Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

Select a shortcut field, press a key combination, then release to save. Escape cancels editing. Shortcuts pause while typing in controls.

Pan: drag an empty area with the mouse or one finger. Zoom: scroll over the map. These gestures are fixed.

Theme

Choose the appearance of the workspace. Your choice is saved in this browser.

Using Array Designer

Array Designer Overview

Array Designer let's you interactively evaluate, plan and optimize your acoustic telemetry receiver design. It is based on the R packaage ArrayPlanR by Matley et al., 2026 Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Please see general instructions in the following sections, and be sure to check the hotkey settings in the Hotkeys page for controls.

Start a design

Load a GeoJSON study area or a ZIP containing a Shapefile. Longitude/latitude and files with projection metadata are converted automatically to a shared UTM system. Include the Shapefile .prj file when available; an unidentified map needs its source CRS once. Complete polygon boundaries, islands and separate areas are retained. A successful new study-area import clears the receiver layout. Then load receiver locations or initialize random or gridded positions.

Navigate and edit

Drag the map to pan, scroll to zoom, and use Reset view to return to the initial view. Hover over a receiver to see its name and study coordinates (easting and northing in metres). Press N while hovering to rename it. The Hotkeys page lists editable combinations for adding, deleting, dragging, relocating, and renaming receivers.

Hold the relocation shortcut while hovering over a receiver to preview coverage changes. Each cell shows the change in total study system coverage if the selected receiver moved there, with all other receivers fixed: blue means a gain, red means a loss, and neutral means no change. Values are percentage points (pp), with the color scale adjusted to each preview. An empty area can be red when moving there loses more coverage elsewhere than it gains. Click that receiver with the shortcut held to move it to the best grid location. Fine grid resolutions can make this calculation slow. When three-receiver detection is selected, Optimize is available only with lattice placement enabled. Otherwise, use Optimize at the bottom of Array Controls to improve receivers one at a time for up to six passes, stopping after a pass with no improvement. Click Stop to finish early.

Lattice mode arranges all receivers, including those outside the study system. Its controls change east/north offset, rotation, inter-receiver spacing, row stretch, shear and square/triangular/hexagonal shape. Receivers outside the study system are retained with a warning. Reset lattice restores the centered square layout. Lattice parameters are included in saved workflows.

With lattice mode enabled, Optimize searches all seven slider parameters together within their limits, then refines the best result. Coverage is the primary objective; probability below the threshold guides equal-coverage trials. A result is applied at completion only if it improves coverage. Stop discards pending trials, and changing the study, receivers, lattice controls or detection settings cancels the run. Outside receivers are allowed. This bounded search does not guarantee a global optimum.

After optimization, Move receivers inside the study system keeps receivers already inside the study system fixed, then moves receivers outside the study system to the nearest unused sites on the same lattice. Where no such site fits, it uses single-receiver coverage optimization at valid unoccupied grid-cell centres, with up to six passes over these fallback receivers. Intermediate triangular-to-honeycomb morphs use individual placement because they have no regular infinite extension. Coverage can change when every receiver must be inside the study system; the result shows before/after coverage and any receivers that could not fit at the current grid resolution. Stop keeps completed moves and discards pending calculations. Assigned sites are saved and follow position, spacing, stretch, shear and rotation changes; changing lattice shape or receiver count rebuilds the regular array.

New study areas start with cells approximately 2% of their longest dimension; the minimum is 10 m below 5 km across and 50 m for larger systems.

Basemap

Coverage contour outlines the grid cells that meet or exceed the Coverage Threshold, clipped to the study system boundary and excluded areas. Toggle it in Array Controls or press V (editable in Hotkeys). Its color follows the selected theme and it is included in saved workflows.

Use Basemap beside Reset view, or its shortcut (B by default), to show OpenStreetMap outside the study area, including islands. The study system heatmap stays on its theme background, and calculations remain in UTM. The basemap needs an internet connection and an HTTP(S) web server; it is off by default. Older studies may ask for their existing UTM zone once. The setting is included in saved workflows.

Detection and coverage

Global mode uses common detection parameters. Receiver-Specific mode uses individual parameters, and Habitat-Specific mode uses each receiver's assigned habitat. Switching modes preserves individual settings. Configure Detection Parameters opens the appropriate editor.

Sigmoid and logistic curves describe probability by distance, with zero probability beyond the maximum range. Line of sight blocks paths crossing the shoreline. Combined probability assumes independent detections by at least one receiver, or at least three when that option is enabled.

Coverage is the percentage of grid-cell centres inside the study area whose combined probability meets the coverage threshold. The distribution chart summarizes those probabilities; the function chart shows the global distance curve.

Files and preferences

Save Workflow stores the map, receiver positions, and detection settings in JSON. Load Workflow restores a saved design. Export Receivers CSV saves UTM coordinates with their CRS, IDs and names. Receiver uploads accept CSV, point GeoJSON or zipped point Shapefiles. CSV input supports ID, name, longitude/latitude, lon/lat, x/y or easting/northing, an optional CRS column, detection parameters and habitat. Decimal longitude/latitude columns are detected automatically; unlabelled projected receiver coordinates use the study CRS. Use Change source coordinates in the import summary to override this assumption. Conversion is offline: uncommon CRS codes require their .prj, WKT or PROJ definition.

Name the study system in the field above the map; the name is included in saved workflows. Theme and shortcut preferences are saved separately in this browser. The Theme colors gradient follows your selected appearance and colors the map and probability-plot markers; choose a named gradient to keep a fixed palette. Use the hamburger Controls button to show or collapse the control column. On smaller screens, the workspace scrolls horizontally to keep the graphs beside the map.