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Home » Frequently Asked Questions
- Definition
- Some common questions
- Opening dbpick
- Examples
- Commands
- Mouse config (if using a single button Mac mouse)
- Waveform window commands
- Further information
Definition
dbpick is an X-windows Tcl/Tk based interactive graphical program for displaying seismic waveforms, analyst picked phase arrivals and temporary predicted arrivals. dbpick also provides functionality for creating and/or editing phase arrivals. The data must be represented in a CSS (Center for Seismic Studies) relational database implemented as a set of ASCII flat files, each file corresponding to one of the CSS relations. Currently the program will work only with version 3.0 of the database schema. Editing causes immediate changes to the database flat files without copying to new files.
Some common questions
Q: Why can't I get “rec” to work in dbpick?
A: You first need to do “ae” (associate events), then you can “rec” (produce a record section).
Q: Why can't I get “pal” to work in dbpick?
A: You first need to do “ae” (associate events), then you can “pal” (p-wave align the waveforms).
Opening dbpick
dbpick [-sc sta:chan] [-ts tstart] [-te tend] [-tw twin] [-noexist] [-nostarttalk] [-winfile winfile] [-appname tksend_appname] [-gaps {segment|zero|interp|none}] dbname
- dbname
The name of the subject database. The database name is defined as the name of one of the flat relation files without the .relname suffix. For example, if the .wfdisc relation file name is ./foo.wfdisc then ./foo is the database name. This argument is required and must be the last argument in the command line. - -sc sta:chan
A station-channel sift key. This argument specifies the subset of station-channel data streams that will be available for analysis. This argument is optional and if it is not specified, then all station-channel values will be used. The asterisk (*) character can be used in place of either sta or chan which matches anything. Thus -sc AAK:* would mean all channels for station AAK or -sc *:HHZ would mean all stations for channel HHZ. In addition, normal UNIX regular expression matching is used to match strings (ala ed or ex, so that -sc A..:..Z, for example, would match all 3-character channel codes ending in Z and all 3-character station codes beginning with A). The user should take care to deal properly with the shell interpreter when using the various metacharacters, as they can be substituted before program execution. If using the C-shell, a safe way to handle this is to place sta:chan between single quotes as follows: -sc 'sta:chan' - -ts tstart
A data sift start time. This argument specifies the subset of arrivals and waveform segments that will be available for analysis. Only arrivals and waveform segments with time later than tstart will be used. This argument is optional and if it is not specified, then waveform segment and arrival times will not be subject to start time sifting. The start time, tstart, can be specified in several different ways:- 1. An epoch time in seconds since 00:00:00 1 Jan 1970 GMT.
- 2. A character string in `year:month:day:hour:minute:second' form.
- 3. A character string in `julianday:hour:minute:second' form.
- -te tend
A data sift end time. This argument specifies the subset of arrivals and waveform segments that will be available for analysis. Only arrivals and waveform segments with time earlier than tend will be used. This argument is optional and if it is not specified, then waveform segment and arrival times will not be subject to start time sifting. The end time, tend, can be specified in several different ways:- 1. An epoch time in seconds since 00:00:00 1 Jan 1970 GMT.
- 2. A character string in `year:month:day:hour:minute:second' form.
- 3. A character string in `julianday:hour:minute:second' form.
- -tw twin
An initial time window in seconds for displaying the data. This argument is optional and, if not specified, a default time window is used. - -noexist
A waveform existence flag. If this flag is given in the command line, then all station-channel streams will be displayed even those for which there are no existing waveform .w files. - -nostarttalk
Disable startup dialog flag. If this flag is given in the command line, then the default startup dialog is omitted and the program goes immediately into interactive display mode. The startup dialog consists of a summary printout of the station-channels to be displayed, a prompt to determine if the user wants to look at the listed traces and a help printout explaining the interactive keyboard and mouse usage. - -winfile winfile
A file into which will be written the main dbpick X-window id. This is used as a crude mechanism for broadcasting the dbpick X-window id for use in X-server based inter-process communication. This argument is optional and, if not specified, then the window id file is not created. - -appnametksend_appname
A tcl/tk application name for the main dbpick X-window. This name must contain at least one alphabetic character with no embedded blanks. This is an alternate mechanism for X-server based inter-process communication. Messages can be sent either through the tksend(1) program or by the tcl/tk send command. This argument is optional and, if not specified, then the tcl/tk application name is not registered. - -gaps {segment|zero|interp|none}
Data gaps internal to waveform segments (typical for radio telemetered data) can be flagged for 2-byte integer and 4-byte integer data. The flagging is done by setting 2-byte data samples to the value 32767 and 4-byte data samples to the value 2147483647 which are the maximum integer values for the two formats. The way in which dbpick displays data gaps is determined by this argument. If this is specified as segment, then waveform data is re-segmented to elliminate internally flagged gaps (the gaps will appear as gaps on the display). If this is specified as zero, then internally flagged gap values are set to zero before being displayed. If this is specified as interp, then internally flagged gap values are interpolated. If this is specified as none, then dbpick will not look for internally flagged gaps and the display will show the waveform segments in their original form. This argument is optional and, if not specified, then the default gap processing is segment.
