Note: Simrad is a subsidiary of Kongsberg. See also Kongsberg data files.
BI500 data files (-ping, -vlog, -data, -info, -work)
EY500 data, and EK500 data logged with Simrad EP500 software (.dgn)
Ex500 and Ex60 data logged with Echolog 500 (.ek5)
EK500 data logged with DFO/NHP/DAT CH1 logging software (.hac)
Ex60 raw data files (.raw/.out/.bot)
EK500 telegrams logged with Simrad ER60 software (.dg)
Ex60 data files logged with Echolog 60 (.ek60,.ek6)
SM2000 FR data files (.raw/.bfm/.bmf and .nnn)
These are Echosounder data files that have been processed into the format used by the Simrad BI500 software. The files have no extensions, but can be recognized by their suffixes. There are up to five files for each dataset, two of which must be present in the same folder in order to be used by Echoview (they are –ping and –data; the rest are optional). Each set of files contains the data collected over exactly five nautical miles.
Note: These files store numeric values internally in big-endian format, which is different to the little-endian format used natively by Intel processors. Echoview makes the appropriate translations as required.
BI500 files use a naming convention like the following:
N090-S001-S1997001-F037879-T01-D19970208-T043746-Ping
Where the components are:
Echoview requires this format to be followed for the transceiver number, date and time parts of the filename.
Echoview extracts the following information from each file:
|
Value |
Description |
|
-ping |
All ping data, including its start and stop range and sample count and GPS position but not including Sv values, single target detection or vessel log information |
|
-data |
Sv values and single target detections |
|
-info |
Not used by Echoview |
|
-vlog |
Vessel logs |
|
-work |
Line and region definitions. This information is read only once, when the information within BI500 -work files is imported to Echoview, after which the line and region definitions are stored in the EV file. Subsequent changes to the –work file will have no effect. Use File menu > Import. |
|
-snap |
Echoview does not read –snap file but they are of the same format as –work files. If renamed to –work, Echoview will extract line and region definitions from the –snap file |
Internally this format consists of the binary telegrams produced by the Echosounder. Each telegram is preceded by a four-byte number stored in little-endian format. This number contains the length in bytes of the following telegram.
These files are named in the format: mmddhhnn.DGy, where "mm" is the month, "dd" s the day, "hh" is the hour, "nn" is the minute and "y" is last digit of the year.
This file naming convention has a number of inherent limitations:
If the file does not contain any "LL" or "VL" type telegrams then Echoview cannot positively determine the year of logging. Echoview will try to determine the year by adding 199 to the last digit (n) in the file name, e.g. 11211256.DG3 would be assumed to have been logged in 1993, but may have been logged in 2003.
Echoview will not be able to correctly order the files in a fileset that extend over decade boundaries, for example between 31 December 1999 and 1 January 2000.
To overcome these problem you can rename the files using the following format: "mmddhhnn.yyyy.DGY", where "mm" is the month, "dd" s the day, "hh" is the hour, "nn" is the minute, "yyyy" is the year, and "Y" is last digit of the year. Echoview will read "yyyy" and correctly determine the logging year.
The EP500 software can also produce files with a .DTn extension, which contains compressed and thresholded data corresponding to a .DGn file. DTn files use a Simrad proprietary format and they cannot be read by Echoview.
Notes:
These files contain EK500 data telegrams output by an Ex60 or Ex500 on its Ethernet port. EK500 telegrams are generally contained within one Ethernet packet, but some telegrams (e.g. sample telegrams) may be split over a number of Ethernet packets. The .ek5 file contains binary Ethernet packets as output by the Simrad echosounder. Each packet is preceded by a two-byte number stored in little-endian format. This number contains the length in bytes of the following telegram.
The EK500 manual contains full details of the EK500 Ethernet telegram formats and should be consulted for interpreting the Ethernet packets recorded within an .ek5 file.
The files are named using the following convention:
"ccyyMMdd-hhmmss.EK5", where "ccyy" is the year, "MM" is the month, "dd" is the day, "hh" is the hour, "mm" is the minute and "ss" is the seconds. Files produced by recent versions of Echolog 500 use this file naming convention.
Early versions of Echolog 500 (Echolog EK) used another file naming convention:
"ccyyMMdd-nnnn.EK5", where "ccyy" is the year, "MM" is the month, "DD" is the day, and "nnnn" is a unique serial number from "0000" to "9999". This convention is supported by all versions of Echoview.
