3D Positioning and Rotation

By use of the Position & Rotation it is possible to control the position, scaling and rotation angles of the surface.

The position and rotation of the surface can also be controlled interactively by the mouse and arrow keys as described in the Navigation Controls section.

Axes and Scaling

The X-Y-Z axes can be displayed with a large set of optional parameters such as font, axes tick marks and scaling. Below is the most important, and may be not so obvious, parameters described.

Origin (0,0)

This option allows you to define the lower left corner of the image as the origin of the coordinate system independent of the offset property of the image.

Scale Mode

There are three scaling modes defining how the z-values are scaled:

• Auto: SPIP sets the x,y scale factors to 1.0 and determines a proper z scale factor that will assure visible corrugation in z without having images points exceeding the window boundaries (depending on the rotation angles).
• User Defined: The user defines scaling factors for all axes.
• User Defined >Auto: The user defines scaling factors for all axes but the when loading a new image the scaling mode is reverted to the Auto mode. When Auto mode is selected and the scaling is modified by use of the mouse/keyboard the mode will switch to User Defined->Auto.

Scale Factors

The XYZ Scale factors determine the geometric shape of the surface.

The most important is the Z-scale factor, which scales the height values of the image and can be controlled by Mouse Y-movement when in the Scale navigation control mode or in any mode by combining the z key with mouse movements.

3D Comparison at same scale

For surface structures with large corrugations it can be an advantage to show the image in the 1:1 Aspect ratio as this gives the best geometrical feeling. This is especially true for images used for tip characterization.

For direct comparison of images it might be useful to define fixed min and max values for the Z axis.

Axes

The settings for the three axes are very alike; the only difference is that the Z Axis has an extra Placement parameter.

Decimals

Determines the number of decimals used for the tick values on the axes.

Placement (for z-axis only):

This parameter determines if the z-axis shall be visible and if so in which image corner it should be shown.

Value Mode

The following four value modes are selectable:

• Auto: SPIP Determines the unit and optimal range.
• Auto Range: The user defines the unit and SPIP selects the optimal range.
• Fit to Ticks: SPIP Determines the unit and a range that fit to the tick marks
• User Defined: The user defines both unit and range