Multi beam echo sounder (MBES) capabilities are only supported in Hydromagic version 2025 and newer.
An additional license is required to record and process MBES data.
Recording multi beam data into an empty matrix
Instead of recording multi beam data to a raw data file and processing it later, you can also record data directly to a matrix file. This week you can check the data instantly and see if the coverage of your data will suffice to create a matrix later. Even when generating a matrix during the data acquisition phase, you can discard this matrix and build one afterwards using the recorded raw data files.
To record data into a matrix data directly, you have to generate an empty matrix file which is a matrix will all cells or bins set to a void value. Before you will be able to create such a matrix, you have to draw a boundary of the survey area first.
Drawing the boundary
To start a new boundary, make sure that the "Project Explorer" is visible. In the "Project Explorer", locate and right-click the "Boundaries" folder and select the " Draw Boundary..." option from the popup menu which appears. After selecting this function, the mouse mode has now been switched to boundary drawing mode, which means that you can simply click the points which make up the boundary in the map display.
The function to draw a boundary using the mouse can be accessed from the "Project Explorer".
When you selected all the points of the boundary, you can save the boundary by clicking the right mouse button. A window will appear containing all points you selected, so you have the chance to alter or remove positions, or to change the name and comment for the newly created boundary. The newly created boundary will also appear in the "Project Explorer". By default, a new boundary is named 'BOUNDARYXXXX,' where 'XXXX' is the number of the boundary. Boundaries are drawn as red lines. The boundary points are drawn as red rectangles (depending on the display options, see below).
Generating the matrix
When recording multi beam echo sounder data, data can be stored in a raw data file as in a matrix. A matrix is basically a file that contains XYZ coordinates with a fixed cell distance. During the survey process the cells will be updated with the average measured depth for the area the cell covers. Before we can update a matrix with our data, we have to create an empty one. To do so we first have to specify the area to cover. This should be done by drawing a boundary first as described in the previous paragraph.
When the boundary has been created, make sure the "Project Explorer" is visible ("Project Explorer" from the "View" menu) and right click on the "Matrices" folder. From the popup menu, select the "Generate Matrix..." option. The "Generate Empty Matrix" dialog appears:
The function to generate an empty matrix can be accessed from the "Project Explorer"
To generate an empty matrix, select the boundary to be used as well as the file name of the matrix to be created. To work with islands, you have to select the boundary of the pond as well as the boundary drawn for an island, this is optional.
You can also adjust the space of the cells. A cell spacing of 0.5 means that multi beam data is stored in a 50 x 50 cm grid. When you are happy with the settings, just press "OK" to proceed with matrix creation. After successful creation the new matrix will be displayed in the project explorer.
Enter a boundary and spacing to generate an empty matrix file
Activate the matrix
An Hydromagic project can contain multiple matrices, also empty ones. To tell the software to which matrix the data needs to be recorded, we have to "Activate" this matrix. This can be done by going to the "Project Explorer", expand the "Matrices" folder and right-click the matrix you want to use to record MBES data to. In the context menu which appears, click the "Activate" option. To deselect a matrix for recording, follow the same steps as above, but click the "Deactivate" option. Only one matrix can be activated at a time, so data is never recorded to two matrices simultaneously.
Activate the matrix before recording data
Start Recording
To start recording, just press the record button. When you have loaded a multi beam echo sounder plugin and have a valid license, the echo data will be recorded to both a raw data file and the selected matrix. When nothing becomes visible, please check the display settings for matrices. These settings can be accessed by right clicking the "Matrices" folder in the "Project Explorer" and selecting the "Display Options..." option.
Matrix display options can be customized