General
Connection
To log in, go to app.orbow.com and enter your login details.
Your Orbow domain administrator can provide you with them.
Important
If your administrator has enabled connection via your company, you will be redirected to your company's login page.
When you log in for the first time, you will need to change the default password you were given when you created your account.
Your account is managed by the administrator of your domain, who is a member of your company.
The default licence is free. This licence does not allow you to create or edit projects. Don't forget to change your licence if you want to edit content.
Coming soon
It will soon be possible to recover your account if you have forgotten your password. In the meantime, you will need to contact your domain administrator, who can reset your password.
Good to know
You can change the interface language (English / French) through the page Preferences.
The taskbar
The left-hand sidebar is used to navigate the application.
It has two states:
- the general bar, when you are not consulting a project, on the left above ;
- the project bar with the different sections that allow you to work in the project, on the right above.
In module license, buttons 10, 11 and 12 are disabled.
The buttons are as follows:
- The Orbow logo visible in both states is used to return to the general map of projects
- on the first click, the map zooms out slightly around the project currently being viewed;
- on the second click, the map returns to the view of all projects.
- Back to the global project map
- Go to bookmarks projects
- Create a new project, shortcut to the project list button
- Project list view
- Access the analysis and calculation modules in "sandbox" mode
- Access to this online help
- Go to your profile, visible in both states: the icon is replaced by your profile photo/avatar if you change it in the profile page
- Access to the project management
- Access to the investigations management
- Access to the decision support tools, in other words, tools for analysing investigation data.
- Access parameters which allows you to enter interpreted parameters
- Access to Calculation tools
General map
Once you have logged in, you will be taken to the general project map for the domain in which you are logged in:
You will see a map of the world showing all the projects in the domain for which you have consultation authorisation.
Clicking on a pin 
takes you to the project description page.
You can search for a postal address through OpenStreetMap service using the 
button on the map.
Good to know
It is only when you enter a project that you will be able to see the layers and geotechnical test present in that project. This information is not displayed on the general map.
Change map backgrounds
In the layer selector at the top right, you can change the map background:
The flows currently available are :
- the OpenStreeMap map, the default flow
- the Orthophoto provided by Esri, worldwide
- the Orthophoto provided by IGN, for France
- the detailed plan provided by IGN, for France
- OpenstreetMap France, maintained by the French-speaking community
- Esri.WorldTopoMap, topographic map provided by Esri
- OpenStreetMap, topographic map provided by the OpenStreetMap community.
At project level, other information can be superimposed on these flows, see Site Tab:
- the cadastre, for France
- the location of Infoterre test in the BSS of the BRGM, for France
- the paper geological map from the BRGM, for France
- harmonised geological vector map with DTM from BRGM, for France
Good to know
Some flows are only visible at certain scales.
If the background turns grey, you have exceeded the maximum viewing scale.
IGN plan allows the largest zoom level in France.
When the zoom level is too high for a layer, it can no longer be selected in the selector, and you need to zoom out to be able to switch to it.
Coming soon
Other flows and a more flexible layer selector (in which you can adjust the transparency of the overlay) will be added shortly.
Bookmarks
You can pin a project to your favorites from the project description page. When you click on the favorites icon ⭐ in the taskbar, the project map will only display these favorite projects.
Project list
The project list, accessible via the 
icon, takes you to a page listing all the projects accessible and visible on the domain.
The table shows the project name, codification, keywords associated with each project, and groupings.
Search for a project
The filter bar in the window lets you filter in any field of the table.
If a project has been declared as restricted (see the manage the project page) and you are not invited to this project, it will not appear on the map or in the search.
Selecting a project from the list opens the project description page.
Good to know
Create groups according to a field (customer, type or project status), and you'll be able to search easily through this search field.
Create a project
Important
Please note that you will not be able to create projects with a free licence. Switch to a basic or pro licence via Select a licence.
Clicking on the "Add" button in the window opens a window for creating a new project:
The "Create a project" button opens the following window:
All you have to do is enter the name given to your project (you can always change it later) and its location.
To enter your location, you can :
- fill in the details of the project centre :
- start typing a few letters of the name of your Reference Coordinate System (RCS), for example "CC49" to find "Lambert 93 / CC49"; the default system is WGS 84 (longitude and latitude, in degrees);
- enter the X and Y coordinates (they are renamed longitude and latitude if WGS 84 is selected as the Reference Coordinate System)
- or simply "click and drop" the
onto the map, and the coordinates will automatically be entered into the chosen Reference Coordinate System.
Then click on "Validate" to finish creating your project.
Good to know
If your project is linear, we recommend positioning the centre of your project.
You will be able to import a geometric line to represent the layout of your project or its contours on the map from the site page.
It is also possible to reposition the centre of the project from this same page.
Coming soon
It will also soon be possible to import a large number of projects from a layout file.
Group projects
Use the "Group" button to create groups manually, or according to a field on the project description page (customer, status, etc.). It works in the same way as grouping investigations.
Modules in sandbox mode
In the analysis and calculation modules, you can add analysis modules to your project.
The data associated with these modules added to your project will be saved in the Orbow database.
Clicking on 
gives you quick access to the same modules, but without saving them in the database.
So, if you access a module via the "Sandbox" mode, enter your input data in this module, perform a calculation, then close the module window or return to the general project map, the data will be lost.
The "Sandbox" mode is therefore dedicated to non-project or "table corner" calculations.
Each module can nevertheless export its input data to your computer, as well as exporting it in the form of a report.
Entering a project
To enter a project, search for it using the search bar, click on the link in your favourites or simply click on a point on the map.
The breadcrumb trail
Once you have entered a project, you can find your way around the application at any time thanks to a breadcrumb trail at the very top of the window, above the line of tabs.
Example on the project description page :
Example on the page of pressuremeter tests on a borehole :
You can click on each item in the feed to return to the root of the project (its description page or the page for the brick concerned).
In some cases, the feed will include a selector to navigate quickly from one test or calculation to another.
Editing data with several people
Orbow is a multi-user application.
You can edit the data in the various forms with several people at the same time.
In some cases, you may want to edit linked data with several people at the same time.
When you edit a box in a form or table, when you change boxes, the application checks that what is displayed on the page corresponds to what is in the database:
- if it does, your edit of the box is saved in the database;
- if not, you will see an error message telling you that your modification could not be taken into account because the data has been modified by another user in the meantime. You will then be asked to refresh the page.
Operations in numerical fields
All the numerical fields in the application (excluding the analysis and calculation modules for the moment) allow you to perform simple mathematical operations as you would in Excel:
