Qinsy 8.18.0 Release

Release Date

8 February 2018

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Introduction

We're pleased to present QINSy version 8.18.0. In this release, we introduce new ASV related functionality and Navigation display improvements, ENC overlay and many improvements that were requested. There are many small and large changes in drivers and export as well and a large number of bugs have been resolved. Read below for details, there is quite a collection of enhancements and polishing to further improve the QINSy experience.

We have successfully completed a pilot project in handling customer feedback and requests for QINSy in our new Feedback Project. Several high-priority items from QINSy have been successfully implemented as a result and this can be seen from the number of votes satisfied.

Thank you for voting!  We will begin tackling the Feedback Project items aggressively in the next releases and from this point forward, so please take a moment to scan items and vote for those that you would like to see implemented. See also Voting System Policy and Using the feedback project.

New Functionality

New ASV related functionalities 

The autopilot drivers that have been available in QINSy for a long time have been improved and specifically for ASVs these drivers contain functionality that will help in surveying with ASVs. This functionality will continue to be improved.

Autopilot driver improvements

The Autopilot driver (with turning track) has been updated so that it is now possible to select the format online. In addition to this there is now also a network (TCP) version of this driver. The driver can send commands to a vessel's autopilot and thus it is controlled from QINSy. The driver was successfully field tested on a Searobotic ASV, as shown in the image below. Clicking on the picture will also show a short video.

Adaptive Line Planning

Adaptive line planning has also been added to the autopilot driver and settings for this can be entered from the online user interface.
The adaptive line planning allows for creation of adjacent survey lines based on the swath-coverage. This is useful for preventing data-gaps in areas where the depth varies. The dampening factor allows the algorithm to provide a smoother resulting track that is less sensitive to variations in the coverage achieved from the previous track. This results in a more efficient survey.

More information can be found in the drivers manual: Network - AutoPilot (with turning track) (TCP).

ENC overlay cells support

It is now possible to create and show the content of a so-called ENC overlay cell in the Navigation Display. 
These files are used as additional information during a survey where features need to be checked, this is a very typical exercise during nautical chart updating in USA.  The overlay allows the real-time display of Feature Files to promote situational awareness of the ENC features that are to be reviewed as a survey deliverable. The overlay can be selected and features are highlighted so that it is clear that the data is not part of an underlying ENC. It is possible to add and edit objects in the overlay layer (and no longer in the original ENC) .
The ENC overlay created in Qimera (version 1.6)  can be used here as well, it's the QNC stored in the QNC subfolder of the active project.

Activate the overlay cell in the View Properties dialog

Navigation Display grid relative to terrain or water level

Earlier it was only possible to show one underlying grid. Now the display can show a grid relative to additional terrains.

Additional terrains can be:

• Design model
• Fixed value
• Sounding grid layers

Next to additional terrains it is now also possible to show the grid relative to the water level.

The information bar has been adjusted to show which grids are being compared and what the difference is between them when hovering over the screen with your mouse pointer.

Create a Grid Edge

Generates an area of and draws an outline along the edges (cell centers) of the data in a sounding grid layer. This area plus edge can then be used in various ways such as a surrounding polygon when carrying out volume calculations, when editing on other grids or as background data. It can also be shown in the Navigation Display as extra information.

Surrounding Polygon

RTK height as tide

For offshore operations the heights from a GNSS receiver can be quite accurate but still have some noise and sometimes even an incorrect height (spike). The solution is filtering the height and presenting this as a pseudo tide.

This option has been added to the Computation Setup under the Height tab. Two or more computations are needed whereby one has unreliable heights only and another has at least one accurate height. In order to actually use the RTK Tide for heighting , the 'unreliable height' computation must have top-priority and the 'accurate height' computation must be further down the priority list of computations.
The height status of each computation is shown in the Computation Priority list on the Computation Parameters dialog.

For the RTK tide option a filter length can be set in seconds for which the average tide is calculated.

This is an option that can be selected Online and also in a Replay.

The Computation Priority dialog has been improved and can show which computation is on accurate or unreliable height status. See next item.

Select the RTK at the Tide Parameters table

Computation Priority dialog improvement

The dialog will now show which computation is set to accurate. This is useful on large installations on which a number of computations are being used.

An overview of the height settings can be seen in the Computation Priority table

Improvements

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3D Point Cloud Display

Text Labels

Text labels that indicate the Nadir distance and Horizontal distance from nadir to the outer beams can now be displayed.

Select which labels to show in the right hand side menu

Water Column Data

When Water Column Data is available while recording it can be shown in the display.

QINSy now also has a color map for Fledermaus Midwater data which will be used as default for midwater data.

