Overview

When you start CARTA, the default desktop appears as shown below. The different parts of the GUI are labeled. Users interact with the CARTA GUI using mouse actions, specifically left- and right-button mouse interactions. While many operating systems use multi-button mouse interactions, the Mac OS uses several input interactions to configure a right-click. These actions are found in System Preferences > Mouse controls. In general, left-clicks perform actions and right-clicks bring up and manipulate tool configurations through menus. The middle mouse button is used for zooming on a three-button mouse.

Accessing Data

When you start CARTA you will be presented with a default image that you can navigate around. If you would like to access your own data, use the Data > Close menu (in the menu bar) or the context to close the default image. Then use the Data > Open to bring up a file browser and navigate to your desired file.

 

Orientation to CARTA GUI

The GUI is composed of different Windows, each of which hosts a View. Individual Views represent different tools for visualization. The default configuration contains an Image Display View, a Histogram of data values, a Color Bar relating the image colors to the data values, and controls for access different planes (Channels) in the image.

  • Menu Bar -- The menu bar controls the properties of a View.  The options available in the Menu Bar change with selected View. To select a view left-click in the View window.
  • Quick Bar -- This contains several preselected actions that are commonly used for a given tool.
  • Image Display View -- This is where image data appear.
  • Histogram -- This displays the frequency of pixel values in the selected image or subset thereof.
  • Color Bar -- This displays and manipulates the image transfer function.
  • Channel Controls -- This View controls which image of a three- or four-dimensional data set.

The major functionality of CARTA is controlled through the Menu Bar.

  • Session -- Controls the state of the viewer.  This allows the user to save the state of the viewer, preferences, and allows the viewer to be restored to specific configurations or visualizations.
  • Save... -- After using CARTA, use this menu to save the state of the viewer. The Save/Restore framework allows keeping different components of the session.Save/Restore Dialog
       
    • Save Name: Change this to be your name for the save file.
    • Checkboxes indicate what components are retained.  
      • Layout: This controls what Views are located where in the CARTA desktop.
      • Preferences: This saves the default configurations for each of the Views.
      • Session: This save all of the Layout and Preferences, along with the image file and navigation configuration.  Saving into this state will allow you to return to the exact state of the viewer.
  • Layout -- This controls the different configurations of Views and Preferences.
  • Preferences -- This controls what compontents of the CARTA desktop are shown.

After this point the menu bar contains menu components for each of the individual tool views and will change based on which tool is active.