Swath bathymetry data processing is a difficult and complicated task, that requires a rather good knowledge of specialized Software Products (like for example Kongsberg-Simrad's NEPTUNE, which handles the Simrad's Multibeam Product Family, or more general packages like IFREMER's CARAIBES or MB-SYSTEM ([29], that handle different manufacturer's Multibeam data.
Among the main tasks to be performed, the filtering of the swath data is the most important and time-consuming. This is true especially in presence of noisy data, caused by instrumental or environmental (waves) problems.
NEPTUNE must be complemented by other packages such as IRAP to produce the DTMs. In contrast, CARAIBES and MB-SYSTEM include the DTM generation procedures.
The DTMs should be produced in standard cartographic projections, such as the UTM or Direct Mercator, with grid spacings possibly multiples of each other, to allow easier cut-and-paste operations on the grids. The newly produced DTMs may be merged with existing vector or DTM data. In this situation the highest care has to be taken in the change of datum or cartographic projections.
The final map production should be done at standard scales whenever possible.