Select which color map to use and which range of the column to show.

Number of points for Vessel shape increased

It is now possible to use an unlimited number of points per shape. However, when more than 4000 points are used the user is warned as it may influence the performance of the online displays.
For this development the database will be upgraded, which can not be reversed.

Generic Display

Computer name in Generic display

The computer name is available in the list of possible items: General items/system infoqi

Logos and background files in Generic Display

It is now possible to add your company logo, or any other image as background in your Generic Display.

Just open the Generic Layout Editor, select group GENERAL DATA, category General, add an item Background and browse for your image file.

See the Generic documentation for additional information about the background properties.

Active soundingrid layer in Generic display

Added new option in the Layer combobox selection in the group DTM category Sounding Grid: [From Controller Session Storage Setup].
In this case the layer that is currently selected as 'Bathymetry' layer in the Controller's Session Setup, Storage, Sounding grid, Systems will used automatically.

GENERIC ASCII DATA LOGGER functionality

The functionality to log ASCII data is now always available when online under the Storage option in the Session Setup.
This is functionality that has been available for a long time but was only available when it was added to the setup.

The functionality will automatically be added to your template setup with a default output rate of 1.0 sec.

Small modification for WSA QMS Users

The WSVTable.xml file is read first from the public documents folder (QPS\QINSy\Settings).

So the user may put his modified *.xml file here.

If the file does not exist in this folder, QINSy will read the default *.xml file, located in the QINSy Program folder, subfolder XML, as installed by the MSI.

License Manager

From this version on, the HASP Loader will be replaced by the License Manager.
The location to start the License Manager is from the Console - 'Help' menu - View License Status.

Use the new Knowledge Base document License Manager to find out how to use the License Manager.

The old documentation, which was previously only visible within the HASP Loader program, has been adjusted and it has been moved to the QINSy Knowledge Base, so it will also be available even when the HASP Loader is not running.

Installers to use Code signing

Code signing has been implemented to ensure that the installer is genuine and has not been tampered with. 

This ensures the installer's integrity and authenticity. During download and installation trustworthy green pop ups will be shown. Note that the supporting installers also have code signing.

Processing Manager improvements

Project Explorer additional columns

• New option to add columns in the Project Explorer. Right clicking on the header will bring up a menu that allows the user to add columns using the 'Column Chooser'. The columns have the option for sorting.
  New option to filter in the Project Explorer. The right click menu has a 'Filter Editor' option in which combined filters can be build. Only items complying with the filter settings will be listed. Use 'Clear Filter' to list all files again.
• New option to hide columns. The columns listing the details of files will be hidden. Use 'Restore Columns' to show them again.
  

  

Project explorer Groups

Removal of groups is now possible. Right click on the group to get the menu or use Shift+Del.

Project Explorer categories changes

Processing Manager now shows the different CAD types and Dynamic Surface as categories in the Project Explorer.
The categories are always visible, even when no files of that type are loaded. The context menus have been updated to suit the categories better.

Creating a Vertical Offset Model workflow improvements

The wizard to create a new Vertical Offset Model can be started from the right click menu from the VOM category. The wizard offers the option to select the source data file, area selection to limit the size and to set a color scale.

The resulting file can be shown in the Processing Manager and be used in the Geodetic setup for QINSy as a vertical model.

DTM link improvements

Select on which layer the DTM will be stored.
Press the plus button to create a new layer in the file where the DTM will be stored.

Convert files to another type

In the Processing Manager it is possible to convert some files to another type of file.
This works for instance by changing a design file to a background file.
It works by selecting the file and using the Convert option.

(In 8.18.1, "Convert File Type" has been replaced by "Extract from file".)

New North arrows

New North arrows have been added to the collection.
These can be found Under ribbon tab Home - Plan View Settings - Chart Feature Settings

Second Processing Manager

It is now possible to open multiple Processing Managers from the Console. 
When you close the Processing Manager the session file can be saved separately using the 'Save as' option:

Wing lines with KP values from the original Route

Under ribbon tab Line Tools you can create Wing lines.
Now it is possible to use the KP values from the original Route.

Tick Yes to use the same KP values on the Wing lines

Lines in Annotation Files

Annotation files (*.qgfanno) can now contain lines and polylines.
Previously this was only possible with areas and points.
The respective components that use annotations have been updated to add and edit lines:

• Sidescan Display; 
• Sidescan Viewer;
• Navigation Display;
• Processing Manager;
• Qastor.

Lines are now supported by Annotation files (*.qgfanno) and Line Planning files (*.qgfline).

The Sidescan Display and the Sidescan Viewer now store targets in annotation files. 

