Edit Spines Panel (3D)

See Spines in 3D and the tutorial (PDF) for step-by-step instructions.

  • To open the Edit Spines Panel, click the Spines button in the 3D environment and then the Edit button. Click the Edit button a second time to exit editing mode.
  • If spines are associated with a single color-channel (that is, if a color channel was selected prior to spine detection), select that color channel to access all of the spine-editing functions. Select the color channel in either the Channel panel in the 3D environment or in the Image Adjustment tool in the main window (2D).

Edit Spines (# spines)

To see all the options, select spines first. The number of spines selected will be indicated in the panel title:

Select/Hide

Select All

  • Click Select All to select all detected spines. Selected spines are displayed with wireframes.
  • Note that you can select individual spines by clicking on them. Hold the Ctrl key and either click multiple spines or drag with the mouse to select all spines in the marquee that appears.

Hide Selection

  • Click Hide Selection to hide all selected spines.

Show All Hidden

  • Click Show All Hidden to show all hidden spines.

Editing Buttons

Split button

To separate two spines that are modeled as one spine due to physical proximity, use the Split button.

  1. Click the spine to split to select it.
  2. Click the Split button.
  3. If necessary, this can be repeated.

Merge button

To combine two spines, use the Merge button.

  1. Press and hold CTRL and click each spine to be merged OR hold CTRL and drag the mouse to draw a marquee around the spines to be merged.
  2. Click the Merge button.

You can merge only two spine objects at a time.

Points button

  • The points button displays the five points that Neurolucida 360 software uses to represent each spine and enables editing of these points.
  • Click and drag the point or points as necessary to obtain a more accurate spine model.

 

Remove button

  • Click Remove to delete selected spine(s).
  • Alternatively, press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete selected spines.

You can't undo this action.

Other Spine Controls

Type

Use the Type button to manually classify individual spines:

  1. Click a spine to select it.
  2. Select a type from the Type drop-down menu in the panel. This will override any previous spine-type classification.

The color picker to the right of the Type menu can be used to change the color used to represent spines:

  1. Click a spine to select it, hold down CTRL and click several spines to select them, or click the Select All button to select all detected spines.
  2. Click the arrow near the colored square to access the Color picker.
  3. Select a new color.

Show As

The Show as drop-down menu offers choices for display of detected spines. It does not change the spine-type assigned.

  1. Click a spine to select it, click Select All to select all detected spines, or press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple spines by either clicking them or dragging with the mouse to select all spines in the marquee that appears.
  2. Click the arrow next to the Show as drop-down menu and choose one of the display options, Solid, Wireframe, or Stick.

Transparency

Slide the Transparency slider to adjust the display of the selected spine or spines.

If you set transparency to 100% (far right of the slider), the spine(s) will become invisible and can only be selected using the Select All button—slide the transparency setting back and forth to make them visible again.

Smooth

  1. Click a spine to select it, click Select All to select all detected spines, or press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple spines by either clicking them or dragging with the mouse to select all spines in the marquee that appears.
  2. Click the checkbox next to Smooth.
  3. Drag the slider to enable or disable smoothing.

Texture

You can apply a texture to spines. These settings do not affect the underlying data.

  1. Click a spine to select it, click Select All to select all detected spines, or press and hold the Ctrl key to select multiple spines by either clicking them or dragging with the mouse to select all spines in the marquee that appears.
  2. Click the checkbox next to Texture.
  3. Click Load Pattern and navigate to the location of the textures you want to use and click Open to apply the texture to the selected spine(s).