Timelines, event markers, and T0s (oh my)

What is timeline information?

Any moment in time that has operational significance can be considered timeline information. In practice, timeline data usually comprises the following:

• T0 - The zero time in a launch countdown or other operational "go" time
• Event markers
  • The time of the event (in either UTC absolute time, or relative to T0)
  • The name of the event you would like displayed in a plot to represent the event
  • The unique identifier string for the FD that signals the event (if applicable)

How MDRT uses timelines

MDRT stores all this information alongside the processed data files in a file called "timeline.mat'

For those interested, the contents of the timeline structure are as follows:

timeline

          t0: [1x1 struct]
notPlottable: 1 (boolean)
   milestone: [1x15 struct]
       uset0: 1 (boolean)

timeline.t0

        name: 'T0'
        time: 7.3647e+05 (Matlab datenum)
         utc: 1 (boolean)

timeline.milestone(1)

      String: 'Initiate GN2 Conditioning'
          FD: 'ECS Initiate GN2 Conditi...'
        Time: 7.3647e+05 (Matlab datenum)

Editing a timeline

For easy timeline generation, MDRT provides eventEditor. This can be launched by clicking the "Edit Timeline Events" button on the "review" window. Alternatively it may be launched from the command window by running eventEditor

The following GUI will open: images/eventEditor Gui 06-12-2016.png

To change the contents of an existing event, you must have the event selected in the list and also have "Allow Editing" active.

Clicking the "Allow Editing" button toggles editing mode. When the button appears to be depressed, editing is allowed. The tool launches with editing disabled by default.

NOTE: The current release allows both adding and removing events regardless of the "Allow Editing" button state.