NORTEK AS NORTEKUSA

Industriveien 33 9948 Hibert St., # 102

1337 Sandvika, Norway San Diego, CA 62131, USA
Phone: +47 67 55 62 00 Phone: +1-858-586 0900
Fax: +47 67 54 61 50 Fax: +1-858-586 0110
Inquiry@nortek.no Inquiry@NortekUSA.com
www.nortek-as.com www.NortekUSA.com

ExploreP™
ver. 1.1.

August, 2000

Copyright 1997-2000 by NORTEK AS All rights reserved. This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied,
reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or Machine readable form without prior consent in writing from
NORTEK AS. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this manual. However, NORTEK AS makes no warranties with
respect to this documentation and disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. NORTEK
AS shall not be liable for any errors or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance or use
of this manual or the examples herein. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.
 NORTEK AS

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
1.1 View Types 3
1.2 Pre-processing and Display Data 4

2 Menu Selections 6
2.1 File 6
2.1.1 Open 6
2.1.2 Save 6
2.1.3 Save as 6
2.1.4 Page Set-up 6
2.1.5 Print 7
2.1.6 Export 7

2.2 Pre-processing 7
2.2.1 SNR Threshold 7
2.2.2. Co-ordinate Transform 7
2.2.3 Averaging 8

2.3 Contour Plot 8

2.3.1 Type 8
2.3.2 Plot Parameter 9
2.3.3 Range 9
2.3.4 Legends 9

2.4 Time Series 10

2.4.1 Delete 10
2.4.2 Legends 10

2.5 Profile 11
2.5.1 Delete 11
2.5.2 Legends 11
2.5.2 Animate 11

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1 Introduction
ExploreP is a Windows 95 application for visualisation of data collected by the NORTEK NDP.

1.1 View Types

Figure 1 illustrates the different views available.

Fig. 1 (Contour Plot View, Time Series View, Profile View, Auxiliary View, Button Bar)

The Contour Plot is the major view in the application, and will always be present if an NDP file
is open. It displays a user-selected measurement over a given time and depth range, for instance
Current Speed along East/West-Axis. The Plot Type, time and depth range selected in the
Contour Plot View will also dictate the available ranges for the three other views.

The Time Series View displays data for one or more depth cells in the Contour Plot View. The
actual depth cells to view are selected either by clicking the “insert time series” button and
selecting the desired depth cell or by moving the Horizontal Graph Marker up or down.

The Profile View shows one or more profiles. The actual profile time is selected by moving the
Vertical Graph Marker or by clicking the “insert profile” button and selecting the desired time.

The Auxiliary View shows one or more NDP sensor readouts, like compass heading, for the
time range used in the contour plot.

The button bar allows for easy access to some of the Contour Plot options.

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1.2 Pre-processing and Display Data

Figure 2 illustrates the operations that occur on the data.

Figure 2 - ExploreP User Guide

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The Pre-processing operation consists of three parts:

1. Quality Filter (optional). Suppresses cells that contain bad data.

Implementation based on SNR for the beams.

2. Co-ordinate Transform (optional). Transforms the data set in the

file to a user selected co-ordinate system (Beam, XYZ or ENU).

3. Averaging (default: no averaging). Averages the data over samples or

time periods.

The user may also select to use only a subset of the profiles contained in the NDP data file, in
order to speed execution. When changing any of the pre-processing options, all three pre-
processing operations are executed, and the resulting set of profiles are stored in a Processed
Data temporary file. This file still represents each cell with a vector for velocity, amplitude and
standard deviation.

In order to display the data, a Plot Operation converts the Processed Data into scalar values.
The user selects a Plot Operation from the Contour Plot Type menu, and this may be one of:
speed, direction, velocity, signal strength or standard deviation. The user may also specify a
range of cells and a range of profiles to display. Based on these user selections, a Plot Operation
is invoked to convert the vector data into the scalar values used for display.

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2 Menu Selections

2.1 File
ExploreP supports two file formats:

• *.NDP Data files are the files retrieved from the NORTEK NDP, either
during real-time operations or from the recorder. These files contain the
data viewed in ExploreP. Even though the data may be viewed in ExploreP
using several pre-processing operations, the data stored in the NDP data file
will never be changed, since all changes are stored in temporary files.

• *.ACF Work files allow the user to store all the settings when working with
an *.NDP Data file.

2.1.1 Open
Use this command to open an *.NDP Data file or an *.ACF Work file. If problems are
encountered while reading the file, the cause may be one of the following:

• If the NDP firmware is old (below version 2.0) the file format may not be
supported by ExploreP.

