You are here: The ROCK MAKER Software (Overview) : The Explorer
 

The Explorer

The Explorer is the file structure for your projects, experiments, and protein formulations. It is also where you can access administrative and imaging settings, and create and view Search and Filter searches.

ROCK MAKER projects and experiments are organized in a tree fashion, much like your files in Windows or OSX. This structure allows you to organize your files so that you have convenient access to your data. It is best to choose some consistent standard within your teams. For example, the hierarchy structure of your projects could be like this:

<PI> \ <Staff> \ <Protein> (usually a project) \ <name>

Note: The name is commonly something that describes what you are doing. For example, "HEWL JCSG+".

To make it easier for you to find the opened experiment from your projects or experiment list, you can now click the Find Opened Experiment button . Clicking this button will automatically display the currently opened experiment in the Explorer tab.

Explorer

Using the Explorer

Right-clicking a node and selecting Show Info will briefly display some information about the item, as demonstrated in the screen shot below. You can also click the Show Info button in the Home tab to display the tooltips.

Example Tooltip

Tooltips are available for Screens, Protein Formulations, Experiments, Experiment Plates, and Projects.

 

The Explorer includes a "locate me" button to help you locate the active experiment, which is useful if you have clicked around within the Explorer and wish to return to where the active experiment is.

Locate Me Button

 

Depending on the status of the items you select, you can hold down Shift or Ctrl on your keyboard and click the mouse on several different folders, projects, plates, or experiments in order to run a command on multiple items at the same time. Options include delete, print barcode, move to dispense queue, mark as dispensed, mark as not seen, and change the imaging schedule.

 

Setup Node

The Setup node is what you use to configure ROCK MAKER for operation. This is where you define and manage plates, ingredients, well score, imager quotas, experiment temperature settings, and other settings. For more information, see Administration.

 

Setup Node

Screens Node

The Screens node contains several folders, organized by vendor, where you will find commonly used commercial screens. FORMULATRIX always strives to keep these screens up-to-date and occasionally you might need to update the screen files in ROCK MAKER. You can both update and import new screen conditions from the ROCK MAKER XML screen file repository. You can also create your own screens.

Note: ROCK MAKER supports only its own file format called RMXML. If you wish to import a screen file from another company, it must be in RMXML format.

Screens Node

If a commercial screen isn't in your database, please check the online vendor screens database list by going to the main ROCK MAKER menu at the top-left of the software window and selecting Vendor Screens. This is where you can also check if there are any updates on the existing screen files in your ROCK MAKER. If that's the case, you can download the updated version and import it to ROCK MAKER.

Vendor Screens Link

Projects Node

The Projects section is where you create and organize experiments and protein formulations.

You can organize your work into folders and projects. A project, which is a blue folder, has special permissions that a regular folder does not. A project is a parent folder for an experiment, protein formulation, screen, or search and filter. A regular folder is just an organizational tool.

Folder vs. Project

Folders, screens, experiments and plates all have various icons that will change based on the status of the item. For example, if an experiment contains a drop that has been scored as a hit, and you have configured which scores are a hit in the scores section of General setup, then a crystal icon will appear on top of the folder, experiment, plate, or project icon.

If an experiment or plate has new images, then the text will appear in bold, to indicate that you have new images to review.

Imaging Node

The Imaging section is where you manage the imaging schedules, imaging settings, and image stores of your experiment plates. You can also create and save regular image management tasks to help you get the most out of your image storage space. For more information, see Image Management.

Imaging Node)

Searches Node

The Searches node displays all saved searches that you have created, as well as some sample searches. For more information, see Search and Filter.

Synchrotron Trips Node

The Synchrotron Trips section is where you manage your crystals. Here you can create a Synchrotron Trip or view existing Synchrotron Trip data.

Synchrotron Trips Node

 

Right-click Menu Options

When you right-click on any nodes in the Explorer, the following options will appear:

 

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