Chesapeake Times, Vol 15 | October 2023
The upcoming SonarWiz 7.12 release will include a nice, oft-requested change to the property grid interface to simplify its operation and speed up batches of settings changes.
The property grid interface in SonarWiz has for a long time been the primary means by which settings are applied to sidescan and sub-bottom lines, magnetometer data, and other selectable artifacts within the program. It has in many ways replaced the earlier “manager” interfaces, which show grids of items with select properties in columns, for a number of reasons:
– It can be “always-on” but not in the way – with a consistent docked position relative to the Explorer window and selection changes from the Explorer or the plan view applicable immediately, it’s a lot easier to work with than the manager windows, which can show up in different places, and make the main window (and thus plan view and Explorer) unavailable
– All settings can be shown in a relatively compact area – showing all of the settings in the managers would require excessively wide tables in many instances; additionally, related settings are nicely grouped
– A better variety of controls is available to the property grids relative to the manager windows
– The property grid makes it easier and more natural to focus on only applicable settings, hiding or disabling any that aren’t relevant in the current context.
The existing property grid interface isn’t without its problems, though. One frequent complaint is that some changes trigger immediate processing, even though follow-on changes might very well require that same processing to run again. This behavior interrupts the workflow and wastes time. In a project having hundreds of sidescan lines, say, changing all of the lines to project with course made good rather than sensor heading just after import, and adjust the associated smoothing constant, could take a substantial amount of time.
To solve this, SonarWiz 7.12 will eliminate all of the instances of immediate application of property changes in the grid, requiring instead that the save/undo buttons at the top of the window (or the Yes/No answer to the “Save changes?” prompt that occurs when changing selection) be used to apply changes. This allows for the full set of intended property changes to be built up and applied or discarded all at once, saving time.