Toggle the 3D FFT spectrum view¶
Switch the spectrum display from the default 2D FFT waterfall to a 3D surface view that shows signal history scrolling forward in time, with elevation shadows for slice markers.
Before you start¶
- Your radio must be connected and the panadapter visible in the main window.
- The panadapter must be in a normal (docked) state — the 3D toggle is part of the SpectrumWidget embedded in each Panadapter.
Steps¶
- Locate the panadapter's spectrum display area (the FFT / waterfall region).
- Click the 3D FFT view toggle button on the panadapter. This button is a toggle that switches between the default 2D spectrum and the 3D surface view.
- The button label reads 3D FFT view (a toggle button in the SpectrumWidget).
- The default state is Disabled.
- To return to the 2D view, click the 3D FFT view toggle again.
What each control does¶
| Control | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 3D FFT view toggle button | Switches between 2D spectrum/waterfall and the 3D surface view. When enabled, signal history displays as a forward-scrolling 3D surface with elevation shadows cast by slice flags. The floor resynchronizes after bandwidth zoom. |
| Slice title | Shows which slice is bound to this panadapter (Slice A through Slice H). |
| ⬈ / ↩ (pop-out/dock) | Pops the panadapter out into a floating window or docks it back. Hidden in single-pan mode. Floating window is frameless — drag via the in-app title strip, resize via the bottom-right size grip. On macOS, every float/dock cycle re-binds the GPU surface so the spectrum stays live. Saved floating-window state is not restored when subsequent panadapters are added. When docked back, empty splitter slots are reclaimed. |
| □ (maximize) | Maximizes this panadapter in a multi-pan layout. Hidden in single-pan mode. |
| × (close) | Closes this panadapter. Hidden in single-pan mode. |
| Spectrum / waterfall | Click activates the panadapter; drag to tune, scroll to zoom. |
| CW stats label | Shows detected CW pitch and speed in the format <hz> Hz <wpm> WPM. |
| Sens | Slider (0–100, default 30) that filters low-confidence decodes; higher = stricter. Maps to a cost threshold of 1.0–0.1. |
| 🔒P (Lock Pitch) | Locks the CW decoder pitch to the current tuned frequency. |
| 🔒S (Lock Speed) | Locks the CW decoder speed to the current WPM. |
| Lo (pitch min) | Slider (300–1200 Hz, default 500) for the minimum pitch the CW decoder searches; clamped ≤ Hi. |
| Hi (pitch max) | Slider (300–1200 Hz, default 700) for the maximum pitch the CW decoder searches; clamped ≥ Lo. |
| CPY ALL | Copies the full decoded text to the clipboard. |
| CPY VIS | Copies only the text currently visible in the scroll area. |
| CLR | Clears the CW decode buffer. |
| ✕ (close CW) | Hides the CW decode panel. |
| CW decode text | Read-only rolling display of decoded CW coloured by confidence. Colours: <0.15 green, <0.35 yellow, <0.60 orange, ≥0.60 red. |
Panadapter behavior and canvas mode¶
The panadapter includes a number of automatic behaviors:
- The waterfaall freeze/unfreeze is driven by the radio's interlock TRANSMITTING state. When any client on the network (including remote clients) transmits, the waterfall freezes; it unfreezes when transmitting ends. This eliminates the 10–23 second TX-trail artifact after unkeying.
- On radio reconnect, the desired panadapter frame rate (FPS) and waterfall line duration are re-applied to prevent silently dropping to the radio's 10 Hz default.
- Secondary panadapters (Slices B–H) have their dBm range primed on reconnect so the noise-floor auto-adjust starts from the correct baseline (rather than the default range that caused a flat spectrum on reconnect).
- When the panadapter is hosted as an item on the workspace canvas (canvas mode), the title strip streams live-move gestures. A 6 px drag threshold separates a click (which activates the pan) from a drag. The pop-out button remains visible in canvas mode even if you are the only panadapter.
- The CW decoder additionally shows a hint that it requires PC audio routing to work ("(requires PC Audio)").
Tips¶
- The 3D FFT view includes smooth-scroll history boundaries and cached elevation shadows for slice markers.
- Bandwidth zoom works normally — the floor resynchronizes automatically.
- This feature is new in v26.7.x and is part of the SpectrumWidget.