New in Echoview 5.2 for all users

Feature

How it works

Benefit

Support for video data

We are pleased to introduce Echoview support for the display of video data in a Media window. You are now able to view your echogram data and your video data side by side.

With the Media module, Echoview allows you auto-synchronize video data with echogram data. Supported video file types include: *.mov, *.avi, *.wmv, *.mpeg, *.m4v and *.mp4.

For more information refer to How to work with video data: About media data and Video feature screencast (YouTube).

View video and echogram data at the same time for ground-truthing.

WMS maps

Echoview introduces support for WMS maps to use as a background on the cruise track window and the alongtrack display.

For more information refer to About WMS maps.

Geographical context for your hydroacoustic data.

Integram enhancement

Use the new integram feature Find Next Integram Value / Find Previous integram value on the Shortcut menu to take you to particular pings in the echogram.

You are able to specify:

• an Integram analysis Sv threshold value
• a greater than or less than condition applied to the Sv threshold value

Support for the features include these echogram keyboard shortcuts: SHIFT+RIGHTARROW and SHIFT+LEFTARROW and ESC (Cancel).

For more information refer to: About the integram and Using the integram.

Find pings with particular properties and find and fix line problems.

Sample metadata

To continue the recent advances with integration and analysis results, Echoview introduces the Counts section for sample information. Descriptors on the Integration results page include:

See also: Samples (algorithms)

Notes:

• A change in behavior is introduced for bad data regions. The nature of the underlying sample data in a bad data region is over-ridden by the bad data region type - any samples within a bad data region are deemed bad_data_samples.
• This may affect Echoview 5.2 integration and analysis results with respect to no_data_samples in bad data regions. Especially if you compare Echoview 5.2 results with results from prior versions of Echoview.
• The Counts changes for Good_samples flow on to C_samples which is now known as C_good_samples.

Sample metadata may enable more sophisticated understanding of analyses.

Analysis page setting is renamed

The setting "Whole excluded or no-data pings do not reduce the Thickness mean" is renamed:

Whole excluded or no-data pings removed from ping count on the Analysis page of the Variable Properties dialog box.

This setting's name has a clearer meaning and is correct for any analysis domain. The actions performed by the setting are unchanged.

The previous name of this setting was correct for rectangular analysis domains and misleading for non-rectangular analysis domains.

Informative and correct information for a setting.

Lines

New settings for line visibility allow you to quickly set a line's visibility on all acoustic variables or no variables or selected variables.

Improves line workflow and saves time.

Regions in the Cruise track window

Region enhancements under the Cruise track window together with WMS map support, for geographic context, allow you to do preliminary work and assessments at a macro-level.

• Echoview can create, display and integrate analysis regions, created by vertical selections, in the Cruise track window and Alongtrack window. For more information refer to About cruise tracks and Using cruise tracks.
• Just like on an echogram, regions created on a Cruise track or Alongtrack window default to the last region type and region class used.
• Optional Zoom controls for Cruise track and Alongtrack windows.

Allows you to work and assess integrations at the survey scale.

Altitude for GPS table

A GPS table supports the display of available Altitude data from Simrad GL Telegrams.

Reveals data read by Echoview.

Data file handling

Echoview's improved interaction with Windows and Windows Explorer allows you to handle your data files with ease.

The Shortcut menu for the Fileset section of the Filesets window now supports:

• Copy and Paste of multiple files, selected from the fileset, to a Windows folder.
• the Show in Explorer feature - opens Windows Explorer and displays the data file and folder.

These features are also available in the Data File Information dialog box as a Copy file button and a Show file in Explorer button.

Improves your data file workflow.

