What is Sigview?
SIGVIEW is complete real-time spectral analysis software with
wide range of powerful FFT spectral analysis tools, statistics
functions and comprehensive visualization system How much does it cost, and what do I get for my money?
Single license price for Sigview is
US$ 99.00 for online (download) version. For additional US$ 30.00, you
can get boxed CD version. This price includes a license
for the current SIGVIEW major release (v1.9x) and all later minor
updates. For quantity discounts or special whishes, please . After purchasing Sigview license,
you will get a registration key to unlock the trial version
which can be downloaded from this web site. If you need
technical support, you can purchase one of our Premium support packages
. What kind of support do I
get?
SIGVIEW licenses do not
include technical support for program usage or your
specific application. We offer different Premium support packages
which provide you direct
e-mail contact with our support.
Which data acquisition hardware is supported by Sigview?
SIGVIEW supports real-time data
acquisition from following device types:
NIDAQ and NIDAQmx compatible DAQ devices from
National
Instruments® (Please click here to get NI devices at very affordable price).
All MS Windows compatible
sound cards (up to
16-bit resolution is supported )
*Note: The support for these
professional DAQ devices is currently (v1.98) in a beta phase.
Since both companies produce many different device types, it
was practically impossible to test them all. We decided to
publish the current version and work with our clients to fix
any possible problems with specific devices.
Which file formats are
supported in Sigview?
WAV, Tab/Comma/Semicolon delimited ASCII files, compressed WAV, MP3,
WMA, ASF, Audio Interchange File Format (.AIF, .AIFC, .AIFF),
Sun Microsystems and NeXT audio files (.AU,.SND), Raw file formats (8, 16, 32-bit), European Data Format (EDF).
We have also developed support for many exotic file types for
different customised Sigview versions - you can simply send us
an e-mail and ask about the support for your specific file type. What are minimum hardware and
software requirements for Sigview?
Sigview works on all 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems
(Win 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista). As for hardware requirements,
it depends on your analysis. For simple analysis, any computer
capable of running Windows will be enough. For more complex
analysis, CPU power and amount of RAM are important. For
example, to calculate 16 million samples FFT, you will need at
least 1GB RAM. Does Sigview work on
Linux?
Sigview is originally developed for MS Windows operating systems,
but there is an easy way to make it work on Linux too: You just need to
install Wine, an Open Source implementation of the Windows
API on top of X-Windows and Unix. Then, simply install Sigview by using its installer. Most Sigview functions will
work just like under Windows OS. Loading MP3, WMA, etc. files,
as well as support for professional A/D cards is not yet
included.
Is there a limitation in file
size, FFT size and sample rate?
Only physical limitations of your RAM, hard disk space and
CPU power apply. Please note that Sigview keeps all data
in RAM or in system swap file; therefore, the size of signals
should not exceed available RAM size to achieve best performances.
All signals are internally stored as 4-byte float values so you
can easily amount of memory needed to store and display the
signal. To calculate 16 million samples FFT, you will need at
least 1GB RAM. I find Sigview too difficult
to learn. What should I do?
Take a look at Sigview examples (under
Help/Examples menu option), try reading this FAQ and Sigview
help file. If you need technical support for Sigview usage,
you can purchase one of our Premium
support packages.
Is there a written Sigview manual? No,
in this moment, Sigview documentation is in a form of Windows
help file delivered with trial version of Sigview. Further
“How to” documentation will be available soon. If you need
technical support for Sigview usage, you can purchase one of
our Premium support packages.
Sigview usage
I have a signal I would like to analyze. How do I do start?
Load it in Sigview by using “File/Load signal” menu option.
To take a first look at spectral characteristics of the signal,
try “Signal tools/Time-FFT” menu option with default settings.
You will get a 3D graphics showing the changes of all signal’s
frequency components through time. I would like to analyze recordings from my sound card in real-time.
How do I do it?
Try opening one of Sigview examples first (Help/Examples option).
You can start with: “Live stereo spectrum with 3D.sws” or “GetFrequency.sws”.
After loading, simply choose Data acquisition/Start menu option
to start monitoring live signal. How can I exchange data with Microsoft Excel or other applications?
