Computer lab session: CATT-Acoustic

CATT and TUCT

CATT-Acoustic is a room acoustics prediction software based on a hybrid of the Image
Source Model (ISM) for studying the qualitative detail of the early part echogram, Ray-
tracing for audience area colour mapping and Randomized Tail-corrected Cone-
tracing (RTC) for full detailed calculation enabling auralization.

TUCT is essentially a new version which has taken over all prediction and auralization in
CATT-Acoustic. It is separate program that is called from CATT-Acoustic.

TUCT stands for The Universal Cone-Tracer and offers three different cone-tracing
algorithms for source-receiver echograms and impulse responses, and one algorithm for
audience area mapping. It offers many room acoustics measures and analysis functions
for echograms, impulse responses and colour maps as well as direct relative calibrated
impulse response playing, convolution and auralization. Separate tools are provided for
direct sound Pixel and Surface rendering, Image source modelling and Time trace.

TUCT has no geometry modelling facilities or library handling facilities (source directivity,
surface properties, HRTFs, headphones) and only limited facilities to check and change
acoustical details of the model. The modelling and library handling is provided by the
original CATT-Acoustic. Geometry and acoustic data input to TUCT is via a CAG-file
which is created by CATT-Acoustic.

Documentation
Due to the transition in the software, under version 8 the manuals and help files were
slightly confusing. Thus the CATT-Acoustic help files still referred to the old CATT-A
calculation algorithms. Separate help is available within TUCT and this should be used
for the calculation steps. The same applies to the manuals with the exception of the
Introduction manual.

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Basic steps
The steps involved in studying a room are

Definition CATT-Acoustic
Define room geometry (corners and planes)
Define surface properties
Define source (and receiver) positions

Checking
Check the reverberation time
Define the audience planes

Check direct sound levels and investigate early reflections TUCT

Calculations
Calculate room acoustic parameters at receiver positions
Display room acoustic parameters at a grid of positions
Use impulse responses for auralization

Updating
In order to improve the acoustic response of the room it will be necessary to go
back to the geometry and/or surface properties and adjust these repeating the
above steps until the desired performance is obtained.

Frequency range
All calculations are made for eight octave-bands: 125 Hz to 16 kHz. If no data are
available for 8 and 16 kHz, extrapolation is made based on the values at 2 and 4 kHz.

Where relevant, the overall results (if appropriate A-weighted) can be obtained from these
six or eight octave bands.

The underlying theory is geometrical acoustics and in most halls the lowest two octaves
will not be well predicted. For small rooms such as control rooms and studios typically
only the upper octaves 1, 2, and 4 kHz will be well predicted (8 and 16 kHz may suffer
from lack of proper input data) but as a qualitative analysis it is still useful for the lower
octaves.

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Coordinate system and units
The coordinate system should be as follows, see Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Hall coordinate system

Imagine standing on the stage of the hall looking towards the audience:

 The x-axis should point from left to right

 The y-axis should point towards the audience
 The z-axis should point upwards.

The origin can be placed anywhere but it is recommended to place it along the hall centre
line (to utilize the mirror function), at the stage wall, the stage front, or at the proscenium.
If the hall has no typical stage, model the longest hall dimension as y since many plots
are optimized for a longer y dimension.

SI units are used (i.e. metres) but since the input data files can use scale factors for the
coordinates of the hall model, it is possible to enter everything in any decimal unit. The
output, however, always uses SI units.

Conventions
File names, folder names, text to be entered and text file contents are set in COURIER
as in C:\CATT.

Menu selections are set in bold as in File | Preferences.

Dialogue names are set in bold italics as in General settings.

Dialogue items are set in italics as in General settings/Input folder.

Dialogue groups are set in italics within brackets as in General settings/(Plane use) .

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Menus and dialogues belonging to specific programs or program modules are sometimes
written prefixed with the module name and a colon as in
Prediction:General settings.

Note about path names

CATT-A only supports paths with a drive letter so if any part of CATT-A is installed at a
remote location, or if data such as room models are on a remote drive, this drive has to
be mapped to a drive letter.

Getting started
As an introduction to the software we will model a simple shoebox-shaped hall with one
source and one receiver. We will use CATT’s text editor to set up the geometry in the
GEO-format file.

It is also possible to input geometry from AutoCAD via DXF import or via third party tools
from SketchUp (see section: Dealing with complex geometries).

Start CATT-Acoustic. The Modeling window opens up directly.

The Plot file viewer module is also opened and fills a large portion of the frame window.