Select a CAD file for Editing

An option has been added to make a different file active for editing by right clicking on a line/object.
If multiple lines/objects are found within the file then the line/object can be selected in the Plan View.

Activating the file highlights the selected layer which contains the object in the Project Explorer

Icons in background files

Ribbon Line Tools - Import - ASCII Text Files:

In the ASCII import for background files it is possible to select an icon for a point.
This way it is easier to identify imported points among other background data.

Select how to draw the imported points

Add multiple New Polylines or Single lines

Up to now it was only possible to add one new line at a time.
Now you can add multiple lines at the same time if necessary.

Enter how many lines you would like to add

Show number of Sections

The Edit Polylines dialog contains a new column: Sections.
Especially when using polylines with many control points this can be used for an overview instead of having to scroll down the list.

Set range in the surface statistics histogram

Under ribbon tab Grid Tools - Statistics you can now set the range of the histogram as it always gets skewed by a spike (especially when it comes to looking at the count).

Move the sliders below the histogram to indicate the range to show

Color Map reversed

The standard color map named 'qps.clr' has been reversed.

This means it now shows the shallowest value (red) at the top and the deepest value (dark blue) at the bottom of the color scale.
Please be aware that this applies to all locations where the color scale is used
(e.g. Validator and Navigation Display) and that you may need to re-set the settings connected to showing depths and heights such as
disabling the default swapping that could be done in some utilities.
This can be done in QINSy - Settings - Global Settings - Colors.

Color Map location

A check is done if the color map folder is still valid. If not then the correct default folder will be set.

Import and Export formats

In several locations export options have been added and improved.

Export of multibeam water column data from a recorded database

If a recorded database contains raw water column data from a multibeam then an export of this data to a separate file is possible. The export is in the raw data manager and can be found in the export option called Raw data - WCD. A wizard guides the user through the selection.

The standard extension is .qwc but the file extension may be overruled based on the drivers in the template. If all MBE drivers are Reson drivers, the extension will be set to .s7k. If all MBE drivers are Kongsberg drivers, the extension will be set to .wcd

Export from grid to BBH 2.2 format

The option to export to format Bestand Hoogte (BBH) 2.2 has been added

Generic export has the option to export on MP

Added support to export QPD related items on MP interval.(meter point)
This can only be selected i.c.w. Export mode on Ping based. Select for Export Rate the last option: [MP Interval]. The interval value should be entered in survey units, normally a positive value, even when the survey line was reversed. It can not be zero.
The MP value itself is determined from the object reference location of the selected transducer.

See for more details the Generic documentation in Confluence.

Export LAS improvement

An option has been added where the user can select if he wants to create a LAS file per QPD or one single LAS file for all QPD's.

New import and export formats

The formats L84 and LNW have been added for both import and export.
This allows for line planning to be carried out in the Processing Manager and then exporting the lines to e.g. certain types of ASV mission computers.

Drivers

Deprecated Positioning drivers

A number of Positioning NMEA drivers will be retired as they are duplicated by newer drivers. 
To make this a smooth transition the following will happen:

When going Online with QINSy, the Controller will check the setup and it will report if the drivers needs to be changed:

The drivers need to be replaced with:

• NMEA Position and Heading (CheckSum) - 12
• NMEA Position and Heading (No CheckSum) - 12

These drivers are capable of decoding additional NMEA messages and it is recommended to also output GST.
The GST contains the Standard Deviation values of position results reported by the GGA/GGK.

Quanergy M8

New driver to decode in real-time the data stream from the new QUANERGY M8 Laser scanner.
A geo-referenced point cloud will be generated on the fly, fully corrected for the vehicle's motion, heading and speed.

Key features: Small/Compact, 8 laser beams vertical field, 360° FoV, 5 - 20 Hz, 420K pts/sec, 150 meter range, Accurate NMEA/PPS timing, Laser Class 1 (Eye safe)

See the drivers documentation for all the details.

CEESCOPE

New driver to decode the Acoustic Data packet stream from CEESCOPE™ Hydrographic survey systems from manufacturer CEE HydroSystems.

The following data will be decoded and stored from the Acoustic Data packet stream:
Depth (both high and low frequency channel), Tide, Motion data and the Full water column (up to 3200 raw acoustic samples per channel per ping).
Additionally, the Position Data can also be decoded. This data stream contains the NMEA messages from the internal or external GNSS receiver.
Drivers supports both serial and network UDP I/O. See for more information the drivers documentation.

2G Robotics

Driver updated to support the latest 2G Robotics ULS-500 PRO underwater laser scanner.
Further, support has been added to filter on intensity and simplified the use for different mountings.
See for more information the drivers documentation.