Echoview will also support a third file name format:
"yymmddnn.EK5, where "yy" is the last two digits of the year, "mm" is the month, "dd" is the day and "nn" is a serial number from "00" to "99". In this case "yy" values of 60 to 99 are assumed to represent years from 1960 to 1999 and values from 00 to 59 are assumed to represent years from 2000 to 2059. If this convention is used then Echoview will not correctly handle datasets that extend the century boundary between 31 December 1999 and 1 January 2000. The use of this file name format is not recommended.
Live viewing of EK500 telegrams is supported using Echolog 500.
Notes:
If you are logging B telegrams using ER60 software you should be aware that angular positions are stored with a lower precision in B telegrams (64 steps) than in Ex60 .raw files (128 steps). Furthermore, the ER60 version 2.0.0 encodes B telegrams incorrectly (this is a known bug that Simrad plan to correct with a new release of the ER60 software, please contact Simrad for further information). Myriax strongly recommends you do not log B telegrams from an Ex60 echosounder, and use the .raw format instead.
At this time Echoview does not directly support data files that have been created with multiplexed transducers on an Ex500 series echosounder, however a utility to translate such files into a format that Echoview can support is available on request from Echoview support. Currently this utility program supports files that contain up to four multiplexed transducers.
Echoview ignores PR (Parameter Request) telegrams.
This format is defined by Y. Simard et al 1997, in Description of the HAC standard format for raw and edited hydroacoustic data, version 1.0, Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 2174.
Internally the files consist of a sequence of tuples. While tuple types are defined for both the EK500 (v5.3) and BioSonics 102 echosounders, only the former is supported at this stage.
Please note the following restrictions:
Files must be in the little-endian format.
Only the U32 type pings tuples are supported.
EK500 calibration within Echoview is not supported.
The files should be named in such a way, as an alphabetical sorting of the file names will sort them into date/time order.
.raw files contain power data written directly by an Ex60. Echoview supports up to 9 transducers in these data files.
.raw files also contain an array of values called "Sa correction", one for each available pulse length. This value represents the correction required to the Sv constant to harmonize the TS and NASC measurements. The Sa correction is determined during the calibration of the echosounder and can be set in Echoview on the Calibration page of the Variable Properties dialog box.
.raw files that were written by a split-beam echosounder will also contain angular position data. The angular data in .raw files has a higher resolution (128 steps) than angular information in B telegrams logged in .dg and .ek5 data files (64 steps).
.raw files also contain NMEA sentences, of which Echoview supports the following subset:
Ex60 .raw files use a naming convention like the following:
L004-D19970208-T043746-EK60.raw
Where the components are:
.out and .bot files contain sounder-detected bottom information. Early versions of the logging software write .out files while later versions write .bot files. You do not add .out and .bot to a fileset manually. Instead, Echoview will search for the files in the same folder as the .raw file and if it finds any which share the same survey line identifier it will use these. For each RAW telegram in the .raw file, Echoview will attempt to find a matching DEP or BOT telegram in the .out or .bot file (that is, sharing the same time stamp). If it finds one, the depth recorded in the DEP or BOT telegram is reinterpreted as range and stored as the sounder-detected bottom range for that ping (that is, a point on the sounder detected bottom line).
.out files are not added to Echoview filesets. Echoview reads them automatically when available. See notes above for details.
.idx files are not used by Echoview.
Live-viewing of .raw, .out and .bot files is supported using Echolog 60.
If you are using an Ex60 echosounder you are encouraged to contact Echoview support about your raw data processing requirements.
Note: Echoview reads and uses Ex60 data up to the penultimate point where the first corrupt data is encountered. The data file is marked with an icon in the Filesets window and a message is sent to the Message dialog box. Other forms of data corruption (incorrect telegram size, zeros to the end of the file) are similarly flagged as Echoview scans the file looking for valid data it can read and display.
The National Marine and Fisheries Service has used (seemingly) otherwise unused fields in the .raw file format to store a channel number in an effort to support more transducers in the one file format than is otherwise possible.
To direct Echoview to interpret such data:
If Echoview detects an expected value channel encoding (as specified by the Nation Marine and Fisheries Service) in such a field when you add a data file, you will be asked if you want to interpret such files as multiplexed data. If yes, then "(channel c)" - where c is the channel number - will be appended to the standard variable name, e.g. "Sv raw pings T1 (channel 1)" and that particular EV file will thereafter automatically read such data files in the same way. If no, then Echoview will ignore this particular channel encoding for all Ex60 .raw files added to this EV file thereafter. You cannot change this setting in an EV file once it is selected.
