20020123: McIDAS functions (cont.)

>From: William C Klein <address@hidden>
>Organization: Valparaiso
>Keywords: 200201141549.g0EFnrx16514 McIDAS ADDE

Bill,

>Any updates on the current issues?

Thanks for reminding me of your situation.  It is far too easy to get
sidetracked...

My initial comments regarding your observations of what works and
doesn't work from the Fkey menu stand:  The failure to load the GINI
images (East, West, and Composite) indicate that your McIDAS session is
not setup to "point" to an ADDE server that hosts the data, or your
session is not able to contact that host by the Internet.

Given this, the first step in the troubleshooting is to provide a
listing of which hosts you are pointing to for the various datasets
served by the Fkey menu.  You do this as follows:

From the McIDAS Text and Command window, run the DATALOC command:

DATALOC LIST

The output from DATALOC will tell us which machine(s) you are
attempting to get data from.  Some time ago, Simon had setup aeolus to
ingest and decode all of the data in the Unidata IDD.  At that time,
aeolus would be the machine you would point to for those datasets.  If
your session is pointed at aeolus, your DATALOC listing should, for
those datasets hosted on aeolus, look like:

DATALOC LIST

Group Name                    Server IP Address
--------------------         ----------------------------------------
CIMSS                        AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
MYDATA                       <LOCAL-DATA>
RTGRIDS                      AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
RTIMAGES                     AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
RTNEXRAD                     AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
RTNOWRAD                     <LOCAL-DATA>
RTPTSRC                      AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
RTWXTEXT                     AEOLUS.VALPO.EDU
TOPO                         <LOCAL-DATA>

<LOCAL-DATA> indicates that data will be accessed from the local data directory.
DATALOC -- done

If your DATALOC listing does not look like this, you should change it.
If aeolus is still setup like it once was, there will be a McIDAS BATCH
file located in the ~mcidas/data directory called LOCDATA.BAT.  This
file should be configured by the McIDAS administrator at your site (still
Simon?).  Its contents (minus comment lines that begin with REM) would
look like:

DATALOC ADD CIMSS     aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD GINICOMP  cacimbo.ggy.uga.edu
DATALOC ADD GINIEAST  atm.geo.nsf.gov
DATALOC ADD GINIWEST  papagayo.unl.edu
DATALOC ADD RTGRIDS   aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD RTIMAGES  aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD RTNEXRAD  aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD RTNOWRAD  LOCAL-DATA
DATALOC ADD RTPTSRC   aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD RTWXTEXT  aeolus.valpo.edu
DATALOC ADD TOPO      LOCAL-DATA

DATALOC ADD AMRC      uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu
DATALOC ADD ME7       io.sca.uqam.ca

DATALOC ADD BLIZZARD cttcsun.unidata.ucar.edu

DATALOC ADD MYDATA LOCAL-DATA

If ~mcidas/data/LOCDATA.BAT does not exist, it may be created from the
template ~mcidas/data/DATALOC.BAT:

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd data
cp DATALOC.BAT LOCDATA.BAT

After making the copy, the copy must be edited to set values as indicated
above.

After ~mcidas/data/LOCDATA.BAT exists and is configured, each user
can make the settings active in his/her McIDAS session as follows:

<from the McIDAS Text and Command Window>

BATCH LOCDATA.BAT

Once the "pointing" is set, you should be able to access the data
in the various datasets you listed in your previous email.

It appears that aeolus is setup to service the various datasets since
I can "point" my McIDAS session here at Unidata to it and plot/list
a variety of data.  I have verified that I can get data from the
following ADDE datasets on aeolus:

RTPTSRC             <- surface, upper air, wind profiler, synoptic, ship/buoy
RTIMAGES            <- GOES East and West images from IDD MCIDAS feed type
RTGRIDS             <- NCEP model output in NOAAPORT
RTWXTEXT            <- observations, fronts, etc., etc., etc.

