GTK+ MB-System

Tekmap Consulting has added multi-thread support to the GTK+ MB-System interface.  Processing time is greatly reduced by running select mb-system commands in separate threads. The mb-system commands include:

• mbbackangle
• mbprocess

These programs require very little system memory, and do not take too much CPU time. By placing them in multiple managed threads, the processing time for a block of multibeam files is significantly reduced.

Introduction

The r.in.mb GRASS/Mb-Stystem program is designed to import mbio compatible multibeam data directly into the GRASS GIS.
The program is a modified version of r.in.xyz. Instead of reading an ASCII XYZ file, r.in.mb reads an MB-System compatible list file as shown below.

One reason for developing the GTK+ MB-System interface was the need for a cross-platform interface to the MB-System mbio library. The GTK+ MB-System has been built for and run on a Windows® system. The software was cross-compiled on a Linux x32 system using the tools from MinGW.

The following are the brief notes kept for setting up the cross-compile environment, and building the MB-System mbio library and the GTK+ MB-System interface. These notes are from 2008, so some of the instructions may a out of date.

Introduction

Tekmap Consulting has added a Water Column Viewer to the GTK+ MB-System Interface. The viewer is designed to load the Water Column datagram available in the newer Simrad multibeam formats.

The Water Column Viewer loads available data in a user selected ping-by-ping basis. This provides an alongtrack view of the water column for each available ping.

The GTK+ MB-System GUI includes a number of custom display options. The size of the display window can be changed at any time by dragging the panes to a desired size. The user can also switch between bathymetry and backscatter views, using the backscatter checkbutton on the toolbar.

Other options can be customized from an Preferences Dialog.