03 Views and Plots

Every development is different, and every developer works differently. With impulse, users can define their views exactly the way they need them.

Simple and powerful user interfaces allow you to focus on signal data instead of the tool.

Views

A view combines a freely configurable set of plots organized in the form of a tree. Users can define multiple views and choose between them at any time to get the information they need.

Plots

Plots are easily configurable specific representations of signal data. Plots may have a common zoomable and scrollable axis (e.g. the time of the trace) or they may be adjusted into the window size (charts).

Cursors

Cursors allow navigation and measurement within signals.
Users can specify any number of cursors. A dedicated details area shows the current position and delta distances.

H200 View - How to create a new view

A view combines a set of plots organized in rows. You may switch between multiple views using the the combo box in the top right corner.

Use the "Add new view" toolbar button.
Select if the new view shall be empty or populated.
Press ok to create the view.
Use the signal area to drag&drop signal into the new view.

H201 View - How to switch between views

You can use an unlimited number of views for a record file. The upper-right button in the toolbar is used to switch between multiple views.

Use the combo box in the right top corner to switch between views.
You may select the "Filter" fields to limit the views in the combo box to those that 'fit' to your signals.
Use the preferences page "impulse/views" to manage your views.

H202 View - How to add signals to a view

The signal area is used to find signals in the record (wave, trace, log,..) file and convert them into a plot that can be shown in the Plot Area.

Use the signal area to drag&drop signals or scopes into the view.
You may use the filter to find your signals.
Or you may select the context menu of the view tree to add a new plots.

H203 View - How to resize a plot

When you select a plot in the view, there will be a small resize grip left-hand of the name.
Select the grip and move the cursor to resize.
Release the grip to keep the size.

H204 View - How to re-organize views

Inside of a view you find Plots to display the signal data and Folders to organize the presentation in a hierarchical structure. This enables the user to hide/show parts of the presentation.

You can add single elements (folders, plots of multiple types) to the hierarchical structure by opening the context menu of the configuration with a right mouse click.
You can reorder all elements by selecting and moving them with the mouse.
To remove elements you open the context menu, click delete or mark the elements that you want to remove and press the delete key.
You can edit an existing plot (or multiple plots) by opening the edit dialogue with the context menu or by double-clicking the element whose configuration you want to change.

Domains and Axes

impulse can display waveforms using multiple domains (e.g., time and frequency) in one view. If your signals are using the same domain, it allows you to display them on multiple axes.

Online Display

In the online mode, incoming signal values are plotted on the moving axis. A simple click on the visualization stops the online mode and lets you analyze the signals normally.

Quick Measurements

With each of the cursors you can easily measure domain and value distances.

Value Formats

All textual values can easily be displayed using different formats, e.g., Decimal, Hexadecimal, Octal, Binary, ASCII or a specific decimal user format.

Standard Plots (Diagrams/Charts)

Line
Gantt
Logic
Vector
Event
Area
Log
Transaction
Charts
Image

What are views?

A view provides a presentation for a set of signals. You can switch between these presentations, or re-use views for other signal sets. Views are not bound to a certain file or input.

Inside of a view you find Plots to display the signal data and Folders to organize the presentation in a hierarchical structure. This enables the user to hide/show parts of the presentation.

A plot does not contain any signal data, but the information on how to present them. It contains the settings for colour, name, type of plot (line graph, vector diagram, etc.) and the way that the data are represented (decimal representation, hexadecimal notation, etc.)

How to create a new view

If you open a record (wave, trace, log,..) file with impulse and there is no suitable view available that has been used previously, the viewer automatically opens a dialogue to create a new one. The same dialogue can be opened with the "Add new View" button. In the opened window, you can now add a name, a description and select one of three view templates: "Empty View", "Create a hierarchy of all signals and scopes" and "Add a flat list of all signals". In addition, optional templates are provided by the reader or contained in the wave file.

Empty View
Create a hierarchy of all signals and scopes: generates a "copy" of the record file that shows the signals and scopes one-on-one
Add a flat list of all signals: all signals are taken from the record file and displayed below one another without any hierarchy
Depending on the input, the dialogue may show additional options based on view templates.

Next to the "Add new View" button is a pull-down menu that contains further options for the views. You can clone, edit and delete views.

How to modify views

add, remove, reorder and resize plots and folders

Add

You can add single elements (folders, plots of multiple types) to the hierarchical structure by opening the context menu of the configuration with a right mouse click. If you click add, you can choose between adding a folder or single signal plots. You can also add elements (single or multiple) via drag and drop from the signal area.

Remove

To remove elements you open the context menu, click delete or mark the elements that you want to remove and press the delete key.

Reorder

You can reorder all elements by marking and moving them with the mouse.

Resize

Elements are resized when you mark one or more and move the mouse to the left. The cursor then changes to an arrow with two ends and you can enlarge or shrink the element and its illustration within the diagram.

