User Guide @Apr 8, 2013 3:39:50 PM

Interface Overview

What you see (Screen Layout)

Image:mainscreen.png

Application and Login info

The window title holds the application and login information..


Modify User Information

To edit the user data, select the menu option Modify User Information. In this window the user can edit personal information. Please note that this option is not available for Guest users.









Basic Operations


Menu


The file menu contains the Open menu folder, this contains all the dataset which are available to the user. For the normal user there is only one dataset available, but the system users will have more options. When a different dataset is choose the application is switched to that new dataset, please note that the map viewpoint isn't changed. The last option is the Quit option.






Two options are available;

  • Preferences will open the preferences window in which the user can make changes to their settings.
  • Modify User Information will open the #Modify User Information window.




The Help menu constists out of three options;

  • About will show Fanomos version information
  • Release Notes will show the release notes (what has been changed) of the latest release.
  • Retrieve update when during the startup of the application a requester appears which indicates that a new version of the application is available, this option can be used to retrieve and install the new version.

Please note that update it is always wise to restart the application.





Viewer Toolbar

The viewer toolbar
The viewer toolbar

The viewer toolbar contains the controls for the main viewer panel. The controls are distributed in four parts.




Map Windows

The main viewer panel as the possibility to show small inset windows. With the toggle buttons in the Map Windows part these windows can be controlled. The Default button reloads settings of last save preferences.




Printing

Printing is in progress
Printing is in progress

The print button will start the printing process, the process creates a PDF document and automatically a PDF viewer will be started, the printing itself should be done using the PDF viewer.




QuickInfo

Quick info point in the map
Quick info point in the map

The quickinfo part shows hovering information. When the user moves the mouse pointer over a track and keep it in the same position for some time the inforation will appear.




Zoom




Map Panel


In this panel (Drawing area) the map and map windows are shown.

The position of the map is stored in the user preferences on the server.

To navigate in the mappanel use the left mouse to pan the map. To zoom in and out the mouse scrollwheel is used. Zooming in or out on the area can be accomplished using options of the viewer toolbar However, dragging the left mouse button while holding down the shift key can also perform zoom in. The selected area is shown with a rubber band rectangle while moving the mouse. The moment the user releases the button, the picture is re-drawn (refreshed) applying the current co-ordinates. It must be noted that whatever rectangle is selected, the longest side of the resulting area is matching the longest side of the selected rectangle.




Control Area

So-called layers represent the actual presentation. The various layers are related to a certain type of information that can be selected from the database or has been calculated. The user is able to control which data layer is to be presented, using the toggle buttons in the control area. A red dot means that the layer is disabled while a green checkmark indicates an active layer.

  1. Map Information
    • The geographical information of the selected area.
  2. Grid
    • The grid of the map
  3. Flights
    • The selected flight(s) for the query.
  4. Track Density
    • To calculate density plots of tracks in the current flight selection.
  5. Runways
    • The runways.
      1. OffenderBox
      2. Draw the offender box around the airfields
  6. Route info
    • Route information
      1. Nominal
        The nominal route of the selected flight(s).
      2. Tolerance
        The tolerance routes of the selected flight(s).
      3. Borders
        The border (warning) routes of the selected flight(s).

Offender box
Offender box

  1. Builtup Info
    • The built-up areas with the co-ordinates as used in the calculations.
  2. Track statistics
    • Average
      The statistic average flight of the selected flight-set.
    • Middle
      The statistic middle of the selected flight-set.
    • % Conf. limits
      The area in which (with P % certainty) the average flight track (of a similar flight-set)
    • % boundaries
      The area within which P % of the flights in the selected flight-set can be found.

Altitude Bands

Altitude bands colouring enables the user to visualise, via colour coding, height bands in the map panel.
Effects of altitude band coloring
Effects of altitude band coloring
The first band color will be used for all altitudes below the given level. The last band color will be used for all altitudes above the given level. In order to refrain certain altitudes from rendering a transparant color can be used.





Altitude band edit

Editing of latitude bands
Editing of latitude bands

In order to edit the altitude bands, click with the left mouse button in the Altitude bands window on a altitude color band. All edits effect can directly being seen in the map panel.

  • Editing of a color
    Select a color and use the Swatches, HSB or RGB tabs to select or create a new color, the color can also have an alpha factor which indicates the transparancy of the color, when the slider is at the top the transparancy is turned off.
  • Adding a new altitude band.
    Click on the New button a new altitude band will be added at the end of the altitude range. On default it will have the value 99000 (or higher if this level already exists).
  • Delete an altitude band.
    Select a altitude band and click on the Delete button.
  • Cancelling the edits.
    To cancel the edits click on the Cancel or Close button.
  • Accept the edits.
    Click on the Ok button.