• If the data is retrieved from the recorder, there may be a possibility of some
corrupted data in the file. The NDPSYNC.EXE utility will correct the
problem and it is available at NORTEK’s Web site.

• If using an enhanced version of the NDP firmware (like high resolution

mode), the use of conversion software may be required. Please contact
NORTEK AS for availability.

2.1.2 Save
Saves the set-up to the selected *.ACF Work file. Does not change the *.NDP Data file.

2.1.3 Save as
Saves the current set-up to an *.ACF work file which stores the current display set-up,
including Average type, SNR Threshold, Co-ordinate Transform, Display Type, Display Zoom
and other information. The *.ACF Work file will contain a reference to the *.NDP file used, so this file
must not be moved.

The *.NDP Data file is not changed.

2.1.4 Page Set-up

Specify the graph title, as well as the margins to use. See also the Legends sub-menus on the
Contour Plot, Time Series and Profile menus for other settings affecting the printed
output.

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2.1.5 Print
Sends a view to the printer.

2.1.6 Export
Exports the data contained in the different Views to files in ASCII tabular form. When selecting
the Contour Plot, all the available data presently in the View will be exported.

To export a Time Series, a Horizontal Graph Marker must be selected. This is accomplished by
clicking on the required Marker so that it becomes dotted, or if no Horizontal Graph Marker is
present, click the ‘Insert Time Series’ button and click the mouse in the Contour Plot Area at
the desired depth cell.

The same procedure goes for exporting a Profile View, make sure a Vertical Graph Marker is
selected.

Please note that only one Graph Marker may be selected at any one time, so if a Vertical Graph
Marker is selected, the Time Series sub menu will be greyed out, and vice versa. This is easily
rectified by selecting the correct type of Graph Marker in order to enable the required sub-
menu.

Also note that the data for the Profile View are exported such that the data close to the surface
comes first, not from the NDP sensor outwards as in the NORTEK MS-DOS GETNDP.EXE
software.

2.2 Pre-processing
The pre-processing operations performs quality checks, co-ordinate transforms and averaging
on the NDP Data file. If one of these functions are performed, the display selection is reset.

2.2.1 SNR Threshold

After enabling the SNR Threshold, a Quality filter is invoked during Pre-processing. This filter
compares the SNR of all three beams in each cell with the threshold, and marks the bad data.
Velocity data from bad cells are ignored during averaging, and if no good cells are found in an
averaging interval, the subsequent display of the velocity data is suppressed for the given cell. In
the Contour Plot this will appear as a black cell.

2.2.2 Co-ordinate Transform

The NDP supports three co-ordinate systems: Beam, XYZ and ENU (requires compass
installed). Any of these co-ordinate systems may have been used in an NDP Data file. The Co-
ordinate Transform Menu Option allows the user to view the data in any of the three
supported co-ordinate systems.

When converting from XYZ to ENU, or vice versa, the heading, pitch and roll of the NDP
sensor must be known. If a compass was installed, this information will be extracted from the
file for every profile, otherwise the user will be asked to supply these parameters. In the latter
case, the same heading, pitch and roll will be used for every profile in the file. The mounting
depth is added to the cell depths along the Y-axis. The initial value is read from the data file.

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2.2.3 Averaging
The default averaging is over 1 sample, i.e. no averaging performed. The other options are:

• Average over N samples. N samples are averaged, and time of resulting

profile is set to the time of the profile in the middle of the source set (i.e.
the time of profile N/2).

• Average over hours.

• Average over days.

• Average over time period.

The user may select to work with a sub-set of the NDP raw data file in order to increase
execution speed or preserve computer resources. The Profile Selection part of the dialog box
specifies first and last available profile in the file, along with their respective times, and the user
may then specify the profile numbers of the first and last profile to work with.

This averaging interval will be used for all Pre-processing operations.

2.3 Contour Plot

This menu specifies the appearance of the Contour Plot View, and since the Profile and Time
Series Views are sub-views of the Contour Plot view, all the settings will also affect those Views.
Most of the menu settings may be set directly from the button bar.

2.3.1 Type
This menu defines the type of scalar value to display, either one of:

• Velocity.

• Signal strength.

• Standard Deviation for velocity data. This is not available if the co-ordinate
system selected for the display is different from the one in the file, i.e. a Co-
ordinate Transform has been made.

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2.3.2 Plot Parameter

This menu lets the user further specify the type of scalar value to display, depending on Plot
Type and Display Co-ordinate system. The following table lists the possible choices for the
different Plot Types and Co-ordinate systems.

