In ZEN you can import SmartFIB stacks of Crossbeam microscopes. The orientation of these stacks differs from standard z-stack acquisition, as the acquired images are tilted by a certain angle compared to a z-stack acquired on a light microscope. The import function calculates this tilt from the metadata of the image. If the import finds no metadata concerning the tilt angle and the user does not enter a value for the sample angle, it uses a default angle of 54 degrees (default angle between FIB and SEM column at the Crossbeam) and the image is rendered with a 90 degree tilt when displayed in a ZEN connect project. Alternatively, you can enter the angle of your sample during import, e.g. as set during acquisition of the stack with SmartFIB, and the import then calculates the tilt angle based on this sample angle.
During import, the XY offset metadata of the individual slices is ignored by default and only the offset of the first tiff file is considered. This default avoids the creation of a slanted z-stack, however in certain cases, such as on-grid-thinning configuration, the XY offset of the individual slices needs to be taken into account.

1. On the Processing tab, select the image processing function Import SmartFIB TIFFs.
2. The function settings are displayed in the Parameters tool.
2. Click on Select Files.
3. A file browser opens.
3. Select the images you want to import as FIB stack.
   Note: Select only images with consistent metadata with respect to number of pixels, image size, and spacing of the images (i.e. use the Sort SmartFIB tiffs function before importing the data).
   Note: To make sure the stack is composed/ ordered correctly, watch out how the images are sorted in the explorer and in which order you choose them.
4. Enter a File name for the FIB stack.
5. If you import images without scaling information, deactivate the Auto checkbox for XY-Scaling and manually enter the information.
   Note: ZEN currently cannot determine automatically if scaling information is present.
6. You can set the slice distance manually if you deactivate the Auto checkbox for Z-Spacing. This step is optional and should only be done if you have reason to believe the information calculated with the metadata is incorrect. Leave the Auto checkbox activated and the slice distance is automatically calculated with information saved in the metadata of the images.
   Note: When you set the slice distance manually, the information in the metadata is ignored.
7. If you know the angle of your sample, deactivate the Auto checkbox for Sample Angle and enter it. Otherwise the tilt for the image is calculated using the metadata, or the sample angle is set to the default of 54 degrees (default angle between FIB and SEM column at the Crossbeam) and the image is rendered with a 90 degree tilt (if no information is available in the metadata).
8. If you want to consider the xy offset metadata of the individual slices for the import, activate the checkbox Read XY Offsets. Note that this can lead to a slanted z-stack depending on the sample and the metadata, assuming tilt correction was used during acquisition with SmartFIB (e.g. if the metadata contain incorrect offset information).
9. Click on Apply.

1. The FIB stack is now imported into ZEN and a czi-file is created.
   Note: When importing larger image files, it may take a while until the entire stack is visible in the viewer.