20030618: Overlay point data with frame time (cont.)

>From: "Kwan-yin Kong" <address@hidden>
>Organization: CCNY
>Keywords: 200306171633.h5HGXmLd000512 McIDAS DSSERVE 

Hi Kwan-yin,

>Thanks for your clarifications from your last email. 

No worries.

>Now a question came up to me.  Currently, if I have an 
>image displayed on a frame and I want to overlay surface 
>METAR data with the time that matches with that of the 
>frame, I can use, for example, the SFCCON command as 
>follows. 
>
>SFCCON PMSL OLAY FRAME OUT=CON GRIDF=132

Yup, this is what I would use.  The OUT=CON and GRIDF=132 are,
by the way, not needed in the SFCCON command line.  A shorter
invocation would be:

SFCCON PMSL OLAY FRAME

>I've just realized that there is the PTCON command that 
>can do contouring but with more flexibility.

What is it that you are wanting to do?  You are correct,
PTCON does have a lot more configurable parameters, but it
is also more difficult to run.

>However, it 
>does not appear to allow the FRAME parameter to be 
>specified to indicate that I want to use the time of the 
>current frame.

That is correct, PTCON was not modified to understand the notion
of FRAME time.

>I tried the keyword SELECT='TIME FRAME' but it gave an error.

Right.

>So, is it true that PTCON does not 
>allow specifying the FRAME parameter?

It is true, PTCON does not understand the notion of FRAME time.

>Or is there another parameter that I have to use?

Unfortunately, now.

Again, what is it you want to do with PTCON that you can't do
with SFCCON?

Tom