By selecting "Interactive / User Defined" on the Object Finding section of the Extraction preferences, you will be presented with a GUI to aid in setting extraction apertures parameters as the pipeline runs. Depending on the type of data being used, you may set an object trace center and aperture for simple boxcar style extraction, or you may fit an object profile to a particular emission line and use this as the weighting function for optimal extraction.
PRELIMINARIES
For each exposure, FIREHOSE first performs a crude first-pass sky subtraction to assist in locating the object in the 2D frame. A display GUI will pop up showing the sky-subtracted frame. Below I show an example of this GUI for an object showing a single emission line near the center of the display but no continuum. 
A summary of key commands may be obtained using the Help -> Aperture Def Help menu on the menubar.
BOXCAR EXTRACTION: SET APERTURES (see below for interactive object profile fitting/optimal extraction)
To define the trace location using the GUI, center the cursor over the emission line (or any location on the image) and press the space bar. A cross will appear to indicate the location of your choice. You may define many crosses and the software will use the median spatial location for the aperture.
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You may return to the aperture dialog box to readjust your values if you wish. When you are happy, click "done" or type "q" to exit the aperture definition GUI and return to the pipeline. Another xatv GUI may pop up immediately after to confirm your object placement; you can ignore this instance and quit out to proceed with the object extraction.
PROFILE FITTING FOR OPTIMAL EXTRACTION
As an alternative to boxcar/aperture extraction, it is also possible to trim a small region around an emission line to fit a spatial profile to the object for optimal extraction. This feature is in the beta+ stage but appears to work stably. At present, one can only fit to the profile of a single wavelength region from a single order (i.e. around a bright emission line like H alpha). The profile fit in this way is then applied to the entire spectrum. It is not possible to fit profiles on an order-by-order individual basis (it would require some extreme patience anyway).
To start this process, in the Extraction preferences, select Object Finding: Interactive/User Defined and Extraction Method: Optimal. Then, as in the boxcar case FIREHOSE will solve for the wavelength map and present you with a first-pass sky subtracted frame as shown here:
In this case I have zoomed in to the line of interest, an H alpha profile of a z = 1.7 galaxy. Now, rather than defining the center of the aperture in spatial coordinates, you must define the bounds of the wavelength region of interest where you want to fit the profile. Since wavelengths run vertically in FIREHOSE frames, this means you need to set the bottom and top of the bounding region.