To import Excel data in Sigview, save it as “Tab delimited
(*.txt)” file from Excel. You should remove all unnecessary
headers or additional text from the sheet before you do that.
You can import such files in Sigview by using File/ASCII/Import…
menu option. To import Sigview data in Excel, save it as
tab delimited file by using File/ASCII/Export… menu option,
and load those in Excel as Text-file. Can Sigview trigger some
external event, in case of some analysis result?
Yes, you can use “Trigger external application” option of Sigview
Instrument windows. These windows can measure different values
from the signal and call external applications in case the
measured value is in some defined range. As an example, Sigview
distribution includes application “Logger.exe” which can be
used to simply log instrument values in a log file. Help file describes
the requirements for such applications. How do I set default
parameters for spectral analysis calculations?
Use Signal tools/Spectral analysis defaults menu option. After
you set your preferences here, all new FFT calculations will
use these settings. I would like to explore very low frequencies, under 1Hz. How do I get those in FFT graphics?
The lowest frequency of FFT result depends on the sample rate of the signal and the length of a signal segment used for FFT calculation.
It will always be equal to SampleRate/SegmentSize. This is not a Sigview limitation, but a mathematical rule for DFT and FFT.
For example, if your signal is sampled at 22050Hz, and you perform FFT on its first 512 samples, the lowest frequency will be 22050/512=43.066Hz.
If you perform FFT on 1sec segment from the same signal, the lowest frequency will be 22050/22050=1Hz. How can I improve the
spectral resolution of FFT result? The difference between two adjacent FFT points is 40Hz, and I would like to make it 1-2Hz.
The spectral resolution of FFT result depends on the sample rate of the signal and the length of a signal segment used for FFT calculation.
It will always be equal to SampleRate/SegmentSize. This is not a Sigview limitation, but a mathematical rule for DFT and FFT.
For example, if your signal is sampled at 22050Hz, and you perform FFT on its first 512 samples, the difference between two adjacent FFT points will be 22050/512=43.066Hz.
If you perform FFT on 1 sec segment from the same signal, the resolution will be 22050/22050=1Hz. There is only one FFT button – how can I get power spectrum,
PSD, etc.?
All spectral analysis tools in Sigview are integrated under
FFT option. By default, this option will calculate and display
standard Magnitude (Amplitude) FFT plot. If you open Properties
dialog for the FFT window, you will be able to change all calculation
parameters and to define what will exactly be the result of
the calculation: Magnitude, Power spectrum, PSD,… You can change
default settings by using Signal tools/Spectral analysis defaults
menu option. I would just like to
determine peak frequency from the signal – what are all these
FFT parameters?
By default, Sigview will calculate spectrum values with optimal
parameters – you don’t have to bother with complicated things.
Just load your signal, press FFT button and then choose Signal
tools/Instruments and markers/Maximum position menu option,
and an instrument with wanted result will appear along with
the marker in the FFT graphics. Can Sigview display signals or FFT results as overlay graphics?
Yes, you can create overlay graphics by using context menus
of each signal window, or by using Control window’ context
menu (select wanted signals first). Can I display spectrum on logarithm X-Axis?
Yes, you can open Axes settings for a FFT window (Edit/Axes
settings menu option) and select “Logarithm X-Axis” option. Can I display spectrum graphics with Y-axis values in dB?
Yes, you can set spectrum values to be in dB (logarithm axis)
in Spectral analysis defaults or in properties for each FFT
window. I would like to compare two
signals – how can I do it with Sigview?
You can compare signals in time domain by showing them as overlays
in one coordinate system (context menus or from Control window)
or by subtracting them to determine the difference (Signal
tools/Signal calculator). To compare signals in frequency domain,
you can calculate their FFTs and compare them, or you can use
some of cross spectral functions available through Signal calculator.
For example, coherence function will show you similarities
between signals for each frequency component on 0…1 scale. How can I set marker in
signal ?
