Batch operations
This page describes the batch editing options available from the GUI. The positions and links editor, described on the manual tracking page, is mainly intended to make one change at a time. However, there are a few options for large-scale data editing.
All the instructions below assume that you are in the manual data editing screen (Edit -> Manually change data...).
Deleting all positions within a rectangle
Select Edit -> Batch deletion -> Delete all positions within a rectangle. Click somewhere to define one corner, then click somewhere else to define the other corner. A rectangle will be drawn. Then use Edit -> Batch deletion -> Delete all positions inside the rectangle to delete those positions. Note that only positions at the layer where the rectangle is will be deleted.
The “rectangle” can span multiple z-layers, making it a three-dimensional volume. The rectangle can even span multiple time points, which allows for large-scale deletion of points. For example, you can drawn a rectangle from x=50, y=40, z=4, t=2 all the way to x=400, y=300, z=20, t=200.
In the Edit menu, you can also choose to delete all positions outside the rectangle, instead of inside. This essentially keeps on the positions inside the rectanble. Note that this operation only deletes positions in the time points where you have drawn the rectangle; other time points are unaffected.
Deleting all positions of a time point
One way would be to drawn a rectangle over all points (see above). However, there’s an easier option: simply select Edit -> Batch deletion -> Delete all data of time point. Note that this also deletes other annotations, such as splines.
Deleting all positions of multiple time points
The best way to do this is to draw a single volume that goes over all time points and z layers. Select one corner of the image at the first time point, and the opposite corner at the last time point.
Deleting some positions over multple time points
If there are already links established between time points, you can use Edit -> Delete entire lineage. This only works for one lineage at a time.
If your data set is without any warnings, there is one trick to delete multiple lineages at once. At one (arbitrary) time point, delete the positions of all lineages that you want to remove. This will cause warnings to appear at other time points, as you have just removed one time point from a lineage tree. You can then use Edit -> Batch deletion -> Delete all tracks with errors to get rid of those lineages.
If your data set doesn’t have links between time points established, then the rectangle deletion tool (Edit -> Batch deletion -> Delete all positions inside the rectangle) is your only option. This tool can work accross multiple time points at once.