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Creating a new project and model
Create a new project by selecting Utilities | Create a New Project.

A dialogue appears that expects you to select a folder for the hall you are going to work
with (say C:\HALLS\THEATER1). [see note on page 4 about network use]

The Browse folder button in the dialogue also allows you to create a new folder.

When you click OK, all basic files are created automatically, ready to be used:

MASTER.GEO template master geometry-file

REC.LOC receiver positions (a generic position inserted)
SRC.LOC source positions and data (a generic source inserted)
GEO.MD9 prediction settings-file prepared for geometry check
PROJECT.TXT a text-file for optional notes about the project

Geometry file (.GEO)

Select (Edit)Geo-file and choose MASTER.GEO
CATT-Edit will load this file.

CATT-Edit is a separate application but communicates with the main program so that files
can only be edited in one instance of the editor, and if a file needed for prediction has
been changed but not saved, you will be prompted before the file is read.

The file MASTER.GEO contains some default content which can help in defining the
formatting etc. However this can be ignored or deleted.

We will now enter a simple shoebox shaped structure as in Fig. 2.

Data items in the geometry file are:

 constants, surface properties and various other declarations,
 corner ids and coordinates (x, y, z),
 plane definitions.

Comments are introduced by a semicolon ";" and blank lines are allowed. See Help file
section 2.3 for full details.

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 Fig. 2: Simple shoebox model

Enter the geometry data as shown below.

;MASTER.GEO
;constant declarations
LOCAL h = 8 ;hall height in m
LOCAL w = 10 ;hall width
GLOBAL d = 24 ;hall depth

Here we are defining the main dimensions as constants. We could also enter the
coordinates directly as numerical values but doing it this way allows us to change
these parameters more easily if necessary. It also allows us to be more consistent
and avoid mistakes.

LOCAL constants are only used within this file. GLOBAL variables can be used in
other input files (e.g. source or receiver locations) without being defined again
there.

;absorption and scattering coefficients 125Hz to 4kHz [%],

; optional RGB-colour
ABS audience = <40 50 60 70 80 80> L <30 40 50 60 70 80> { 255 0 0 }
ABS wood = <15 13 10 9 8 7> L <30 30 30 30 30 30> { 255 255 0 }

If 8k and 16k values are known they can be given after a colon as in
<15 13 10 9 8 7 : 7 8 >
otherwise they are extrapolated from 2k and 4k values.

RGB-colour is optional, one will be auto generated if not given. Scattering

coefficients are optional (but strongly recommended). If not given, the default
values in General settings will be used (see page 11 below).

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 For a discussion of scattering coefficients see Prediction Settings (page 10 below).
The letter L indicates the ‘Lambert’ scattering model is used (this defines the
scattering in terms of a cosine distribution with respect to the incident and reflected
angles, see e.g. Cox and D’Antonio).

Interior surfaces can also be defined as semi-transparent by defining a

transmission coefficient as well as an absorption coefficient (see Help).

The surface property data can either be entered directly in the geometry file, as
with the ABS directive above, or predefined values can be used from a library
managed by the Surface properties module, see Surface Properties (page 8
below).

CORNERS
;floor corners
1 -w/2 0 0
2 -w/2 d 0
3 w/2 d 0
4 w/2 0 0
;ceiling corners
11 -w/2 0 h
12 -w/2 d h
13 w/2 d h
14 w/2 0 h

PLANES
[1 floor / 4 3 2 1 / audience ]
[2 ceiling / 11 12 13 14 / wood ]
[3 stage wall / 1 11 14 4 / wood ]
[4 rear wall / 3 13 12 2 / wood ]
[5 left wall / 2 12 11 1 / wood ]
[6 right wall / 4 14 13 3 / wood ]

Up to 99999 planes can be used numbered from 1 to 99999 in any order. They can also
have more than four corners and can be divided into sub-planes with different surface
properties.

The corners of planes can either be entered ordered clockwise as seen from the back
(as here) or clockwise as seen from the front of reflecting planes. This is up to the user
but must be consistent in each GEO-file.

The default is clockwise as seen from the back. The directives

FROMFRONT or FROMBACK

can be used to set the default. These should be entered at the top of the file, before the
corners section.

It is possible to define an individual plane as being ordered in the opposite direction from
the default by replacing / by \ e.g.

[1 floor \ 1 2 3 4 \ audience ]

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In addition to the basics shown here the GEO-format offers many other features e.g.
automatic mirroring of symmetrical geometries, interactive input of constants,
mathematical expressions, object rotation and copying, loops and many other tools. For
more details see Help file Section 2.3.

