20051212: McIDAS: Overlaying images (cont.)

>From: "Corcoran, William T" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Missouri State University
>Keywords: 200512092242.jB9MgF7s024110 McIDAS

Hi Bill,

>HUGE CUT to  get to the point:  Your shell script to run the FRMOLAY
>command
>
>> bar.k
>> frmolay.k NEXRCOMP/1KN0R-NAT UNIT=BRIT
>>
>RAN='3:85,86:96,97:107,108:119,120:130,131:141,142:153,154:164,165:175,1
>76
>> :187,188:198,199:209,210:221,222:232,233:243,244:255' INT=0
>GU=RADAR16_32
>> frmsave.k 1 radarolay.gif
>> 
>> # done
>> exit
>> 
>> EOF
>> 
>> # Done
>> exit 0

>Got some bizarre stuff going on.

Perhaps the weirdness is a cut and past one from the email?  The
invocation line for frmolay.k is _long_k; it can not be split up into
multiple lines.

>I had experimented with FRMOLAY last week...no success...running
>out of colors.  Mcimage was reporting only 62 colors available on
>startup.

Probably an Xwindows configuration issue.

>Figured it was my fault --lack of
>understanding of the basic graphics issues of images, so left it alone.
>Your overlay.sh I used to generate a 2 line BATCH file with the IMGDISP
>and FRMOLAY commands for interactive testing without typing the RANGE
>values.  It too failed, not enough colors.
>
>I mucked with your example and .mcidasrc some more and was about to
>report back to you with no success...checked X configuration on a whim
>(was 1024x768 with "thousands of colors", changed to "millions of
>colors"), and mcidas started without any mcimage comments/errors, and
>FRMOLAY worked!!!!

OK, good.  You will need lots of colors available to be able to display
128 color levels for images and 32 levels for graphics at the same
time.

>(Sort of). However, the radar echoes were all black.
>Somewhere in all of this, I experimented with "mcidas -config".... and
>everything worked.
>
>It is consistent:  If I start mcidas simply by typing the name, and run
>the batch file with the IMGDISP and FRMOLAY commands in it, the radar
>echoes are pure black.  If I start mcidas as "mcidas -config" and just
>push "Start", I get something that looks real (blues and greens today).

It strikes me that you are not clicking on the 'Save configuration
values to the Defaults file [YES/NO]' radiobutton at the bottom, OR
your ~/.mcidasrc file is not writable by you,  If you click on the
'Save Configuration...' radio button, the values in your .mcidasrc file
should be saved.

>My .mcidasrc has imageColors 128 and graphicsColors 64.  The -config
>widget shows 32 graphics overlay colors and 128 image levels...hmmm...
>The slider for graphics overlay colors is pegged out on the right.

The FRMOLAY application is setup to operate in an environment that has
32 graphic levels -- no more and no less.

>So, I brought up TOPO.9018, with EU=TOPO, them did the FRMOLAY, and the
>results were exactly the same....black echoes for "mcidas" startup, and
>something very nice for "mcidas -config".

Check the write permissions on your ~/mcidasrc file.  If it is
writable, edit the file and change the number of graphic levels to 32.

>Frame size and number of frames allocated seem to be unimportant.

Right.  The number of colors used is independent of the number and size
of frames.

>Not enough memory? Different graphics card? X-configuration?  Additional
>tweaking of .mcidasrc?  I dunno.

I think .mcidasrc write permission or some other error that is
preventing the updating of values in your .mcidasrc file.

Hmm...  I wonder if the startup GUI will fail to update the file when a
value in the file is larger than what the GUI is setup to allow.  To
test this, edit .mcidasrc and change graphicsColors to 32, and then try
changing the number of graphic colors to other values and seeing if
.mcidasrc values get changed appropriately.

Cheers,

Tom
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>From address@hidden  Mon Dec 12 15:04:14 2005

>Tom:

>I changed -grapicsColors 32 in .mcidasrc   
>and all is fine...never thought of telling the mcidas -config screen to
>save things that worked.  Stupid of me.

>I had set it to  graphicsColors in .mcidasrc to 64 based on your earlier
>email.  It originally was 16 I think.  Or not. Anyway, 32 is the magic
>number.   

>Thanks.

>Bill


>Dr. William T. Corcoran  http://cumulus.smsu.edu
>(417) 836-5781 
>Dept. Geography, Geology, and Planning
>Missouri State University
>901 S. National
>Springfield, MO 65897