Acquisition
Scandium pushes the envelope with its clearly structured and ergonomical window alignment, configuration and display features for images and data - and it is very user intuitive. A mere click of a button and the images generated by the SEM are transferred - along with all current microscope data - to the image gallery to the computer with correct calibrations, a basic requirement for more advanced work with the images. Successive images are automatically written to the next available image buffer. Images may also be automatically transferred to an integrated database. In addition, all image and microscope data are automatically transferred with the image. Another option is taking images and microscope data to automatically create an impressive report.  Template selection is the user‘s choice.

Data Processing
Scandium offers many options for post-acquisition image enhancement. The standard image processing filters for monochrome and color images are integrated with Scandium as predefined or user-definable functions. In addition, Scandium offers many specially developed tools and filters which open up completely new image and data processing opportunities. For instance, the software offers special noise-suppression filters such as sigma and rank filters along with the DCE filter for improving local contrast enhancement. Using height and texture information, the 3-D surface functions available within Scandium calculate, visualize and animate realistic-looking three-dimensional views. Animated sequences may also be saved as AVI files.

SliceViewer
Scandium includes a tools visualizing and animating three-dimensional data. The SliceViewer provides 3-D visualization of image stacks. Users can move about interactively within the 3-D visualization and then have the entire process animated from the desired perspective. The single view offers display of both the XYZ slice as well the individual component slices. Any view generated can also be directly copied into an image buffer. The SliceViewer‘s multiple view shows all four views within a single document. The XYZ view may also be animated. The respective projections are updated corresponding to the data selected in the XYZ slice. This view may also be simply copied into an image buffer.

Spectra
Scandium provides the Graph window for displaying, processing, and evaluating one-dimensional data like EDS spectra. Numerous filters are available for preparing this data. The actual graphs can be labelled and displayed with a variety of views. Evaluation functions offer users more advanced data processing. Graph supports a variety of spectrum file formats and can display multiple spectra in a single window.

Image measurements
The measurement user interface consists of the „Measurements“ tab where all settings are made - such as selecting measurement parameters, switching on online statistics and deleting measurements. All measurements conducted are shown in a clearly structured tree control.  Measurement lines, measurement objects and measurement values appear in color in the image. There is a direct connection between measurement results and the image – and the measurements on multiple images can be combined in one result. The user-defined online statistics provide immediate information on the respective precision and dispersion of the measurement results. Measurement results and statistics can be shown in sheets and can be displayed as a diagram or via a graph for more extended processing routines. Measurement results and graphics can be automatically saved in the database archive or inserted into reports.  And of course, sheets can be exported into MS Excel with just a click of the mouse.

Archiving
The database integrated with Scandium offers management of images and spectra, sheets, diagrams, reports and other files. Some of the attractive features this database has to offer include its tremendous flexibility ease of use and quick access to data.
When setting up a new database, there‘s a helpful database assistant to guide users step by step. The entire database structure can be defined with minimum database knowledge.  For much of the relevant data - such as image information and dates - there are predefined database fields that users can add their own fields to. The database assistant offers various templates to use as the basis for individual solutions (eg, for managing client orders or entire projects).
This database was developed with network use in mind. Data can be saved on a central database server giving all users simultaneous access to all network data. The speed with which data can be accessed can be optimized using thumbnail-storage concepts. This ensures fast and efficient use of database content without using too much network capacity.

Reporting
The integrated report generator makes report creation easy, fast and convenient.  Users have the multifaceted range of functions offered by a layout program combined with the efficiency of word-processing software - all at their fingertips.
The report generator in Scandium is template-based and offers a broad range of options for convenient and fast creation and management of reports and images. One decisive advantage is the time users save making reports - in particular, because of document automation. The integrated report generator has all the features usually available in separate software programs for creating layouts and processing text. Multi-page reports with different types of pages can be interactively or automatically created and filled with the relevant images and related data. Data can be dragged from the Image Manager or database or be taken directly from an acquisition.

Expandable
The base version of Scandium is easily expandable via solution-oriented software extensions, referred to as Solutions for this very reason. Solutions expand the range of available functions and are finely tuned for specific tasks in the field of scanning electron microscopy.

Desktop Licences
For every Scandium first license, additional desktop licenses can be purchased which are identical to the first license, aside from the image acquisition capability. The advantage for the user is being able to work in exactly the same way as if at the microscope. The key difference being, the user is not at the microscope taking up costly time. And any data the user requires can be accessed via the integrated network database.