Save MASTER.GEO.

Surface Properties

To enter a surface based on the Surface properties library, first check the values in the
library: In CATT-Acoustic choose Window | Surface Properties. Scroll down to find e.g.
AUD_UPH_MED.

You can copy these properties to the GEO file by using Edit | Copy Definition to
Clipboard and then pasting into the GEO file:

ABS AUD_UPH_MED = < 68 75 82 85 86 86 > L < 30 40 50 60 70 70 > {94 75 71}

However, you should then change its name as it is already defined in the library. A better
way is to copy only its name using Edit | Copy Key to Clipboard and use this in defining
surfaces:

ABS audience = AUD_UPH_MED

Alternatively you can simply use the name directly in the planes definition above. For
further details see Help file Section 3.

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Receiver locations file (.LOC)
Select (Edit) Receiver-file and REC.LOC and enter the receiver data (one receiver per
line, in any order): receiver ids and the corresponding positions (x, y, z).

;REC.LOC
RECEIVERS
1 -3 d-4 1.3

Note that global constants defined in a GEO-file, in this case d, can be used in source
and receiver files. 100 receivers can be used numbered from 0 to 99.

Save REC.LOC.

Source locations file (.LOC)

Select (Edit) Source-file and SRC.LOC and enter the source data. Each source occupies
a number of lines.

Source data items are source ids, source positions (x, y, z), source directivities, source
aim points (x, y, z) or as a function aim(H,V) specifying horizontal and vertical aiming
angles, SPL values for the six octave-bands at 1 m distance from the acoustic centre on
the axis. Optionally source roll angles and SPL values at 1 m for 8 and 16 kHz can be
given, see Help.

;SRC.LOC
LOCAL src_z = 1.7

SOURCEDEFS
;id --pos x y z-- directivity -- aim point (has no effect with omni)--
A0 1.0 1.7 src_z OMNI 1.0 3.7 src_z
; SPL at 1m on the source axis 125 Hz to 4 kHz
Lp1m_a = <70 73 76 79 82 95>

This simple example uses the pre-defined natural omni-directional source OMNI and if an
electro-acoustic source, such as a loudspeaker is used, the source syntax is slightly more
complex adding a Lp1m_ea or Gain_a line and a Delay_e line, see Help file section 2.3
(CATT-Edit has a Template menu to insert common constructs).

260 sources can be used numbered A0, A1, A2, … , B0, B1, … Z8, Z9. Source directivities
are handled in the Directivity module, see Help file Section 4. Note how a local constant,
src_z, is used to ensure that the source is aimed in the horizontal plane (takes no effect
in this case since the source is omni-directional).

Save SRC.LOC.

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Prediction settings (.MD9)
The Create a New Project utility also created a basic prediction settings-file GEO.MD9
automatically loaded when the project was created.

Select General settings and browse through the various items.

Scattering coefficients

Specific scattering coefficients were given in the geometry file but for surfaces with no
given coefficients the Surface default will be used.

Diffuse reflection heavily influences the RT estimate and many other parameters. It is
very important to give reasonable estimates for the coefficients.

 a minimum of 20% default diffusion is recommended for average-size smooth flat

surfaces (10% for large flat smooth surfaces)
 30 to 80% should be used for the audience (30% for 125 Hz and increasing up to
80% at 4 kHz).
 for rough surfaces a high value (80%) should be assigned where the roughness
scale is of the order of the wavelength (i.e. if the roughness is about 0.3 m the
1 kHz diffusion should be set high). If in doubt, it is better to assign scattering
coefficients that are too high rather than too low.

For further details see Help file.

Folder names

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Instead of using actual folder names, “.” can be used as a shortcut for the folder where
the settings-file (.MD9) is located, typically the project Input folder. The folder entries can
then simply be e.g.:

Input folder : .
Output folder : .\OUT

This is especially useful if a project is moved to another location.

Click OK to exit.

Geometry view/check
Select Geometry view/check and browse through the various items.

Click OK and check the created geometry by clicking Save and Run on the main dialogue
that will create basic geometry plot files and a plot file list.

The current settings file is also saved so the next time you run it will contain the same
settings. If an input file has been edited and changed without having been saved
afterwards, the editor containing the file is moved to the front and a prompt is displayed
asking if the file should be saved before continuing (unless you have made a change by
mistake, the answer should be Yes).