To see the status of the multiplex interpretation option in an EV file:
This setting is applied when the EV file is used as an EV file template.
Contact Echoview support for further information on multiplexing channels in .raw files.
Internally this format consists of the binary telegrams output by a Simrad Ex60 echosounder on its Ethernet port and written to disk with Simrad's ER60 logging software. Each telegram is preceded by a four-byte number stored in little-endian format. This number contains the length in bytes of the following telegram.
These files are named in the format: "Dyyyymmdd-Thhmmss.DG", where "yyyy" is the year, "mm" is the month, "dd" is the day, "hh" is the hour, "mm" is the minute, "ss" is the second at which logging commenced.
If you are logging B telegrams using ER60 software you should be aware that angular positions are stored with a lower precision in B telegrams (64 steps) than in Ex60 .raw files (128 steps). Furthermore, the ER60 version 2.0.0 encodes B telegrams incorrectly (this is a known bug that Simrad plan to correct with a new release of the ER60 software, please contact Simrad for further information). Myriax strongly recommends you do not log B telegrams from an Ex60 echosounder, and use the .raw format instead.
.ek60 and .ek6 files are compressed data files that combine Ex60 .raw and the related .out or .bot files (if any) into a single file.
They are written by Echolog 60 during live viewing if the Enabled option is selected on the Echolog 60 settings dialog box. The files name format is: "X.ek60" (or "X.ek6"), where "X.raw" is the name of the .raw file that is being compressed.
Versions of Echolog 60 up to 3.25 produce .ek6 files.
Versions of Echolog 60 from 3.30 produce .ek60 files.
These files contain multibeam data logged from an SM2000 FR echosounder. Raw, unbeamformed data (.raw/001/002) and beamformed data files (.bfm/001/002 or bmf/001/002) are represented in Echoview as multibeam echogram replays.
When logging raw data, the SM2000 FR lays down X.raw files (where X is the filename and .raw is the extension). When the maximum file size is reached it continues logging to the file X.001 and then X.002 and so on opening a new file whenever the current file has reached the maximum file size limit.
When logging beamformed data, the SM2000 FR lays down X.bfm or X.bmf files, continuing the sequence with X.001, X.002 and so on as with raw data logging. The filename X is unique to each logging run and typically different to that used if logging raw data simultaneously. Thus the .001, .002 ... sequence of files can be associated through the filename with their original .raw or .bfm/bmf file.
Echoview typically sorts data files alphanumerically when adding them to a fileset. Because the SM2000 FR filename sequence does not result in chronological order when sorted alphanumerically, Echoview will associate .raw and .bfm/bmf files with their subsequent sequence files when adding files to a fileset.
Note: The Add Data Files dialog box will display a list of files sorted by default alphanumerically. As a consequence, on large lists of files, the raw and .bfm/bmf files may appear below the associated .001/.002/... files. It is possible to sort this list by date (click the View menu button then choose Detail and click the Date Modified column header in the resulting list) which should sort these files in the order of their collection.
These data files contain received power signal measurements represented by an amplitude and quadrature component which are made available as multibeam magnitude and multibeam phase variables respectively in Echoview. The underlying data export format is in-phase sample, quadrature sample, in-phase sample, quadrature sample, etc.
If roll data is recorded in the data file Echoview will provide a roll variable.
Live-viewing of these files is supported using Echolog SM.
Note: Raw data files that contain multiple pings with the same recorded time are processed so that each (co-incident) consecutive ping has 1ms added to its time in a compound fashion.
.sm2000 files are compressed SM2000 data files (.raw, .bfm, .bmf, .nnn) files. They are written by Echolog SM during live viewing if the Enabled option is selected on the Echolog SM Settings dialog box. The file name format is: X.ext.sm2000, where "X" is the name of the SM2000 data file being logged, ".ext" is the original file extension of the SM2000 FR data file, and ".sm2000" is the file extension, e.g. 02J03003.raw.sm2000.
Support for the ME70 is in a continuing state of development. Our long term intention for ME70 support is to base the next generation of sonar data visualization and analysis tools on the uniquely flexible capabilities of the ME70. Visualization and analysis engines that can handle completely flexible sample positions will have huge benefits across all branches of fisheries acoustics. We are continuing to refine our future development program for the ME70 as more details and data become available.
