Choose and Manage Results and Settings Files

The FILES Panel

Use the FILES panel to save results files, save or load settings files, and select from various data files. (Use the GRAPHICS panel to select visuals and other graphs to generate and/or save along with the results files on this panel).

---

Save Data and Graphics Files Automatically

save results - Store files instead of showing them on screen

Select this checkbox on the FILES panel to automatically save results files to a folder without showing them on screen. If it is unselected, then all files will appear on screen.

This option is recommended for tasks that generate large numbers of files. The number of files generated for a scan depends on the options selected such as colour coding, graphs, raw data, grid data, frequency distributions for box counting data and for local connected fractal dimension data, etc.

This option is especially important for ROI Manager scans, subscans, stacks and batch jobs. This is because all of the results files selected will be generated for each slice in a stack, which has implications for on screen but especially for batch jobs, in which case all images will be generated for each slice in each stack in the batch.

To use this option, select the box on the dialog, then later you will be asked to choose where to store the files. After you click OK to close the dialog and subsequently click a scan button to start a new scan, a dialog appears asking you to select the folder you want to save files to.

• Within the folder selected, FracLac creates another folder, uniquely named using the date and time in milliseconds.
• A new folder is created each time the scan or batch button is pressed when this option is selected.
• When a scan finishes, a reminder pops up listing the location of the storage folder.
• To confirm that the save results option is set prior to scanning, read the bottom of the FracLac panel.

---

Saving and Loading Settings Files

save settings - Save a File of the Current Settings

Select the checkbox to save settings on the FILES panel in order to save a settings.fl file. These files can be reloaded to reuse or transfer scan settings.

When OK is clicked (i.e., cancel is not clicked), a pop-up will appear asking where to store the settings file. The file will contain all of the current settings in the dialog, and will automatically be saved in the directory chosen using a name based on the current date and time. After it is saved, a reminder pop-up lists the directory the file was saved to.

---

LOAD - load a previously saved file of settings for scanning

Click the button on the FILES panel that says LOAD to load a previously saved or transferred settings file. When you click, a file chooser will appear; navigate to the directory where the settings file is stored, select the file, and click OK. FracLac is now ready to scan using the loaded settings.

Settings or limits that apply to one scan may not apply to another scan type. These issues will not affect stored settings files but may affect your scan and any settings files subsequently saved. In particular, when loading settings for one scan type to a different scan type, certain features may be disabled and settings may be adjusted after loading in order to accommodate the new scan type. Similarly, a disabled setting may become enabled for a new scan type and will have to be set accordingly.

---

Settings Files

A settings file is a plain text file that lists the options you would normally set on the set up dialog, and the value you want for each option. Use settings files to repeat scans using the same settings over time and space (e.g., share them by email), or to apply settings from one type to a different type of scan.

Format

In the file, each option is listed on one line. On the line for each option, there is a "field name", followed by a tab and a delimiter, then the corresponding value to load in the field. Settings files saved in FracLac are automatically saved with a ".fl" extension, but they are plain text files that can be opened in any basic word processing or spreadsheet application.

Settings files may become corrupted with editing or be affected by changes in the version of FracLac used. If a file does not produce the intended results, it may be that a field name is not the same as what FracLac is looking for. You may be able to restore it by making minor changes in the text. One way to do this is to generate a settings file using the current version of FracLac, and note field names that are missing or different in the two files. Then, type in the changes and save the file in UTF-8 encoding using a simple text editor.

---

Choosing Results Files

---

---

Choose files to generate on screen or save by selecting options from the FILES panel. In addition to the options there, which are described below, select various visuals from the GRAPHICS panel.

---

Print Raw Data

raw data - generate a file of raw data from sampling images

Select this option on the FILES panel to write a file for each grid location showing the pixel mass for each box size for each box placed on an image.

This is the original raw data used to calculate lacunarity and the DBmass (from the masses) and the Dʙ (from the count of boxes at each size).

---

Show Regular Box Counting Data for Multifractal Analysis

box count data - Show the standard data files for box counting when a multifractal analysis is being done

Select this box on the FILES panel to generate files for regular box counting done in conjunction with a multifractal analysis.

Show Data for Each Grid Orientation

grid data - Show info for each grid origin

Select this box on the FILES panel to generate a file showing the processed results for each grid orientation. This is in addition to the main results file showing a single line of data summarized over all origins for each image, and the supplementary results file showing a line for each type of fractal dimension.

For box counting scans but not multifractal scans, if the number of grid orientations is 0, the option is ignored.

1. Upper section with one row of summarized data for each grid orientation
2. Middle part with slopes against ε
3. Lower section with the list of εs from the series of grid calibres used then several columns of data for each grid orientation showing data associated with each ε at that orientation

---

Generate Data File for Mass and Frequency

frequencies - Print Mass vs Frequency Distributions

Select this option on the FILES panel to generate a data file with the binned probability distribution for pixel masses. Note that if the number of bins is less than 1, this option is ignored. A file with the ROI location and size printed on the first line is generated for each sample.

This option is for regular box counting data and is disabled for Local Connected Fractal Dimension scans. See bin limits for local connected fractal dimension distributions.

---

Number of Bins

num bins - Number of groups for frequency distributions

This option on the FILES panel is not enabled for local connected fractal dimension scans. To enable it, close this dialog and select a different scan type from the FracLac panel.

Type a number for the number of bins to use for the mass vs. frequency distribution, which is used to calculate the binned probability distribution (BPD) lacunarity; and other BPD values; if this is 0, then no frequency distribution and no BPD data are generated.

---

Bin Options for Local Connected Fractal Dimension Scans

min, max, and inc - Local connected fractal dimension bin options

These options on the FILES panel are available for local connected fractal dimension scans only. To enable them, close this dialog and select that scan type from the FracLac panel. To adjust frequency distribution options for regular box counting, go here.

Use these options to set the starting and ending values and the increment between them for the groups used to make the frequency distribution for local connected fractal dimension scans. Generally the range is from 0 to 3.00. Adjust these values based on preliminary analysis to explore trends in datasets.

Use these options in conjunction with the options to print and graph the local connected fractal dimension data.

---

Options for binned probability distributions for other box counting scans.

---

Print frequency distributions for LCFD scans

print LCFD - print frequency distribution data

This option on the FILES panel is available for local connected fractal dimension scans only. To enable it, close the dialog and select that scan type from the FracLac panel.

Select this option to print the data for the frequency distribution. To graph the data in a histogram, select distributions from the GRAPHICS panel.

To adjust the bins for the frequency distribution, use the min, max, and increment options on the FILES panel.

---

The frequency distribution for a local connected fractal dimension scan holds information about the values found for each pixel, based on a connected set around it. The image below illustrates a connected set within a given radius of a given pixel.

---