General

• Support for the entry of a ping range in the Ping number panel of the Information toolbar to specify the range of pings visible in the echogram.
• For new users of Echoview, the default for Graph linking is now Selections and Regions. Existing users of Echoview can change this setting under the Graph windows section of the Interface tab of the Echoview Configuration dialog box.
• Support for File menu > Open Next. Open Next (CTRL+ALT+E) opens the next EV file in the folder (and closes the current EV file). This saves you time when you are working through many EV files in a folder. For more information refer to Using EV files: Opening EV files.
• New controls for Fileset tabs.
  Echoview introduces the:
• Add a new fileset button
• Delete the fileset button .
•  
• For more information refer to Creating and deleting filesets.
• The Integration Results dialog box can be resized.
• The Analysis Results dialog box can be resized.
• Export line data even when sounder data files are not completely read or they are removed. Use Graph menu > Export Line Data to export to an .evl file.
• New Echoview Configuration setting Disable Echoview downloads. This setting can be used to prevent Echoview from downloading data. It affects the WMS maps, the Hydroacoustic forum and the Echoview update features.
• Echoview displays data and analysis export times in the Messages dialog box.

Saves you time or improves workflow.

Dataflow window changes

Clearer settings and documentation for Show and Hide actions for dataflow objects.

• View Properties dialog box - clearer setting options and setting names for new objects and existing objects. Support for the new setting option When existing objects change availability: Show available.
• Additional documentation for other settings that affect Show and Hide actions.

Accessible display settings for dataflows.

Performance

Streamlined algorithms and streamlined memory usage may bring performance improvements for long virtual variable chains and general program features.

Virtual memory information is now reported on the Performance tab of the Echoview Configuration dialog box. Messages are displayed for Fixed data usage and Memory fragmentation issues.

This diagnostic information together with Echoview and Windows memory management may be useful in optimizing Echoview's performance.

Diagnostic information about Echoview's performance.

New Operators and Operator enhancements

New Cell statistics

Introducing new statistics to calculate Beam volume sum and Echo density and the setting Fill empty cells with the mean value of surrounding cells for the Cell statistic operators. These statistics and new setting are on the Cell Statistic page of the Variable Properties dialog box.

The Beam volume sum and Echo density statistics enable density index calculations for Nv and M.

A powerful data analysis tool for TS estimation.

XxY Statistic

Introducing the XxY Statistic operator where:

• X and Y define the size of the convolution window
• Statistics include: Mean, Maximum, Minimum, Median and Percentile.

This operator may be of use with edge detection, intermittent noise removal and other signal processing tasks.

A flexible signal processing tool.

Merge pings enhancement

Echoview's Merge pings operator now supports additional single beam data types and introduces support for multibeam data types.

Examples of use:

• merge multiplexed raw variables collected with compatible transducer settings
• merge corrected data; data may have been time-corrected or corrected in another way

Widens the usefulness of the Merge pings operator.

Echoview is pleased to introduce the Merge GPS operator. Merge GPS creates a single position variable by merging the data from two specified position variables.

You can used Merge GPS to merge position data from multiple filesets to partner processed and merged echogram data from multiple filesets.

Resample Mean algorithm selections

The available selections for Mean algorithms are streamlined so that the selection process is clearer.

Allows better workflow with the resample operators.

Filter Single Targets page

The Filter single targets section of the Data page of the Variable Properties dialog box has moved to a stand alone page called Filter Single Targets.

Echoview also introduces support for Filter pulse lengths (normalized) at 12 dB and 18 dB.

Given the nature of the echo for spike noise and the nature of the echo for single targets, these new settings can be used to effectively filter out spike noise and leave single targets unaffected.

For more information refer to the Filter Single Targets page.

A wider selection of single target filtering options.

Scripting and COM objects

The implementation of COM objects (COM object automation) to access Echoview (through scripts) has been highly successful. Echoview Software continues to enhance existing COM objects and add support for new COM objects. We are also developing new tutorials and example scripts to help you upload, process and export your data efficiently.

The key advantage of this automation model is that Echoview can pass information back to the script. It is now possible for scripts to make informed decisions, request decisions from the user, and pass information from Echoview to the user.

For more information about the COM objects refer to Scripting with COM objects.

If you are interested to know more about COM automation, please contact us for further information.

EvResample

EvResample may be used to inspect or set supported settings on the Resample page for any of the (three) variations of the Resample operator.

COM support includes:

• EvFile.Variables.Properties.Resample.CustomRanges
• EvFile.Variables.Properties.Resample.NumberOfPings
• EvFile.Variables.Properties.Resample.NumberOfDataPoints
• EvFile.Variables.Properties.Resample.StartRange
• EvFile.Variables.Properties.Resample.StopRange

EvFileEchogramProperties

EvFileEchogramProperties may be used to access the supported settings under Echogram mode on the Echogram page of the EV file Properties dialog box.