Co-ordinate System
Plot Type Beam XYZ ENU
Velocity Speed Speed
Beam 1 X-Axis East/West-Axis
Beam 2 Y-Axis North/South-Axis
Beam 3 Z-Axis Up/Down-Axis
Direction
Signal Strength Beam 1 Beam 1 Beam 1
Beam 2 Beam 2 Beam 2
Beam 3 Beam 3 Beam 3
Average Beam1-3 Average Beam1-3 Average Beam1-3
Standard Deviation(*) Beam 1 X-Axis East/West-Axis
Beam 2 Y-Axis North/South-Axis
Beam 3 Z-Axis Up/Down-Axis
Average Beam1-3 Average XYZ Average ENU
(*) will only show the data stored in the file

2.3.3 Range
The dialog box shows the profiles available after the Pre-processing operation and indicates their
respective times. A sub-set to be displayed may be entered. Available cells is also displayed, and
will be the same as number of cells available in NDP raw data file. It is recommended to use the
Zoom Button on the button bar instead of this profile selection / cell selection part of the dialog
box. When clicking this with the mouse you are allowed to click and drag the area you want to
zoom in on in the contour plot.

The value range used on the Contour Plot, Time Series and Profile views may also be specified.

2.3.4 Legends
This menu lets the user specify which view panes to include in the Contour Plot View:

• Title: Title.

• Time: Display profile times along X-Axis on top.

• Depth: Display cell depths along Y-Axis.

• Value: Display legend for the colour scale.

• Info Bar: Display position (depth and time) and value of the cell beneath the
mouse cursor.

The selections made in this menu will also affect the information sent to printer.

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2.4 Time Series

The Time Series View contains any number of graphs selected from the Contour Plot. To insert
a graph into the Time Series View, press down the ‘Insert Time Series’ button and then click the
left mouse button inside the Contour Plot Area. A Horizontal Graph Marker is painted in the
Contour Plot to indicate the position of the graph.

The value range (Y-Axis) will be the same as for the Contour Plot. The time range will also be
the same as for the Contour Plot, but depending on the relative sizes of the views, the actual
data points used may be only a sub-set of the ones in the Contour Plot. This is the case when
the Contour Plot View is wider than the Time Series View.

Additional Time Series graphs may be viewed by inserting several Graph Markers into the
Contour Plot. The Graph Markers will have the same colours on the Contour Plot as the
corresponding Graph in the Time Series View. Use the Legends menu (see below) to draw the
graphs separate or combined in the Time Series View.

A Graph Marker may be selected by clicking on it, and when selected it is displayed using a
dotted line. A newly inserted Graph Marker will always be selected. A graph must be selected in
order to Export it or print it.

2.4.1 Delete
Deletes the graph for the selected Graph Marker. Make sure it is a horizontal graph marker that
is selected, only one graph marker may be selected at any time. Select a graph marker by clicking
on it.

2.4.2 Legends
By checking / unchecking the different sub-items of this menu the layout of the Time Series
View is decided.

2.5 Profile
The Profile View contains any number of graphs selected from the Contour Plot. To insert a
graph into the Profile View, press down the ‘Insert Profile’ button and then click the left mouse
button inside the Contour Plot Area. A Vertical Graph Marker is painted in the Contour Plot to
indicate the position of the graph.

The value range (X-Axis) will be the same as for the Contour Plot. The depth range will also be
the same as for the Contour Plot, but depending on the relative sizes of the views, the actual
data points used may be only a sub-set of the ones in the Contour Plot.

Additional Profile graphs may be viewed by inserting several Graph Markers into the Contour
Plot. The Graph Markers will have the same colours on the Contour Plot as the corresponding
Graph in the Profile View. Use the Legends menu to draw the graphs separate or combined in
the Profile View.

A Graph Marker may be selected by clicking on it, and when selected it is displayed using a
dotted line. A newly inserted Graph Marker will always be selected. A graph must be selected in
order to Export it or print it.

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2.5.1 Delete
Deletes the graph for the selected Graph Marker. Make sure it is a Vertical Graph Marker that is
selected, only one Graph Marker may be selected at any time. Select a Graph Marker by clicking
on it.

2.5.2 Legends
By checking / unchecking the different sub-items of this menu the layout of the Profile View is
decided.

2.5.3 Animate
The animation shows each profile displayed in the contour plot with an appropriate time delay.

Document no.: N3000-125 Rev.: a

Made by: Atle Lohrmann Date: 05/09/2000
Controlled by: Ketil Horn Staus: Active

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