
Software Manual Chapter 3 – Brief Introduction and First Steps 15
most complex experiments without any programming knowledge. The Experiment Manager is ex-
plained in every detail in chapter 5. In the following only a brief introduction will be given.
To open the Experiment Manager click the Experiment Manager button in the acquisition toolbar.
Experiment Plans are set-up by assembling and connecting diverse command icons and frames.
The most frequent ones can be selected via buttons in the Standard Command toolbar and
placed into the editing area by drag&drop.
Image Acquisition, Multi-Color, Z-Stack and Time Loop
A Properties page to specify certain settings accompanies each command icon that is placed into
the editing area. In case of Image Acquisition, for example, parameters such as exposure time
and excitation filter have to be set.
The scheme below is just one example of an experiment plan. It shows the command icons that
define a multi-color time-lapse experiment. There are three Image Acquisition icons, each with a
different excitation filter, surrounded by a multi-color frame for combination of the three Image
Types (monochrome images) to one multi-color image. The outer frame represents a Time Loop to
repeat all commands contained a certain number of times.
The Experiment Manager is not only a tool to design the experiments, but also the command center
to acquire the images according to the Experiment Plan. The necessary icons are grouped in the
Control Center toolbar.
Check!, System Ready!, Start!, Pause and Stop
The execution of an Experiment Plan involves three steps:
1. Check!: The system verifies if the execution of the Experiment Plan is feasible or if there
are invalid parameters or logical faults.
2. System Ready!: The Experiment Plan is downloaded to the Real-Time Controller and
data storage space is allocated on the hard disk.