Create a high-content screen for testing

The mkfake command creates a high-content screen for testing. The image data will be meaningless, but it allows testing of screen, plate, and well metadata without having to find appropriately-sized screens from real acquisitions.

If no arguments are specified, mkfake prints usage information.

To create a single screen with default plate dimensions:

mkfake default-screen.fake

This will create a directory that represents one screen with a single plate containing one well, one field, and one acquisition of the plate (see PlateAcquisition).

-plates PLATES

To change the number of plates in the screen:

mkfake -plates 3 three-plates.fake

-runs RUNS

To change the number of acquisitions for each plate:

mkfake -runs 4 four-plate-acquisitions.fake

-rows ROWS

To change the number of rows of wells in each plate:

mkfake -rows 8 eight-row-plate.fake

-columns COLUMNS

To change the number of columns of wells in each plate:

mkfake -columns 12 twelve-column-plate.fake

-fields FIELDS

To change the number of fields per well:

mkfake -fields 2 two-field-plate.fake

It is often most useful to use the arguments together to create a realistic screen, for example:

mkfake -rows 16 -columns 24 -plates 2 -fields 3 two-384-well-plates.fake

-debug DEBUG

As with other command line tools, debugging output can be enabled if necessary:

mkfake -debug debug-screen.fake