Help & Instructions

Introduction:

The Loudness Thermometer graphing application is designed to display sound data on a logarithmic scale. This is because a 10dB difference is actually a double (100% increase) in loudness, not a 20% increase as it would appear on a linear scale. This provides a more accurate representation of the relative "loudness" of noise sources.

Settings Overview:

• Title - The title displayed at the top of the graph.
• Max dBA - The (highest) dB value, representing the top of the thermometer.
• Display Text - Turns the text at the bottom of the graph on/off, there is also a field to change the text.
• Background level - Creates a entry on the graph to represent the background noise level. This can also be used with the "Display X louder than" function on the entry tab - doing so will display the difference in loudness between other entries and the background level as a multiple.
  
  Note: the background level has all the same settings (title, dBA, range...) as a normal entry, for more information on those variables see the entries section.

Entries:

The entries tab lets you input information for creating a new entry on the Loudness Thermometer. The customizable variables include:

• Title - Sets the text to be displayed next to the entry (should be limited to a short description of no more than a few words).
• Display X Louder than - Compares the entry to the background level (set in the settings tab) and displays the difference in loudness as a multiple. Background level must be turned on for this to display. If the backgound level is a range, this will calculate and display both the high and low end differences.
• dBA Range - Used for data that falls into a certain range. This will enable the "dBa range(top)" field.
• dBA - Sets the dB value for the entry. If "dBA range" is turned on this is the bottom end of the range.
• dBA Range(top) - if dBA range is turned on, this will represent the top end of the range.
• Side - Sets the entry to be drawn on the left or right side of the thermometer.
• Distance(px) - Sets the distance in pixels between the thermometer and entry information. Useful for when entries are tightly pack, or for adding variety.
• Image - Choose and image to be drawn with the entry. Must be saved on your local machine.

Edit:

The edit tab allows you to select an entry to modify using the "entry#" box at the top. Once finished, press the edit button to update the changes made.

You cannot currently remove entries, it is best to update the data with a different entry. Alternatively you can clear the text/images and set the distance to 0 to hide it if needed.

Saving:

In order to save your finished graph, right click on the graph and hit "save as image" to save it to your computer. Please note that at this time it is not possible to load and edit graphs. Therefore work should be double checked and saved only once completed.