Microplates are widely used for high-throughput experiments but are vulnerable to systematic plate effects. Careful placement of materials on a microplate can counteract them. While some tools exist, they often rely on randomization, are proprietary, and web-based, raising privacy concerns. PLAID and COMPD are two constraint programming (CP) models that produce higher quality layouts than randomization. However, they require MiniZinc and CP expertise, with no built-in visualization. MPLACE addresses these barriers as an open-source, Python-based GUI. MPLACE streamlines the workflow with both models by providing convenient data entry, multiple layout configurations, saving, loading, and visualization capabilities.
Gindullin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.