Investigator Quick Start

getting started with investigator see docid\ yw egdsfytipylfbydg5s for details this article is intended as a "quick start" guide add a specimen and measurements there are multiple method to add new specimens, with a manual and automated method avalaible to add templated measurements with the specimen for a new install the manual workflow for addition of specimens and measurements manual specimen and measurement addition select specimen type from amics investigator the first step is to select the type of specimen loaded into each specimen hole in the specimen holder, by right clicking on any of the white specimen holes and selecting the "add specimen" option from the pop up window this will pop up a new "add specimen" window as shown below, with the option to select either "block" or a "granulated" specimen type the window provides some information on the two specimen types, with the main impact being that blocks will lack a particle layer this will limit access to any tools, such as deagglomeration, which only works on the particle layer on this pop up it is also possible to add measurements to the specimen by checking and unchecking the different measurement types in the frame next to the specimen type the “classification method” can also be defined for the measurement by highlighting the required method in the lower left hand frame additionally, to duplicate the specimen type and measurement selection to multiple specimens, users can click on additional holes in the mini specimen holder image in the lower right hand frame or add to all specimen holes by checking the “select all” check box measurements type description there are five measurement modes available with the amics software for sem docid\ v7saktxhyknzlp1uyoro3 involves capturing a bse image and then performing detailed image processing and segmentation of the particles based on differences in bse intensity therefore, the image is divided into segments (a segment is defined as an area identified by the software having a similar bse), and for each segment an x ray spectrum will be collected docid\ b bziskvktzgpym4czecf can be applied in two ways as a very fast step based measurement mode to only obtain the modal results for a sample as a more detailed measurement that can be converted to produce similar results as a particle mode but based on a step based measurement and not using segmentation total measurement times will vary depending on the step size docid glkkqds6phrmz y12axm is similar in output as matrix mapping mode but can be significantly faster as this mode allows the beam to naturally rater, rather than being run as points list this reduces the beam movement overhead making this mode the fastest large area acquisition mode the disadvantage for this mode is it currently will measure both sample and mounting media, and the resultant bse equivalent image is the same as the x ray resolution docid\ d9abmo8yqbm7tvwzbnrjt specific mode to target trace amounts of phases that have a high bse value such as gold minerals or platinum group elements (pge) minerals this measurement mode measures only selected particles based on a bse threshold docid\ ax6iviy efhgmcj lfthd capturing of bse images only select workflow workflows can be selected for a specimen in investigator when a workflow is selected the system will classify on the fly if empty is selected the classificaiton will not be applied during data collection material triggers can only be set if a workflow is selected edit the specimen properties once a sample(s) has been added to the sample holder its properties can be defined or edited in the sample properties panel on the right of the amics investigator display (fig 21) sample and measurement names can also be changed directly in the list in the lower frame note that one or more measurements may be associated with a single sample and are listed in the measurement status panel immediately below each sample to define or edit sample properties, click on a sample row in the measurement status area in the sample properties panel on the right use the name field to type in the sample identity assign or edit the sample type add or modify the ore type or select then click on the name in the specimen and measurement list, with active it for editing where the name can be changed the specimen type, hole and classification method can also be changed by opening the drop down list note! currently the amics file system will not properly read in sample names which begin with proceeding zero (i e 0002 or 003 sample), as these padded zeros will be truncated from the sample name it is best to only use a non zero number or alphabetic charater to start the sample name additionally, in some cases the use of brackets (i e "(" and ")") are also incorrectly read into the current file system so avoid using these in the sample name step 3 configure measurements define the measurement area amics allows flexible definition of measurement areas on each sample the measurement can be circular, square/rectangular or a polygon shape a default selected area for measurement will be inserted for all samples added to the holder, with the shape dependent on the defined shape (e g , circular or rectangle) this default area is indicated by a red outline within the sample outline as indicated in fig 20 the size and shape of the default measurement area may be modified or replaced as desired this procedure is outlined in table 3 multiple measurement types or areas may be added to a single sample define measurement properties measurement properties should be checked and/or edited prior to analysis select a measurement from the bottom measurement status section the defined measurement properties for the selected measurement will be displayed in the right panel (fig 22) note that the properties displayed can change depending on the measurement type, and only the properties relevant to the particular measurement type will be displayed the measurement properties are described in detail in docid\ fadl2zjj61tv2m875w02r evaluate parameters the image processing parameters should be evaluated and, where necessary, adjusted before the measurement is started to do this an image needs to be captured from the sem at the proposed measurement settings ensure that the sem stage is currently at an appropriate location to gather a representative bse image, and is set at the magnification to be used during the measurement it is best to use an area of the sample that contains close to the full range of bse values to ensure bse contrast is set appropriately, as well as focusing on particles that might be more challenging to segment i e close range bse/structurally complex to move to a sample stage position, right click on the sample position and select hw to center this command will drive the sem to the center of the current selected measurement area alternatively, right click at the position of the sample you wish to drive to and select hw to position once the sample is in focus on the sem, set the desired measurement conditions (magnification, contrast and brightness) then right click again on the sample in amics investigator and select get hw data and image (fig 28) amics investigator will collect the image, which will then be displayed automatically, along with a segmented image in the calibration image tab as shown in fig 29 it is important that the beam and sem conditions are set to exactly as the final meaurement will be analysed, as the option to either read hw data or the get hw data and image will automatically update the measurement setting with the sem condition so if the sem is not set corrected when these two options are finally selected, the analysis run will not acquire expected data step 4 start collection check measurements before a measurement is started, it is recommended to ensure that all required settings have been recorded click on the check setting icon this step will verify that the minerals in the classification method contains composition data the composition of the minerals in the selected classification method sums to 100% density is >0 for all minerals in the selected classification method the hardware conditions has been recorded for all selected measurements start data collection once the settings have been checked and corrected, click the start sample measurement icon amics will do two checks before allowing a measurement to be started, the first being to check if the sample order is sequential from smaller hole numbers to larger hole numbers if the hole number ordering of the specimen sequence is not sequential in an acending order, amics will issue a warning (fig 38, left warning window) to correct the order click "no" and adjust the order before starting again, otherwise slick "yes" amics also requires that the analysis program be saved to disk before starting a new acqusition sequence if a new sequence has not been save amics will issue a warning message allowing the users go directly to saving the sequence by clicking "yes", and if required, tick whether to blank the beam (for applicable instruments) or turn off the ht after the measurement is complete a measurement can be stopped at any time by clicking the icon if a measurement has been stopped, selecting start will re start the measurement on the next frame if the stopped measurement is not to be continued, and additional measurements are in the sample queue make sure to uncheck the measurement before selecting start again step 4 check results measurement results amics investigator allows monitoring and evaluation of selected data during a measurement, that will appear in the measure results tab (fig 40) the measurement result tab displays information after the first field of measurement has been completed and will show the modal data and measurement statistics as each frame completes click on the measurement result tab at any time during measurement and a table will be displayed showing the mineral reference list and the number of segments, the area (in pixels) and the modal data in area and weight % (fig 35) these values will continually be updated after each completed frame select any mineral from the list to display a plot of vol % vs number of measured frames open in process to further check the measurement results, it is possible to open the result with amics process directly from amics investigator to do this by right clicking the target measurement, and selecting "open results file" open in the pop up menu this will automately boot up amics process and open the selected measurement file after boot is finished