20010821: McIDAS: map overlays bar and refresh problems (cont.)

>From: Christian Page <address@hidden>
>Organization: Universite du Quebec a Montreal
>Keywords: 200108161336.f7GDaa129316 McIDAS scripts

Christian,

re: use FRMLIST with the DEV=T keyword to get a list of info in a text file
>This is what I used finally. It works very well and is fast to run!

Very good.

>Also, I tried to overlay sea-level pressure and height contours on top of a
>satellite image:
>
>imgdisp.k RTGINI/GE4KIR STA=CYYZ MAG=-2 EU=XREC SF=YES REFRESH='EG 1;MAP H 8;B
> AR COL=8 SU=TEMPC 1'
>frmlabel.k LEVEL=120 0 \"GOES-8 IR 4KM \(DAY\) \(HHMM\) meteocentre.com
>sfccon.k PMSL COL=7
>raobcon.k Z 500 DASH=ALL COL=7 UNIT=DM
>
>It works, except for two things:
>
>1- The labels of these 2 fields are overlapping

The labels overlap because the color you plotted the two fields in are
the same.  The position of the plot label in McIDAS is determined by the
color number used for the plot.  There are three "slots" at the bottom of
the plot used for labels.  The topmost slot will be filled for color numbers
3, 6, 9, etc.  The middle slot will be filled for color numbers 2, 5, 8, etc.
The bottom slot will be filled for color numbers 1, 4, 7, etc.  In order
to have non-overlapping labels, you must chose different color levels to
plot in.  For instance, the following would produce non-overlapping
labels:

imgdisp.k RTGINI/GE4KIR STA=CYYZ MAG=-2 EU=XREC SF=YES REFRESH='EG 1;MAP H 
8;BAR COL=8 SU=TEMPC 1'
frmlabel.k LEVEL=120 0 \"GOES-8 IR 4KM \(DAY\) \(HHMM\) meteocentre.com
sfccon.k PMSL COL=7
raobcon.k Z 500 DASH=ALL COL=8 UNIT=DM

>2- The contours don't cover the entire area
>Example: http://www.sca.uqam.ca/sat/test/ne_vis_pngz_50.gif
>
>Is there a way to fix that?

This is the result of a design decision made by SSEC.  There does not
appear to be any simple way around this.

re: upgrade to Version 7.80
>Not yet. I have a few question regarding upgrades:  Will I have to
>reconfigure everything I have setup for ADDE, etc.?

No.

>Or can I just save ~mcidas/data directory content?

Hmm...  I am concerned by this question.  If you did not modify any
BATCH or McBASI scripts that are sent with the Unidata distribution,
then you have nothing to worry about.  If, however, you chose to modify
one of the standard scripts sent with the distribution and did not
rename it, then you will need to backup those scripts as they will be
overwritten by the new distribution.

The only thing that you really have to worry about is upgrading XCD,
and this is very simple for this new version.  The upgrade steps are
detailed in the XCD Release notes that are accessible from the Hot
Topics link from the McIDAS-X 7.80 homepage:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/780/

If you have created your own scripts (BATCH files, McBASI scripts, etc)
-- which I believe you have --, but did not give them the same names as
ones in the distribution, you have nothing to worry about.  Only files
included in the distribution will get overwritten by their
replacements.

Tom