COM support includes:

• Ev.File.Properties.Echogram.EchogramMode
• Enum EEchogramMode: eEchogramModeDepth = 0, eEchogramModeRange = 1

• Towed body operator, additional note about usage and caveats.
• Correction to COM example: Multiple exports from multiple variables in all EV files in a folder (COM) .vbs, a line from "A subroutine to export from the named file" is missing <>.
• Correction to the descriptive text for the Image compactness analysis variable. The calculation and output for Image compactness are correct. Additional information about Image compactness has been added to the associated schools descriptor entry on the School detection module algorithms page.
• Clearer documentation for TvgRangeCorrection advice for Simrad Ex60 data. Where TvgRangeCorrection is set to SimradEx60, the Sv TvgRangeCorrectionOffset is 2 and the TS TvgRangeCorrectionOffset is 0.
• Clearer documentation about the effect of the TS threshold setting on the Single Target Detection pages of single target operators.
  • In Method 1 versions of the single target detection operator, the TS threshold is applied to the TS data before the targets are detected.
  • In Method 2 versions of the single target detection operator, the TS threshold is applied to the TS data after the targets are detected.
• For more specific information refer to the notes for these operators: Single target detection - single beam Method 1, Single target detection - split beam Method 1, Single target detection - single beam Method 2 and Single target detection split beam Method 2.
• Additional information to illustrate how classification by Rules is evaluated.
• New note for single target detection operator settings. The default value of 6dB for PLDL is correct and is not normally changed.
• Additional information about changing the depth of an existing line. This can be useful for template EV files.
• Examples of a single target pulse in relation to single target detection settings and additional information added to Single target topics and single target detection algorithm pages.
• Tuning single target detection algorithms is updated with new contextual information.
• Beam compensation page is updated with beam pattern diagrams.
• Additional information about zoom-out actions under UTM map projection and areas of distortion.
• The Region Nudge tool shortcut changes the circumference of the Nudge tool when you are editing a region. Use SHIFT+left click Mouse Up or left click Mouse down.
• The Using Echoview: Key concepts section is updated.
• An inconsistency in the calculation of Vertical_roughness_coefficient is resolved and additional algorithm information is added. The algorithms for Vertical_roughness_coefficient and Horizontal_roughness_coefficient exclude thresholded pairs from the numerator and denominator of the calculations. This may change values for Vertical_roughness particularly where thresholded samples exist within a school. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. For more information refer to the notes for Vertical_roughness_coefficient.
• Updates to Filtering GPS data documentation. Erratic GPS fixes can result in unreasonable or even nonsensical apparent vessel speeds from fix to fix. Where GPS data is excessive or of mixed quality, it is strongly advised that you filter the GPS fixes by applying a GPS filter operator to a raw position GPS fixes variable.
• Missing single target latitude and longitude information is added to the What is affected by transducer geometry page.
• Additional information about special export values to indicate when data is outside the region that was selected for export.

Bug fixes

GPS distance bug

A GPS distance bug has been fixed. Prior to Echoview 5.2, GPS distances were calculated from the start of the ping; this was incorrect. Distances are now correctly calculated from the center of the ping. This bug may have a slight impact on the values of the following analysis variables: uncorrected_perimeter, corrected_perimeter, and image_compactness. We apologize for any inconvenience this bug has caused.

Analysis variable and value mismatch when Elevation is 180 degrees bug

A bug has been fixed where there was a mismatch between some analysis variable names and their values. The bug occurred when the transducer points upwards (elevation is between 90 and 270 degrees) and affected a few analysis variables with range-depth conversions. All depth-range-related analysis variables have been checked (under Elevation set between 90 and 270 degrees) and the following analysis variable and values are now reported correctly:

• Exclude_below_line_range_min, Exclude_below_line_range_max
• First_layer_range_start, First_layer_range_stop
• Last_layer_range_start, Last_layer_range_stop
• Target_depth_min, Target_depth_max

We apologize for any inconvenience this bug has caused.