trace.xplorer¶

The trace.xplorer enables a very detailed and interactive analysis of recorded measurement data, which can include numerical signals and bus messages as well as video and audio streams. Signals can be viewed, formatted and compared with other signals at high performance. Events can be marked in the trace and time spans or signal amplitudes can be measured.

Each Trace analysis generates a Test report with detailed analysis results when it is executed. The static information contained in this report can be exploratively understood using trace.xplorer. This allows conclusions to be drawn on questions such as:

• Should the trace analysis (or even the test case) be corrected, made more robust, or extended?

• How exactly did the present evaluation of the system under test (SUT) come about?

• How good is the quality of the recorded signal data (measurement resolution, dropouts, outliers, …)?

• Does automated testing of ECUs require additional signal data to be recorded?

Variants and differences¶

In ecu.test, interactive visualization of signal data and test case evaluations is done by default with trace.xplorer basic. If its range of functions is not sufficient, trace.xplorer can help with advanced evaluation of the result data. It requires an extra license and offers additional features compared to the basic variant, for example:

• importing, exporting and printing of signal data

• deleting unneeded signal data from existing documents

• fast event search using simple, logical signal conditions

• script-based signal analysis for more complex problems

• time shifting of signals

• creating and deleting signal groups

• configuring additional Wireshark capture interfaces (see Capturing with Wireshark)

While trace.xplorer basic can only display ASTRACE files, trace.xplorer supports the following data formats with its import/export interfaces:

• ASTRACE, AS3TRACE

• CSV, MDF4, PCAP, PCAPNG, ASC, BLF, TTL

• MP4, MKV, AVI, ASF

Configuration¶

The default program for viewing traces can be changed in the Included programs section of the local ecu.test settings. The options for storing signal data in trace.xplorer format (*.astrace) can be found in the workspace settings in the Trace analysis section.

Capturing with Wireshark¶

The network analyzer software Wireshark offers a versatile way to expand the tool with new capture interfaces using so-called external capture plugins (extcap). When used with third-party software such as Vector XL Driver Library or Vector SIL Kit, the ecu.test component extcap.exe acts as an external capture plugin and enables access to Ethernet, CAN, CAN-FD and LIN in Wireshark.

Setup interfaces¶

For adding new capture interfaces, the trace.xplorer offers an easy-to-use dialog that can be opened via the menu Extras ‣ Setup capture interfaces for Wireshark…. Simply select all the interfaces that you want to set up for an existing Wireshark installation. Deselected interfaces will be uninstalled.

To apply the configuration, Wireshark must be restarted.

Known problems¶

The described feature will not work, or will have some restrictions if certain Wireshark versions are used. We know about restrictions of the following Wireshark versions: