arivis Pro is a Windows OS application for image analysis. It has been designed to make optimal use of computer resources to enable the processing and analysis of data sets that can be much larger than the available computer memory. Several optimizations are dependent on the installation and configuration of the software.
Installation and configuration
Installing arivis Pro
- Download the installer for the latest version of arivis Pro, see https://downloads.zeiss.com/arivis/Pro/latest
- To start the installation double click on the installer package.
- We recommend to install to the default applications folder.
- We recommend installing the GPU acceleration for systems that support it.
- Activate your license if needed, see Activating the license.
- Once installed, check the directories for temporary documents and change them if needed.
- Configure the GPU for optimum use of system resources as needed.
Activating the license
For all new installations you need to activate your license but not for updates to existing installations.
For detailed descriptions of the process of activating, updating or transferring licenses is covered, see this article.
- Start the application and, when prompted, open the arivis License Tool.
- Select the Online Activation option.
- Enter the activation key and activate the license.
Configuring the application after installation
- Under Extras > Preferences... check and modify preferences to best suit your needs and system configuration.
- We recommend to check and configure GPU preferences, see GPU configuration.
Directories for new and temporary documents
As covered in detail in our system requirements and this article on How does arivis handle large datasets, arivis makes extensive use of temporary storage on the hard disk as a more reliable means of storing large datasets while processing.
There are two locations for configuring default applications directories. The first is the General preferences:
Here we can find both the location for new documents, and for temporary files.
By default these locations are set to the user's Documents folder and temp folders respectively. This default is chosen by default because all MS Windows systems have these default locations. However, these locations may not be ideal for the storage and retrieval of large files created by the software. By clicking the Select... button at the end of each path the user can navigate to a new preferred save location.
Arivis recommends that users configure a dedicated internal hard drive to contain the temporary documents, or at least create a dedicated folder on a local hard drive with plenty of free space.
Of course, "plenty of free space" is a relative term. Users should ensure that there is at least 5x as much free hard disk space as the dataset they are trying to process. It is possible to reduce the amount of disk storage needed by using compression for the temporary documents, but using compression will lead to longer processing times as the software then needs to compress and decompress the data for each operation that requires access to it. Using compression for analysis documents is set in the Analysis preferences.
The Analysis preferences also contain a temporary document directory:
By default the analysis pipeline will save temporary documents to the default directory as set above in the General preferences. Again this can be set to a specific drive or folder. In our example above we are saving pipeline temporary documents to the D:\ drive.
Immediately below the directory for the analysis documents we can also find an option to use compression for those images. It is a lossless compression, meaning that no information is lost or modified through this process, but it allows users to process very large datasets that would otherwise be too large to be saved on the local hard drive. Note that using compression, while not causing any loss in data can result in significantly longer processing times as the software has to compress and decompress the files each time it writes or reads them.
GPU configuration
Graphics acceleration
As part of the installation process the software will also detect any GPU present and enable the use of the GPU for graphics acceleration and machine learning data processing if compatible.
The first time we start the 4D Viewer the software will automatically optimize the render settings based on the GPU capabilities:
These settings are optimized so as to balance render quality with interactivity. However, users may prefer to prioritise faster navigation or higher render quality based on their own preferences. These settings can be found in the 4D Viewer pane of the preferences window.
The settings can be reconfigured back to the recommended arivis defaults for your GPU by using the Run Auto-Detection button. Note that laptop systems may not default to using the dedicated GPU. If arivis is installed on a laptop system you should check this article about configuring arivis for laptop GPUs.
ML & DL acceleration
Additionally to using the GPU for graphics acceleration, arivis can also use compatible GPUs to accelerate Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) workflows. To use GPU acceleration for ML & DL tasks arivis Pro needs:
- NVIDIA GPUs
- Up to date drivers
- At least 8 GB of video memory (VRAM)
If these conditions are met and the GPU acceleration was installed as part of the installation the software should automatically use the GPU for ML and DL acceleration. We can check if this is the case within the Machine Learning panel of the Preferences window:
As we can see from the screenshot above, this system uses the GPU for Machine Learning. If the GPU is incompatible the checkbox will be disabled and cannot be checked. If so, first check whether the graphics card should be compatible (NVIDIA chipset and 8GB RAM), then check that the drivers are up to date. Please consult with the system administrator or your IT support team to update the drivers as needed.