Compass

The compass is a transparent window which the compass icon but also the mapsize indicator.







Map Layer Control

The Map Layers Control window controls the map layers.

The checkmark enable or disable the visual present of a map layer










Ordering map layers

Using the arrow buttons the ordering of the layers can be managed. The layers are drawn from top to bottom. The ordering effect is more present when the Transparent checkbox is deselected.

Main_Roads layer drawn second
Main_Roads layer drawn second
Main_Roads layer drawn last
Main_Roads layer drawn last








Enable Text

This checkbox enables the drawing of the text entries in the map.


Transparent

When this checkbox is selected all layers are drawn in a transparent way. In this way the layer ordering effects are more or less cancelled.


Alpha slider

The Alpha slider
The Alpha slider
The Alpha effect
The Alpha effect
Use the alpha to fade away the map. The utmost right position will disable the alpha effect. The effect can be use to let the flight tracks to stand out more, e.g. when printing the result.





Gray

The option to present all colors in the map in grayscale.


Map Selection

Map selection list
Map selection list
In the default situation the Map Selection part has no function other than showing the map loading progress. However for advanced users there is a possibility to support multiple map sources, which means that on the client multiple map variants are available. With dropdown list a different map can be selected.






Profile Window

Profile with Height
Profile with Height
Profile with Speed
Profile with Speed
The profile window is a presentation window that shows flight profiles as an X/Y-plot using automatic and user-controlled scaling. Both the height- and groundspeed-profiles can be displayed for all flights in a flight-set or for a single flight selected. These profiles are automatically (re-)drawn after a new flight selection or new single flight selection.







Query Flight Panel

The default query panel
The default query panel

This panel enables the user to specify the selection criteria to be used during the flight selection. The basic selection criteria can be specified in this flight selection panel. Additional selection criteria can be added using another selection panel (Advanced parameters). This panel can be opened by pressing the + symbol.

In the flight selection panel, the following parts can be distinguished:

  • Selection control area, where the current selection status is shown and some additional functions can be started.
  • Selection criteria area (basic parameters and advanced parameters), where the most relevant selection criteria can be specified.

Basic selection criteria area

All selection criteria specifications are logically connected with an AND-operator to one requirement on the flight plan data selection. When a flight meets this requirement it is included in the new flight-set. Within one selection criterion specification, multiple data values are logically connected with an OR-operator. Often, it is possible to exclude (instead of include) certain values using the NOT-button.

Within the basic selection criteria area, 3 parts can be distinguished:

  • Time/day selection entries where the time/day criteria must be specified.

With the option button, the time zone can be selected. Values are LT and UTC. Default value is UTC. This option defines only the date and time fields within the query panel. So if LT is selected, the flights will be selected within the LT range from LT start till LT end time. How date and time values are shown in the GUI as well as print-outs is determined by the Fanomos Preferences. The 4 input fields contain the specification of the required period of time; i.e. the starting date/time and the end date/time using the date- and time-input fields. Default period: ‘Today’ 00:00:00 to ‘Today’ 23:59:59. The example in the above picture depicts the UTC time period between 00 and 23 hour on August 9, 2009.


  • Time-of-day sub-selection entries, where a part of a day can be included (or excluded) in the selection.




The option button indicates whether the time-range specified must be excluded (

option) or included ((
option). Two time-input fields can be used to specify the time range that is involved in the sub-selection. The default is ‘No sub-selection at all’ depicted at time 00:00:00 TO 23:59:59 and a blank option menu entry. The example before shows the exclusion of all flights between 0 and 6 hour.

  • Logic expression

In almost all field it is allowed to use logical expression (NOT,AND,OR). For example a callsign field entry, (DLH* OR LOT*) AND NOT DLH07* Please note there some exceptions;

  • Runway and Route fields:

These fields don't support the NOT operator due to database constrains, in the advanced parameters panel there are four fields "Arr. Runway" (Arrival runway), "Dep. Runway" (Departure runway), "Arr. Route" (Arrival route) and "Dep. Route" (Depature route). With these fields the same effect can be reached.


  • Basic parameter entries.

All entries relate to the flight plan data of a flight. The entries are character type input fields and sometimes supported via drop-down lists (e.g. routes, runways). Some of the entries contain a NOT-button to exclude the values. For all entries applies ALL as default value.



Restrictions: The meaning of the Airport-entry depends on the chosen option in the FlightType entry.

