7. DX Viewer¶

7.3.1. Example¶

To begin customizing a plot layout, first select a grid size. For this example, we will start with a 3X3 grid layout.

Once we have created the grid, we will remove the merge in the middle plot space vertically using the right click menu.

Once we have done this, we will repeat the remove merge vertical again to make one tall plot space in the middle. We are left with the following result:

After we have one tall plot space in the center, we can split it horizontally to create an even space down the middle of the plot:

Once we have done this, we will remove the space in the middle plot space on the left and right. The remove space option will always remove the plot below the selected one unless the plot is on the bottom space.

Once we are happy with our plot layout, we can fill in the plots in any way we choose:

Of course, the plot layout can be edited while plots are already on the canvas (unless the new layout would require a plot to be removed). In addition to the right click menu, the dropdown next to the “Edit Layout” button in the layouts section of the ribbon can be used to change the grid layout. If the “Edit Layout” button is unchecked, it will disable the grid from being changed.

*See information on plot linking tool here. *

Any grid layout can be saved and used later using the “Save Layout” button. Once a grid layout has been saved, it will be added to the “Custom” layout dropdown next to the Grid selection. Note the layout created in the example is saved in the image.

Finally, the grid can be toggled on and off with the “Show Grid” button.

7.6.1. Selector Tool¶

Use the Select Tool to make plot markers and select plot spaces (multiples with ctrl). The Selector tool can be activated by either clicking the tool button in the ribbon, or with the hotkey “C”.

To create a plot marker, click on any point on a plot and it will display pertinent information for that point. Markers can be moved around by clicking on the text and dragging them to another location. Moving a plot marker will create an arrow showing where the point is.

Multiple markers can be places on any plot by selecting Right Click > Markers > Multi-Mode. “Clear Markers” and a marker list is also available in the right click menu. Enabling the “Tracker” in the right click menu will show pointer information anchored to the mouse.

A Campbell plot can be sliced from any axis to create a spectrum plot of that axis. Using the Select Tool, click and drag along any axis to enable the slicer, release the left mouse button to see the slice. To return to the Campbell plot, either click on the “Revert” button in the “Plot Tools” section of the ribbon or select Right Click > Revert.

The Select Tool is also used for Manual Noise Editing on Campbell plots.

7.6.2. Zoom Tool¶

Use the Zoom Tool to zoom in on specific points of data by clicking and dragging on the plot. To reset zoom, select either “Zoom Defaults” (which resets the plot to its default axis settings) or “Zoom Reset” (which resets the plot to the last manual axis range). Clicking the Middle-Mouse Button will also trigger the “Zoom Reset” functionality. The Zoom tool can be selected by either clicking the tool button in the ribbon, or with the hotkey “Z”.

7.6.3. Pan Tool¶

Use the Pan Tool to move data ranges after a plot has been zoomed. The Pan tool can be selected by either clicking the tool button in the ribbon, or with the hotkey “X”.

7.6.4. Plot Options Button¶

All plot options can be accessed through either the right click menu, or the plot options button in the “Plot Tools” section of the ribbon.

7.6.5. Link Tool¶

Any plots and axis can be linked together using the Link Tool. When the link tool has been selected, DX will enter “link mode” where lines can be connected between axis or plots. Click and drag from one axis or plot to another to link them. Once linking has been completed, click the link tool again to exit link mode. The Link tool can be selected by either clicking the tool button in the ribbon, or with the hotkey “L”.

To link all axes together, connect plots from the center. Playable plots block numbers will also be linked in this way.

7.6.6. Zoom In // Zoom Out¶

Zoom In/Out buttons are also available in the “Plot Tools” section of the ribbon for smaller zooms. “Ctrl + +/-” may also be used.

7.6.7. Quick Zoom¶

If multiple plots exist on a plot page, they can be double clicked to be made full screen and then double clicked again to return to their original placement. This functionality is also available as the “Quick Zoom” button in the “Plot Tools” section of the ribbon.

7.6.8. Clear Traces¶

To remove all traces from a plot, select the “Clear Traces” button. This is also available from the right click menu. New signals can be dragged onto the blank plot space to create plots with the same ranges.

7.7.1. General¶

Font Settings:

• Change font sizes for title, axis ticks, and axis title size

  1. “Auto” font sizes will automatically scale with the plot size within the canvas grid.
  2. Manual font sizes can be selected from 8pt font to 28pt font.

