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| About WinRHIZO Tron & Tron MF |
WinRHIZO Tron & Tron MF are manual root measurement programs that allow you to analyse images produced by minirhizotron underground video camera systems or other sources that do not offer a good contrasts between roots and their background (for images with good contrasts or automatic analyses, see our WinRHIZO Basic, Reg, Pro & Arabidopsis family of products). The main difference between the two WinRHIZO Tron versions are:
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| Measurements |
WinRHIZO Tron computes morphological measurements for traced roots. These measurements are calculated for each root and root segments. Total values for all roots are also available. These measurements are summarized on screen and detailed data are available in data files. You can choose which information is displayed and how it is presented (content, text size and color). Each analyzed frame has its name written in its upper left corner, over the image. You can also select which morphological information displayed in the command area (as illustrated below). |
| Mesaurements | Basic |
Reg |
Pro |
Description |
| Global (total & average) root morphology | √ |
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Morphological data for the analysed region. Length, Average Diameter, Projected Area, Surface Area, Volume, & Number of tips. |
| Individual root morphology | √ |
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Morphological data for each roots and their segments (links). Length, Average Diameter, Projected Area, Surface Area, Volume, Branching angle & Number of tips. |
| Operator Observations | √ |
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Does not affect the measurements, are there for notation purposes. |
| Root morphology per diameter classes | √ |
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Length, Average Diameter, Projected Area, Surface Area, Volume and Number of tips. | |
| Topology, Magnitude, Path Length, Altitude, External Path Length & Developmental analyses | √ |
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Root segments connectivity in growth order (main, laterals…), topological classification (EE, EI, II…) and more. | |
| Axis morphology (length, surface area, projected area & volume) | √ |
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An axis is a series of connected root links of the same order. | |
| Roots morphology in function of soil depth | √ |
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Takes into consideration the rhizotron's tube angle, diameter and gaps between camera positions). | |
| Features of both versions |
| In order to measure roots with WinRHIZO TRON you must manually trace them with the mouse over the image. As you trace them to indicate their presence, WinRHIZO TRON measures them and display complete morphological information on screen. Root segments and nodes can be modified (moved, re-sized, deleted or added) by clicking the mouse or pressing keyboard keys. As you modify the roots, morphological measurements and data in files are automatically updated. The distribution of root length, area, volume or number of tips is displayed as a function of diameter in a graphic above the image. The color classes are the same as those used to draw the roots in the image. WinRHIZO TRON measures the real root diameter distribution rather than the average diameter as some other programs do. If, for examble, a root segment encompasses three diameter classes, the root length is distributed among those three classes rather than only in the average class. |  You can draw the roots with a pen if you prefer (Windows Tablet or Hybrid laptop computer required). |
An analyzed root is made of segments delimited by nodes (nodes correspond to the clicked positions). |
| Features | Basic |
Reg |
Pro |
Description |
| XLRhizo Tron software | √ |
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For data produced by WinRHIZO Tron visualisation and analysis in Excel (comapre and display root growth…). |
| Rectangular Analysed Regions | √ |
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Choose the regions of the image to analyse (rectangular form). |
| Gaps (Rectangular and Free style) | √ |
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Choose the regions of the image to exclude from the analysis (rectangular and free style forms). |
| Export Traced Roots coordinates and data to text files interactively and in batch (new in 2025) | √ |
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These can then be used by other programs to recreate the traced roots (e.g. for automated root detection based on AI). |
| Export Traced Roots Image | √ |
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An image with no background and only the traced lines (to import into other programs). |
| Can shift the position of one or all roots of an analysed region | √ |
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To compensate for camera misalignement over different sessions. |
| Measurements visible over the images | √ |
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Lines indicates where and how roots were measured. |
| Roots color over the image is related to diameter or living status | √ |
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| Roots color over the image is related to Topology or Developmental order | √ |
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| Histogram of roots distribution | √ |
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Display roots morphological data (length, surface area, volume…) in function of diameter. | |
| Depth Gaps | √ |
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Choose the regions of the image to exclude from the analysis in function of depth (rectangular). | |
| Batch reanalysis or processing | √ |
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Reanalyse, Rotate or Export images in lots without operator supervision. | |
| Multiple documents (working window) | √ |
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Analyse up to 16 samples simultaneously in different WinRHIZO Tron's main window. Each window can load one image (Reg) or multiple images (Pro) | |
| Save Image Region | √ |
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Export to a tif or jpg file a rectangular region of the image. | |
| Copy traced roots from one image to another | √ |
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Done in 3 steps. Copy roots from the displayed image, load next image and paste roots. | |
| Acquire images from scanners | √ |
Scanner must have a TWAIN driver, otherwise can only analyse images stored in jpg, tif, bmp & png files. | ||
| Can load Multiple Frames (MF) or images simultaneously | √ |
Displays side by side different root sessions (time variations) and one above the other images taken at different root depths (locations). | ||
| Can load all images of one or more rhizotron tube(s) | √ |
Displays side by side different tubes and one above the other images taken at different root depths (locations). | ||
| Copy traced roots from one or more images of a session (time) to another session | √ |
Done in 2 steps. Copy roots from one displayed image and paste roots to another displayed image. | ||
| Highlight root growth between two sessions | √ |
Displays differently roots which were added between sessions. |