Running the analysis (ANALYZE!)

Once your images, masks, ROI and PIV settings are ready, this is where you actually run the cross-correlation and get vectors.

Opening the panel

Choose Analysis → ANALYZE! (Ctrl+A). The panel is deliberately simple: two buttons to start an analysis, a way to track and cancel progress, and a way to clear results.

PIVlab Analyze panel — The **Analyze** panel.

Velocity vector field over the Karman vortex example after analysis — The result of an analysis: a velocity vector field, here over the Kármán-vortex example. (Note the single long, wrong vector near the rod — exactly the kind of outlier validation removes.)

Analyzing current frame vs. all frames

Button	Effect
Analyze current frame	Runs the PIV analysis on just the frame you're currently viewing — the same quick test available directly from the PIV settings panel.
Analyze all frames	Runs the analysis across every loaded frame, one after another, using your current PIV settings.

This button renames itself for Ensemble If the Ensemble multipass FFT window deformation algorithm is selected, this button reads Start ensemble analysis instead — because ensemble correlation works across the whole sequence at once rather than frame-by-frame.

Tracking and cancelling progress

While an analysis runs, PIVlab shows Frame progress, Total progress and an estimated Time left. Click Cancel at any point to stop — frames already analysed keep their results.

Refresh display The Refresh display checkbox updates the on-screen vector plot as each frame finishes. Turning it off speeds up processing, since PIVlab isn't constantly redrawing — worth doing for long batch runs. It's hidden automatically when parallel processing is enabled, since frames aren't completed in a simple sequential order.

Clearing results

Click Clear all results to discard the current analysis results and derived parameters and reset the progress display — useful before re-running with different settings. This only clears results; your images, masks, ROI and PIV settings are untouched.