PictureSnap Tips and Tricks

[John Donovan]

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?

Hi Ben,
Glad that you find it useful!

You can add a position annotation to the current position by typing "<shift> p" as described in the PSA "quick start" document from the Help menu:

To annotate points on the image, simply right-click the image and enter a text string. To annotate the current FOV on the image, type “<shift> f” on your keyboard and enter a text string. To annotate the current position on the image, type “<shift> p” on your keyboard and enter a text string.

[bgarcia]

Ok, I got the [shift P] to work, but our issue is that we can only annotate a comment and can't change the x-y coordinates themselves using the list of annotated points.

Even though we are at some x-y coordinate on our instrument, we don't really know where that is on the image without clicking over and over on the image to have the exact matching x-y numbers pop up in the annotate box. There are no lines or shapes (or anything, really) to be able to find where we are on the PicSnap image (of our sample). I was hoping there was a direct text input way to add both a point and annotation without having to click or otherwise interact with the PicSnap image. That way, we could save a list of points using our instrument stage coordinates without ever having to find them first on the PicSnap image. Once the points are saved, then they would of course appear on the image. Does that make sense?

[Probeman]

Hi Ben,
Having a calibrated image is the whole point of PictureSnapApp!   

If the sample surface doesn't have any identifying features that you can find, can you utilize the edges of the sample, or perhaps make some calibration marks on the sample such as the fiducial marks we make on our standard mounts?

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=172.msg8991#msg8991

john

[bgarcia]

 

I just found the missing piece: I didn't notice the x-y counter in the title bar of the window.  That solves everything! ugh

Explaining my problem helped, so.. yay?

[John Donovan]

Yeah!

So are you running PictureSnapApp in "text input" mode on your microprobe?  You have to use "text input" mode on the SIMS, but on your EPMA instrument you can connect to the instrument to automatically read the mag and stage positions.

john

[bgarcia]

No, these samples are being used between SIMS and a Tescan SEM. 

[John Donovan]

Ah.

Yes, "text input" is what you'll have to use on those instruments as we only support JEOL and Cameca microprobes, JEOL 7000 SEMs and FEI instruments directly.

https://probesoftware.com/PictureSnapApp.html

john

[bgarcia]

Ive been using PicSnap a bit more, and a workflow issue has come up. Keep in mind, I'm using the text input version on a Tescan SEM for use in a Cameca SIMS.

What we hope to do, facilitated by PicSnap, is find small (1-10 micron) particulate in the Tescan and save a list of 10-20 locations using the annotation list feature. Then send that image/acq file to the SIMS so that THEY can find the same particles. The trouble I've had is that in order to find a location on the Tescan and annotate that place in PicSnap, I have to move the mouse cursor over the PicSnap image to the exact x/y coordinates shown on the Tescan. I really thought this would be easier.. it sounds easy. It is do-able, but extremely time-consuming and not really accurate. The PicSnap image x/y space isn't up/down to move in the x direction and left/right to move in the y direction because there's usually some rotation it is accounting for. This makes moving the mouse cursor in an exact fashion really hard and frustrating. For the text input version, it's easy to transfer location from PicSnap to another instrument, but difficult to go from another instrument into PicSnap.

Is there an easy way to implement something like an X-Y-Z coordinate display like an instrument with a stage might have? It would display the coordinates of the bullseye in PicSnap, and allow for one to type in some location and have the PicSnap bullseye "move" to that location, like a virtual stage. It would make finding a Tescan location in PicSnap so much easier, and allow me to then accurately save that location in the annotation list quickly and accurately.

[John Donovan]

Hi Ben,
So in the "connected" version of PictureSnapApp for JEOL/Cameca/FEI instruments the app is always reading the current stage position and the "bullseye" always indicates that current position.

What you are asking for, is for the free "text input" version (which doesn't actually communicate with the instrument), to have a way to indicate the current stage position?

So perhaps I should just add a "Move" button to the PictureSnapApp Display Current Position dialog (using a double-click with the mouse) and you can simply enter the current coordinates from the Tescan instrument and the "bullseye" will move to that position?  For subsequent annotation...

[bgarcia]

Yes, that's it! Exactly. Otherwise there's no direct way to get actual stage coordinates over to PicSnap. 

Another helpful button/menu-option would be "annotate stage position" or "add stage position to annotated positions".

[John Donovan]

Hi Ben,
OK, I think I've got what you want:



So in text input mode when you double-click it pops up the "current stage position" dialog as before, but there's a new button that allows you to enter any position on your instrument, and then move the current position cursor to that position on the image.  Then you just click "<shift> "p" and you can annotate the position (or <shift> "f" for a FOV annotation).

However, in *any* instrument mode you can also click on the Window menu and click the new "Current Stage Position" menu and this same window will now pop up and you can do similar operations.

Just use the Help menu to update PictureSnapApp to v. 1.7.9 and let me know what you think.

[bgarcia]

No surprise here, but it works! Nice job! This is exactly what we needed. You have some happy clients at PNNL. 

[John Donovan]

This is a very small change in the PictureSnap feature in Probe for EPMA, but Gareth Seward requested it and we finally got around to implementing it.

So in the main PictureSnap window there is a menu that one can check to enable the digitizing of analysis positions in the Automate! window as seen here:



Previously this feature only digitized points that were right clicked on from the main PictureSnap window, but Gareth wondered if we could add support for this right click digitize feature also from the "full view" image window. That is now implemented in the latest version of Probe for EPMA as seen here:



Of course, as usual, one can subsequently confirm these digitized points from the Automate! window to ensure that the optical Z focus (and X/Y positions) are exactly correct.

[John Donovan]

We've improved the display of digitized and acquired points on the PictureSnap window in the latest version of Probe for EPMA (v. 13.6.6). Here is the slightly modified PictureSnap Display menu for displaying digitized position samples from the Automate! window:



The only thing we changed was to improve some error trapping (no samples displayed or selected in the Automate! window) and re-arrange the menus slightly.  Here is what is looks like when the points are displayed:



But for displaying already acquired sample positions from the Analyze! window we've added a feature that was only available for digitized points which is to display only the points for a single selected sample in the Analyze! window: