Image Opener

Overview

The Image Opener window is displayed when opening more than one file or a file type that contains multiple images and more information about how you want Stereo Investigator software to handle your image files is needed. You may see the Image Opener window when you:

  • Drag and drop image files onto the Stereo Investigator software window
  • Go to File > Open, click Image Stack and select more than one file to open.

Use the settings and controls in the Image Opener dialog box to specify how you want Stereo Investigator software to handle and display the images.

View the videos below to see how the Image Opener works for common types of image files.

View the list of file types compatible Stereo Investigator and other MBF Bioscience software (PDF).

Image Opener settings and buttons

Drag and drop files onto the Stereo Investigator software window.

The Image Opener will open if the files contain multiple images. It will also open if you drag multiple single-image or image-stack files into Stereo Investigator software.

Check boxes that apply to all files in the window

Near the top of the window are the following options:

  • Use first image scaling for all images: Check/uncheck the box to apply/not apply image scaling information from the first file in the list to all images positioned below it.
  • Load all into single image: Check the box to create a single image file from all the files listed in the window, even ones that have been organized into separate groups. Uncheck the button and the groups are treated as separate images.

File and Group list

In the center of the Image Opener window, the files that were dropped on the Stereo Investigator software window are listed. They are grouped according to file name similarities.

  • Change the order of the files in each group if desired by dragging and dropping with your mouse.
  • Load All (in Image Group) check box: Check the box to load all images in the group. Uncheck to load only the individual images you select.
  • Load: Check the box to the left of the image file name to select that file to be loaded into Stereo Investigator software.
  • Stack: Check the Stack box to the right of the file to include the image in an image stack with other files in the same group.

Group Selection controls

The center right of the Image Opener window has quick-select buttons that affect the image groups created when you drop files with different naming conventions onto the Stereo Investigator software window.

  • Group Selection Select All: All groups in the window are selected.

  • Group Selection Deselect All: No groups in the window are selected.

    When groups are selected, they are outlined in blue to indicate the active selection. Groups that are not selected do not have a blue outline.

  • Stack Selected Groups: Every image file in the selected group will be included in the image stack created. Clicking this button quickly checks the Stack checkbox for every file in the selected image group.

Placement options

At the bottom left of the window are controls for placement of images in the Stereo Investigator software window.

  • Same Location: Images are displayed on top of each other in the same x-y location, but an image stack is only created if the Stack check box has been checked.
  • Original Location: Image location information (world space coordinates) is read from the files if it exists. You can select this option to open images that contain that specific metadata into their original locations in world space. This may be useful when opening multiple images with world space information, or when combining images with tracings that have matching coordinates.
  • Grid Layout and number of Columns: When Grid Layout is selected, the images are laid out in a grid with the number of columns chosen.

Load button

When all settings are complete. Click the load button to open the files in Stereo Investigator software.

If needed, the Image Scaling window opens after you click the Load button in the Image Opener.

Video examples of the Image Opener in use

Zeiss .czi files (2:23 min)

Leica .lif files (2:18 min)

.tif series (2:30 min)