# Improve the readability of the tracks before editing

Aim

To locate and edit the tracks more easily.

What do you want to do?

▪Zoom in and out the track plots

▪Visualize part of the track

▪Visualize one sample every n-th

▪Hide the tracks you do not need

▪Hide unnecessary track features

▪Adjust the line thickness and dot size

▪Customize the missing sample points

▪Customize the background

Zoom in and out the track plots

Click the Zoom in button (Ctrl+.) or the Zoom out button (Ctrl+.) on the toolbar, respectively.

If the data points are out of view after zooming in, use the scrollbars to find them.

Visualize part of the track

In the Track Plot Settings pane, click the Show/Hide tab, and under Filter select Last and enter the time interval. This way, only the last few seconds are visualized before the current sample.

The current sample is highlighted in blue in the Samples List.

Visualize one sample every n-th

This option is handy when you edit tracks with high sample rates or of slow-moving animals.

To show one sample every n-th, click the Show/Hide tab, and under Filter select Every and enter n in the corresponding field.

▪If you select 0, only the current sample point is shown.

▪If you select 1, this is the same as not selecting the Last option (all samples are displayed).

Hide the tracks you do not need

When two or more subjects move in the same arena, the tracks become a dense population of points. If you edit the track of subject A, you can hide the tracks of the other subject B which you do not edit at that time.

To hide tracks of subjects, in the Track Plot Settings pane click the Show/Hide tab. Under Subjects, clear the box corresponding to those subjects.

Hide unnecessary track features

To hide unnecessary features like body points and connectors, in the Track Plot Settings pane click the Show/Hide tab. Under Features, clear the corresponding box for Sample or Trail.

Notes

▪The nose-point and the tail-base point are not selected by default.

▪What you choose under Features also determines which body points are shown in the Sample List. For example:

Adjust the line thickness and dot size

Sometimes dots are too small and therefore scarcely visible, or too large make the tracks difficult to edit. The tracks may be hardly visible especially when using high resolution video.

In the Track Plot Settings pane click the Show/Hide tab. Under Features, adjust the following:

▪Line thickness. Adjust the thickness of the trails and the segments joining the body points (Connectors).

▪Dot size. Adjust the size of the body points visualized.

Customize the missing sample points

Missing sample points are always visualized in the track plot. You can change the color of missing points to distinguish them more easily from the actual data. The current color for missing points is indicated next to Missing Samples Color at the bottom of the Colors tab in the Track Plot Settings pane. To change the color for missing points, click this button and select the new color in the Color window.

Notes

▪Remember that within a sample, nose-point and tail-base can be missing independently. For example, the nose-point may be missing, while the corresponding tail-base may not. However, if the center-point is missing, then the other two points are too.

▪If the experiment is set to Only center-point detection or Color marker tracking, the term sample coincides with the only point (center).

Customize the background

Background color or image

Click the Show/Hide button on the toolbar and select Background. In the Background window, you can choose between the following:

▪Plain. The background is uniform. Click the button next to it and choose the color you require. Click Other to select among more colors.

▪Captured image. The background image captured in the Arena Settings that was used to acquire the data. This image does not change as you play the tracks back.

▪Video file. The video footage from the video file used to acquire the data. The video file is synchronized with the track as you play it back.

tip Select Video file every time you want to compare the track data with the orientation and behavior of the animal. For example, when you want to verify that the nose point and the tail base point have been detected properly.

Arenas

Click the Show/Hide button on the toolbar and select Arena Features. Select the arena features you want to have displayed superimposed on the background.