General:

• Swap the X and Y axes to view plot vertically.

• Absolute time

  1. On plots vs time, “Absolute time” may be selected. Absolute time is based off of the timestamps in the file (IRIG).
  2. Absolute time is reflected in the axis settings section

Title:

• Enable/disable plot title
• Change Title text
• Enable internal title to view the title inside of the plot

Legend:

• Plot legends can be aligned anywhere within the plot (default top right corner)
• An external plot legend will place the plot legend outside of the plot
• If multiple traces are displayed on the same plot, the legend can be displayed in the specified number of columns
• Font size plot legends can be changed here

7.7.2. Axes¶

In the Axis settings for the time plot, the following settings are adjustable for each axis:

• Label

  1. Plot label settings are linked directly to the settings defined by the file or signals element in the designer seciton. Unit labels will always match actual data units.
  2. Toggle “Show” to turn labels on and off.

• Range

  1. Adjust the X axis data range for the plot

• Scaling

  1. Change between manual, half automatic, and fully automatic scaling.

     1. Manual scaling will not change with data and will stay at user defined values.
     2. Half Auto will scale with the data to the largest value and stay at that data range
     3. Full Auto will always scale to the data and grow and shrink the data scales.

• Mapping

  1. Change between linear and log axes mapping for certain plots

• Ticks

  1. Show Labels toggles on and off axis tick labels
  2. Angle will rotate the axis ticks

• Invert Axes

  1. Reverse axis values to view the plot backwards

7.7.3. Traces¶

Multiple trace settings can be adjusted within the Traces Tab as follows:

• Traces selector

  1. Within the trace selection box, one or multiple traces can be selected at time to be edited.
  2. Navigate through the traces by clicking on them directly
  3. Rearrange or remove traces with the buttons on the bottom of the section.

• Trace

  1. Change Trace color and fill color to differentiate traces on the plot
  2. Symbol includes 15 different shapes to be used as data point markers. (Default None)
  3. Symbol size adjusts the size of the data point marker symbols up to 35 pt.
  4. Line Width adjusts trace width up to 50 pt.
  5. Line style allows trace to be changed from a solid line to, dots, dashes, or combinations of both
  6. Fill style allows plots like envelope and magnitude plots to be filled in below the trace with a variety of different tick marks or gradients
  7. Transparency sets the opacity of the selected trace(s)
  8. Smooth toggles on and off anti-aliasing for a trace that makes the traces appear smoother.

• Legend

  1. Use a number of legend keys to clarify traces.
  2. All trace keys are surrounded by “%” symbols
  3. Descriptions for trace keys are available in the description section of the legend tab
  4. Consistent strings may also be added to traces by typing plain text into the legend text box
  5. Once a Legend Key has been set, selecting “Set as Default” will cause any plots created after that point have the same legend information. This includes Quick pages.
  6. Legends are saved in plot setups

• Overlay

  1. Show Limits / Modes Overlay - Toggle on-plot display of limits and modes
  2. Auto Response Detections - Quickly enable or disable response detection overlays
  3. Show / Hide frequency and parameterer bounds if they have been set by the ARD element

7.14.1. Options - Campbell Display Options¶

A Campbell plot can be customized in the following ways (Plot Options –> Campbell):

7.14.1.1. Display Modes¶

• Standard - Show points as uniform color (unless limits settings dictate otherwise)

• Color Contour - Color points by magnitude.

• Phase - Draw points by directional phase. Ticks point in the direction of the phase value and length denotes magnitude.

• Color Phase - Color points by directional phase.

• Limits - Color points by % limits

7.14.1.2. Other Settings¶

• Z Axis Range

  1. Set the Z axis range sensitivity. Changing this value will grow or shrink the size of the points and the scale on the top left of the plot.
  2. The arrows next to the value on the top left of the plot will also change the Z axis range

• Z Axis Threshold

  1. Prohibit points from being drawn below a certain magnitude
  2. The threshold range can also be changed by clicking and dragging the slider on the top left side of the canvas

• EO Line Display (only available for Speed Campbells)

  1. Display all EO lines, a custom user specified number of lines, or none

• Contour Scaling (only available for Color Contour display mode)

  1. Change contour scaling for the color contour display mode from linear to log.

• Draw (only available for speed Campbells)

  1. Draw All points, Integral Points, Non-Integral Points, or no points on a given plot.

• Symbol

  1. Change the plot point symbols to Double Tick, Single Tick, Circle, Square Diamond, Upwards Triangle or Downwards Triangle.

