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Preferences

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The Preferences page provides access to various options for data display and calculation.

Graphics options

  • Vertical graphical scaling: Controlled by the Depth scaling and Land height scaling sliders. Redrawing the graphics after adjusting these sliders may take some time.
  • Other sliders: Used to control Results opacity, Source size, and Probe size.
  • Reduce graphics data: This factor reduces the graphics processing load. For large bathymetry data sets, graphics display may become slow. When the reduction factor is greater than one, the amount of graphics data is reduced (by the factor squared). The full bathymetry data is still used for calculations.
  • Clip everything below...: Used when there are deep areas in the problem area, such as canyons or continental shelves. This option allows depth data below a specified depth to be clipped (defaults to the greatest depth in the input data, meaning no clipping).
  • 3D graphics: If your computer is slow, unchecking the 3D graphics checkbox switches to 2D mode, which runs faster. Unchecking the Smooth graphics checkbox also increases speed slightly.
  • Smooth results colors: If this option is not selected, the results drawing algorithm may struggle with certain geometric situations, leading to small visual glitches. This can be avoided by increasing the number of x and y grid divisions or checking the Draw contours with triangle algorithm box.
  • Probes in exported images: By default, probes are not included in exported images. To include probes, uncheck the Hide probes on image export box.
  • Bathymetry display: By default, dBSea draws all bathymetry, with a separate color for unsurveyed areas. If you want these areas to be transparent, uncheck this box.
  • Levels display: Two methods for displaying calculated levels:
    1. Max from all depths projected to surface: The maximum sound level at each x and y location across all depths is displayed at the water surface.
    2. Single depth: Data from a specific depth is displayed at the correct depth. The display depth can be adjusted using the Display solution depth buttons.
  • Object colors: You can change the colors for displaying various objects (land, water, background).

Directories options

Here you can change the default save directory and the temporary working directory.

Misc. options

  • Units: You can switch between metric and imperial units.
  • Project name: You can enter a name for the project.

Exporting options

  • Export settings: Choose whether to include an image and text in exported image files. You can also set the delimiter for CSV exports (for ESRI Ascii export, the delimiter is always a space character).

Sound levels display

  • Sound Levels Type: You can choose which type of sound levels to display, with options like dB SELcum and dBpeak for assessments against the criteria defined in the Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing (NOAA, 2016).
  • Converting sound levels: An effective assessment period is set here, which is used for converting between different sound levels (e.g., from input sound sources given as SL to output levels as dB SELcum). Continuous sound sources are active throughout the assessment period, unless modified by the Count and Duty % parameters.