Adjusting the sonar view
All echo information offered by the M3 Sonar is shown in the sonar view.
Context
The Display Widget allows you to adjust the filter strength, change the display gain, and choose your echo colours. You can drag sliders with the mouse to increase or decrease parameter values. For fine adjustments, use the mouse scroll wheel to move the slider by one increment.
Note
If you have a high-frequency M3 Sonar transducer, you can change the frequency using the Display Widget.
The Display menu allows you to configure a number of options in the sonar view, including making the sonar view full screen and adjusting the annotations, palette, or sector orientation. Functions to improve image quality, such as a speckle filter and automatic sidelobe reduction, are also available in the Display menu.
Tip
You can change the physical size of the sonar view by clicking on the left view border, then dragging it to create a smaller or larger window. You can also make the sonar view full screen by clicking DisplayFull Screen or by clicking the Show Full Screen button in the tool bar.
Procedure
1 Use the Display Widget to adjust the sonar view according to your preferences.
Image
a Click the Display Widget icon.
This icon is located in the lower-right corner of the sonar view.
b If you have a high-frequency transducer, click one of the buttons to select a frequency (in kHz).
The frequency buttons will not appear if you are using a 500 kHz transducer.
c To adjust the strength of an enabled filter in the sonar view (such as Average Filter or Edge Enhancement), drag the Filter slider to increase or decrease the filter effect.
Note
The Filter slider will not appear if no filters are enabled. Note that filter settings will not be saved when the software is closed.
d To adjust the display gain manually, check the box and drag the Gain slider to increase or decrease the gain.
Display Gain controls the "amount" of echo that is displayed, in other words the "strength" or "intensity" of the echo presentation. Uncheck the box if you want the software to adjust the gain automatically.
Note
Adjusting the display gain manually will disable the Sidelobe Reduction function (found in the Display menu).
e Drag the Contrast slider to increase or decrease the sonar view display contrast.
f To choose your echo colours, right-click on the Palette bar to cycle through the colour scale options.
Which colour scale to use is mainly a personal preference based on ambient light conditions, the nature of the echoes and your own experience.
g Click the Display Widget icon to hide the widget.
2 Use the Display menu to control the visual aspects of the system, and to show or hide various elements in the presentation.
Image
a Click Full Screen to make the sonar view full screen.
Press the Esc key to exit full-screen mode.
b Click Annotations to enable or disable the bearing and range annotations in the sonar view.
c Select Font Size to increase or decrease the size of the annotations in the sonar view.
d Select Palette to choose your preferred echo colours. Which colour scale to use is mainly a personal preference based on ambient light conditions, the nature of the echoes and your own experience.
e Select Sector Orientation to choose a different angle of orientation for the sonar view. Enter an angle (in degrees) into the Orientation dialog box, then click Apply to rotate the sonar view to your chosen angle.
f If your Sonar Head is forward looking, click Heading Overlay to enable or disable this feature. When this feature is enabled, the degree annotations in the sonar view will change to reflect the current sonar heading.
g Click Speckle Filter to enable or disable this function. This filter reduces noise (the grainy “salt-and-pepper” pattern) in uniform areas of the sonar view. Distinguishable details in features and targets will be retained.
h Click Sidelobe Reduction to enable or disable automatic sidelobe reduction. This function improves overall image quality by reducing the sidelobes of strong targets.
Tip
To change the colour scale of the 3D Point Cloud, click Depth, check the Adaptive Palette box, then click Apply.