Quick Start Guide to Single Beam (SBES) Processing

This Quick Start Guide will take you step-by-step through processing a bathymetry from a single beam echo sounder (SBES) data set. For more information about the individual commands, please refer to the User Guide found in the Help Menu of SonarWiz.

Instructions

Click the New Project Icon to open the Create New Project Dialog
Enter a Project name and Project Folder, then set the approximate position of the data. This can be done either by entering in a known location or Get from File – navigate to a single file from the project (note: at this point, only one file is needed to set the geodesy, regardless of the number to be processed). Double-check that SonarWiz selects an appropriate Coordinate System for your project.

Note: the Coordinate Source section does not apply to bathymetry projects.
In the program, go to the second tab -- Post Processing -- and select Import | Single Beam Bathymetry Files…
In the file Open dialog, select the File Template specific to your echo sounder. In this example, we are importing SBES data from a Hypack RAW format. So, we select the HYPACK Single Beam template.
Next, also in the file Open dialog, click the File Type Specific Options button to specify the bathymetry packets to import. Most file types, have an Auto option that will attempt to pick the best navigation, bathymetry packets available in the file.
Select one or more bathymetry files to import and click Open.
The selected files will begin to import into SonarWiz immediately.
When the import is completed, you should see the files listed in the Project Explorer and the bathymetry data will draw in the main display window:
To control the colors of the bathymetry in the main display, Open the Color Window from the Mapping toolbar and set the Datatype to Bathymetry:

You can adjust the color palette and the color scale mode.
SonarWiz will automatically configure a Vessel for the project from information stored in the bathymetry files you import. However, the configuration information may be wrong or incomplete. It is a good idea to open up the Vessel Editor and make any necessary adjustments. Select Vessel | Open Vessel Editor… from the Post Processing ribbon menu.
In the Vessel Editor, you can configure the Vessel Shape and Size, Vessel Properties and Sensor Offsets. Any changes you make are saved immediately. When you are done, simply close the Vessel Editor.
If you made any changes to the vessel, notice that the colored icon next to each bathymetry data set in the Project Explorer will turn yellow. This is to indicate that the bathymetry is out of date and needs to be recomputed, or re-Merged.
Right-click the Tide Files branch of the Project Explorer and Select Edit/Import Tide Files…

For more information on how to use the CTI Tide Editor see Quick Start Guide to the CTI Tide Editor .
Right-click the Sound Velocity Files branch of the Project Explorer and Select Edit/Import Sound Velocity Files…

For more information on how to use the CTI Sound Velocity Editor see Quick Start Guide to the CTI Sound Velocity Editor.
Click the Bathymetry | Tide + SV Manager… button to open the Tide and Sound Velocity Manager.
In the Tide and Sound Velocity Manager, select a tide file and sound velocity profile for each bathymetry data set. Use the Auto Tides… and Auto SV… buttons to let SonarWiz assign the files based on time and distance. You should also set the source for the surface sound velocity (default: Sensor Value) and the ray tracing method: (Profile is recommended if SVP are available, Sensor Value otherwise).

Click OK to close the Tide and Sound Velocity Manager.
Right-click the External Navigation Files branch in the Project Explorer and select Add/Import External Navigation Files… if these will be used. Otherwise, SonarWiz will extract the navigation from the internal navigation stored in the bathymetry files.
Click Merge… on the Bathymetry Ribbon bar to recompute the bathymetry any time you have made a change to the project that would affect the bathymetry.
Merge Wizard - File Selection. Select the files you want to recompute. Click Next.
Merge Wizard - Auxiliary Data Selection. Control how SonarWiz will compute the position, attitude and height of the survey. There are various options for applying tides, pressure sensors and antenna elevations. Click Next.
Merge Wizard - Error Model Data. If you want to use the C.U.B.E. gridding algorithm (not recommended for SBES data), you will need to define the uncertainty on each bathymetric sounding. SonarWiz offers several options from a simple IHO model to a full error model computation. Click Next.
Merge Wizard - Filter Settings. The final step in the merge process is to apply automatic filters to the data. There are 10 filter algorithms available including angle/range limiters, density filters and more. These filters can be run outside of the Merge process by clicking the Filter button in the Bathymetry ribbon menu. Click Finish to run the merge process.

SonarWiz will remember the merge settings you have specified. If you need to re-merge the data in the future you can click Finish at any time in the Merge Wizard to use the previous settings.
After the Merge process is completed, the indicator next to each bathymetry data set in the Project Explorer should turn green again.
To edit the Navigation or Attitude data for bathymetric data sets, Select the dataset with the mouse and click the Navigation and Attitude Editor icon in the Bathymetry ribbon menu.

The Navigation and Attitude Editor has commands for removing spikes from bad navigation, applying low-pass filters to antenna heights and other useful features.
To manually edit soundings, SonarWiz provides the Swath Editor. The Swath Editor allows you to edit a single bathymetry data set at a time.

To open the Swath Editor, select a trackline in the Project Explorer or in the main display and click the Swath Editor icon in the Bathymetry ribbon menu.

NOTE: for dual frequency systems you can control the color of the frequencies separately:
To create a grid of your bathymetric data, zoom the main display to the area you wish to grid. Right-click the Grids branch of the Project Explorer and select the Create New Grid… command.

NOTE: Only the bathymetry files you have enabled (checked) in the Project Explorer will be added to the grid. You must have at least 1 bathymetry file checked.
In the Gridding Setup window:

Data Source: Internal
Grid Extents: defaults to the size of the screen
Grid Cell Size: Pick something appropriate for your data.
Output Grid File Root Name: pick a base name for the grids that will be created
Primary Grid Surface Type: Depth
Grid Algorithm: Natural Neighbors or Inverse Distance Weighted
Optional Grids: as desired

Click OK to start the gridding process.
The new grids will be added to the Project Explorer and they will appear underneath your bathymetric soundings in the main display. At this point, you may want to change the bathymetry View Settings to show only navigation lines so the grid can be seen. Select the View ribbon menu and then Drawing Mode | Bathymetry Drawing Modes | Navigation Plot Mode

This will change the main display to show only the navigation lines for your bathymetry and allow the grid to shine through:
Enable a Shaded Relief effect on the surface in the view menu:

Use the sliders to adjust the Vertical Exaggeration, Light Azimuth and Light Elevation. The grid will respond immediately'
To change the color palette of the grids you create, Select the grid in the Project Explorer and then click the Display tab in the grid Properties window. You can change the color palette in the Color Scale drop down directly or you can click the “…” button to open the Color Scale Properties dialog with full control of the color mapping.
To Export a grid out of SonarWiz, Right-Click the grid in the Project Explorer and select the Export Grid As… command.

SonarWiz supports more than 20 export formats for grids.

Click OK to export the grid.
To export your cleaned bathymetry data as an XYZ point file. Use the Post Processing > Export > Bathymetry Exports > Export Bathymetry XYZ File… command.
In the Export Bathymetry XYZ dialog, you which lines will be exported and the output file settings:

The output file looks like this in a text editor:

Instructions

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