Date: Mon, 11 Oct 93 11:20:56 HST
Subject: Probe Stuff
From: "Tom Hulsebosch"

Dear John,
I'm strongly supportive of an SX-50 N.A. users group. I agree that
this could benefit us all greatly. For example, I'm about to build an
automated microscope stage for off-line storage of X-Y-Z positions and I'm
sure others have already done this (Do you know of any?). I'm not sure how to
formalize a users group but if there is any way I can be of help let me know.
I think the first step is to distribute e-mail addresses to all SX-50 labs.
Regarding your specific question about getting X-Y-Z positions from a
scan, I have done a similar job by running a stage scan and using VisiView to
select points for analysis. In Visiview there is a menu area called
Microanalysis. Within Microanalysis there is an option to create an xyzpos.dat
file. This method is not automatic - you must select the points from the image
- and it requires that the sample is still in the machine. Also, I enabled
autofocus for all points since I was working from an image. In my case
it was necessary to check the X-Y-Z points to be sure that they were actually
mineral grains (this was due to the nature of the grain mount). To check
points I displayed the xyzpos.dat file in a console window and manually moved
to each coordinate set using the SX-local amove command. If you can live with
a few bad points, this step may not be necessary (unless you do not have
autofocus and must adjust Z for all points).
I hope this info is of use. Good luck!

Tom H.