The Acquisition module provides tools that facilitate monitoring and validating incoming data. The map window and components of the Acquisition module are illustrated in Figure 1. A detailed discussion of common screen components is presented in Overview of the CWMS Interface.

Figure 1 Acquisition Module

Menu Bar

The following is an overview of the menu bar (Figure 1) when the Acquisition module is selected (click the Acquisition tab). The File, View, Maps, Scripts, Tools, Windows, and Help menus are discussed in Overview of the CWMS Interface. The commands available from the menus will facilitate the acquisition and management of time series data for a watershed.

Edit

From this menu you can edit color bar color settings, launch data validation, create a validation list from selected icon time series, edit location descriptive data, edit time series descriptive data, and edit time series data set values in the CWMS database. Available commands are: Icon Quality Colors, Data Validation, Create Validation List, Delete Validation List, Locations in CWMS Database, Time Series Descriptions in CWMS Database, and Data Exchange in the CWMS Database.

Reports

From this menu you can view the quality of data sets in the form of color bar lists. You can select from existing files of color bar lists, or create new custom lists from the CWMS database, and save them in files for future use. The only available command is Data Status Summary.

Commands

The Acquisition tab (Figure 1) contains buttons that execute commands specific for the Acquisition module. These commands include updating time series icons (Refresh) in the map window and validating data (Data Validation), which opens the Data Validation Editor (further details are available in Data Validation Editor).

Map Window

The Map Window (Figure 1) of the Acquisition module contains map layers and layers of time series icons that allow you to view data acquisition processes in a geo-referenced context. You can customize how time series icons appear according to your needs and objectives. For example, time series locations you evaluate daily for an individual watershed may appear as quality color bars to facilitate quick review of incoming data. On the other hand, you might wish time series icons to display as space-conserving graphical images or dots if you are monitoring data acquisition for an entire office. Customizing the time series icon layers is done in the Setup module (Time Series Icons Layers).

Quality color bars and/or thumbnail plots are normally used in the Acquisition module because these icons allow you to quickly scan the displayed gages and determine where problems may exist. Both of these icons can be set to update dynamically to reflect the relative quality of the incoming data.

Time Series Icon Controls

The Time Series Icon Controls (Figure 2) allows you to select attributes for the time series icon layers that are displayed. The time series icon controls are located on the Acquisition tab near the bottom of its pane (Figure 1). There are three attributes available: Icons Type, Values, and Layers (Figure 2).

Icons Type	forces all icons within the map window to display as the selected Icon Type in the list. Selecting the Default option in the list will display the icons as they were set originally in the Setup module (Time Series Icons).
Values	allows you to display the time series icon's data as labels, which display next to or on the location of their associated time series icons. For example, you can choose to display the data's total, minimum, and maximums values as labels. Multiple values can be selected at once.
Layers	allows you to select the sub-layers that are visible in the map window. Multiple layers can be selected at once.

By selecting the attributes, you can change how time series icons are displayed within the Acquisition module. For more detailed information on how to configure the properties that control the threshold color bar icons displayed (Time Series Icons Layers).