Examples:
dbpick -ts 1035479912.23545 -te 1035480112.23545 -sc "SOL:*" /path/to/database
- open database and display the waveforms from all channels for station SOL between 1035479912.23545 and 1035480112.23545.
Commands
Below is the list of commands that can be used within the program*:
| MOUSE BUTTON | ACTION |
|---|---|
| Left-Click | Time Scroll to the left |
| Right-Click | Time scroll to the right |
| Middle-Drag | Time scroll left or right |
| Shift-Left-Click | Time zoom in |
| Shift-Right-Click | Time zoom out |
| Left-Click-on-Station-Label | Select/Deselect station |
| Left-Drag-across-Station-Label | Select/Deselect station |
| Left-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Adjust arrival time |
| Shift-Left-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Adjust arrival time uncertainty |
| Control-Shift-Left-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Adjust arrival amplitude-period |
| Control-Left-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Show arrival measurements |
| Middle-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Phase code menu |
| Right-Click-on-Arrival-Flag | Arrival menu |
* Note: If you are viewing dbpick on an OSX machine using XDarwin or X11, you will need to compensate for the lack of a three button mouse. This is accomplished by the following key combinations:
| Workstation: 3 buttons | Mac: 1 button |
|---|---|
 |
 + CONTROL |
 |
+ APPLE/COMMAND |
 |
+ ALT/OPTION |
Alternatively / additionally you can press a key while you are in the waveform window. Here is the list of commands available to you:
| COMMAND | KEY | ACTION |
|---|---|---|
| fw | F | first waveform |
| nw | N | next waveform |
| pw | P | previous waveform |
| fa | f | first arrival |
| na | n | next arrival |
| pa | p | previous arrival |
| np | phase | next phase |
| pp | phase | previous phase |
| fe | first event | |
| ne | e | next event |
| pe | previous event | |
| Fe | find event | |
| dw | delete blank traces | |
| tfit | t | toggle time fit |
| sfit | s | station fit |
| a | Repaint arrivals | |
| r | Repaint window | |
| R | Redraw and repaint window | |
| sc | sta:chan | display matching station/channels |
| rec | arrange stations by increasing distance | |
| ts | time | start display at this time |
| tw | time | change time window |
| cw | start number | change channel zoom window |
| ph | phase | change default phase |
| gp | {segment | zero | interp|none} | change telemetry gap processing |
| oa | dbname | open arrival database |
| oe | dbname | open event database |
| se | orid | select event from event database |
| sp | phase_list | select predicted arrival phases |
| tc | time_corr | specify overlay arrival time correction |
| tse | time scroll to the current event | |
| ae | associate event with arrivals in display | |
| wa | write associations to input database | |
| sa | on/off | show/hide arrivals |
| soa | on/off | show/hide overlay arrivals |
| sw | on/off | show/hide waveforms |
| sv | sta/off | show/hide velocity annotations |
| cts | on/off | amplitude units in couts or physical units |
| gr | on/off | show/hide background st grids |
| pal | on/off | time align on P arrivals on/off |
| filter | index | set filter index |
| sm | {bi l in | block} | set grid display mode |
| fc | hue light sat | set hue, light and sat of foreground color |
| ps | plotfile | Make PostScript window dump to plotfile |
| pr | Make PostScript window dump to printer | |
| exec | command | execute a UNIX command |
| quit | quit dbpick | |
| help | print this menu |
Further information
For further information, visit the BRTT website man page for dbpick by clicking here.
Last updated: 2008-07-31 18:40:40 UTC
