Display Controls

Omniscan Display Controls are found on the right side drawer. These controls affect various aspects of how the sonar data is displayed. These controls can be used live as data is coming in as well as when data has stopped.

Contrast and Brightness

Contrast and Brightness do what they say. Try them out. Generally lower contrast is better when trying to find weak signals. Once you've found something of interest, Contrast and Brightness can be used to optimize the image. The default values are usually pretty good.

Heading Up

Heading Up mode is usually best when driving a vehicle and using SonarView live for situational awareness. In this mode the vehicle direction is always pointed up on the display. When the vehicle heading changes, the image rotates. When Heading Up mode is off, North will be up as in a normal map. Default is Heading Up when running Omniscan live, and North Up when replaying a file.

Typical Heading Up View

3D Mode

3D mode renders a three dimensional view. When enabled it turns off Heading Up and turns on Depth Compensation. In 3D mode you can rotate the view with mouse left click and drag and you can pan with right click and drag. <tablet controls for 3D TBD>

Typical 3D View

Waterfall

Waterfall view is the way sidescan data is typically displayed on sonar systems that don't have position information. Sometimes it is useful when there is little or no vehicle motion. SonarView's mosaic functions are disabled in this mode.

Depth Compensation

When Depth Compensation is off, the sonar display is similar to conventional side-scan display. Namely, the sonar signal is plotted from the center outward corresponding directly and linearly to the returned echo signal. In this mode there is a blank zone at the beginning corresponding to the depth of the water. Here is a typical "side-scan" style display. Note the black zone ahead of the vehicle. The range on this display is the slant range from the vehicle to the bottom. The point where the signal starts is shown at about 15 meters, but in reality, the point at which the signal starts is directly beneath the vehicle.

When Depth Compensation is on, SonarView calculates the depth from the sonar signal and does the non-linear compensation required to remove the "nadir" and show the image in its correct position at the bottom (based on a flat bottom assumption). Here is the same view with Depth Compensation on.

Color Picker

A variety of sonar image colors are available. Click on the color to select.