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How to Interact with Spatial Factor(s)?

This guide explains how to highlight one or more factors on the spatial map (and UMAP).

1. Check Interaction Support

Spatial factor interaction requires a vector-based factor layer. Check the Spatial Map Interaction row in the Explore Factors section of the drawer — it reports whether the currently loaded factor layer supports it.

Supported vs. Unsupported Layer Modes

  • Supported: RAW_PIXEL, HEX, HEX_FINE, HEX_COARSE, CELLS, BOUNDARIES, CELLS_BOUNDARIES
  • Not supported: RASTER — raster layers do not support factor-level highlighting. Switch to another factor layer mode, such as RAW_PIXEL, if you need this feature.

2. Choose an Interaction Action

The Spatial Map Interaction row in the Explore Factors section lets you choose how a factor gets highlighted, via a toggle between Double-Click and Hover.

Tip

See Interaction Action Options for a full comparison of the two action modes.

3. Customize the Interaction Visualization

To customize the interaction visualization, click the View (settings gear/slider icon) button in the Factor Control Bar to open the Spatial Map Interaction View popover.

This popover lets you configure:

  • Highlighted factor(s):
    • Choose to display highlighted factors via which visualization mode -- heatmap or flat color.
  • Background factors:
    • If Heatmap Mode is ON and the layer is in RAW_PIXEL mode: toggle Mute Background to hide unselected background pixels, or leave it off to show them at probability 0.
    • If Heatmap Mode is OFF: toggle Flat Background to render background factors in a single, unified color (which you can specify), and set the Background Opacity (0–90%).

Tip

  • Please note, the heatmap mode is only available When the active factor layer contains probability (P) scores.
  • When heatmap mode is available, there is a quick shortcut to choose visualization mode via the additional Spatial Map Visualization row in the Explore Factors section.
  • Click Reset icon in the popover header to restore these settings to default.
  • See Interaction Visualization Options for a full comparison of the two visualization modes.

4. Highlight One or More Factors

Double-click (or hover, depending on the mode chosen in Step 2) a factor chip in the Factor Chip Grid, or an ID cell in the Overview table, to highlight that factor on the spatial map and, if available, the UMAP preview.

To stop the highlight view, you can click the reset in the "Factor Chip Grid" topbar. This will disable the heatmap mode and show all factors.

Related Pages

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Manual Pages