Qimera ENC Editor Dock

ENC Editor Dock

The ENC Editor Dock allows you to create and edit ENC charts in your project.  You can create point, line and area objects with some of the attributes automatically filled in based on the source of the creation.  You can create objects directly in the 4D Scene, or, create point objects that are linked to soundings from any of the sounding based editors.  The ENC Editor Dock consists of a filter tree, a feature table and a toolbar.

ENC Editor Toolbar

In order for the toolbar cursor modes to be available, you must have selected a chart layer in your Qimera Project Layers Dock.  If you are going to do any editing, that layer must also be unlocked.  See the Project Layers Context menu for more information.

  Pick ENC Object

This cursor mode allows you to pick an ENC object in the scene.  It will only pick ENC objects in the currently selected chart layer not filtered out by the Feature Filters.  When you make a selection, all the position nodes appear as red dots in the scene.  

  Select ENC Objects

This cursor mode allows you to draw a selection rectangle to select ENC objects in the scene.  It will only pick ENC objects in the currently selected chart layer not filtered out by the Feature Filters.  When you make a selection, all the position nodes appear as red dots in the scene.

  Query Chart

This cursor mode allows you to query a location for all ENC information loaded in your project.  When you pick in the 4D Scene, the ENC Information Dialog appears, with detailed information near the pick point for all loaded ENC cells.

  Edit Feature

This button is enabled if you have a feature selected in the table.  When you click it, it will bring up the Edit ENC Object dialog described in the following section. 

  Create Point Object

This button places the scene in ENC Point Object creation mode.  Left-click anywhere on a grid to create an ENC Point Object.  When you click, it will bring up the ENC Create Object dialog described in the following section.

  Create Line Object

This button places the scene in ENC Line Object creation mode. Left-click a series of points on a grid.  Right-click to exit and create an ENC Line Object which will bring up the ENC Create Object dialog described in the following section.

  Create Area Object

This button places the scene in ENC Area Object creation mode.  Left-click a series of points on a grid.  Right-click to exit and create an ENC Area Object which will bring up the ENC Create Object dialog described in the following section.

  Create Shoalest Point Object

This button places the scene in ENC - Point Object creation mode.  Left-click-drag an area selection in the scene.  Qimera will determine the shoalest grid-node from all visible Dynamic Grids.  It will then bring up the ENC Create Object dialog described in the following section.

  Launch Qomposer

This will launch the Qomposer application with the charts in your project.

It is important to note that this icon will only appear if Qomposer is downloaded on the computer.

ENC Editor Menu

Edit Feature

This will launch the Edit ENC Object dialog shown here.

Configure Columns

This will launch the Configure Columns dialog shown below.  Check and uncheck the attributes you want to display in the table.  You can type an attribute name in the edit field at the top of the dialog to quickly trim the list of possible attributes.

Import Filter Set

This option allows you to import a previously saved filter set.

Export Filter Set

This option allows you to export a filter set for use in other projects.

Export Table

This option allows you to export a semi-colon delimited text file of the table values.  The first row of the text file will be the column names.

ENC Editor Menu

Create ENC Object Dialog

This dialog allows you to decide which type of ENC object you are going to create, and the attributes/attribute values that will be associated with it.  The Object Catalog combo-box allows you to choose between All Objects, Inland Objects and S57 Objects (default).  The Feature Class combo-box allows you to select which feature type you want to create.  By default, Qimera will automatically add all of the Mandatory attributes for the feature type.  Mandatory attributes will appear with a red text label.  If you add new attributes, Qimera will remember these the next time you create a feature of the same type.

Adding/Removing Attributes

Clicking the Add/Remove button brings up the Feature Attributes dialog shown below on the left.  It will only list the attributes available for the feature type.  You will also see any custom attributes that may be available.  Check or uncheck attribute names that you want to add or remove from your ENC object.  You can also use the Select All or Deselect All buttons.  If an attribute is disabled (grayed out), that means it is a mandatory attribute and cannot be removed.  You can filter out a lengthy list by typing in the edit box at the top of the dialog. 

It is important to note that the image attribute is not default, and it must be added using this dialog to attach an image to the ENC Object.

An example of the search filter is shown in the right image below.

Qimera Attributes

This option allows you to globally include or exclude Qimera custom ENC attributes.  Qimera custom attributes enable the use of the Dynamic ENC Update described below.  This preference will be persisted each time you then try to create a new ENC object.

Edit ENC Object Dialog

This dialog allows you to edit ENC object attributes as well as add or remove attributes.  You can bring up this dialog by either double-clicking on a row in the feature table, or clicking on the Edit Feature button. 

You can also edit more than one feature at a time.  Simply select multiple rows in the table and click the Edit Feature button.  The only attributes that appear in the dialog are the ones that appear in all of the selected features.  If the values of those attributes conflict, the attribute label will be orange as shown below to the left.  If you don't change the value, the values in the original features will not be changed.  If you change the value, the attribute name will appear with a green background as shown below to the right.  Then clicking the OK button will change the attribute to that value for all selected features.

ENC Object Images

If you add the NOAA images custom attribute to your feature, you are able to correlate images to the feature you created via directory search or widget snapshots.  Using the camera icon shown below, you are able to create a screenshot of the editor that was used to create the feature.  Qimera will ask if you want to additionally add a screenshot of the main scene as shown below.  If you click the Don't Ask Again option and answer Yes, you will always automatically get a screen capture from the main scene, unless you are creating the object from the main scene.  You can turn this off by clearing the option in the Remembered Prompts tab of the preferences dialog.  The capture capability will screen grab from all of the available ENC Object Creation Widgets (Swath, 3D Editor, Slice Editor, Water Column View, Main Scene).   

