General preferences: Tracing

See General preferences

 

You need a reference point to be bale to modify these parameters.

 

Tracing mode

There are three tracing modes to trace contours and neuronal processes. The tracing mode can be changed during active tracing by selecting a new mode from the right-click menu.

• Simple click tracing: This is the default mode. Click to place a point along an object, move the cursor to a new position then click again to draw a line segment between the two points. Continue to place points until the entire object has been traced.
• Rubber line tracing: This mode is similar to simple click tracing. As you move the cursor to a new position, a "rubber band line" is drawn from the last point you placed to your current cursor position.
• Continuous tracing: Trace by dragging the mouse.

 

Continuous tracing tolerance

This adjustment controls how smooth the tracing is when using continuous tracing mode (see above).

• Fine: smoothest curves, but places more points in the data set.
• Coarse: fewer data points for a given curve, but the curve is not as smooth.

The smoothness of the traced curve must be balanced against the overhead of more data points. Curves with many points are harder to edit.

 

Z deviation warning

The Z deviation warning is intended to detect problems in tracing dendritic structures. Tracing branched structures involves many steps during which mistakes can introduce large jumps in Z. Since Z is the dimension going into and out of the screen it is not always clear that points are not close to each other in Z. The warning discriminant is a micron value. A warning is flagged if the difference of the Z coordinates of two sequential points exceeds this discriminant.

 

Double-click

Select to close a contour with a double-click instead of right-clicking or selecting an ending type from the Trace ribbon.