Select this focus strategy to automate the focusing of your specimen before and during acquisition with the help of the Software Autofocus. This is particularly useful for Time Series or Tiles experiments.

1. To use the Software Autofocus focus strategy, you will need the module.
   For LSM systems, the Software Autofocus module is part of the system license.
2. You have completed the general preparations for using focus strategies (experiment created, at least one channel defined, acquisition dimensions activated).
3. You are on the Acquisition tab in the Focus Strategy tool.

1. Select the Software Autofocus entry from the drop-down list. Note that the Z values defined by Tiles Setup are ignored.
   
2. In the Reference Channel section, select the channel that you want to use for the focus action from the list. Expand the section if you do not see it in full. Note that the reference channel does not necessarily have to be an acquisition channel. Not all acquisition modes can be used as reference. For LSM 990 LSM Lambda tracks and Online Fingerprinting cannot be selected as reference channels. Also, Airyscan SR and MPLX tracks might fail when using such tracks as reference for reflex autofocus function.
3. Click on the Set as Reference Channel button.
4. In the Time Series Loop and/or Tiles Loop sections of the Focus Strategy tool you can define when focus actions should be performed during the course of the experiment.
5. Open the Software Autofocus tool.
6. Adjust the autofocus settings (e.g. Quality, Sampling, etc.) to your experiment conditions or use the default settings first.
7. Set up your tile and/or time series experiment.
8. To start the experiment, click on the Start Experiment button.

1. You have successfully used the Software Autofocus to bring images into focus automatically during the experiment.