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Getting started

This tutorial opens a sourced Mirusviricota tree, inspects its metadata tracks and fitted circular layout, and exports a figure. It runs in the hosted browser app and requires no installation.

1. Open the example

Open Example 1: Mirusviricota. The saved Extended Data Figure 9 session contains 1,204 tips and 18 metadata tracks. See the source paper for the biological context. The example opens as a copy in this browser tab. Changes to it do not change the public example.

2. Check the metadata tracks

Open Tracks to see every track listed by title. Expanding a track shows its source column, palette, and width. As you zoom or pan, the rings keep their alignment with the terminal tips.

3. Inspect the tree

Hovering over a tip shows its name, branch length, support value, and any attributes stored on the tree node. Values from the metadata table appear in the tracks rather than in the tooltip. To focus a named tip or clade, use search. Press Escape to clear the search and F to fit the whole tree.

4. Inspect the fitted opening

Under Controls, open Layout. The opening in the circular layout makes room for the horizontal track names. With Auto-fit to labels, the opening is recalculated whenever the track names, visible tracks, ring widths, or viewport change. Zooming and panning leave the fitted opening as it is.

Turning on Tip-to-track guides draws guides from terminal tips to the inner metadata edge. Leave it off if the tracks are already easy to follow. The fill colors for the opening and the interior sit under Layout as well.

5. Export or save

Open Export and choose an action:

  • Export SVG for an editable vector figure.
  • Export PNG (N DPI) for a raster image at the selected resolution.
  • Export PDF for a printable page.
  • Export Session (JSON) to preserve the tree, metadata, tracks, edits, view settings, and saved views.

The Data section exports the tree as Newick or Nexus, the leaf names, and the metadata table as TSV.

The .treeviz.json session is the editable TreeViz record. Figure exports do not preserve the interactive state.

Continue with your data