The Accuri C6 is a bench-top system that delivers performance and features similar to those of the market-leading flow cytometers, yet it is easy even for novice users to set up and operate. The CFlow™ software that controls the C6 is easy to use and allows even a novice to quickly set up an experiment and acquire data.

There are two ways to load data from Accuri CFlow files into FCS Express:

1. By using the Accuri CFlow importer, which brings in the set of plots and gates that were defined in the CFlow software, as well as the data itself. This also requires purchasing the CFlow Import add-on.
2. To simply open a plot in FCS Express, and then when a dialog appears asking you for a data file, choose a CFlow file (with extension c6). There are a few things to note about loading data files this way:

Recommended changes to the preferences

Open the preferences by selecting the menu File -> Edit Preferences   Select the category Dialogs | File Dialog. Turn off "Allow Multiple Data sets". Note that this change is not necessary for loading a CFlow data file, but will allow you to add the subfiles to the file list, which is necessary to do batch processing.   Turn off "Validate that files are FCS Files before displaying them in a file dialog". Note that this change is not necessary for loading a CFlow data file, but will speed up adding files into the file list.

Figure 1 - Recommended Preferences for CFlow data in FCS Express

Loading the data into a plot

Proceed to open a plot, just as you would with any other data file. When the file dialog opens for selecting a data file, change the file type to be C6.   Navigate to the CFlow file that you want to open, and double-click on it. The dialog will then display all of the fcs files contained inside the CFlow file. Select the one that you are looking for.   Press Open.

Figure 2 - CFlow file type in the file dialog

File List considerations

In most cases in FCS Express, when you open the first plot of the layout, after you select a data file, it will load up every data file from the same directory into the File List. When you load a data file from within a CFlow file, the File List will not be automatically populated. However, you can easily populate it yourself after (or before) opening the plot.   Open the file list from the menu item FCS File -> File List, or by clicking on the File List toolbar icon. Press the Add button. Navigate to the CFlow file that you want to open, and double-click on it. The dialog will then display all of the fcs files contained inside the CFlow file. Usee Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click to select all fcs files that you want to be part of the file list, and press Open.   Once the file list is loaded with the CFlow data, you can perform all of the normal operations on the plots that you would with other kinds of data files - for example, using the Next and Previous buttons, and batch processing, or just changing the files directly from the file list.

Figure 3 - Selecting several data files from inside the CFlow file