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Radiotrack documentation

Welcome to the Radiotrack plugin's documentation. You should read the explanations below to understand what you can do and how. After that, you can use the menu above to read about other topics.

Purpose

This plugin was developed to help viewing and correcting manual telemetric data. The first users were measuring signals from a radioemitter on a bat at night. With the direction and the strength of the signal, they could guess where the bat was.

The data is stored in CSV files and consists of latitude-longitude coordinates, an azimuth and the strength of the signal. When filling those files, the users can do mistakes, thus making the data unusable. When importing a CSV file, the plugin indicates which data is erroneous and enables the user to correct it.

Main features

The plugin has a graphical user interface that is brought up by either using the Ctrl+Alt+B keyboard shortcut or by clicking on the black bat icon in the toolbar. Alternatively, you can reach the plugin through QGIS' "Plugins" menu, by selecting "Radiotrack", and "Open/close Radiotrack".

After importing a file, two map layers are created: one drawing dots where measures were taken, and one drawing lines indicating in which direction the measured signal comes from. If the data contains errors, some dots or lines won't be drawn until the errors are corrected.

The table can be edited to correct the errors. Once everything is fine, you can export the data as a CSV file. Filters are here to help you find and select the most useful data.

Plugin layout

The following image shows the plugin on its main tab with numbers marking the useful parts.

1. Tabs

The plugin has different tabs, indicated by [1]. This documentation is in the "Documentation" tab. The main tab ("Data") was selected for the screenshot. Learn more about the filters and settings on the settings page.

2. Data table

The table, indicated by [2], shows the data you are working with. If you have pink lines, it means that they contain errors. Errors are shown in red. These cells contain data that can't be understood. You can select a cell and type to input valid data. When hitting the Enter key or leaving the cell, its content will be checked. If it is valid, the red goes away, and the pink too if the line no longer contains errors. Also, the map will be updated. This is actually true for the "datetime", "lat", "lon" and "azi" columns. The other columns are not checked and can contain anything.

Greens rows indicate measures taken at the same time for the same radioemitter. It is a visual help for finding the most meaningful data. You may sort by datetime by clicking on "datetime" at the top of the table if your measures aren't already sorted in order to see packs of green lines.

3. Controls

There are three buttons below the table, marked by [3]. The "Import" button lets you select a CSV file so you can start working with its data. Check the CSV files format page to adapt your files to this plugin.

The button "Export" will let you save your edited data as a CSV file. Note that only the selected lines are exported.

The button "Clear" will remove the table and the two layers, as if you didn't even use the plugin yet.

4. Project

The "Project" field indicated by [4] is used to remind you which file you imported. However, if you edit the table, its content will no longer match the file's data, so don't forget to export your table.