Sonardyne PSONALL

Revised driver. Driver to decode the Sonardyne $PSONALL message is now compliant with the new format as defined by Sonardyne.
I.e. that the second field (node or offset field) is not used anymore to distinguish the unique slot id, but the first field (object name field). In the new format the second field always contains the text 'CRP' or 'Transducer'.

Notice that the legacy format is still supported: The driver will automatically determine if the object name or the node name field should be used to retrieve the unique slot identifier.

AIS network driver

Driver to decode AIS Standard VDO/VDM Messages now supports I/O stream via Network UDP or TCP.

Autopilot driver improvements

Output format selectable

*) Output format is now selectable in the dialog's user interface. A number of formats can be selected.

TCP version

*) TCP Network version of the original DrvOutAutoPilotUI.exe.

Additional messages for NMEA Autopilot driver

Supporting two new NMEA v3.0.1 messages:
*) NMEA $GPRMB - Recommended Minimum Navigation Information
*) NMEA $GPRMC - Recommended Minimum Specific GNSS Data
These messages may be useful for Autopilot / DP systems.

Seapath MRU NMEA $PSXN

Decoding attitude information from Seapath MRU NMEA $PSXN and/or Seapath Sounder Sentence message:
- Moved decoder from dedicated driver (DrvSeapathMRUASCII) to general driver (DrvQPSTerminated). This will make the dedicated driver obsolete.
- Now network UDP and/or network TCP support for these Seapath ASCII messages. Serial driver is still available.

Nikon DSLR drivers removed

The drivers for Nikon D80, D3/D90/D300/D700  and D90/D5000 have been removed and are no longer available.

Network (TCP) - VODAS Waypoint Control (Dredge Flag)

Driver that can receive waypoints and lines. These can be used for instance as additional main line.

Klein Hydrochart

Dual Frequency systems are now supported. It is possible to select LF and HF for sidescan systems.
More information in the Drivers Manual: L3-Klein Sonar Hydrochart.

POS MV option to set source IP address

Added the option for UDP drivers to filter on data source. Only data from the specified IP address will be used in the driver.
This is useful for a setup where data is coming from multiple POS-MV / POS-LV units on the same data port.

Tick 'Filter on data source' to be able to enter the IP address

Drivers - coming soon

ENL WASSP S3 - 23 - Coming in QINSy 8.18.1

This driver will become available when testing is finished.

New WASSP driver to decode multibeam data

This driver decodes multibeam, sidescan and miscellaneous data from the WASSP S3.(or F3 when the correct output is enabled).

Depreciation of satellite navigation system and drivers

In the upcoming version various satellite navigation systems and drivers will be removed. In this version they will be shown as deprecated.

Database version

In this version the QINSy database has been upgraded and is therefore not compatible with previous versions.
Before the upgrade a backup of the template database is created in the backup folder.

A backup is created in a backup folder

Documentation

An overview of shortcut keys has been added to the Processing Manager:

• Project Explorer#Shortcutkeys
• Shortcut keys
• Ribbon Tab Home#Shortcutkeys

The Help for the HASP Loader has been copied to the QINSy Knowledge Base so it can still be used when the HASP Loader doesn't start:

• How-to View your Licenses

Use the new QINSy Knowledge Base document to find out how to use the License Manager:

• License Manager 

Create a design using the following documentation:

• How-to Create -simple- Design Models

Bug Fixes

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Below is a list of the important issues that have been resolved in this release. This list is not exhaustive.

Generic display does not display the computed pitch and roll**

Import Leveling/ASCII Data process shows misleading text

Vessel shape export to CSV and then import again doesn't work (using the default settings)

Setup - Objects - Import from DXF does not support Arcs and 3D Polylines.

Heave as Depth observation is disabled primary computation but still used by the computation

Console - Global Settings - Colors - Crashing when selecting color tables

Online - QPD - Gap in first part (singlebeam/multibeam)

Camera settings are not correctly restored in the 3D pointcloud display

I/O test Utility crashes when replaying a I/O Log file

Template and Controller show warning for PRO while QGFVOM is available

Export Generic QPD - Add support for Detected Pipe systems

Remove the option to select a pro under additional terrains

Navigation Display - Vessel disappears when creating a cross profile online

Remote Display Controller - Navigation display is checking for license

Online - Computation - Tide - Wrong tide station selected after switching computation and restarting console

Displays - Navigation - CAD - Changing properties of one file affects other files displayed

Offline - Export - XTF - Is not giving the results expected for Edgetech SSS

Console - Global Settings - Colors- incorrect path for folder location after installation

