Here are the top new features in HIPS and SIPS Professional 7.1

Water Column Imaging

HIPS and SIPS 7.1.1 now supports the reading and the displaying of Water Column Imaging data.

• Initial support for Water Column Imaging includes Kongsberg (.all, .wcd) sonars and Reson 7K (.s7k) sonars.
• Water Column Imaging in Swath Editor:
• A new Water Column toolbar controls the Water Column Imaging windows.
• Individual polar plots (across track image) of Water Column Imaging data associated with a specific profile can be displayed in the Editor.
• An along track image of the nadir beam can also be displayed in the Editor.
• Views can also be "stacked", or created based on a collection of profiles in the across track sense as well as a collection of beams in the along track sense.
• Water Column Imaging data can be filtered based on intensity values and the bottom detection results seen within the newly added Water Column Imaging views.
• WCI in Subset Editor:
• A new Water Column node has been added.
• Water Column Imaging can now be loaded and displayed in the editor.
• When loading, the data can be filtered by intensity, as well as by a minimum slant range at nadir.

Geocoder and Mosaic Editor

• Geocoder has been refactored and enhanced to make its integration with HIPS and SIPS more robust and reliable. This will be evident in the creation of GeoBaRs, in Sediment Analysis and in the range of data that can be processed in Mosaic Editor.
• Geocoder support added for R2Sonic in XTF and HSX\R2S, GSF, GeoSwath (side scan source data type only) and for various backscatter\side scan data in XTF.
• Geocoder can handle larger file size.
• GeoBaRs are no longer opened by default when creating or editing a mosaic.
• If the GeoBaRs are not initially opened they will remain closed until called by the user, either through opening or if the GeoBaR is required for Editing of the mosaic.
• GeoBaRs can now be retained visually when mosaic Editor is closed.
• GeoBaRs can now be saved to a session. The session file maintains all visualization settings as defined by the user.
• GeoBaRs and mosaics now have their own content type and icons

Batch Processing

HIPSCom.exe has been replaced with the new BatchEngine.exe. Prior to 7.1.1, HIPSCom.exe was a registered component that was required for conversion, sound velocity correction (SVC), and merge. HIPS and SIPS 7.1 implemented the batchengine.exe (a non-registered component) for conversion and now with 7.1.1 SVC and merge are now utilizing this same technology.

Convert to HIPS

• The requirement for carrying over the raw data for Geocoder processing, sound velocity correcting Kongsberg data, and Water Column visualization, has been removed.
• The option to carry over the raw data file for all pertinent data formats still exists but is disabled by default.
• Real time sonar uncertainty values for Reson now supported.
• Sonar uncertainty values as stored in Reson S7K files are now read by the Reson PDS converter.
• Support for conversion of Edgetech 4600

CSAR files

Additional updates have been added to the properties of CSAR files. The comments field is now read-write and used to populate the mandatory element for 19115 metadata. A vertical coordinate system property has been added to allow the user to define what vertical datum the surface is referenced to. The bounding polygons detail can now be altered to be of course, medium or fine detail and engineering sounding display has been added for the display of surfaces as digits.

Surface tools

• The ability to use ESRI ASCII and Binary grid formats as generic surfaces.
• Support for BAG v1.4 files.
• The ability to create and reuse templates for the export of Surface to BAG through a new export dialogue.
• An entirely new dynamic Profile window has been developed.
• Compute Statistics functionality has also been added to produce a histogram and a set of statistics on any of the attribute layers from a surface file.

Exporting data

New Export Surface metadata function for BASE Surfaces and BAG files can now generate a compliant ISO metadata file that is based on the 19115, 19115-2 and 19139 metadata standards.