some labs take a picture of a sample with almost the same area and mounted in the same location in the sample holder.

This way one can have some "generic" ACQ files available for getting a rough image calibration loaded and then tuning it a bit using the Move To buttons.

[John Donovan]

The latest version of Probe for EPMA now correctly displays the current FOV graphic, if your sample is loaded into the instrument at an angle to the scanned image.  Here is the FOV graphics (blue rectangle), once we subsequently rotated the image after it was in the instrument:



Now here is the new "rotation sensitive" current FOV graphic on the original (unrotated) scanned image:



This rotated FOV graphic indicates that the image coordinate system is rotated with respect to the stage coordinate system. Note that PictureSnap handles such rotated samples just fine for sample navigation, but previously it wasn't reflecting the image to sample rotation correctly in the current FOV graphic.

We'll be doing the same thing for PictureSnapApp but it will be a bit more work given that the FOV annotations and Image Locator feature can require rotated objects as well...

[John Donovan]

Owen Neill was recently running PictureSnapApp on his JEOL SEM (more on this later) and really likes the option to disable the Z axis for stage motion when navigating the sample. This is for when using a three point image calibration (so the image is also calibrated in Z), and the Z axis sample heights vary a lot.

He suggested that I add the same option to the PictureSnap feature in Probe for EPMA. So here it is:



Update PFE from the Help menu.

[emma_fisi]

Hi,

Is there a way to display only analysis locations from one unknown position list on an image in PictureSnap, rather than all locations from all position lists?

My user carefully chose a series of well-placed points on her specimen. Later that day, I inadvertently ran a grid of many points over the same location, making it impossible to read her original locations when the image is opened in PictureSnap. If we could just load "her" points, and ignore my grid, we could see exactly which grains she hit...

Thanks!
Em
 

[Probeman]

Hi,

Is there a way to display only analysis locations from one unknown position list on an image in PictureSnap, rather than all locations from all position lists?

My user carefully chose a series of well-placed points on her specimen. Later that day, I inadvertently ran a grid of many points over the same location, making it impossible to read her original locations when the image is opened in PictureSnap. If we could just load "her" points, and ignore my grid, we could see exactly which grains she hit...

Thanks!
Em

Hi Emma,
If you are referring to displaying previously acquires analysis positions on the PictureSnap image (from the Run menu) in Probe for EPMA, then an easy way would be to check the "Skip Disabled Points On PictureSnap" menu, and then simply disable the samples you do not displayed from the Analyze! window. Once you are done you can enable them again from the Analyze! window.
john

[emma_fisi]

Thanks John! I'll give this a try on the morrow.

[Dominique]

Hello all,

We are trying to import a photo of our stage in the Picture Snap option within the Stage software, but our photo is showing up a) rotated, and b) way too big to be of use, unless we go into the menu and click view full picture.

We then rotated and compressed our picture, and re-imported it, but it's still displaying sideways. Is it a directionality with our camera that's affecting the meta data?

Seems like a silly problem, but I'm just wondering if I missed something in the reference manuals...

Thanks 

[John Donovan]

Odd.  Does the image show properly in other image apps? 

If the image is very large just use the scroll bars to navigate.   Please email me the image, and we'll take a look, but also show me a thumbnail showing how you think it should be oriented.
john

[bgarcia]

Hi All! John, this Picture Snap app (text input) is working great moving between our Tescan and SIMS instruments!

The issue for us is that we can't see our sample material, unlike those wonderfully colorful and swirly geologic samples. The picture we take of our sample basically looks like a blank planchet, so adding annotations by clicking on a point of interest on the sample picture is a no-go. Is there a way to add to the annotation list manually by typing in x and y coordinates instead of going through the Picture Snap image?