[McIDAS #NZL-889040]: Request for McIDAS Download

Hi Musili,

I apologize for the slow reply; things have been quite busy for me lately...

re: continued access to Unidata McIDAS-X
> I am glad to receive your response.

re: what email address did you use to register with the Unidata website
> I used the email address@hidden for registration.

re:
> However, I am glad to
> have downloaded the IDV but I am still learning to use it.

OK.  The IDV can do many things that McIDAS-X cannot (and McIDAS can do
many things that the IDV cannot).  Given the redistribution restrictions
in our license to distribute McIDAS-X with UW/SSEC, it is a good move for
non-U.S. university and other folks to migrate to use of the IDV if
they can.

re:
> The challenge so far is when I load a shapefile map for East Africa, and
> create a display, the map disappears when I load the satellite imagery,

This is likely because the satellite image is on top of the map.  The
easy solution to this is to raise the map in the vertical through the
Default Background Maps control in the Dashboard.  The thing that one
has to remember when using the IDV is that all displays are three
dimensional.  This has ramifications in terms of what is immediately
visible and what is not when loading in several displays into the
same view.  One example of what I am referring to is illustrated by
the following:

- load a satellite image first
- load a radar image second using a color table that has portions
  that are transparent so that underlying displays are visible in
  the regions that are transparent

This will all look correct.

- load a radar image first using a color table that has portions
  that are transparent

- load a satellite image second

Even if the radar image appears to be on top, the portions of the
satellite image that should be visible in the transparent regions
of the radar color table will likely not be visible.

This somewhat hard to understand situation is remedied by the user
right clicking on the title of the radar display in the Legend and
then selecting View -> Bring to Front.  This will set the display
so that the radar is on top like in the first example.

re:
> and instead the map of the American continent is selected.

If the image being displayed is over the U.S. AND if Projections -> Auto-set 
Projection
is active (selected), then the projection of the display will change
to that of the data just loaded (satellite image in this example).
You can uncheck the Projections -> Auto-set Projection checkbox
before you load the satellite image and the projection will not change.

> I am interested
> in working with a smaller region over Africa, any technical advice will
> help me.

Do you have satellite imagery that covers the region you are interested
in?

re:
> I respect your licensing policy and I will now opt to work with IDV until I
> join MSc course.

Very good.  I think that once you become familiar with the IDV, you will
find that you no longer need McIDAS-X for a number of tasks that you
want to accomplish (there may be some things that you can't do in the
IDV that you can do in McIDAS-X, but the list of those things is
diminishing over time).

re:
> Thanks.

No worries.

If you have questions about the IDV, please send those questions to:

address@hidden

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: NZL-889040
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed