Flythrough - options for annotations & control

[joleenf]

Hello,

I have just finished using flythrough and have a general questions/possible feature requests and a documentation request.

The movie was created by using flythrough in combination with bringing in select locations as "Text Point and Trajectory Data files"

I would have preferred to do this all using the flythrough, but there are no options for adding times to the main display for the flythrough data. It would have been acceptable to have the times for the individual frames of the flythrough displayed similar to the layer labels. The major disadvantage to adding point data is that it uses more memory. The flythrough feature seems to be a little better.

Would it also be possible for flythrough to plot a flight track in similar to the "multiple" option for the "Text Point and Trajectory Data files." In addition, is there a way to access to the Description for each point in the flythrough and use some of the description names in the flythrough?

What is the best way to save a movie of a flythrough? I used the View>Capture Movie option (CTRL-M) and did not use the flythrough checkbox, but chose to use the Time Animation feature and quickly start the flythrough animation with the "Set Animation Time" box checked in the Viewpoint tab of the Flythrough control. When I tried to use the flythrough checkbox, the track did not animate.

Finally, when I was reading the help for the flythrough animation at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/id ... rough.html
This sentence was not complete:

The other tabs will show text descriptions of the points, probed values and the actual points of the track. You can export and import the set of points in a flythrough with the File->Export/Import menu. This is a simple xml format that

Probing Data

I solved this by add a few points in the Flythrough Control using the Points tab, Edit>Add Point. Then using File>Export. I followed the structure of that file to create my own xml file for import. I have included that file as an example for reference.

example.xml

(980 Bytes) Downloaded 379 times

Is it possible to add options for changing the color of the airplane and shape of the tracer (airplane). This would be nice for parcel trajectories as well.

The flythrough does not stay linked to the bundle when saved. I always have to import my data back into the flythrough window.

Joleen

[barryr]

Hi Joleen,
Thanks for the ideas and requests. We discussed some of them at a meeting and decided to make an inquiry to address all the issues you raised. It's written up as McV inquiry 1132:
http://mcidas.ssec.wisc.edu/inquiry-v/?inquiry=1132

Also, fyi, I discussed it further with another help desk person, and added his feedback to the inquiry.

Barry

[joleenf]

Hi Barry,

I read the extra comments in the inquiry. I agree, consolidating the animation controls would make it much easier for the user. It took me a few tries to get the animation to work as I expected. The most important things to avoid in current animations are 1.) losing frames 2.) Seeing "Please Wait" in the final animation 3.) Poor syncing (this was a problem with one of the choices I made when trying to save flythrough for the first time, but I can't remember which method produced that problem). There are probably others, but these are the few that I have found.

I was looking at the drawing file (.xgrf) this morning. It seems to me that if I have a valid xml file for a flythrough, I should be able to convert it easily to a .xgrf so that I can label lat/lon lines or other points. Right now, I would achieve this with awk, but I wonder if there might be another way which could be scripted within McIDAS-V for users not familiar to awk. Unfortunately, the .xgrf uses parameters which the flythrough .xml does not need and vice versa. Even bringing files in as "Text point and Trajectory Data Files" has some advantages and that is another format. Perhaps this is something which could be discussed a little more between the programmers. 1.) Is there a way to consolidate formats? 2.) If not, can converters be constructed?

Finally, the text file which I bring in as a trajectory is this one. I noticed in the inquiry Bob C. had mentioned he did not have a file of that type.

[joleenf]

This is a bug report, but relates to this forum, so I have chosen to add it here.

I am still working with track data, at first the flythrough was working nicely, but as I added more data, the time animation did not work as well. The times did not always sync as expected and it sometimes was impossible to stop the animation. Crashing was the eventual outcome. Perhaps this can be mitigated by combining the animation controls as Bob C. suggested.

In addition, the flythrough never "forgot" the original values imported. Even when I deleted points, they were remembered, though not visible in the list.

Joleen

[joleenf]

Barry,

We had talked about the various ways of getting trajectory type data into McIDAS-V. I have found this page very useful, and it does a nicer job of summarizing than I can.

http://geon.unavco.org/unavco/IDV_datasource_track.html

I am still working through the multiple variations. They all seem to have their advantages/disadvantages. I still believe that if you have trajectory data, it should be more obvious (a single path) to getting the data in. This does not mean that all the flavors of data sources should be consolidated to one, but could the option for bringing it in be generic enough to encompass all the types?

Joleen