Simcenter Anovis industrial quality systems have extensive data visualization capabilities. This article covers the mouse and keyboard interactions for viewer displays in Simcenter Anovis Signal Analyzer software.
Because Simcenter Anovis typically runs in the background during production, some operators may not be aware that the underlying data used for pass/fail can be viewed in depth!
In the Anovis Signal Analyzer software, if no measurement has yet been loaded, load an .ame file containing data to view using File > Open result file…
Then, select Configuration > Viewer connection… to view a list of available buffers that can be assigned to a viewer.
It is recommended to use the “Hide empty buffers” checkbox to narrow the list of buffers to only include ones containing data. If desired, the filter for Numbers, Vectors, Sonagrams, or Features can be used to show the data based on the type of viewer it can be plotted in.
Choose a buffer to display by clicking on its row; if you would like to select more than one, you can hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys on subsequent buffers to highlight multiple rows. Right click on a selected row and select “Add viewer,” then choose the desired viewer type, such as “Lines” to display a 2D curve or “Sonagram” to display a color map.
The Window menu contains a Fix option that can be toggled on or off. When on, the viewers will act as a set of tiles in the display area; when off, the viewers will become moveable windows that can be resized, maximized, or minimized.
Above the viewer display area are a series of tabs, with one for each viewer. Clicking on a tab will bring that viewer into focus if it is behind another one. Similarly, the pane to the left of the display area contains a tree list of the viewers that can be clicked to bring the desired viewer into focus.
The axis limits of a plot such as the Lines viewer can be entered manually by right-clicking inside of the plot and selecting the Viewer Settings option.
This opens a dialog with multiple options for what is shown in the viewer, including Min and Max values for the X and Y axes.
Additionally, the mouse scrollwheel can be used to zoom in or out; rolling the scrollwheel while the cursor is over the center of the plot will zoom both axes simultaneously, while rolling the scrollwheel while the cursor is hovering over a single axis will zoom in and out of that axis. Double-clicking in the center of the plot will restore the viewer to the zoomed out default.
Zoom by hovering mouse on axis (X-axis shown here) and using scroll wheel.
When an axis is zoomed in, it is possible to pan by right-clicking and dragging on that axis.
Pan by dragging on axis (Y-axis shown here) when zoomed in.
Pressing down the Ctrl key while left-clicking and dragging will create a rectangle that the display will be zoomed into when the left mouse button is released.
Hold Ctrl key while left clicking to create a viewing rectangle.
Right-clicking in the plot of a Lines viewer will reposition the blue cursor to that location and update the first value of the legend display to show the x and y value(s) of that location. Holding down the shift key while clicking will instead reposition the red cursor, which affects the second value of the legend. The third value of the legend in (parentheses) is the difference in values between the blue and red cursor positions.
By right-clicking in the plot of the viewer and selecting Extra, either cursor can be changed into a harmonic cursor.
The starting position of the series of harmonics is adjusted by moving the ‘main’ cursor in its normal manner, while the subsequent cursor spacing can be adjusted by pressing and holding the scrollwheel button (and the Shift key if adjusting red harmonic cursors) while clicking and dragging to reposition a cursor other than the ‘main’ one; all of the other harmonics scale accordingly.
Right-clicking in the plot can also be used to select the “Marker” option to add a marker to the plot. This marker will display the y-value corresponding to the specified x-value.
A name can be given to the marker to label it, and clicking on the “Cursor” button will auto-fill the two x-axis location options with the current values of the cursors; the blue and red radiobuttons can be used to toggle which of the two textboxes to use as the x axis location, and the values can be freely edited to something other than the current cursor location if desired. Harmonics can be used to have the marker repeat at fixed intervals. Clicking the Add button will add the marker to the plot.
In addition to using multiselection when creating a viewer, buffers can be added or removed from an existing viewer in the Viewer connection… dialog. The right-most pane acts as a grid with current viewers as the columns and buffers as the rows, with an X at the intersection if the viewer contains the given buffer. Double-clicking on this intersection space will toggle the X on or off, which adds or removes the buffer from the viewer.
When a viewer contains multiple buffers, the Page-Up and Page-Down keys can be used to scroll between the combined view and each individual buffer.
Page-Up and Page-Down to view other channels.
The above shows the change in color schemes when changing views with Page Up and Page Down for a viewer containing two buffers, the first of which has a tolerance curve:
All buffers: first buffer in blue, first buffer's tolerance in dotted blue, second buffer in red.
First buffer only: buffer in blue, tolerance in red.
