Working with data
Navigating & inspecting
One x viewport shared by every track, a y viewport per track, and a crosshair that reads one sample, one track, or every track at once.
Zooming
Drag inside a plot area. The direction of the drag selects the zoom.
| Drag | Result |
|---|---|
| Horizontal | Zoom x to the dragged span, on every track. |
| Vertical | Zoom y on this track, switching it to manual. |
| Diagonal | Box zoom: x on every track, y on this one. |
⌘+ and ⌘− zoom x by 10% per press. ⌥⌘+ and ⌥⌘− do the same for y, applied to every track and switching each to manual. To zoom one track's y, use the gestures below.
Two modifiers are reserved: ⌘-click places a measurement cursor and ⇧-drag selects a range, instead of zooming. See Measuring without switching the tool on.
Panning
- Drag the timeline ruler to pan x on every track.
- Drag a y-axis to pan that track's y range, switching it to manual.
- ⌘[ / ⌘] scrub by 5% of the visible span.
- ⇧⌘[ / ⇧⌘] skip by 15%.
A trackpad or wheel pans and zooms too — see Scrolling and pinching.
Scrolling and pinching
A scroll wheel, a two-finger scroll and a pinch all drive the plots. Where the pointer sits decides who takes the gesture, and a modifier picks the axis.
Over a plot area
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Scroll sideways | Pan x on every track. |
| Scroll vertically | Nothing here — it scrolls the track list. |
| ⇧ + scroll | Pan x. |
| ⇧⌘ + scroll | Pan this track's y. |
| ⌥⌘ + scroll | Pan x and y together, following the pointer in both directions. |
| ⌘ + scroll, or pinch | Zoom x about the pointer. |
| ⌥ + scroll, or ⌥ + pinch | Zoom this track's y about the pointer. |
| ⌥⌘ + pinch | Zoom both axes by the same factor, so the trace keeps its shape. |
⇧ takes priority over the zoom modifiers, so ⇧⌥ pans x rather than zooming y.
Over the ruler
The ruler takes plain scrolls: any scroll pans x, and ⌘ + scroll or a pinch zooms x. The y-axis gutter takes no scroll at all — it keeps its drag, and scrolling there moves the track list.
Behaviour
- Zooming is anchored to the pointer, so the sample under the cursor stays put. The menu commands zoom about the centre instead.
- A y gesture targets the hovered track only, and switches it to manual.
- Trackpad momentum carries a pan through, but not a zoom.
- Scrolling or pinching x switches Follow live off, as any manual x change does.
Lines soften while a zoom gesture is in flight and sharpen once it lands.
Resetting the view
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Double-click a plot area | Reset x, and this track's y. |
| Double-click the ruler | Reset x. |
| Double-click a y-axis | Reset that track's y. |
| ⌘0 | Reset X Zoom. |
| ⌘R | Reset All Zoom. |
The full x range spans every visible signal on every track.
Resetting zoom does not re-enable Follow live.
Crosshair
The crosshair reads values off the plot under the pointer. Toggle it from the toolbar or with ⌘;. It is on by default, in Single Track.
Modes
Three modes set how much it calls out.
| Mode | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Nearest Point | The sample nearest the pointer, on the hovered track — and only where one is within snapping distance of it. |
| Single Track | Every visible signal on the hovered track, at the cursor's x. |
| Multi Track | Every visible signal on every track, at the cursor's x — the whole window at one instant. |
Off, the control is the crosshair icon alone. Clicking it switches the crosshair on and opens the three modes beside it, with the one in use lit; clicking the icon again switches it off, and the mode is kept. The modes are also in the View menu, under Crosshair Mode.
The readout
A dot lands on every reading, on whichever track it belongs to, and the vertical line runs down the window through all of them. The readout lists the readings in the order their signals are plotted, grouped by track where it spans more than one.
Every value is quoted at the x of the sample it was read at, never at the pointer's own x.
Signals sampled on different axes answer at different x, so each x that was read is named
x1, x2… at the top of the readout and given a tint, and each
reading is tagged with the one it belongs to. Where every reading shares an x it is a single
x = … with no tags.
The readout is drawn over the whole track area rather than inside the hovered track, so a
reading of several tracks has room to list them. In a window too small for the list it is still
cut, and what is left over is counted as +N more.
No signal is read outside its own x range. Past either end of a recording — or in the gap between two captures that do not overlap — that signal drops out of the readout rather than reporting the sample the recording stopped at.
The crosshair follows the pointer and leaves nothing behind. To pin a readout in place, compare several positions, or take statistics over a window, see Measuring. A measurement cursor reports every signal at one x you picked; the crosshair reports samples, each at the x it was taken at.
Follow live
Follow live (⌘L, or the toolbar toggle) keeps the x window pinned to the newest sample, preserving your zoom.
- It switches on when you add a live signal to a track.
- It switches off when you adjust the x zoom or pan by hand.
- Resetting zoom does not switch it back on.
Grid and ruler
Grid lines follow the axis ticks. The ruler at the top of the window is the shared x-axis and is always visible.
Raw stream console
The raw byte console docks at the bottom of the track area and can be resized by dragging its top edge. See Raw stream console.