20000308: Displaying area files

>From: Darren Gallant <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/JOSS
>Keywords: 200003082159.OAA13649

Darren,

>Our sysadmin just finished installing Mcidas 7.6 on a Lynux
>box. Unfortunately our LDM is not set up to generate any Mcidas products
>but this can be rectified by using another LDM via ADDE.

I am not sure that I follow this.  The LDM conveys data from
point-to-point.  ADDE can do the same, and it can be the conveyance
vehicle used to access data for display/analysis from remote machines
running remote ADDE servers.

>However, I do
>have some satellite imagery in area file format which I would like to
>display. How can I import these files into Mcidas and display them?

This is very easy.  If the McIDAS installation was done completely as
we recommend, then each user will have a dataset called MYDATA defined
for them.  You would determine this by running DSSERVE LIST from a
McIDAS session.  You would end up with a listing part of which looks
like:

Group/Descriptor         Type  Format & Range     RT Comment
------------------------ ----- ------------------ -- --------------------
MYDATA/GRIDS             GRID  GRID 1-9999           All gridded data in GRID 
format
MYDATA/IMAGES            IMAGE AREA 1-9999           All images in AREA format
MYDATA/RTPTSRC           POINT MD   1-9999           All point source data 
files in MD file format
MYDATA/TOPO              IMAGE AREA 9000-9019        All topographic images in 
AREA format

If you do not get this, then do the following:

DMAP MYDATA.BAT

If DMAP does not find MYDATA.BAT, then the installation needs
attention.  If you do see this, then all you need are to make the
definitions in MYDATA.BAT active:

BATCH MYDATA.BAT

and add McIDAS file REDIRECTions that can locate the AREA files.  For
instance, let's assume that the AREA files that you have are located in
a directory called /data/mcidas (the name/location is not important,
the concept is).  You would setup AREA file REDIRECTions like:

REDIRECT ADD AREA* "/data/mcidas

If you already have REDIRECTions for AREA files that are more specific
than this (e.g., AREA71* "/var/data/images, or something similar), then
you will have to be more specific with your REDIRECTion(s).  For
instance, if the AREA files you have and want to look at are named
AREA2000 - AREA2099, then your REDIRECTion would look like:

REDIRECT ADD AREA20* "/data/mcidas

and so on.  To verify that you can find those AREA files, next run:

DMAP AREA

You should see your files in the list.  If you do, then you can access
the files using the MYDATA/IMAGES dataset name.  For instance, if you
have the AREA file AREA2015, you could look at it with:

IMGDISP MYDATA/IMAGES.2015 EU=IMAGE MAG=-2 REFRESH='EG;MAP SAT'

>Thanks for any assistance

Please let me know if the above wasn't clear enough.

Tom Yoksas