In RTPTSRC I note that LIGHTNING data is not available from aeolus.  Someone
there will need to request the data from SUNY Albany.  To do this, you
need to send an email to:

address@hidden

- and/or -

address@hidden

that states your desire for the feed, the fully qualified name of your
LDM host (aeolus.valpo.edu), and your understanding that the data's
use is restricted (it can never appear on web pages or be given to
third parties).

You note that the RTNEXRAD (NEXRAD radar imagery) Fkey menu actions
do not work.  This can be caused from a couple of different things:

o you are not ingesting and filing the NEXRAD products that you could
  be getting from the IDD

o the configuration for serving the NEXRAD imagery in the 'mcidas'
  account is incorrect

Which of these two possibilities is your problem is something I
can't address from here.  I can, however, verify that aeolus is getting
the NEXRAD imagery from the IDD.  This means that it is either not being
filed (this is done by one or more actions in ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf)
or, more likely, the setup for ADDE serving of the data in the McIDAS
account is incorrect/incomplete.

I can help whomever is in charge of LDM and McIDAS operation at
Valparaiso get all of the decoding and configuration squared away.
Please let me know if you want/need such help.

Now, on to what I really want to recommend for your setup.  As of McIDAS
7.8, I am moving away from support of the Fkey menu in Unidata McIDAS.
In its place is an ADDEized GUI to McIDAS that I think is significantly
easier to use.  I recommend that you try out this GUI as follows:

o make sure that you have no McIDAS session running
o start McIDAS as follows:

  mcidas config

o a GUI will popup and allow you to specify several items used in your
  McIDAS session (number and size of frames, number of image and graphics
  colors, reserve of memory for creating new frames on the fly, etc.)

  In this GUI near the bottom, you should select the radiobutton that
  indicates that MCGUI should be started automatically (your options
  are MCGUI, FKEY, and NONE).

  The last row of radiobuttons in the GUI are used for saving the changes
  you make to the defaults file, ~/.mcidasrc.  You should select YES.

Once you have made the selections you desire from this GUI, simply click
the left mouse button on the Start button.  A McIDAS-X session will start
in a couple of seconds.

Using the MCGUI:

The key to using McIDAS is setting up the machines from which you want
to display/list/copy/etc data.  This is done by running DATALOC commands
as the LOCDATA.BAT example above discusses.  The MCGUI has, however,
a graphical widget that allows you to do this on the fly.  To
bring up the widget, click the left mouse button on the ADDE Client
Routing Config button.  This is the button with two computers on on
top of the other; it is just to the right of the button with 'Z' on
it (Z for zoom).  Once the widget is displayed, you can select any
of 4 tabs that allow you to set the "pointing" for the various datasets
supported by the MCGUI.  The nice thing here is that most datasets have
multiple servers from which you can get data.

Try the following:  click on the IMAGE tab and modify the "pointing"
for GINIEAST.  This is done by clicking on the down arrow at the
right of the entry whose lable is GINIEAST.  Select any of the servers
listed there and when finished, click on the Update and Exit button
at the bottom left of the GUI.  Once done, go up and left click
on Display and then on Imagery and then on GINIEAST:

   Display -> Imagery -> GINIEAST

A widget will popup and allow you to display any of the images in that
dataset.  As a start, display the latest image from the GE1KVIS set
(this should already be selected) and then click the Display button.  
This will get the latest image from the server selected from the
set of 1 km VIS GINI images.  After success with this, reload the
image using a Custom load.  Click on the Custom radiobutton and then
set the center point as a LAT LON point or Stations ID.  I suggest
choosing the closest METAR reporting station to you as a start.
Notice that you can change the "blow-up"/"blow-down" of the load.
This simply controls the resolution of the image displayed.  After
you are successful in loading a single image with a custom load,
load a loop by clicking on the Loop radiobutton and then clicking
on Display.

The MCGUI is pretty straightforward to use, and it will become more
functional with succeeding Addendums to McIDAS (bug fix and enhancement
interim releases) and new distributions.  Feedback on what is missing
is always sought, so please let me know what you think.

