| Platform | Badge | Match keywords | # instruments |
|---|
| Start date | End date | Type | Label | Note (tooltip) |
|---|
| Goal name | Expected quarter |
|---|
| Field name | Type | Options (dropdown only, comma-separated) | Default value |
|---|
| Field name | Type | Options (dropdown only, comma-separated) | Default value |
|---|
Orchestra Planner helps you plan experiments in time, record key experimental metadata, and visualize workload and constraints across days, weeks, and platforms — without enforcing hard rules.
Nothing is blocked: the planner is here to inform, not to restrict.
Orchestra Planner can be used as a standalone planning tool, or as the first step of a larger experimental data workflow, described in the next section.
Orchestra Planner is designed to sit upstream of your experimental data.
A typical workflow looks like this:
Orchestra Planner itself does not touch image files.
It focuses on planning, structure, and metadata — leaving data extraction and indexing to dedicated tools.
If this is your first time opening the app, a good starting point is:
In just a few minutes, you should feel comfortable exploring the app without risk — nothing is irreversible.
For each Imaging Session:
You can add multiple imaging sessions by clicking “+ Add imaging session” as many times as needed.
The app automatically generates a unique Experiment ID following the pattern: YEAR_PROJECT_###.
All steps are positioned relative to the anchor date and follow the experiment rules.
Once created, the experiment immediately appears in the calendar (or in the Ideas list if no date was set).
Before going further, a few core ideas are worth keeping in mind:
Anchor date
The anchor date defines the scheduled start of imaging of the first imaging session. All other steps are positioned relative to it.
Relative timing
When you move an experiment, its internal structure is preserved.
Imaging sessions and fixation
An experiment can have one or multiple imaging sessions, which are useful if you want to re-image a plate when different solutions have been added to the wells. For example a first imaging session could be ‘live experiment’ followed by fixation, then an immunostaining and a second imaging session. This will allow you to write information at the plate level for each of those session.
Nothing is blocked
Warnings and badges are informational only. The app never prevents actions.
Experiments, plates, and views
The Calendar, Experiments, Plates, and Imaging views are different lenses on the same underlying data.
Modifying an experiment
To delete an experiment, use the Delete button in the selected experiment card.
Drag & drop behavior
This makes rescheduling fast and safe.
Weekends and special days
These days are never blocked — they are visual planning signals only.
Warnings, badges, and capacity
The app can let you know if you more imaging are scheduled on a given instrument that the daily capacity of said instrument.
To enable this capacity warnings, you must define your imaging platforms and their daily plate capacity in Settings.
Once configured, the planner will automatically highlight days where the planned workload exceeds available capacity.
These warnings are informational and help anticipate overload. Hover over a badge to see details.
Plate maps are where you enter well level details of your experiment.
You can access plate maps:
With plate maps you can:
Plate maps are tightly linked to experiments and imaging sessions, and are a key bridge between planning and data analysis.
Orchestra Planner focuses on planning and metadata structure.
To connect experiments with microscope image files, a companion tool called Metadata Extractor can be used:
This workflow makes it possible to search and filter large image datasets using rich experimental context.
We recommend:
When importing data, the app can automatically:
You can always bypass this and manually choose a different file if needed.
There is no cloud storage, no vendor lock-in, and backups are simple: copy your JSON files.
A full video tutorial walks through the complete workflow, from experiment creation to plate maps and data export.
🎥 Watch the full tutorial here:
(YouTube link will be embedded here)
The video complements this guide and is the recommended way to get started quickly.