• Draw Noise

  1. When a noise filter is applied, DX will remove it from a plot by default. Checking this option will show the noisy points in the color assigned.

7.14.2. Options - Limits/Modes Tab¶

Limits/Modes settings are only available if Limits have been assigned to the file in the designer.

• Alt Modes

  1. Enabling this setting will highlight mode ranges in alternating colors

• Mode colors

  1. “Selected:” - color that is used to highlight a mode range when the mode is selected on the plot
  2. “Alt:” - color that is used for the alternating mode range color. The color that the mode will alternate with is the plot’s trace color.

• Info Format

  1. Show % value for frequency, ratio, or limits per mode line.
  2. To show each, type [%freq], [%ratio], and/or [%limit]
  3. Text strings may also be entered here

7.14.3. Options - Markers Tab¶

Selecting statistics in this tab will show more information about a selected point. Example:

7.16.1. Options - Z-mod Display Options¶

• Z Axis Range

  1. Set the Z axis range sensitivity. Changing this value will alter the colors on the plot. Larger numbers set the range to cooler colors.

• Z Axis Threshold

  1. Prohibit points from being drawn below a certain magnitude

• Contour Scaling

  1. Change contour scaling for the color contour display mode from linear to log

• Draw (only available for speed Z-mods)

  1. Draw All points, Integral Points, Non-Integral Points, or no points on a given plot
  2. Integral Tolerance - Set the nearness to the selected value for integral or non-integral points to be drawn

7.17.1. Options - Order Z-mod Display Options¶

• Z Axis Range

  1. Set the Z axis range sensitivity. Changing this value will alter the colors on the plot. Larger numbers set the range to cooler colors.

• Z Axis Threshold

  1. Prohibit points from being drawn below a certain magnitude

• Contour Scaling

  1. Change contour scaling for the color contour display mode from linear to log

• Draw (only available for speed Z-mods)

  1. Draw All points, Integral Points, Non-Integral Points, or no points on a given plot
  2. Integral Tolerance - Set the nearness to the selected value for integral or non-integral points to be drawn

7.18.1. Tables¶

All points collected by the Automatic Response Detection elements can be listed with all important information by simply dragging the element from the viewer tree directly onto a blank space on the viewer canvas. This table can then be edited and exported in a variety of ways.

In the above image, all peaks collected by the Automatic Response Detection Element are displayed in the table. Results can be easily narrowed down by using the search bar along the top of the table. For instance, if the information for only one signal is needed, simply type the name of that signal into the bar. Multiple criteria can be entered into the box by selecting the green “+” button next to the search bar.

If the text in the search bar has been changed, the blue “refresh” button will refresh the table with the updated results. Alternatively, the return key may be pressed to update results. If multiple search criteria have been entered into the able, they can be removed by the red “-” button.

Table categories can also be narrowed down by right-clicking the categories on the top of the table and selecting / deselecting a given parameter. Selecting “Save State” will allow the current table state to be returned to after edits have been made to an existing table, or new tables have been made by selecting “Restore State”. “Show All” and “Hide All” Show all categories or hide all categories on the table respectively.

Any column can be moved right or left within the table by clicking and dragging it from the top. “Freeze Column” will disallow this function for the selected column(s).

Clicking on the top of a column will order all other rows according the selected column. Clicking a column more than once will toggle through ascending, descending, and default, which returns the row order to the last arrangement.

The current state of the response table can be exported as a .csv or .bcx (binary file) in the right click menu –> Export Auto Response Detection.

7.18.2. Plotting¶

Once a plot has been created in the viewer, an Automatic Response Detection can be dragged and dropped on top of it to view all the collected peaks directly on the plot.

Points can be selected or edited in the Plot Options –> Traces –> Overlays section of all plot options tabs that support Response Detection overlays. If multiple response detections are included in the designer, they can be added or taken away in this section of the plot options menu. To change the color of an Auto Response Detection marker, double click the detection in the dialogue and choose the color from the selector.

