20050426: Setting parameter defaults

Hi Jochen-

John Caron wrote:
> can you answer this?
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Hi John,
>
> I have a quick question about the scales IDV uses to display data.  Are 
> these at all based on the data?  When I display one of my Z sweeps, I 
> get a scal reanging from 0 to 16000, even though the byte combined with 
> the specified scale only supports values from -32 to 95ish if I remember 
> right...

You can assign defaults (color table, color table range, preferred
units, contour intervals) to parameters in the IDV (see the
Edit->Resources->Parameter Defaults menu).  You can also
create a list of aliases for a particular parameter.

In this case, the IDV has a default for Z as geopotential
height with the color table and range you are seeing.  If you
want to change this default, you can do the following:

1) Open the Parameter Defaults dialog through the
(Edit->Resources->Parameter Aliases menu).
2) Click on the System defaults tab.  Scroll through the list
and find "z" in the Parameter column.
3) Right click on that row and click the "Copy Row to User Defaults".
4) Now click on the User default tab and right click on the
z parameter row.  From the popup menu, you can change the
color table, the default range for the color table and the
unit.  At this time, the IDV does not support dBZ as a unit,
so I would just clear the unit.
5) After making all your changes, click on OK.

Now, load in your data and you should see that you have picked
up the defaults.

Alternatively, you could change your parameter name. ;-)

Don
*************************************************************
Don Murray                               UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                        P.O. Box 3000
(303) 497-8628                              Boulder, CO 80307
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/donm
        "Time makes everyone interesting, even YOU!"
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