[IDV #KVK-267436]: Using IDV as an image generator

> I think I'm a few steps into getting a working prototype now.  I grabbed the 
> IDV source code and I'm working my way through the standard startup process 
> for IDV to see how ISL file arguments are processed.  I think with a little 
> more work I'll at least be able to recommend to the rest of the team whether 
> IDV is a real option for us.
> 
> Right now we're not planning on generating any 3D imagery, but it is 
> something that we may be looking at doing in the future.  Our data sources 
> for now are just going to be grib file data, but again, adding new things in 
> the future is something we are planning for.
> 
> Thanks for the help again.  If I have any more questions, I'll let you know.
> 
> Mark
> 

Well, I am glad to hear that .
The DefaultIdv is probably the class you can do some research on.  


Yuan
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Unidata IDV Support [mailto:address@hidden]
> Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 11:19 AM
> To: Staroska, Mark A CTR USAF AFWA 2 SYOS/SEMS RM 3250
> Cc: address@hidden; Baardson, Kyle L CTR USAF AFWA AFWA/WDA
> Subject: [IDV #KVK-267436]: Using IDV as an image generator
> 
> > Sorry, maybe using "headless" was not a great description.
> >
> > I've been doing lots of digging through your ISL documentation and workshop 
> > docs.  Things look very promising for what we're trying to do.  However, 
> > we'd like to use the IDV within our own java application, without having to 
> > make command line arguments and create a new jvm for the IDV program.
> >
> > Do you have any documentation or examples that describe how to use IDV and 
> > ISL as a referenced java library from within another java application?
> >
> > Thanks again for any help you can provide.  I really appreciate it.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> 
> Mark,
> I get a better understanding of what you are trying to do now. In your Java 
> application, you want to generate certain images and hope to include the IDV 
> as a library inside your application. I would say it is certainly possible 
> and it sounds like an interesting project. We don't have any example, but 
> technically it is not difficult. Is your application going to support 3D 
> display or integrating different data sources?
> 
> Yuan
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Unidata IDV Support [mailto:address@hidden]
> > Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 5:30 PM
> > To: Staroska, Mark A CTR USAF AFWA 2 SYOS/SEMS RM 3250
> > Cc: address@hidden; Baardson, Kyle L CTR USAF AFWA AFWA/WDA
> > Subject: [IDV #KVK-267436]: Using IDV as an image generator
> >
> > > IDV Support Team,
> > >
> > > My name is Mark Staroska, I'm a software engineer working at the Air 
> > > Force Weather Agency (AFWA). I work on a team that develops Java plugin 
> > > software to FalconView (http://www.falconview.org/trac/FalconView) that 
> > > retrieves and displays weather data from many sources, including 
> > > acquiring gridded binary data from Weather Data Analysis (WDA). We use 
> > > either 1.0 degree or 0.5 degree GFS or various resolution WRF models 
> > > depending on what operational theater we are near.
> > >
> > > We are surveying tools to visualize GRIB files within FalconView, so that 
> > > flight mission planners may quickly see what (for example) winds, or 
> > > icing, or turbulence are going to be like over the route they are 
> > > planning. We are also interested in visualizing winds to allow planners 
> > > to plan routes that reduce fuel consumption and to allow more precise air 
> > > drops. Along with IDV, we are also looking at McIDAS-V, VisAD, NASA's 
> > > WorldWind application, or perhaps a home-grown solution using netCDF 
> > > ourselves directly.
> > >
> > > Now obviously we don't want to reinvent the wheel. One of the first 
> > > tenets of writing software is that there's always someone smarter out 
> > > there that's already done it. The IDV UI seems to have all the tools we 
> > > need, the ability to process grib data, already supports derived 
> > > conditions, and has very impressive in-UI rendering.  We'd like to do all 
> > > of that, but without the UI.
> > >
> > > Is there a way to directly use the IDV jar to headlessly generate and 
> > > write imagery to disk from within another application? I see in the 
> > > documentation ways to use ISL scripts while IDV runs in an offscreen 
> > > mode, but we'd like to just use the java library. Is this possible, and 
> > > have you ever heard of anyone trying this before? Is there documentation 
> > > or examples anywhere that explain how we could do this?
> > >
> >
> > Hi Mark,
> > It is not clear to me when you mentioned headlessly. In the real headless 
> > environment, you can use the Xvfb or xvnc to run the IDV jar file, but this 
> > is not the most efficient way.
> > In a normal desktop environment (with good video card), a few powful users 
> > have been running the IDV to generate images for operation usage. The 
> > benchmark we have from our user is that IDV can generate over 1000 images 
> > in less than 6 minutes. This is under IDV scripting language (ISL). The 
> > detail information of ISL is available in our training document:
> >
> > http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/docs/workshop/toc.html#index.html
> >
> >
> >
> > Let us know if you need more help.
> >
> > Yuan
> >
> > > Thanks so much for your time and any help you can provide.
> > >
> > > For your info, CC'd is Kyle Baardson, the project lead for the software 
> > > project plugin in question (FalconView Weather).
> > >
> > > V/R,
> > > Mark Staroska
> > > HQ AFWA/SEMS
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Ticket Details
> > ===================
> > Ticket ID: KVK-267436
> > Department: Support IDV
> > Priority: Normal
> > Status: Closed
> >
> >
> 
> 
> Ticket Details
> ===================
> Ticket ID: KVK-267436
> Department: Support IDV
> Priority: Normal
> Status: Open
> 
> 


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: KVK-267436
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open