Interactive tools

ERLab’s interactive applications cover the complete workflow from exploratory slicing to managing large batches of ImageTool windows and specialized tools. These applications are designed to be used alongside Jupyter notebooks, allowing you to combine interactive exploration with reproducible analysis.

If you are moving back and forth between notebook code and the GUI, start with GUI and Python Side by Side. It maps the most common interactive workflows to the corresponding public Python APIs and explains how to round-trip between them.

• ImageTool is the primary GUI for inspecting multidimensional xarray.DataArray objects. It includes navigation with multiple cursors, colormap controls, destructive and non-destructive edits, and quick access to analysis and plotting tools.

• ImageTool manager sits on top of ImageTool and provides long-running project management: loader integration, cursor linking, notebook synchronization, and savable workspaces. It can also manage other interactive tools, keeping them organized and accessible.

• Specialized helpers such as ktool (momentum conversion), dtool (derivative plotting), and the data explorer integrate with both ImageTool and the manager for specific analysis tasks. These are described in Other interactive tools. Each tool can be launched directly or from the relevant ImageTool menu or context menu, and the manager can keep them alongside ImageTool windows when you need a shared workspace.

Tip

A recommended workflow is to perform data loading and analysis within a Jupyter notebook, while using the ImageTool manager to handle interactive visualization.

This approach lets you take advantage of ImageTool’s interactive features while maintaining a reproducible analysis process in your notebook. For details on integrating ImageTool manager with Jupyter notebooks, see Notebook integration.

Table of Contents

• ImageTool
  • Key capabilities
  • Launching ImageTool
  • Round-trip
  • Interface tour
  • Working with dimensions and coordinates
  • Slicing, binning, and linking
  • Cursor control and context menus
  • Color and normalization
  • Editing and filtering data
  • Regions of Interest (ROIs)
  • Python equivalent
  • Exporting and settings
  • Keyboard shortcuts
• ImageTool Manager
  • Why use the manager?
  • Round-trip
  • Starting the manager
  • Opening and replacing ImageTool windows
  • Navigating and organizing tools
  • Workspaces
  • Data Explorer and Console
  • Notebook integration
  • Automation APIs
  • Installing as a standalone application
• Other interactive tools
  • ktool
  • dtool
  • goldtool
  • ftool
  • restool
  • meshtool
  • Data explorer
  • BZPlotter
  • Notebook shortcuts
• Configuration