Using SegyTracker


    Menu or toolbar

When SegyTracker is first started it shows a window similar to the following with a menu bar, a toolbar with most buttons greyed out, and a blank area with a license reminder.

Either the toolbar or the menu bar may be used to control SegyTracker, the functions are identical on each. Only functions that will work with no data loaded will be accesible on the menu or toolbar. Once SEGY files have been imported by way of one of the File menu items the rest of the functions will become "live".

Each toolbar button can show a tooltip that briefly explains the function that the button will initiate. To see the tooltip hover your mouse cursor over the button. Most functions have corresponding hotkeys that can be used instead of the menu or toolbar. The hotkeys are listed on each menu item and tooltip.

The menu and toolbar items are split into six groups. The toolbars are grouped by tabs with the name of the group as the tab label. Note that there is a seventh group that you may notice in the images that is only accessible to Devon Energy.

The six menu groups are:

File   Import and export functions to populate tables. Import and export tables. Export XY data to text files.
Columns   Import and export config files. Dynamically add new columns or re-populate existing ones.
Edit   Edit, copy, delete column data. Rename, delete rows, columns, or tables. Bulk rename SEGY files.
View   Set cell colours. Change view of cell contents to display value, format, or byte location.
Search   Search columns for strings. Create and search SegyList files.
Display   Create trace displays, maps, histograms of SEGY data. Pass SEGYs to SegyTool for editing.


    Bottom Panel


The bottom panel displays information about the currently selected table. The number of files, total number of traces for all files, and total number of megabytes for the files. There are also up and down arrow buttons which can be used to traverse the rows of SEGY files. If these buttons are used to traverse the rows, as opposed to the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard, any open display dialogs, such as a wiggle trace display, will be updated with the new SEGY's data.


    Highlighting and selecting rows and columns


Single or multiple cells can be highlighted. To highlight a cell click on the cell with the left mouse button. To highlight a contigous group of cells click on the starting cell of the group with the left mouse button. Holding the shift key down click on the last cell in the group. To highlight an entire column click on the column header containing the column name. To highlight a row click on the row header containing the row number. Use the shift / click method described above to highlight a contigous group of rows or columns. Non-contigous groups of cells can be selected by holding down the control key and clicking on the cells or row / column headers to be highlighted.

Single or multiple rows can be selected by clicking on the checkbox for the row(s) in the "Selected" column. Highlighting and selecting have two different meanings. Highlighting cells is volatile in that unless the shift or control key is held down clicking on a cell or header will cancel any existing highlighting. Selected rows can only be canceled by de-selecting the checkbox for the row. Some functions are performed on all highlighted cells, however most functions are performed on all selected rows.
If the right mouse button is clicked while holding the mouse cursor over any cell, but not a column or row header, a popup menu appears.

Use this menu to contol highlighting and selecting.

The "Check all highlighted" option will turn on the checkbox for any row containing a highlighted cell. The entire row need not be highlighted.

The "Uncheck all highlighted rows" option will turn off the checkboxes for the highlighted rows.

The "Check all" and "Uncheck all" options will turn the checkboxes for all rows on or off

The "Highlight All" and "UnHighlight all" options are self explanatory

The "Resize highlighted columns" will adjust the width of each highlighted column so that all the cell contents are visible. Note that the column widths are set when the table is created but this option is useful if an operation changed the contents of a column


    Traversing rows


There are two ways to traverse through the rows of a table. The first is to use the up and down arrows on the keyboard. The other is to use the up and down buttons on the bottom panel.

If the buttons on the bottom panel or the hot keys "shift up arrow / shift down arrow" are used any open dialogs will have their contents updated with data from the new SEGY. If the keyboard arrow keys are used dialogs are not updated.

Note that the hot keys for this function are not very useful because the keyboard focus will shift to the dialog being updated and you will need to click on the table again for the hot keys to be recognized.


    Hot keys


There are hot key combinations for virtually all menu items. The hot keys can be seen on the menu listings and in the tool tips for toolbar buttons.


    Mandatory columns


The "Selected" and "File path" columns are mandatory. They cannot be removed from a table and must be defined in all config files. However they do not need to be the first two columns in the table. They can be moved by dragging the column header to a different location. The file path can be the path to a symbolic link on a unix or Linux system.


    Predefined columns


Predefined columns can be added to a table dynamically or defined in a config file.

Predefined columns contain data from a SEGY file that is either read from a standard header location such as sample rate or derived from the SEGY file such as file size or number of traces. The user need only select the column from the "Add predefined column" dialog by name. The column will be auomatically populated.


    Editable columns


Like predefined columns editable columns can be added dynamically or defined in a config file.

When created the columns are blank. Users can enter text data into the columns by typing in each cell or by pasting from the clipboard. Any information can be entered, for example the project the file belongs to or the name of the seismic company that shot the data.

Data from existing columns, not necessarily editable ones, can be pasted into editable columns. The contents of a single cell can be pasted into multiple cells so that, for instance, one project name could be pasted into the first 100 rows and another project name into the next 100 rows.


    Working with columns, Moving, resizing, sorting


Any column can be moved to a new position simply by clicking on the column header and dragging it to a new location. If you wish to keep the new column order for subsequent sessions you will need to export a new config file or, if you wish, overwrite your standard config.

Columns can be made wider by hovering the mouse cursor over the column header divider lines and dragging the line to the column width desired. Alternatively you can highlight the column to be resized by clicking on the column header, right clicking the mouse and selecting the "Resize highlighted columns" option.

To sort the contents of a column hover the mouse over the column header and right click the mouse. Note that the mouse must be over the column header that contains the column name. The first right click will sort the column contents in ascending order, the next click will sort in descending order, the last click will put the column contents back to the original unsorted order.