Overview
An overview of all visualization tools in Marple
Signal list
In the analysis section of Marple, one can find the signal list. It is a list of all the different signals in the data set that has been selected.
Search signal name: type the name of the signal you are searching for. Marple signal search is a fuzzy search, so you do not have to match the signal name exactly.
Create signal: Create a calculated signal
Enable signal grouping: In case your signals have a hierarchal structure (for example structured signals in Matlab files) or if there is a “.” in your signal names. Marple can group those in a tree structure. You can turn this on or off here. (see Signal Grouping for more information) UPDATE: signal grouping can be toggled in the settings wheel next to the name of the data set.
List of visible signals: All available signals in the data set. Double-click or drag & drop on the plot area to visualise them.
Plotted signal indicator: shows the current plotted signals
Signal grouping
Signals often have a hierarchy or come in groups. In that case, it can be useful to show the signals in a tree-like structure.
There are two ways Marple can detect groups in your signal data:
The groups are present in the structure of the file (for example Matlab hierarchical structured signals)
the groups are delimited by ‘.’ in the name of the file
You can easily toggle between flat view or tree view using the ‘group signal’ toggle at the top of the signal list. In the tree view, you can easily collapse or expand the different nodes to find the signals you are looking for.
Once grouping is toggled, you can drag & drop whole groups at the same time in the plot. Note that in order to be able to detect groups automatically in Marple, the ‘Automatic grouping’ setting has to be enabled.
Adding plots
There are four plot types:
Time series
Scatter
Map
Frequency (FFT)
You can add them using the 'ADD PLOT' button. You can add multiple plots to each tab. This can be useful if you want to visualise a lot of signals at the same time and you want to keep your visualisation more organised. Every plot will show data from one time range, which can be found on the x-axis of time series plots, and also visually in the blue bar at the top of the page.
Arranging the plots: When adding a new plot window to your visualisation, Marple will automatically arrange it at the bottom of the page. You can however change the arrangment of the plots. You can do that as follows:
Click the lock button on the top right
You can now drag the borders (that are now red) of the plot windows to reshape the plots
You can also drag the plots around
Cursors
A cursor is used by Marple to indicate the values of the visualised signals on a specific point on the time axis. When placing a second cursor, Marple can make calculations between them.
Placing a primary cursor: Easy! Just go to the point where you want to place a cursor and.. click!
Placing a secondary cursor: Hovering with your mouse over the plot, press the space bar. A second cursor will appear. Alternatively, click the enable secondary cursor button in the toolbar above the plot. To remove, press escape or click the secondary cursor button.
Calculations between cursors: Marple can make calculations between the two cursors: Difference, Minimum value, Maximum value and Mean.
The value of the calculation is shown to the left of the plot between the value of the primary cursor (full line) and the secondary cursor (dotted line)
Limits and positions
Limits are the parts of the y-axis that Marple visualises. There are two types: the min limit and the max limit: Marple will visualise the data points within the min and max limit. The min and max limit can be set for every signal separately.
Each signal also has a position on a plot, which you can change. If you select one signal(group), you can see drag handles on the axis. These will allow you change the position of your signal. Playing with positions allows you to make visually clean plots.
You can divide your signals equally over your plot by using the "Stack signals" button in the right corner of the plot.
Link multiple signals if you want their limits and positions to always be the same. Linked signals will have the same y-axis. Select multiple signals [ctrl/cmd + left mouse click] and click the link button.
Zooming
Zooming in on the time axis
You can easily zoom in using the mouse actions. You can zoom in on the time axis using:
Scroll wheel
Drag & hold the right mouse button
Y-zooming
y-zooming lets you zoom within the limits of the different signals but for all signals at the same time. You can turn y-zooming on by clicking on the loupe button in the top right corner.
Autofit y-zoom
Toggling the auto-fit y-zoom feature will set all the signals on one absolute y-axis. This will also automatically zoom the y-axis depending on the maximum and minimum absolute value of the signals in the currently visible time frame.
Resetting the zoom level:
You are zoomed in and want to go back to the original zoom level? This is how to do it.
There are two zoom levels in Marple and therefore two zoom levels to reset. The time-axis zoom level and the y-axis zoom level.
To reset both zoom levels, click on the reset zoom level button closest to the plot.
To reset the zoom level on the time axis only, click on the zoom level button next to the time axis zoom range bar.
Export plot
Are you looking for a static figure of your current visualisation, say to use it in a report, you can use the export plot feature. This is available in the toolbar above the plot.
The image contains the signals that are currently visualised with the current zoom level included on both the time axis and the y-axis. You can configure what axes are visualised and what the title is.
Exporting the image can be done by simply copying it on the clipboard or by downloading a .png file that you can very easily add to any report or presentation.
Tabs
As you can need several tabs in your internet browser or in another software, Marple allows you to create tabs in order to switch from one work area to another one within the same project.
Some facts about Tabs:
Each tab has its own configuration that you set up and can be saved in a project to use with other test data. (more information on projects here)
The current zoom level is linked over different tabs
Data Layers
In Marple, you can easily load many different data files at once.
If you added multiple data sets from the data management view, the data sets will appear as ‘Layers’ in the visualisation view of Marple. At the bottom left, you can do various actions on your layers. We will explain every option in detail:
Selected layer: See which data set is currently visible. In the dropdown, you will see all the other layers and you can easily switch to another data set.
Display metadata: Show the metadata of all the files in the layers.
Enable layer comparison: Compare multiple layers with each other. This allows you to plot multiple data sets at the same time as an overlay. More info in Compare Layers.
Create a new layer: Create a new and empty layer.
Delete layer: Remove this layer and data set from the visualisation window
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