1. Integration by instrument manufacturers

2. Compatibility

3. Data types accepted

4. History of versions

5. Instruments supported

6. References

7. External links

Mountains is an image analysis and surface metrology software platform published by the company Digital Surf. Its core is micro-topography, the science of studying surface texture and form in 3D at the microscopic scale. The software is dedicated to profilometers, 3D light microscopes ("MountainsMap"), scanning electron microscopes ("MountainsSEM") and scanning probe microscopes ("MountainsSPIP").

Integration by instrument manufacturers

The main editor's distribution channel is OEM, through the integration of MountainsMap by most profiler and microscope manufacturers,^[2][3] usually under their respective brands; it is sold for instance as:

• Hitachi map 3D on Hitachi's scanning electron microscopes,^[4]
• TopoMAPS on Thermo Fisher Scientific (FEI division) scanning electron microscopes, ^[5]
• TalyMap, TalyProfile, or TalyMap Contour on Taylor-Hobson's profilometers,
• PicoImage on Keysight's AFM's,
• HommelMap on Jenoptik's profilometers (Hommel-Etamic line of products),
• MountainsMap - X on Nikon's microscopes,
• Apex 2D or Apex 3D on KLA-Tencor's profilometers,
• Leica Map on Leica's microscopes,^[6]
• ConfoMap on Carl Zeiss' microscopes,^[7]
• MCubeMap on Mitutoyo profilometers.^[8]
• Vision 64 Map on Bruker optical profilometers^[9]
• AttoMap on cathodoluminescence-analysis-dedicated scanning electron microscopes from AttoLight^[10]

Compatibility

• Mountains native file format is the SURF format (.SUR extension).
• Mountains is compatible with most instruments of the market capable of supplying images or topography^[11].
• Mountains complies to the ISO 25178 standard on 3D surface texture evaluation and offers the profile and areal filters defined in ISO 16610.
• The metrology reports are generated in proprietary format but can also be exported to PDF and RTF formats.
• Mountains is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian and Spanish.

Data types accepted

Mountains analyses the following data types:^[12]

VOCABULARY : x,y,z refer to space coordinates, t to the time, i to an intensity. "A=f(B") means A is function of B, B referring usually to space coordinates and A to a scalar

• Profile : z=f(x) and series of the same : z=f(x,t), as issued by stylus 2D profilometers.
• Parametric profile : (x,z) = f(t), as issued by contouring instruments (allows closed loops and ovehangs)
• Surface : z=f(x,y) and series of the same : z=f(x,y,t) Also called "topography".
• Shell : free form surface allowing to describe a complex external shape of a 3D object or a collection of 3D objects
• True color image : (R,G,B) = f(x,y) and series of the same (R,G,B) = f(x,y,t)
• Surface-image : The association of a surface and an image (Z,R,G,B) = f(x,y) as issued by 3D optical profilers built from a light microscope
• Multi-layer images : (i1,i2,...,in) = f(x,y), as issued by multi-channel scanning probe microscopes
• Force curves, series of force curves and cubes refer to the force spectroscopy in scanning probe microscopy
• Spectrum, series of spectra, and hyperspectral cubes refer to spectral analysis (as issued by Raman spectroscopy, EDX, cathodoluminescence, hyperspectral instruments)

in Mountains's vocabulary, these data types are referred to as "studiables".

History of versions

• Digital Surf launched their first (2D) surface analysis software package in 1990 for MS-DOS ("DigiProfil 1.0"), then their first 3D surface analysis package in 1991 for Macintosh II ("DigiSurface 1.0").
• Version 1.0 of MountainsMap was launched in September 1996, introducing a change in the name after a move of the editor to Windows from MsDos and Macintosh platforms.
• Version 5.0 introduced the management of multi-layers images. It was a move to Confocal microscopy (analysis of topography+color as a single object as opposed to separate objects in former versions), and to SPM image analysis (analysis of topography+current, topography+phase, topography+force as a single image).^[13]

• Version 6.0^[14] completed the specialization of the platform per instrument type.^[15] For Version 6.0 the company teamed with a group of alpinists to launch the new version at the summit of the Makalu mountain. A special logo was created for this marketing event. The expedition was successful and Alexia Zuberer, a French and Swiss mountaineer was then the first Swiss woman to reach the summit of the Makalu, Sandrine de Choudens, a French PhD in chemistry being the first French woman to succeed^[16][17][18]
• Version 7.0 was unveiled in September 2012 at the European Microscopy Congress in Manchester, UK. It expanded the list of instruments supported, in particular with new Scanning electron microscope 3D reconstruction software and hyperspectral data analysis (such as Raman and FT-IR hyperspectral cube analysis).^[19]
• Version 7.2 (February 2015) introduces near real-time 3D topography reconstruction for scanning electron microscopes
• Version 7.3 (January 2016) adds fast colorization of scanning electron microscope images based on object-oriented image segmentation.^[20][21]
• Version 7.4 (January 2017) offers 3D reconstruction from a single SEM image, and enhanced 3D printing ^[1][22]
• Version 8.0 is due in Q2 2019^[23].

Instruments supported

References

External links

• New 3D parameters and filtration techniques for surface metrology, François Blateyron, Quality Magazine White Paper
• Manufacturer's official Web site
• Makalu 2010 expedition sum up published by one of the Mountaineers, Philippe Bourgine
• Makalu 2010 expedition video

• Sound particle
• Sound Pattern of English
• Sound Patterns
• Soundpieces: Da Antidote
• Soundpieces: Da Antidote Instrumentals
• Sound-post
• Sound post
• Sound post adjustment
• Sound powered telephone
• Sound Pressure Level
• Sound processing
• Sound proof
• Soundproof (band)
• Soundproofed
• Sound proof room
• Sound propagation
• Sound providers
• Sound Quality (radio program)
• Soundrangers
• SoundraPandiapuram
• Soundrapandiapuram
• Sound Raptors
• Sound recorder
• Sound Recording
• Sound Recording and Reproduction