Utilities - Generic Layout Editor - Differential age export not working

Velocity value sz export changed

Render type of grid does not work in French but does in English and German

Offline - Clone Settings - after deleting a system in the database and then use Clone Settings it crashes

Drivers - INS - iXBlue - Network - iXBlue Std Bin (UPD) - Does not decode the data

Drivers - Miscellaneous - IMCA Anchor Spread crashes

Crash when importing SBET file

Displays - Navigation - Range tool shows incorrect NM Distance when using USfeet

Displays - Subbottom Pofile Display - not showing data

Displays - Navigation - Hangs during panning when scalebar is enabled

Displays - Navigation - C-MAP kernel in combination with QGFback

Drivers - ILidar VLP-16 - Missing DLL's not possible to operate QINSy

Drivers - SBES - ODOM Echotrac - Start/Stop recording in e-chart software not working

Drivers- Laser - 2G Robotics - Updated output not supported

Displays - Navigation - Range marker in correct with C-Map

QPD differences when online tide overrules accurate height

MBES differences when replaying to Binary WSV format

Drivers - INS - SBG Systems - Position of GPS1 not decoded

Displays - Navigation - Annotations - Not possible to create a line in German version

Cube Grid property names are in wrong format

Drivers - INS - Sonardyne - LNAV problems

Offline - Water Column Inspector - Singlebeam - digitrace shows offset

Drivers - INS - Sonardyne - LNAV - UDP driver binds to the wrong port.

Unit.dll error when template contains US feet

Drivers - Singlebeam - Odom - EchoTrac - Record raw sample data together with annotations

Controller hangs after selecting a steered node

Network Depth Output Driver have the same name's when Online

Processing Manager

Clicking in the colorbar functionality now behaves similar to Navigation Display and no panning will occur. 

Auto import QPD works now as expected. When new files are created online these are automatically added.

Ribbon Tab Line Tools - Import - GEOBAS

Linename will use the KP value from the file, problem with the radius used in the opposite direction.

PM.NET - Cad - DXF Export labels are smaller than the original

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Import - Does not use Selected Area for Geoid Models

PM.NET - QPD - Export - LAS - No warning to overwrite existing file

PM.NET - QPD - When exporting to LAZ, there will be also a LAS file created

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Export - GeoTiff fails, The export has been improved

PM.NET - QPD - Import - SBET - Vertical offset after applying file

PM.NET - Processing manager crashes after importing DXF file

PM.NET - Processing manager crashed after making a navigation surface

PM.NET - Export sounding grid to Lat/Long/Height ascii is very slow

PM.NET - Planview - Geotiff doesn't show

PM.NET - CAD - Line Planning - When Copying a QGF in Linedata/subfolder, it is automatically imported in the project

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Statistics - Aren't computed when changing level (using a selection)

PM.NET - QPD - Export - *.SZ ASCII - Batch export leaves first exported file empty

PM.NET - CAD - Import - Reference Level River Lines

PM.NET - CAD - Line Planning - KP values are recalculated for winglines. The option to keep KP values has been added

PM.NET - Crash on startup with large projects.

PM.NET - Auto import QPD in Processing Manager.

PM.NET - Import GTX into Grid results in crash

PM.NET - Planview - Sounding Grid - Diff - hangs when using a complex design

PM.NET - CAD - Line Planning - Import - GeoBas - Fahrwasserachse - WP24+25

PM.NET - Clicking Color Bar in Plan View does not behave like it should be

PM - Bag export without correct attributes

PM.NET - Import - GEOBAS - Fahrwasserachse und Begrenzung (LIN+PKT)

PM.NET - Grid Statistics graph not showing results

PM.NET - File Management - Ascending works on alphabetical order, not on numbers

PM.NET - Processing Manager hangs after exporting survey files to ascii

PM.NET - File Management - Standard Windows selection doesn't work for deselecting

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Volume calculations goes wrong

PM.NET - CAD - Edit Points dialog summary text says 'Lines' instead of 'Points'

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Volume calculation - progress exceeds 100%

PM.NET - Grid - Exporting Sounding Grid to GeoTiff not working

PM.NET - CAD - Area - Export - PRO - Area does not result in a closed line

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Export - GeoTiff - KML has no position values

PM.NET - File Management - File visibility is not saved (or restored)

PM.NET - Sounding Grid - Contours and Soundings - Sounding Label Style not selectable anymore

PM.NET - QPD - Export - LAS - VLP16 export of time stamp incorrect

PM.NET - File Management - Explorer - Not all items translated to German

PM.NET - CAD - Import - Autocad DWG/DXF - drawing doesn't end up in the correct location

Known Issues

For this release the following issues have been reported: