Every layer has the same six categories: Pre-Processing, Detection, Post Processing, Manual Correction, Measurements Masks, and Measurements. Analysis inside a layer runs through them in that order, and engines inside a category run in order of their dependencies. An engine can use images from its own category or an earlier one.
Core Concept
The StrataQuest Workspace
How a layer’s six categories become a complete analysis
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Definition
A StrataQuest analysis is defined by one or more layersLoading..., built in the Layers Editor. Each layer is a tree of engines in six categories that run in a fixed order, from Pre-Processing to Measurements. An engineLoading... is the basic building block: it takes images in and produces outputs. One engine, the Basic Operations ModuleLoading..., has its own Operations Editor, where simple operations are combined into a more complex one.
Six categories, one order
From Pre-Processing to Measurements
A shared grammar
Why it is teachable
Engines are the building blocks
Images in, outputs out
The Operations Editor
Inside the Basic Operations Module
Layers stay separate
Import to share
The Six Categories, In Order
Simplified
A layer’s steps come in six groups that always run in the same order, from preparing the image to measuring what was found.
What the Fixed Structure Provides
Six categories in a fixed order can sound like a constraint. In practice they work the way grammar works in a language: as a shared structure that lets a set of engines express a wide range of analyses.
Because every layer is built the same way, you can read an analysis you did not build, place each new engine you learn into a structure you already know, and teach the whole system from one pattern. The structure is what lets an analysis grow from one layer to many and stay clear. See LayersLoading... for the full picture.
Simplified
The fixed structure makes every analysis readable and every new engine easy to place.
The Operations Editor
The Basic Operations ModuleLoading... is an engine for combining basic operations from a list into more complex processing. It is added under a layer’s Pre-Processing. Its Operations Editor has four columns: WBS, Name, Type and Value. WBS stands for work breakdown structure, and the column shows how the module decomposes into its operations.
Simplified
One engine, the Basic Operations Module, is a toolbox: inside it you string simple operations together into a bigger one.
The WBS Column in the Layers Editor
The Layers Editor can also show a WBS column. It numbers the levels in the layer’s tree automatically, which helps you find items faster.
Simplified
Turn on WBS to number every item in a layer, so you can point to any item quickly.