When FlightType is Departure, the Airport refers to the origin airport of the flight. FlightType is Arrival means that the Airport is considered to be the destination airport of the flight. The same applies for Runway and Route. The Airport entry is a single value input field.

Next to the basic selection criteria as described in this paragraph, an additional set of selection criteria can be used.








Advanced parameter criteria area

Enables the user to specify additional selection criteria to be used during the flight selection.

















Flight Selection Panel

The resulting flights of a query
The resulting flights of a query

This window contains a scrollable list of flights of the current flight set.







Print flight selection list

The current query result set shown in the selection list will be printed to a PDF document ready for print.






Select Flight selection mode






Flight track coloring







Altitude values






Deselect flight selection

The current selected flight(s) are deselected.




Flight statistics


Open the flight statistics calculation dailog



Flight plan and track export


The user can decide what flightplan and flight track attributes must be exported. There is also a number of control parameter:

  • Export times in UTC: timestamping will be UTC or Local
  • Export in long format: all exported attributes will be in long or abbreviated text format
  • Export in windows format: all lines will be added with CR LF
  • Use separator: this text field can be used to separate individual export lines
  • Item separator: separator between individual exported items in an export line
  • Time between track points: when track data must be exported, this value is used to generate the track points on the spline.

All export data will come available in a so-called flighttrackcomb001.exp file. Besides of this data file there is also a meta file explaining the contents of the export file. This file is called: flighttrackcomb001.met. Remark: currently the data is exported according the precedence of the individual flight attributes as defined in the Flight Track Export window.

Remove flights from the result set


Nieuwe tekst



Use selected flight as result set




Track density



Flight adapt functionality (for preserved users only)


Certain users can adapt the flights which are stored in the database. The following changes can be performed:

  • Edit flights: change attributes of the user selected flight(s). Remark: currently only one flight can be adapted.
  • Connect fpl-tracks: connect a user selected flightplan to a user selected track. Original individual entries will be combined to a single flight with flightplan data as well as track data.
  • Disconnect fpl-tracks: disconnect flightplan from a flight for the selected flights. Two separate items will be created: one flightplan and one with one or more track segments
  • Cut tracks: cut user selected flight tracks by means of a vertical window. Remark: currently the vertical window does not have a lower and/or upper height limit.
  • Connect tracks: connect user selected separate track segments into one single flight entry and increase number of tracks.
  • Disconnect tracks: disconnect user selected single flight track entries with mulitple track segments (nrTracks > 1) into individual flight track entries.
  • Delete flights: delete user selected flight entries from database

Property Panels


Aircraft Property Panel


Airport Property Panel


Builtup Area Property Panel

Part of the flight track offender check procedure is the check whether the flight track flies over a (at least one) built-up area, below a prescribed height limit. To enable this, for each dataset, identified by a name, height limits (for day and night period) must be specified. Built-up area selection also is part of the flight selection process.

Edit Builtup Area Points

For the editing of a built area a how to scenario is described in How To's#Creating a new builtup area.


Flight Property Panel



Radar Property Panel


Route Property Panel


Route Base Property Panel


Route Segment Property Panel


Runway Property Panel


Log window


In the log window informational logs and error are shown, currently only the Clear the contents of the log window button is available.







Calculations

Flight Statistics


The Flight statistics dailog is opened by pressing the statistics button in the flight selection list window.

Track Density


The Track Density button is used to open the Track Density calculation dialog. The calculation is done using the current set of flights. The track density results represent the number of flights passing through a grid-cel; the results are expressed as percentages of the current set of flights.



The Track density control part defines the grid area. The initial values represent the current visible part of the map at the time when the dailog was opened. These values can edited. The Z value filters in which height interval the density values are calculated. The X- and Y-values define the dimensions of the grid. Step X and Y defines the gridcell size in meters. To start the calculate press the “Run” button



Viewing the Track Density results


In order to view the track density result the “Track Density” layer must be enabled in the “Control Area”.


The grid area is marked with a black rectangle, and there is an extra Track Density Colors window added.

Using the controls in the “Track density data range” in the dailog the on screen picture can manipulated.

The LOWER, HIGHER range value (in percent) defines the visible interval range. The STEP range value defines the percentage step before change the color. The number of color intervals as calculate as follows; (HIGHER-LOWER)/STEP rounded up.



For example the shown color legend is the result of LOWER value 5, HIGHER value 90 and STEP value is 10. The first “purple” band show the density 5%-15%. Only the last color can have a smaller range due to rounding issues.

To clear the current density the “Clear Current Map” button can be pressed.