Delimited Definitions
In contrast to delimited and NMEA messages, fixed messages have a set record length. The order of the data fields is constant as are their start/end positions.
The Basic tab consists of the following fields:
- Description
- Provide an optional description of this item.
- System Name
- System generated name, read only format standard across all SCS systems.
- Useful for post-processing data on shore from multiple different sources/vessels.
- Useful for rotating personnel as each ship will always comply with this format.
- If you wish to have a more user friendly name you can edit the Display Name attribute below
- Display Name
- User supplied name
- Can be anything you wish though must be unique.
- Type
- The Type of Message Definition being defined.
- This is set upon creation and cannot be changed after the fact.
- Log Messages
- A flag lettings ACQ know if this stream should be logged to disk (files / database) or not.
- If unchecked this data will still be available to all clients and calculated devices, but will not be stored on disk.
- Enabled
- A flag letting SCS know if this interface is actively providing data or if it should be ignored by client applications such as ACQ.
- Termination Characters
- The last character (often a control character) which signifies the end of the data string.
- Record Size
- The max length of the string comprising the entire message.
- ACQ will assume a message is complete when the termination character is read OR the record size is exceeded.
- As most all modern data comes in with a termination character, it is advised you set the record size to a very large number thereby telling ACQ to ignore it and always look for the termination character.
The Advanced tab consists of the following fields:
- Comment
- A general comment pertaining to this item
- Keywords
- Optional tags used to assist with text searches and metadata
- Log Sub Folder Name
- If Log Messages is enabled this specified an optional sub-folder for the RAW file containing the message's data
- Delimiters
- The character(s) to use to split the message into its Data Fields
- Relay via UDP Broadcast
- A flag which tells ACQ to immediately send the data out via UDP Broadcast the instant it is read from the interface.