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The Prediction module reads the created geometry file, source and receiver files in the
project folder (i.e. the Input folder in the General settings dialogue) and creates files in
the Output folder. Typically, each test case for a project should be directed to a new
Output folder created as a sub-folder to the Input folder. One created file, named
PLT_GEO.TXT, contains all created geometry plot-file names and the Plot-file viewer
module uses it to automatically show files created.

The VIEW4.PL9 file is shown in Fig. 3. Next/Previous file can be selected on the Plotfile
control floating dialogue, from the toolbar or by pressing the PgDn/PgUp keys. The
graphics can be printed out, copy/pasted into other applications or exported in various
formats.

For 3D plot-files, the mouse can be clicked and dragged directly in the window to rotate
the model or the camera and for 2D formats clicking in the window zooms to the clicked
part of the window. The View module is described in the Help file Section 5.

Fig. 3: Sample 2D plot-file VIEW4.PLT

Pay special attention to the PLINFO.PL9 plot-file shown in Fig. 4 where each plane and
plane sub-division is a sub-frame, it also indicates in which GEO-file the plane is defined
in and on which line.

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 Fig. 4: PLINFO.PLT 3D plot-file for model checking

Next/Previous frame can be selected clicking on the Plot-file arrows

By clicking in […] button a list of all planes will be show, also a frame can be selected by
the left mouse button. All planes can be stepped through and should have the front
(reflecting) side coloured and the back black. If they do not, the plane corner entering
order has to be reversed. This can either be done by reversing the sequence of corner
ids or by simply changing / to \ in the plane definition concerned.

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The file COLORED.PL9is a coloured 3D representation and the file SHADED.PLT is a
shaded 3D representation of the model where surfaces are shaded in an angle-
dependent manner if the reflecting side is visible. This makes it simple to spot e.g. holes
or reversed surfaces in the model and complements the PLINFO.PL9 file for checking the
model.

[In addition to the PLT-files a file called SHADED.OGL was created in the output folder.
This file is used by the OpenGL-based stand-alone CATT 3D-viewer and has many
viewing options, lighting, viewpoints etc. The viewer is documented by its own Help file]

If the geometry needs to be adjusted edit the geometry file MASTER.GEO again by (Edit)
Geo-file and repeat Save and Run.

RT estimate

CATT-A v9 offers many prediction tools but without “TUCT prediction/auralization” only
one. Interactive RT estimate, is available since it is often applied in an early stage of a
project. It gives classical Sabine and Eyring estimates and material statistics and
optionally can perform a fast global T-30 estimation using ray-tracing (green curve).

The Interactive RT estimate dialogue also gives the Schroeder frequency and an estimate
of a reasonable frequency range for a given room.

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Calculations using TUCT
For more detailed predictions and auralization TUCT will be used based on the example
of the shoebox model.

First select in CATT-A v9 (TUCT) Audience area mapping… and select the plane id of
the audience plane (enter 1 in only the first or in both edit boxes and press the Add button,
leave the Map step and Map height as they are for this test) and OK.

Then click (TUCT) Save CAG and Run and a file will be created in the output folder with
the name taken from the General settings Project and with an extension .CAG and TUCT
will be run (each time a new file is created using the same project name it will increment
a number added to the name).

TUCT offers three main prediction methods as selected via the Main:Actions dialogue:

Predict SxR: full detailed echograms and impulse responses, using one of three
prediction algorithms (basic to advanced) that all can directly be used for auralization and
parameter estimation.

Map direct sound: colour mapping of direct sound and source delays over selected
audience planes.

Map measures: colour mapping of results over selected audience planes: SPL, T-30,
EDT, C-80, D-50, LF, G etc.

TUCT also offer several tools that can be used independently of the main methods as
selected via the Window menu:

 Pixel rendering
 Surface rendering
 Image Source Model
 Time trace

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Map direct sound
Click Map direct sound (on the Main:Actions window) and click Run (not many options
are necessary for just direct sound and one source)

The direct sound over the audience area will be shown in the Main:Show 3D window, see
Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: Sample direct sound mapping

Use the (Audience mapping) Max and Range +/- to select a suitable scale but for an omni
source it is not a very exciting display. This function should not use a very small map step
since it has to be compatible with Map measures that typically has a 0.5 to 1 m map step,
the Window menu offers more detailed direct sound Pixel and Surface rendering.

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Map measures
Click Map measures (on the Main:Actions window) and tick Auto select for both No of
rays/cones and (Echogram) Length, and then click Run. After some processing time room
acoustics and sound system measures over the audience area will be shown in the
Main:Show 3D window. See Fig. 6 for an example with C-80.

