Image Set Flags

Almost all Mira Image Windows and command dialogs allow you to work with an Image Set as easily as with a single image. But oftentimes you may want to apply some command or procedure to only one image of the image set. For example you might want to measure statistics on only one of the 10 images displayed in an Image Window. You need a way to select whether an operation is performed on one image or on all images, and you need to be able to determine the current setting. Mira solves these problems by keeping track of 3 internal status Flags: one for processing image sets, another for measuring image sets, and a third one for plotting image sets.

Using Image Set Flags

Image Set Flags are used by Mira in each Image Window and as defaults for new windows. This software design lets you set default behavior for displaying new images and then to change the behavior inside each Image Window. When a new Image Window is opened, it inherits the default setting; at any time afterwards, you can change the behavior of each individual window. As you learn to use Mira you will discover the value of this capability when working with images. Here is how this works:

Global and Local Image Set Flags
Default Flags	Default flags are inherited by each new Image Window. The default settings are changed using the Other Preferences page of the Mira Preferences dialog. Click [Apply] to apply the change locally to the currently active Image Window, or click [Save] to make the change the default for new windows.
Local Flags	Initially, the default flags are also the local flags for the Image Windows. To change the Local flag settings, use the buttons on the Image Toolbar or use a menu command.

Image Set Mode versus Single Image Mode

Mira commands can work with either a single image or the Image Set displayed in an Image Window. Three image set "flags", or switches, control the behavior. The flags can be toggled on or off as the default behavior for new image windows or they can be changed only for subsequent operations on the current window. These are described in the table below.

Image Set Flags
Process Image Set	Controls operations that affect pixel values, such as image arithmetic commands, listing header keywords, and also when adjusting the Transfer Function.
Measure Image Set	Controls operations that make measurements such as Centroid and Statistics.
Graph Image Set	Controls commands that graph or plot data from the image window, such as Column Profile Plot.

The Image Toolbar indicates whether each of the image set flags is set to Image Set mode (multiple image mode) or Single Image mode. For example, the Measure button (circled in red) would appear as follows in the two cases:


Image Set Mode for measuring all images.	Single Image Mode for measuring a single image.

Changing the Image Set Flags

There are two ways to set or change the image set flags for the current Image Window: from a menu command and from buttons. All commands are toggles, which means that clicking (executing) them changes their state to the opposite value, i.e., from on to off, or from off to on.

Menu Commands

The Image window's pull-down menu and the Image Context Menu indicate the state of the image set flags for the currently activated Image Window. From these menu commands, you can change the flags to their opposite state. The current state is indicated in the menu: If a check mark exists next to the command, then the command is set to apply to an image set. To flip the flag to its opposite state, such as from [image set] to [this image], highlight the menu item and close the menu. If the Image Toolbar is visible for the current image window, you will see the affected button change state (see below).

Toolbar Buttons

The buttons shown in the table below change the image set flags from on the Image Toolbar. These changes affect only the future operations on the current Image Window.

Buttons for Local Image Set Flags
	Sets the local Process Image Set flag for the window.
	Sets the local Measure Image Set flag for the window.
	Sets the local Graph Image Set flag for the window.

The buttons indicate their current setting by their pressed state and color.

A blue button indicates that the entire image set is selected. In the window fragment shown here, all 3 buttons are pressed to enable the entire image set to be used.

A dark gray button indicates that only the active (visible) image is selected.

The buttons indicates whether each of the image set flags is set to Image Set mode (multiple image mode) or Single Image mode. For example, the Measure button (circled in red) would appear as follows in the two cases:


Image Set Mode for measuring all images.	Single Image Mode for measuring a single image.

Changing Default Image Set Flags

Open the Preferences dialog from the View menu (Shortcut).
Select the General Preferences page by clicking its tab.
Check or uncheck the Process, Measure, or Graphing options as desired.
To apply the changed preferences locally, only to the current Image Window, click [Apply] or [OK].
To set the preferences as program defaults, click the [Save] button.

Changing Local Image Set Flags

Select the Image Window of interest. Then use one of the following, equivalent methods to change the Flags:

From the Image Toolbar:

At the top of the Image Window is the Image Toolbar. Buttons for these flags are located on the right end of the toolbar.
Click the Process, Measure, or Graph buttons to set the desired state. You can tell the current state by letting the mouse hover over the button until the Tooltip appears. If the button is pressed (blue), image set will be processed, measured or plotted. If the button is out (black), only the active image will be processed, measured, or plotted.

From the Image Context Menu:

Right click on the image to open the Image Context Menu.
At the bottom, select the Image Sets popup menu. If there are 2 or more images in the image set, you will see the local Flags enabled. If checked, the entire image set will be processed, measured, or plotted. If the window contains only 1 image, the local Image Set Flags will be disabled.