Chesapeake Times, Vol 13 | April 2023
In the next release of SonarWiz, the addition of saving and highlighting bathymetry sounding points – as flagged and golden soundings was added. We took the concept of a Golden Sounding and enhanced it to be Golden areas, providing more flexibility and options for the user.
In SonarWiz, editing bathymetry soundings can be done in the map view or in the bathy editors. The selection of the flagged soundings follows suit and can be done in any of the editing views.
Using a shipwreck as an example, the user wants to preserve the high point. This was done by marking a single point at the bow of the wreck. Because it is golden, editing on the surrounding area will always keep this one-point intact.
After marking the point, editing the data will preserve this single point, even with all other points removed.
In this new feature, we expanded the role of the flags, allowing the user to set up to 8 different flags, each with the option of golden or not, and allowing for the user to designate the flag color.
The flagged selection is carried over to the other bathy editors; in the single line swath editor, the user can do a similar function, marking a point or area of interest. An example shown has the high point of the vessel marked as golden.
Just as important as visually seeing the mark on the screen is the ability to export the data. The output for XYZ changed to provide this information. The user now has options for a variety of exports – for flagged and unflagged data, or a subset of beams.
Looking for that one special point – indicated as the golden, shows the depth of 5.05meters for the sounding point
X,Y,Z,”wreck high point:Golden”(2)
351796.51,6175164.70,5.05,2
The user can also save a subset of the data, in this case, designated as flag “wreck inside”
X,Y,Z,”wreck inside”(1)
351778.94,6175155.35,5.93,1
351779.10,6175155.42,5.96,1
351779.09,6175155.41,5.96,1
351779.07,6175155.38,5.95,1
351779.04,6175155.35,5.97,1
351779.06,6175155.37,5.92,1
351779.01,6175155.32,5.95,1
This update to the bathymetry engine allows the user to find, designate and save the single point, or area points, that are significant in the data set. Allowing to hold user defined flags, marking them as golden or not, provides the additional tools needed for the surveyor to refine and create the export needed for the
project.
The full description of running this tool is in the latest user guide for SonarWiz.