If you click on the Browse button, the Image Viewer dialog will be shown.  Here you see thumbnails of all the images you have added.  Clicking on a thumbnail will display it in the main window.  You can hit the Delete key to delete any currently selected images.  To add more images, simply click the Browse button from this dialog.

Images are stored along side your charts in the QNC folder of your project.  If you select an image outside the Qimera Project, it will be copied locally so that it will always stay connected to your charts.

ENC Feature Table

The ENC Feature Table displays the features of the currently selected Chart Layer in the Layers Dock.  You can edit features in the table by double-clicking on a row, or selecting multiple rows and clicking the Edit Feature button.  Clicking on the column headers will change the sorting of the table entries.  You can also right-click on a table row to bring up the ENC Feature Table Context Menu.  You can change which columns are displayed using the ENC Editor Menu described here.  You can also change the width of the columns by hovering over the column headers.

ENC Feature Table Context Menu

When you right click on a table row, the context menu for the table will popup.  

Copy To

Use this option to copy features to another one of your project chart layers.  This list will auto populate based on the charts in your project.

Move To

Use this option to Delete a feature from one chart layer and add it to another chart layer.

Edit

Use this option to bring up the Edit ENC Object dialog.

Center On

Use this option to center the 4D Scene on the feature.

Delete

Use this option to delete a feature from a chart layer.

ENC Filter Tree

The filter tree allows you to create filters to reduce the amount of features displayed in your table. 

As you click on a filter in the tree, the table is updated accordingly.  The filters can be nested allowing for finer refinement of the features in your table.  Some examples of simple filter usage are shown below.

Show all features

Show only wreck features

Show only wreck features having depth < 50.0 meters

Feature Filters

When you add new filters using the Filter Tree context menu, you get the Add Feature Filter dialog shown below.  Filters consist of 3 components listed below.  Notice that as the filter is constructed, an informative Name is automatically filled in by Qimera.  You can override this by typing in your own description in the Name field.

Primitive Type Filters

This will create a filter which only passes the feature type that are checked.

Feature Class Filters

This will create a filter which only passes the feature classes added to the list box.  If you don't add any feature class types, all features are passed.  Use the "..." button to bring up the Add/Remove Feature Classes dialog shown below.  Any feature classes checked will be added to the list box.  You can search for specific feature class types by typing in the search box at the top of the dialog.  The list of feature classes will also be reduced based on which Primitive Type check boxes you checked.

After you select from the Add/Remove Feature Class dialog, your feature class names will appear in the list as shown below.

Attribute Filters

This will create a filter which only passes the features with attributes matching those in the list box.  Use the "..." button to bring up the Add/Remove Attributes dialog shown below.  Any attributes checked will be added to the list box.  You can search for specific attributes by typing in the edit box at the top of the dialog.  The list of attributes will also be reduced based on which Feature Classes you have added to the filter.

After you select from the Add/Remove Attributes dialog, your attribute names will appear in the list as shown below.  Attributes can have 2 existence operators (Exists, Does Not Exist) and 2 equivalency operators (Equals, Does Not Equal), and 4 mathematical operators (Greater Than, Less Than, Greater Than or Equal, Less Than or Equal).  If you are using any of the mathematical operators, you must fill in a value for the attribute.  Depending on the attribute type, you will also have to fill in a value when using the equivalency operators.

If an attribute is non-numeric, then you will only have 4 operators (Exist, Does Not Exist, Equals, Does Not Equal).  An example of this type of attribute (enumeration) is shown below.

After clicking the OK button, the filter name will appear in your filter tree.

ENC Filter Tree Context Menu

This context menu enables you to configure your filters to reduce what is shown in the table view.  Right-click on a node in the filter tree to activate the context menu.

Add Filter

This will add a filter under the root filter.  It will display the Add Feature Filter dialog described above.

Add Subfilter

This will add a filter under the currently selected filter.  It will display the Add Feature Filter dialog described above.

Edit Filter

This will allow you to edit the selected feature.  It will display the Edit Feature Filter dialog that works the same as the Add Feature Filter dialog described above.

Duplicate Filter

This will duplicate the currently selected filter.  Use the Edit Filter option to then make changes to this filter.

Remove Filter

This will remove the currently selected filter.

Dynamic ENC Update

Dynamic ENC Update is a mechanism that automatically changes the Z or XYZ value of a point ENC object each time data is processed in Qimera.  The Z value is typically represented by the VALSOU attribute of an ENC object.  Qimera automatically fills in the VALSOU value whenever you create a point ENC object or in one of the 4 sounding editors. 

Creating Dynamic Objects

There are multiple ways to create ENC point objects that will benefit from the Dynamic ENC Update mechanism.  These are listed below.

Grid Connection

If your ENC object is linked to a grid, it will have the pickds custom attribute set to the name of the grid in your project.  Whenever this grid changes, the VALSOU value of the feature will be automatically updated via a "re-pick" of the depth of the Dynamic Grid.

Sounding Connection

If your ENC object is linked to a sounding, it will have the custom attributes listed below as well as the VALSOU automatically set.  Whenever the picked sounding is reprocessed, the linked ENC object VALSOU will be updated to the new Z value of the sounding as well as the XY position.

All of the Qimera Attributes are filled in automatically by Qimera when a sounding is selected.  If you do not want Qimera to automatically update an ENC object when data is reprocessed, simply uncheck the option box.

The Set Custom Hypothesis option will automatically set the custom hypothesis flag for a sounding when the ENC object is created.  This is important if you are doing your editing and ENC object creation based on a CUBE grid.