Introduction
A deck position is a location on the deck of your liquid handler to which Synthace can allocate a piece of labware (e.g., an input plate, tip box or tip waste).
A deck layout tells Synthace where your deck positions are, and which pieces of labware it can allocate to each one.
When you build a workflow, you must tell Synthace which deck layout you want to use.
Note: If you use a Hamilton Microlab® STAR™, Hamilton Microlab® STARlet™ or Tecan Freedom EVO®, you added at least one configuration for your liquid handler when you set up Synthace. Amongst other things, the configuration contained the deck layouts that you can select. If you want to add a new deck layout to Synthace, you must add a new configuration. To learn how to add a new Tecan Freedom EVO® configuration, click here. To learn how to add a new Hamilton Microlab® STAR™ or STARlet™ configuration, click here.
Open the deck options
After you select the devices on which you want to run your workflow, Synthace displays the Deck options for you. But if you change your mind, and want to select some different Deck options later, you can.
From the builder, open the Workflow Settings panel.
Click Deck options.
Select a deck layout
Use the drop-down in the upper-left of the Deck options to select the deck layout that you want to use.
Note: If you only have one deck layout, Synthace selects it for you. If Synthace displays Default Layout here, you cannot select a different deck layout.
Allocate your labware
By default, Synthace allocates the labware that your workflow needs to the most appropriate deck positions (i.e., the positions that will facilitate the fastest completion of the liquid handling steps). However, if you would prefer to allocate that labware yourself, you can.
Example: You have a robot arm on the left of your deck. The robot arm cannot reach any labware on the right of the deck. For this reason, you decide to allocate your input plates and output plates to the left of the deck.
How it works
Rather than allocate your labware directly, you select the labware that you want to allocate, then specify a preference for one or more deck positions.
In the preceding image, we have the following preferences for our input plates and output plates.
Preference | Input Plates | Output Plates |
#1 | position_1 | position_2 |
#2 | position_2 | position_4 |
#3 | position_4 | position_5 |
If our workflow requires one input plate and two output plates, Synthace will allocate the input plate to position_1 and the output plates to position_2 and position_4. However, if our workflow requires two input plates, Synthace will allocate the input plates to position_1 and position_2 and the output plates to position_4 and position_5.
Note: This method ensures that we populate as many deck positions as possible, and reduces the need for us to intervene manually when we run our execution in the lab. In our example, if we had allocated two input plates to position_1 and position_2 directly, but our workflow had only required one input plate, position_2 would have been empty, which we could have populated with another piece of labware, such as a tip box. This would have reduced the need for us to replace our tip boxes when we ran our execution in the lab.
Before you start
If you would prefer to allocate your labware yourself, you must first deallocate that labware from the deck positions to which Synthace has allocated it.
Deallocate from every deck position
Select the labware that you want to deallocate, then use the Clear all button to remove every preference for that labware. This is useful if you want to allocate all of that labware from scratch.
In the Deck options, click Select Labware, select the labware that you want to allocate from scratch, then click Clear all.
Deallocate from a specific deck position
Select the labware that you want to deallocate, then remove a preference for that labware.
In the Deck options, click Select Labware, then select the labware that you want to deallocate.
Click the deck position from which you want to deallocate the labware.
Synthace removes your preference for the labware, and increases all of your subsequent preferences for that labware by one.
Example: If you remove preference #3, preference #4 becomes preference #3, and so on.
Use the drop-down to deselect the labware.
Allocate a piece of labware
Select the labware that you want to allocate, then specify a preference for one or more deck positions.
In the Deck options, click Select Labware, then select the labware that you want to allocate.
Synthace displays Select on each deck position to which you can allocate that labware.
Note: Because the design of your liquid handler is likely to limit the deck positions to which you can allocate some pieces of labware, you cannot normally allocate every piece of labware to every deck position.
Click the deck position to which you want to allocate the labware.
Synthace adds your next preference for the labware.
Example: If your previous preference was #4, your next preference will be #5.
Use the drop-down to deselect the labware.
Allocate the plates with a specific name
In some elements, you specify a unique name for each distinct plate set to which you want Synthace to allocate your liquids.
Example: In the Aliquot element, if you want Synthace to aliquot the liquids with the TestSamples tag to one plate set, and the liquids with the Diluent tag to another, you might specify one name called Sample Plate and another called Diluent Plate.
To allocate the plates with a specific name, create a prefix in the Deck options, then specify a preference for one or more deck positions.
If the name of a plate matches multiple prefixes, Synthace uses the preferences for the longest prefix.
Example: If a plate is called auto_input_plate_1, and you create one prefix called auto and another called auto_input, Synthace uses the preferences for auto_input.
In the Deck options, click Select Labware.
In Search for an option, type the prefix that you want to create, then click Create.
Synthace highlights the deck positions to which you can allocate the plates with that prefix.
Click the deck position to which you want to allocate the plates.
Synthace adds your next preference for the plates.
Example: If your previous preference was #4, your next preference will be #5.
Use the drop-down to deselect the prefix.