In planning these developments we are committed to basing our plans upon the needs and wants of the future ME70 user base. Through consultation with the manufacturer and potential users, we look forward to continuing to build support for the ME70 and further refining our future plans.
The Simrad ME70 multibeam echosounder produces beams that can be individually configured to point in any direction within a planar fan.
The ME70 .raw file format is functionally similar to the Ex60 .raw format with each beam identified by an independent transducer channel. Echoview represents each ME70 beam as a single beam variable in the same manner as the channels on the Ex60 series of echosounders. ME70 single beam variables have a Minor Axis steered angle and a Major Axis steered angle based on ME70 Alongship and Athwartship beam steering angles from the data file. The single beam variable's sample depths are calculated with respect to the beam steering angles.
A multibeam variable is derived that represents all beams from each transducer channel in a planar fan, or swath, view. Each beam of the fan is derived from the equivalent Sv single beam variable. Currently, overlapping beams are not supported. Data containing overlapping beams will not result in a derived multibeam variable.
Support for beam directions includes the athwartship co-ordinate (or DirY field) which is defined in Echoview as the beam angle. Beam numbering starts from the leftmost beam in the sector plot and the beam angle is referenced to the central axis of the transducer. Support for beam direction in the alongship direction (DirX field) is planned for future development.
Sv and TS values are calculated from raw power data using the Ex60 algorithms.
Echoview supports heading data output by the Applanix POS/MV instrument.
The Simrad SH80 scanning sonar records data in files with the extension .dat or .dzt (compressed files). These files can contain GPS data, heading data and acoustic data in V-mode (the Simrad term for this is "Vertical slice") or H-mode (the Simrad term for this is "Omni"). There are 64 beams in either ping mode. The acoustic data from these files are represented in Echoview as multibeam echgrams.
Instrument specific features are as follows:
Note: If you are using V-mode or H-mode variables, Echoview requires that the transducer they are associated with has an elevation, azimuth and rotation of zero. If you try to display an echogram and this requirement is not met, a warning message will be displayed.
The Simrad SH80 range algorithm is:
Start range = 0 m
Stop range = Sound Speed X Sample rate X Number of samples in a beam X 0.5
where:
Sound speed (m/s) as read from the SoundSpeed field of the Start ping telegram
Sample rate (s/sample) is 1/Bandwidth/Sample desimation
Bandwidth (Hz) as read from the Bandwidth field of the Start ping telegram
Sample desimation as read from the SampleDesimation field of the Start ping telegram
Number of samples in a beam as read from the SamplesRequested field of the Start ping telegram
The Simrad SP70 scanning sonar records data in files with the extension .dat or .dtz (compressed files). These files can contain GPS data, heading data and acoustic data in H-mode (the Simrad term for this is "Omni"). There are 64 beams in this ping mode. The acoustic data from these files are represented in Echoview as multibeam echgrams.
Instrument specific features are as follows:
Note: If you are using V-mode or H-mode variables, Echoview requires that the transducer they are associated with has an elevation, azimuth and rotation of zero. If you try to display an echogram and this requirement is not met, a warning message will be displayed.
The Simrad SP70 range algorithm is:
Start range = 0 m
Stop range = (Sound speed/Frequency) X Number of samples in a beam X 0.5
where:
Sound speed (m/s) as entered on the Calibration page of the Variable Properties dialog box
Frequency (kHz) as read from the Start ping telegram.
Number of samples in a beam as logged in the RangeStop field of the Start ping telegram
Simrad SP70 underlying data has a Simrad TVG correction applied to it. To calculate Sv, Echoview removes Simrad's TVG correction and applies a value of 20dB instead.
Sv = Underlying value - (20 - Simrad TVG correction) x log10 (r)
where:
Underlying value (dB) as stored in the data file
Simrad TVG correction (dB) is the Simrad correction logged for the Underlying value, as read from the TVG field of the Start ping telegram.
r (m) is the range of the sample
Raw variables derived from Simrad data files
Calibration settings for EK500 telegrams logged with Ex500
Calibration settings for EK500 telegrams logged with Ex60
Calibration settings for Ex60 raw data
Calibration settings for ME70 raw data
Calibration settings for SM2000 data
Calibration settings for SH80 data
Calibration settings for SP70 data