Using the Plot Configuration dialouge

You can edit an existing plot (or multiple plots) by opening the edit dialogue with the context menu or by double-clicking the element whose configuration you want to change.

On the left side of the dialogue are mainly settings, what shall be displayed, while on the right side are settings how it shall be displayed.

All changes you make are presented directly in the diagram. Furthermore, you can edit multiple plot elements at once. Just select multiple elements and open the plot configuration dialogue.

You find the name, the description, the production and the signal sources in the upper-left corner.

Below, you find optional settings depending on the selected production.
Underneath appear different kinds of interpretation settings depending on which kind of signal the configuration is intended.

Sources

To change the primary source, click on the button right to the text. The Source Reference dialogue will appear.
You can refer to a signal or to another plot (to take the result of another production).
The dialogue contains a scope tree, a filter and a signal table similar to the signal area of the viewer. Double-click on the signal or plot to select the source reference.

Production

If the production field is empty, the source signal will be presented as it is. Productions can be used to create new signals:

Combine multiple sources
Extract statistical information
Do mathematical calculations
Validate signals
...

The result will be presented in the pot area. If a second plot refer to this one, it will receive the result of the production as input.

Productions are executed on the fly, as soon as the signal data is required for further processing, and re-executed when settings or input signal have been changed. Before executing a production, the system needs to know the source signals, the type and the domain of the signal. All these informations need to be entered into the plot configuration dialog. If you leave the configuration fields empty, impulse tries to extract the information from the sources. The fields will display this information in light gray (e.g. Derived(Float)).

The following fields may be displayed:

Additional sources : if the production needs more than one input.
Process type: specifies the resulting process type
Signal type: specifies the resulting signal type
Signal descriptor: extended specification of the output signal
Domain base: the resulting domain base
Domain range: start, end and rate of the output
Production specific parameters

Visualisation

In the upper-right corner, you can change the colour in which the element is displayed within the plot. Some default colours are set, but you can add your own personalized colours by selecting them with the icon next to the default colours. You can also change the colour of an element directly via the context menu if you choose the option Apply colour.

Underneath the colours you can find the types of plots; again you will find different ones enabled depending on the type of signal that the configuration is for. Possible types are:

Logic/Vector Plot

Logic and Vector diagrams are mainly used with Logic and Integer signal data. You can select the textual representation of the values and enable/disable the 'Relation' flag (relations are curves between signal samples).

Event Plot

You may select the textual representation of the values and enable/disable the 'Relation' and 'Multi-color' flag (paints the events using colors 'around' the selected color controlled by the sample value).

Line Plot

The line plot configuration contains the following settings:

Combine: combine multiple line diagrams into one;
Interpolated: smooth line painting;
Annotated: highlights the samples;
Draw axis: shows the value axis;
Range from/to: sets the value axis range;
Axis type: sets the value axis type.

Transaction/ Log Plot

These diagram types display struct values (e.g. log lines including severity, source and message; or an access including address, data and duration).
The difference between transaction and log diagrams is that transactions have a start and end position (and might have intermediate steps).

Image Plot

Image diagrams are using binary data. They assume that the binary data include compressed images (png, jpeg, gif).

Area Plot

Area diagrams are similar to line diagrams. In addition, they can be painted stacked and transparent.

Chart Plot

Chart diagrams do not use the common domain axis. Instead they fill the whole plot area (if you check the combine flag, multiple chart diagrams share the plot area). If you select the chart type, additional chart specific configuration fields will be drawn below.

Find more in chapter: 13 Working with Charts.

Gantt Plot

You may select the textual representation of the values and enable/disable the 'Relation', 'Multi-color' and 'Annotation' flags.

Default Value Column Style

Define the default textual representation of the samples values when displayed in tables (Sample Table, Sample Inspector, Plot Tree value column).

Markers

This option is about the markers with which you can tag certain positions (values) within the diagram. In this dialogue, you can choose how these markers are shown.

Templates

The last element on the right side is the template list. If you select a template and press Take, all settings from the template will be taken. Actual settings will be overwritten.
If you press Add, the template dialogue will open to create a new template from the current plot settings.

Switch between multiple views

When you open a record file in the viewer, impulse will automatically choose the most suitable view by using the signal names and paths. If more than one view is found for the record then the first one will be used.

Impulse remembers the view last used for a specific record file and, if you open it again, the previous view will be selected.

You can use an unlimited number of views for a record file. The upper-right button in the toolbar is used to switch between multiple views. The more you work with impulse, the more views will be listed there. To make it easier to find a suitable view, you can use the filters.

Store/Reset

To store your views, you use the button Store Views Preferences in the toolbar. You can use the pull-down menu to either save the changes you made for your view or to reset the view.
All views are stored in the eclipse preferences store. You can find this in the upper-left toolbar under Window –> Preferences. On the right-hand side of the opened window, you find impulse and the view store.

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