20030331: Questions (to IDV) from the IDV-Demo (last Friday, 03/28/2003) :

>From: "John McCormick" <address@hidden>
>Organization: SAIC
>Keywords: 200303311946.h2VJkOB2022127 IDV suggestions

Hi John-

Glad your demo went well for the most part.

>Questions (to IDV) from the IDV-Demo (last Friday, 03/28/2003) :
>
>Demo of a  "Color Contour" Example using temperature for United States
>Region:
>(Questions were from individuals in the audience)...
>
>(1)     Is it possible to "zoom in" (or "zoom out" )  of a map by placing
>the
>          Cursor on the point at which the "zoom in " would be desired??
>
>          (My answer was "not that I know of yet. However, I have a  hunch
>              that Uni-Data may be looking into this type of feature before
>the
>              production version gets out.)

You can zoom in using a rubber-band by holding down the Shift
key and dragging with the right (MB1) mouse button pressed.
We do not have any specific plans for other methods like you
suggest (based on a point), but will keep that in mind as we
continue developing the IDV.

>
>(2)    Does the little square (at the bottom left) of the map have any
>significance?
>
>          (My answer was "let's try it out and see." I tried to move the
>little square
>          up, down, or crosswise and nothing really happened except that
>after I
>          attempted to "drag" and "drop" it somewhere, it returned back to
>its
>           original position, which was at the bottom-left of the map
>image.)
>
>           To Uni-data from John McCormick:
>           (I think that this little square at the bottom-left of the image
>map was meant
>             to "lift" the plane up the vertical axis and see how the
>contours change at
>             selected altitudes...   Might this be a true statement??)

Yes, that is what it is there for, but as you found, there is
a bug.  It will be fixed in the next release.

>
>(3)        Is it possible for IDV to save the current map image (with
>contours) to a "jpg"?
>(My answer was "yes" . )
>
>
>(4)        I noticed that the "jpg" map (saved) does not contain information
>such as :
>(altitude, temperature "color" scale, etc.) that the regular IDV display
>shows.
>Is there a way to include such information in the "jpg"?
>
>(My answer was "not that I'm aware of at this time. However, I'd like to
>  forward your question to IDV and see what their responses are in possibly
>  coming up with the information that you requested to be on the "jpg"
>file. )

We are still exploring ways to include this information in the
display.  One of the problems with this type of application is that
you can have multiple display, each with a different color table and
you could easily end up cluttering a display.  When we have a solution
(or at least a prototype to be tested) we will include it in the
IDV.

>
>(5)        I noticed that your "tracking" example shows just a line (in a
>3-D cube) that
>defines the "flight" path of the airplane.   Is there a way to superimpose a
>US
>map so that the viewer could get a "perspective" of the location, direction
>and
>altitude of the airplane??
>
>(My answer was "not as of yet.  When I attempt to add the US map, the flight
>line changes from where-ever it was to a "vertical" line and I need to ask
>Uni-Data about this behavior. )

Hmm, I'm not sure exactly what you mean.  If you have a flight track
over a small area, when you load it in and have the "Reset Projection
with new data" checked in the "Maps" menu, the display will change
to fit the projection to the data area.  If you then switch to a
larger, CONUS view, then it may be that the spatial extent of that
track is so small that it is just a line in the larger view.
You could add in some finer map details like the US counties or
interstates (if over the US) from the "Map Selector..." to give
some better georeferencing info.

If I'm misunderstanding what you are doing, could you send me a
file with the flight track and explicit step for how you are
changing the display?

>=====================
>End of first set
>=====================
>
>There are more questions (and suggestions) but I think for now, I'll send
>these to you . I certainly don't want to "overwhelm" you..
>
>Thanks,
>
>John McCormick
>
>
> P.S.    Suggestions:
>
>
>(1)       Currently, you have the "save as jpg" option under the "View"
>(to "Capture" .. To "JPEG") from the main IDV image window.
>A suggestion is to move that option to the more, say, traditional area under
>the File icon at the very top left of the IDV image window.  I noticed
>already
>that you have a "save as" option there but I think that it is specifically
>for saving
>data (is that true?).

The "Save as.." option is to save a bundle file which can be used
to recreate the state of the application at the time this option
was executed.

I'm not necessarily defending thhe current GUI layout, but the
View menu deals only with the map display, while the File menu
deals with the entire application.  You can use the IDV components
to build applications with multiple display windows.  This
reference application just happens to have only one.  

However, that being said, we are still investigating different
UI strategies and will add your good suggestion to the list.

>So..ummm. maybe you could have: two options under the "File" (icon) in the
>upper-left of the window:
>
>"Save Image As: "        and
>
>"Save Data As:  "      ... (or something similar to that)..just a thought.


Or, we could just have a "Save as.." menu and if you picked type
JPEG, then it would save the image as opposed to a bundle.


>From: address@hidden Wed Apr  2 14: 37:41 2003
> 
> Suggestion:
> With respect to color-contour maps, it was brought to my attention about the
> "need" to superimpose contour lines (and values) on to the color contour
> plane of the field/variable being displayed.   (Currently, a viewer can
> "approximate" the value, based on the color, but for other cases, it's
> helpful to have the values as a lengend displayed at the point where the
> colors change on a color-contour display image)...

You can put up a color shaded or color filled contour view of
a parameter and then overlay a display of contours to achieve 
what you want.  You can then set the color table on the contours
so it is distinguished from the shaded/filled display if you want.

Thanks for your suggestions. Let us know if you have further input.

BTW, your "Reply-to" address is still address@hidden
which used to bounce.  I've cc'd "address@hidden" since
that address seemed to work.  If the linden address bounces on
this, is it possible to change your Reply-to address in your
mail program?

Don Murray
Unidata WWW Service           http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/support