Dave Mitchell's DigitalMicrograph™ Scripting Website

• Example scripts are short bits of code which don't do anything particularly useful, except to demonstrate how to do particular things like create dialogs, or use specific commands. Over the years if I have found a scripting problem rather difficult, I have developed a bare bones bit of code to address the problem, documented it (that's the important bit), and then saved it as an example. I have found these examples to be very useful when six months down the track I find myself struggling to remember how to do things I have already worked out. It's my brain's fault. It is now officially full. I would recommend this practice to all up and coming scripters (writing and documenting example code that is, not filling your brain).

• Note: Example scripts as well as some other short script files show listings of source code. To use this code, download it by clicking on the Download button. Do not copy and paste it from your web browser into a script window. It may not work correctly, as carriage returns have been added in places to improve the formatting.

Calibration

• Access Image Calibration Information: An example script which shows how to access the calibration information in a lineplot/image/data cube.

Component (ROIs, text annotations etc).

• Adding/Removing Text Annotations to/from an Image: Shows how to add text annotations to an image, specifying the font, colour and display mode. The annotations are then removed.
• Adding Annotations to an Image in an ImageDocument: Shows how to add annotations (lines, arrows and text) to three images in the same ImageDocument.
• Add a Listener to an ROI in a Spectrum: Shows how to add a Listener to an ROI in a spectrum. When the ROI is changed, its updated position is output to the Results window.
• Controlling Annotations with Component Commands: Simple example showing how to add text, oval and arrow annotations to images as components, and then set the appearance of the component using various commands.
• Deselect All Selected Components: An example script which shows how to use the Component commands to deselect all selected components such as text annotations, ROIs etc, which are currently selected.
• Find Coordinates of an ROI: Example script which shows how to source the coordinates of a rectangle or line ROI.

Dialog

• Bevel Buttons Dialog: An example script to show how to use Bevel Buttons in a dialog. These change appearance when pressed. Enabling/disabling buttons and use of hard coded graphic elements is also shown.
• Button Enabling Dialog: Shows how to create a simple dialog with buttons, which can be enabled and disabled in response to inputs into the dialog.
• Creating a Dialog Using Constructors and Destructors: Demonstrates how to create a simple dialog using constructors and destructors. This approach helps reduce the problem of memory leaks, caused by dialogs not destructing properly and leaving variables in scope (in memory).
• Create an Interactive Sub-Dialog: Shows how to create a sub-dialog from within a dialog with interactive buttons and fields.
• Create a Periodic Table Dialog: Creates a periodic table with elements as buttons which report chemical information.
• Creating a Subdialog Within a Dialog: Shows how to create a subdialog within a dialog.
• Image Selection Dialog: Shows how to create an image selection pulldown menu in a dialog, displaying all the currently open images.
• Panel Functions in Dialogs: Demonstrates the use of panel functions in dialogs.
• Periodic Table Dialog: Shows how to use pulldown menus containg elemental data, buttons and fields to create a display of elemental atomic numbers and weights.
• Progress Bar in Dialog: An example script which shows how to implement a progress bar in a dialog. This is useful where script processes may take a long time. The use of ValidateView() to force updates of the dialog is also demonstrated.
• Running a Thread within a Dialog:Shows how to run a dialog class method as a thread. This makes controlling the thread and access by the thread to the dialog values and elements straightforward.
• Set and Reset Pulldown Menu: An example dialog script which shows how to create a dialog where a user can make a selection from a pulldown menu, and then reset that menu by pressing a Reset button.
• Single Button Dialog: An example script which shows the basic elements which go to make up a dialog. In this case the dialog has a single button which tells you when it has been pressed.
• Thread and Dialog Interaction: Shows how to get a dialog to start and stop a thread, and how to have that thread communicate with the dialog - to source information, such as values in fields and to reset buttons, LEDs etc.
• Using an Event Listener from Within a Dialog: An example script to show how to use an event listener from within a dialog.

Display

• Create a Chequerboard Image: Example script which creates a chequerboard image of black and white squares.
• Display the Colour Selection Tool: Shows how to call up the colour selection tool and apply the colour to an image.
• Export an ImageDisplay as an RGB image: Exports an image display as an RGB image.
• Extract RGB Channels: An example script which shows how to extract the reg, green and blue images from an RGB image.
• Calculate Histogram: A short script which shows how to calculate a histogram from the frontmost image using the ImageCalculateHistogram() function.
• Storing Images in a Data Cube: Shows how to store images in a 3D image (data cube).

EELS

• Fit a Background to an EELS Spectrum: Shows how to fit a background to an EELS spectrum.

File Input and Output

• Changing the Default Open-Save Directory: Shows how to change the default directory which DM uses when Open or Save commands are invoked.
• Creating Hard Code from a Text File: Shows how to read in numbers from a text file to create script code which will recreate this data as settings (tags) in the Global Info.
• Open an Image from Disk: Shows how to open an image which has been saved to disk.
• Reading Data from a Text File: Shows how to read in data from a text file.
• Reading Data from a Text File and Creating a Settings File: Shows how to read data in from a text file and save it as a taggroup (settings) file of type .gtg.