Use the (Audience mapping) Max and Range +/- to select a suitable scale and (Audience
mapping) Type to select one of the many measures. Some measures like STI will pop up
a dialogue with additional options. Note that in an artificial non-mixing room like this more
rays are required to give a less random variation from map point to map point.

Fig. 6: Sample mapping of C80

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Predict SxR (Source x Receiver)
Click Predict SxR (on the Main:Actions window) and tick Auto for both No of rays and
(Echogram) Length, and then click Run. (Use Short calculation as otherwise the
calculation time is too long for now).

After some processing time echogram and impulse response results are available in the
Main:Show 2D window for analysis and direct convolving/playing.

Diffraction:

TUCT adds a comprehensive treatment of early diffraction using a secondary edge-

source method based on a discrete Huygens interpretation of Biot-Tolstoy. This method
has few principle limitations when used in room acoustics with finite edges, especially as
compared to infinite screen formulas. As a background a 20+ page whitepaper document
is available that discusses the implementation as well as diffraction in general:

http://www.catt.se/CATT-A-Diffraction-Whitepaper.pdf

If is strongly recommended that users study this whitepaper that explains why this
particular implementation was chosen instead of a screen formula that has many
limitations and questionable applicability in room acoustics. The chosen implementation
also gives considerably more than a screen formula could such as more correct
reflections from small surfaces and also helps modeling concave and convex curved
surfaces approximated by facets. Since many of the 30+ figures use color, printing in
color is a benefit. Especially section 4 “Properties and limitations of the SES
implementation” is important to read but an important excerpt is included here: .

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Auto-edge scattering coefficients (if used) will be subtracted (since they are there to
compensate for the lack of diffraction) and if the remaining average surfaces scattering
coefficients (average for both planes belonging to an edge) at 125 Hz are > 0.2 (20%) the
edge will not diffract. This means that it is now more important to actually use auto-
edge diffusion instead of increasing the surface scattering coefficients, especially
for free objects such as reflectors.

The following figures show a few examples of the results created using Predict SxR
(Source x Receiver). Note the two curves shown for most cases, that are from using
pressure addition giving an impulse response (blue) and energy addition giving an energy
echogram (red). The differences at low frequencies indicate the uncertainty; for more
details see TUCT Help, Section 2. TUCT algorithms.

Fig. 7: One of many room acoustic Measures, here C-80

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 Fig. 8: One of many Echogram-like displays, here the Schröder curves with EDT and
T-30 line regressions shown.

Fig. 9: One of many Impulse response based displays, here a binaural IR. For more IR
details see Window | Main: Impulse Response Detail

Auralization

As soon as a Predict SxR calculation is finished direct IR playing and convolving is

available via Play/Convolve. In File | Preferences a number of Alias for anechoic WAV-
files or filters can be selected and can be selected for convolution, also HRTFs and
headphone eq can be selected. The controls below Play/Convolve allows for WAV
creation and relative calibration. Holding down Ctrl while clicking Play/Convolve will play
the anechoic WAV.

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Window | Pixel rendering
Displays SPL colour maps on all visible model surfaces and/or visible audience surfaces
of either incident or directly reflected sound (click on incid button).

Fig. 10: Pixel rendering of direct sound (all visible pixels)

Window | Surface rendering
Similar to pixel rendering but renders all surfaces at a selected absolute resolution
allowing rotation of the model and rescaling results without a recalculation;

Fig. 11: Surface rendering of direct sound, model can be freely rotated.

Window | Image Source Model

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Detailed early specular reflections for qualitative reflection path studies.

Fig. 12: Image Source Model results, many display options and mouse selection of
reflections.
Window | Time trace

A wavefront-like specular ray display that can be stepped through in time.

Fig. 13: Time trace, display options such as colouring after order or sound level.

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Dealing with complex geometries:

The conventional method to create a geometry (pages 6 and 7) cannot be practical if a

complex enclosure is going to be simulated. In this case, other approaches can be useful
to generate and modify the model:

Import an AutoCAD model: Files must be created as (*.DXF) using 3Dpoly or 3Dface.
Catt-Acoustics recognizes the layers as different materials.
 To import a DXF model go to FILE-External CATT Tool-DXFtoCATT, select the file
and save as GEO.

Import an SkecthUp model: It is necessary to install SU2CATT. It is a free plugin that

allows to create .GEO files from .SKP files. (Maximum 50 planes with the free version).

http://www.rahe-kraft.de/rk/en/software/su2catt/

Examples of exporting a SketchUp model to Catt-Acoustics can be found in :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eIJxKhT2WE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnArjiyYlNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4kf_HFrC28

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