7.20.1. Time Waterfall Settings¶

• View

  1. Waterfall plots can be viewed by either magnitude or power density

• Waterfall

  1. X Offset: arranges the plot to the left or right. 0 offset views the plot directly on.
  2. Y Offset: tilts the vertical axis for the plot. 0 offset makes a flat plot.
  3. Step: sets the amount of distance in seconds between each trace. Higher time values mean less traces on the plot, and more space between each trace. Minimum 0.25.
  4. Range: sets the time range of the Y2 axis. Higher numbers display more data.
  5. Min / Max Hz: set the Hertz range for the waterfall plot
  6. Trace Gradient: Colormaps waterfall plot based on magnitude. Green for lower magnitude, blue for higher frequency.

7.20.2. Speed Waterfall Settings¶

• View

  1. Waterfall plots can be viewed by either magnitude or power density

• Waterfall

  1. X Offset: arranges the plot to the left or right. 0 offset views the plot directly on.
  2. Y Offset: tilts the vertical axis for the plot. 0 offset makes a flat plot.
  3. Bins: Increase or decrease the resolution of the Y2 axis by drawing more or less bins
  4. Min / Max Hz: set the Hertz range for the waterfall plot
  5. Trace Gradient: Colormaps waterfall plot based on magnitude. Green for lower magnitude, blue for higher frequency.

7.25.1. Saving¶

To save a plot setup, first create a plot page or pages in the viewer. In this example, we have 2 plot pages. One overview plot page with a number of plot types, and a plot page with a Campbell and axis-swapped Envelope linked together. Once plots have been created, click the “Save” icon near the top left of the ribbon, next to the page creation / deletion buttons. Alternatively, plot setups can be saved with “Ctrl + S”. We will save our plot setup as “PlotSetupOverview.dxs”

7.25.2. Loading¶

After a plot setup has been saved it can be loaded again at any time. Select the “Load” icon (next to the “Save” icon) to load a plot setup. Alternatively, plot setups can be loaded with “Ctrl + L”. In the below example, we have deleted all of the plots from the viewer and loaded the plot setup file saved above.

7.25.3. Reprocessed Setups¶

DX uses the same process for plot setups that it uses to keep plots consistent in the viewer between reprocesses. This means that if a plot is created in the viewer, it will stay in the viewer even if the file or design is changed. For example, using the plot setup in the above example, we return to the designer and add a number of noise filters to flag the 60 cycle hum in the data. Once we have created those filters, we reprocess the file and return to the viewer.

7.25.4. Plot Setups with different files¶

One of the most powerful features of plot setups is its ability to be used with varied files. Once a plot setup has been created, it can then be loaded using a different file than it was created with.

When loading with different files ensure that:

1. The viewer element name matches the viewer element name that the plot setup was created with. If a plot setup is saved with a viewer element named “viewer_filter,” the plot setup must be loaded with a viewer element named “viewer_filter” in the design. Unknown results may occur if viewer name does not match.
2. Consistent signal and parameter names. If a different file is loaded, it must have the same signal and parameter names as is in the plot setup or it will not load the plots.
3. Plot ranges are saved in plot setups, so if a file is loaded with a different range, the plots will need to be rescaled unless they are set to Half or Fully Automatic scaling.

In the below example, a similar file is loaded that meets the above criteria using the design and plot setup we created in the last subsections.

7.26.1. Duplicating Pages¶

The duplicate pages button allows the user to copy the current page setup and apply it to any number of signals selected in the viewer. When creating a page setup to duplicate, ensure that only one signal is present on the page. Once a page has been setup, click the “Duplicate Page Button.” This will open a dialogue where signals can be selected to apply to the current page.

All plots, parameters, statistics, links, axis ranges and plot settings will be copied onto new pages. If a signal name is found in the page title, it will be concatenated to match the new signal on the page. If no signal name is in the page name, the signal name will be added to the page name. All new pages are inserted after the duplicated page.

The duplicate function can be used in conjunction with the :ref: plot setup <plot-setup> features to save and load page setups for use on other files, tests, and projects. If a single page is saved, it can be easily loaded with another file and duplicated from there.

7.26.2. Campbell Triple Button¶

The Campbell Triple plot is a comon plot layout for aeromechanical analysis that includes a speed Campbell plot linked to a tracking plot, and envelope plot and a response table. To automatically generate a Campbell Triple plot, select a signal and ctrl+select a speed parameter from the viewer tree and click the Campbell Triple button. This will spawn a Tracking plot option box, change the parameters as needed and click “okay” or click “cancel” to create let DX choose what orders the tracking plot contains.