GIF/Camera/Microscope

• Beam Blanking with the CameraManager: Example script which shows how to use the CameraManager commands to blank the beam.
• Capture an Image Using the Cameramanager Object: An example script which shows how to acquire an image from a camera using the Cameramanager object.
• DigiScan Beam Control: An example script which shows how to control the beam position using DigiScan.
• Folder Monitor for External DM Control: An example script to show how to use a background thread to monitor a folder for a change - when the change is detected it triggers a response in DM.
• Image Filter Control Commands: An example script which shows how to set the GIF drift tube voltage, and also lists the script commands which can be used to control the Gatan Image Filter.
• Live Image-Spectrum Acquisition: Shows how to acquire a live image and convert it to a spectrum.
• Selecting a Camera from Script: An example script which shows how to select a camera using the ObjectList object returned from the Camera Manager.
• Stop or Start a Camera View Image: An example script which shows how to find a Camera View imageand either stop or start/restart it.

Image Processing

• Accumulating ROIs and Other Components to Create a Mask: A script which shows how to create a filtering mask from conventional FFT masks and other components such as oval annotations, rectangular and freehand drawn regions of interest.
• Adding and Controlling Bandpass Filters: An example script which shows how to add and control bandpass filters using script-. These are normally added via the FFT masking tools in the menu.
• Butterworth Filter: An example script which shows how to create a Butterworth filter - useful for spatial filtering with FFT.
• Convolving and Deconvolving Image Blur: An example script which shows how to convolve a blur vector with an image to create a blurred image and how to deconvolve said blur, to restore the image.
• Deconvolute Gaussian Peak Shape: A short example script which shows how to deconvolute a Gaussian-shaped peak from a signal using FFT methods.
• FFT Manipulation: Demonstrates various FFT processes, such as Butterworth filtering and computing the inverse FFT, phase, power spectrum etc.
• FFT Manipulation II: Shows how to avoid the problem of images splitting into four transposed quadrants following mathematical operations in frequency space.
• FFT Masks: Shows how to work with FFT masks to carry out filtering.
• Image Transformations using Matrices: An example script which shows how to transform (eg stretch, rotate etc) a set of coordinates using matrix manipulation.
• itheta and iradius: An example script which shows how to use these intrinsic image variables.
• Radon Transform: An example script which shows how to calculate the Radon Transform and how to back-project it to reconstruct the original image.
• Set Image Threshold: Image thresholding is demonstrated.
• Smoothed Annular Mask Function: A function which creates an annular mask, the edges of which can be smoothed to a gaussian shape. This can be useful for FFT filtering.
• Warp and Unwarp Images: Demonstrates the use of the warp function to unfold an image about its centre, and how to reverse the process.

LinePlotImageDisplay

• Lineplot Cursor Position and Show: Demonstrates how to position the cursor (vertical black line) in a lineplot. Lineplots include EELS spectra, intensity plots etc.
• LinePlotImageDisplay Manipulation: An example script which shows how to manipulate lineplots. This script includes adding/deleting, hiding, selecting, scaling, offsetting, renaming, labelling, adding an ROI and cursor.

Scripting

• Adding a key listener to an image: Shows how to add a listener to an image which will react to key strokes.
• Addding an event listener to an image: Shows how to add an event listener to an image. This will listen for an event such as the image updating.
• Capture Mouse Click Position: An example script based on Gatan's demonstration code which shows how to capture the position of mouse clicks.
• Declaring Function Prototypes: Demonstrates how to declare function prototypes.
• Matrix Processing: Shows how to demonstrate matrix multiplication, inversion and determinant calculation.
• Triggering an Image Event Listener with a Background Thread: Shows how to add an event listener to an image. This image is subsequently updated by a background thread - which repeatedly triggers the event listener.
• Using the Unique Image ID Script Object: An example script which shows how to use the UID script object.
• Using Two Listeners to do Live Processing:Shows how to use an event listener to monitor updates in a live image (used to to create a live FFT). A key listener is then used to monitor the live FFT image to detect when it has been closed.

TagGroup

• Reading the Contents of a Directory into a Taggroup: Shows how to read the contents of a directory into a taggroup and subsequently use that taggroup to access files in the folder.
• Source tag information and save as a text : Shows how to source information from the taggroup of an image and save it as a text file.
• Taggroup Creation-Saving-Adding to Global Info: Shows how to add bits of information to a taggroup. This taggroup can be added directly to the the Global Info, or saved as a settings file.
• Traversing Persistent Tag Group: Shows how to navigate through the persistent tag group to locate the tag group names, where the taggroup name is known.
• Using a TagList: An example script which shows how to use the taglist structure to store lists of information.