Ranges

Ranges

Overview

Ranges are special areas possessing self-incrementing features, specifically designed to simplify the process of area creation and tagging for repeating sequences of samples.
A Range can be viewed as a collection of Samples, or items. Instead of defining and tagging each item of the collection one-by-one, a single range can be defined to automate this process. Each range item will have a unique number, or index, which will be displayed in the corresponding well in PlateEditor.
This is particularly useful for primary and secondary screening layouts, or when the experiment involve a collection of mutants, clones, colonies, etc...
Ranges possess additional properties as compared to Samples, to allow fine-tuning of the automatic numbering for the items of the collection.

Replicates
This option defines how many wells will be occupied by each range item. The remaining options are used to define in which way the wells and items should stack.

Direction
This parameter can be set as either Horizontal or Vertical. In Horizontal mode, the replicates are stacked one after the other in the same row. In vertical mode, the stacking is done in column.

Priority
This parameter can be set as either Row or Col and indicate how the items will stack. In Row mode, items are added in such a way that they occupy the lowest row indices available first. In Col mode, the items are added so that the column with the lowest indices are filled first.

A total of 4 different numbering configurations can be set using the Direction and Priority settings available. Below is an example of what can be obtained for each configuration, assuming a range defined with 3 replicates tagged in a bloc of 6×6 wells:

Custom
Ticking this option will inactivate previous options and allow custom numbering of the ranges. The desired number can be entered in a prompt that will display each time the range is tagged in a group of well.
All the wells tagged will be assigned this number. Note that switching to Custom mode will not overwrite the previous numbering, and the custom numbering will be set at the highest available index per default.
Exiting the custom mode however will overwrite all previous numbering, and apply the automatic numbering to all the wells currently tagged with this range!
A warning message will be displayed to remind the user about this feature.

Definitions

Ranges can be attached to [Definitions], files containing a list of items that are used for the resolution of the name for each range index.
The idea behind is to facilitate the creation of plate layouts in which only the name of the items change. Instead of creating a new layout for each plate, the same layout can be reused, changing only the definition files attached to the ranges.
Again, this is particularly helpful for screening experiments, or whenever collections of plates sharing identical layouts need to be defined.
Definitions can be managed by clicking the Definitions button available in the Areas group of the [Menu Panel]. See the [Definitions] page of this Wiki for more information.

Plate View
After a definition has been attached to a range, the name for a given range item will be resolved automatically when the well information popup appears (when the mouse cursor is left immobile on a well for half a second).
The names resolved for each well can also be visualized using the Plates control located in the Views section of the Layout Panel (1).

This Form summarizes all the Ranges currently available for the layout (2) and allow to navigate between the plates available in the definition file (3).
Selecting a row will update the resolution for the selected Range.
If the definition file is mapped using the well name, definitions found for wells outside the Range will be indicated in red. Missing elements will be indicated with the Ø symbol.