Match points

Purpose

Match points changes the alignment of all existing sections (hidden and visible) to match the current section. Use Match section for single sections.

Match points is useful for:

  • Aligning serial sections
  • Aligning data with a tissue section that has been placed on the microscope again

Re-aligning a tracing with the section used to trace it is an issue if the section is oriented differently on the microscope.

  • Match points is much faster than Rotate tracing and is the easiest method to obtain a quick, good fit between the tracing and the image.
  • Match points operates on both visible and hidden data in all sections.
  • If only one point pair is specified, the process is identical to Align tracing; the difference is that the reference point is not moved for Match points.
  • When using Match points, only tracings are moved, not images.

Procedure

  1. Click the Match points button on the Move ribbon, Align tracing section to open the Match dialog box. .
  2. Select or type the number of point pairs to use for matching the tracing with the section, and click OK.
  3. Click a point on the overlay to match to the image. Then click the corresponding point on the image. Repeat this for subsequent point pairs. This may require moving the stage to find the next pair of points to match. Use Macro View, Joy Track, or the arrow buttons to find point pairs that lie outside of the current field of view.
  4. When all matched pairs have been selected, the program translates the tracing and rotates it to the optimum match.

Right-click options

  • Undo: The last point of a pair can be deleted (in order to place it somewhere else) by selecting this option from the right mouse button menu.
  • Accept as Is: If you have chosen a large number of point pairs, you can select this option before all of them have been placed to complete the Match operation.
  • End Match: The match procedure can be canceled by selecting End Match from the right mouse button menu. The tracing is not moved from its original location.

 

Match points allows you to specify anywhere from 1 to 99 point pairs to be used to line up existing tracings with a live or an acquired image. If two or more point pairs are specified, the Match points algorithm performs an optimal rotation and translation of the tracing overlay to align the tracing with the image of the new section. The match between consecutive points that you choose is the result of a least square error technique based on the X,Y coordinates of the chosen points.

 

See Match section for single sections