OK, that is enough for one email.  Please work through the DATALOC
setting above and see if you are able to display the data that you
could not with your Fkey menu tests.


>> >Here are the current issues with our McIDAS setup.  Please feel free to
>> >contact me if you have any questions regarding this report.
>> >
>> >Thank you,
>> >Bill
>> >
>> >Satellite (F1)
>> >
>> >F1  Unidata Wisconsin
>> >   -all ok.
>> >   -loop works
>> >
>> >F2 NOAAPORT GOES-East - all failed
>> >
>> >F3 NOAAPORT GOES-West - all failed
>> >
>> >F4 NOAAPORT GOES-East/West Composite - all failed
>> >
>> >F5 Satellite/Topography Composites - all work
>> >
>> >Radar/Images Loops  (F2)
>> >
>> >F1 - NOAAPORT NEXRAD Level III
>> >
>> >    F1 - Base reflectivity
>> >            error:  No NIDS images found in dataset RTNEXRAD/N0R.
>> >
>> >    errors continue through all datasets
>> >
>> >F2 - WSI NIDS/NOWrad
>> >
>> >    No NIDS images found in dataset RTNIDS/xxx.
>> >
>> >Topography (F3)
>> >
>> >All works
>> >
>> >North America - Horizontal (F4)
>> >
>> >All functions return following error in command mode screen:
>> >String not found: ?MODEL1
>> >
>> >Global - Horizontal (F5)
>> >
>> >All functions return following error in command mode screen:
>> >String not found: ?MODEL1
>> >
>> >Vertical Cross sections (F6)
>> >
>> >    F1
>> >
>> >    UACROSS: No grid found matching search conditions
>> >    UACROSS: Could not get any Z grids
>> >
>>      F2
>> >
>> >    Getting data.  unsure of when data is from.
>> >
>> >
>> >Weather Text (F7)
>> >
>> >F1 - works
>> >
>> >F2 - works
>> >
>> >F3 - works
>> >
>> >F4 - FOUS14 Fcsts, by Station
>> >     String not found:  ?FOUSID
>> >
>> >F5 - works
>> >
>> >F6 - works
>> >
>> >F7 - doesn't exist
>> >
>> >F8 - F1 - works
>> >     F2 - works
>> >     F3 - works
>> >     F4 - works
>> >
>> >F9 - F1 - String not found: ?SFDID
>> >     F2 -                SFPID
>> >     F3 -                ZFPID
>> >     F4 -                NOWID
>> >     (would really like to have these)
>> >
>> >System/File Information (F9)
>> >getting information.  not getting radar data.
>> >
>> >Misc Funtions (F10)
>> >
>> >All work (less important that other data!)
>> >
>> >Surface Data Plots (SF1) - all works
>> >
>> >Surface Data Contours (SF2) - all works
>> >
>> >NLDN Lightning (SF3) -
>> >    NLDNDISP: Failed at SERVER REQUEST step
>> >    NLDNDISP: failed, RC=1
>> >
>> >        on all accounts
>> >
>> >METEORGRAMS (SF4) -
>> >works
>> >
>> >MOS (SF5)
>> >plots work
>> >
>> >AF3 - menu to background
>> >AF4 - kills connection to McIDAS server
>> >AF5 - no response
>> >AF6 - no response
>> >AF7 - cursor location and moves open window
>> >AF8 - " "
>> >AF9 - minimized open window
>> >AF10 - maximize open window
>> >AF11 - works
>> >AF12 - works
>> >
>> >
>> >contours don't
>> >FOUSDISP: Unable to execute PTCON command
>> >FOUSDISP - Done
>> >FOUSDISP failed, RC=1
>> >
>> >Upper Air data Plots (SF6)
>> >works
>> >
>> >Upper Aid Contours (SF7)
>> >works
>> >
>> >FSL Wind Profiler Data (SF8)
>> >works
>> >
>> >Soundings/Hodographs (SF9)
>> >works
>> >
>> >Veritcal Cross Sections (SF10)
>> >works
>> >
>> >Station IDs by Type (CF1) works

Tom