Markers in Sigview are closely related with Instruments. Most
Instrument can place corresponding marker in a signal. For
example, if you use Maximum instrument to show you the maximal
signal value, marker will be displayed on the signal graph
maximal value location. You can turn marker on/off or set
its parameters by editing instrument properties. If you want
simply to set marker on some specific location in the signal,
please use “Marker at…” instrument or “Place marker here”
option from the signal’s context menu. I performed FFT, but the Y-axis is not
labeled. Which units
are on Y axis?
Since spectral analysis is used in many different fields, acoustics,
vibration analysis, electronics, etc. , there are also many
interpretations and units used for Y-axis values. Sigview should
be useful for spectral analysis in all of these application
fields and therefore are the units simply omitted. Each user
can define own units by using Axes settings for the FFT window. Can I show X axis in RPM instead of Hz?
Yes, you can select corresponding option on spectral analysis
defaults or on Properties dialog for each FFT window. How can I print Sigview
graphics?
Sigview does not directly offers printing services, because
there are simply much better applications for this purpose. You can simply
use “Edit/Copy picture to clipboard” menu option to transfer
the bitmap of the active window to the clipboard. After you
do that, you can open any other graphics-capable application
(MS Word, Excel, Visio, Corel Draw, MS Paint) and paste the
picture there. That way you can integrate Sigview graphics
with the rest of your text or you can edit graphics
and print everything when you are finished. How can I save my work?
By using options in File menu: “Load Workspace...” and “Save
workspace...”, you can save all currently opened SIGVIEW
windows (workspace) in a file and load it later. SIGVIEW
does not save the actual content of every signal – it saves
only a structure of your analysis system and file names for
loaded files. For example, if you load a signal, perform
an FFT on it and save that workspace, SIGVIEW will not save
the actual values from the signal or values from the FFT.
Only the name of the signal file will be saved along with
information that you performed FFT on it with certain parameters.
Therefore, if you change the data in original signal file
and reload SIGVIEW workspace, you will get changed signal
data and the FFT from it. Generally, workspace file contains
the information you see in Control Window plus properties
for each window including axes properties and zoom info.
Troubleshooting
My toolbars are all messed up. How can I reset those to the
original state?
Open your windows explorer, go to Sigview installation folder
(usually \Programm Files\Sigview), find Toolbars.reg file and
execute it (double-click). Your toolbars will be restored to
default state. When I play sound, there are strange periodic cracking noises.
What can I do about it?
If you select a small part of the signal and then try to play
it, Sigview will slide along the signal sending each small segment to the sound card.
That way, it is possible to synchronize
analysis and signal playing. The problem is that some sound
cards have problems when receiving small data segments to play (for
example under 128 samples). Similar problems are possible
if your computer is too slow, or your analysis system takes
too much time to calculate after each block is recorded. As
a workaround, increase the visible signal segment size. I can not load my signal file. Why?
If your file type is on the supported file list, maybe you
do not have the codec needed to open that file type (possible for MP3, WMA, etc.). To solve this, simply
install the latest version of Microsoft MediaPlayer. It includes
all codecs you need. How to fix error: "Count must be integer multiple of packet size for continuous mode" when performing data acquisition from Measurement Computing USB devices?
Some devices have restrictions regarding the "Block size" parameter in data acquisition window. It has to be a integer multiple of internal device packet size.
For 1208LS and MiniLAB 1008, this packet size is 64, for 1208LS and 1608FS is 31, for 1616FS is 62 etc. I have saved my signal as WAV file, but it looks empty when loaded back to Sigview?
Standard WAV format contains only integer values (usually 8 or 16-bit). When you save to WAV from Sigview,
all samples will be rounded to a nearest integer value. Therefore, if your signal values are, for example,
between 0 and 0.5, Sigview will round all values to 0 and save them to WAV. You can avoid it by increasing values of signal samples, for example by multiplying signal with 10 through Signal calculator or by using Normalize/Scale option.
Customization
Could you make Sigview read
my file format or record data from my device?
Yes, it is possible. If you can provide the device
or example files you would like Sigview to support, and if this
support can be important for other users, then this customization
can even be free of charge. If not, we will make an offer for
this customization at very affordable price. We would like to bundle Sigview with our device, is it possible
to get customized version?
Yes, many different options are available for OEM Sigview version.
You can freely define changes you need. Payment methods range
from license-based up to royalty free.
