McIDAS-V operational for realtime satallite image display

[carlospsneto]

Hello,
I use McIDAS-V for some time now, but i never really used scripting.
The laboratory where i work want to implement McIDAS-V for operational realtime satallite image display.
Is there anyone here that uses McIDAS-V for this purpose and could dedicate some of your experience to guide me how to do this.
I just would like to see if that is possible and exchange some ideas of what is the better strategy.

My email is carlopsneto@gmail.com

thank you for the attention.

[jayh]

Hello-

Scripting is probably the best option for you to make some realtime image displays. I would encourage you to go through our Basic Scripting Tutorial on this page: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/softwar ... ation.html This will give you an idea of what can be done as well as some more in-depth sample scripts. If you are familiar with the unix 'cron' command for scheduling scripts to run, you can setup a cron job to invoke a script. For example, that script could simply load the latest 5 image from a server and animate them. Then the script can save images or a movie and you could upload it to a web server.

Also, I wanted to mention the use of bundles and toolbar buttons. Whenever you have a display you like, you can save it as a bundle (don't save the data). If the data sources use relative time (e.g. 5 most recent), then each time you reload the bundle it will load the 5 most recent images. You can create a toolbar button for this bundle. Then when each forecaster or scientist comes to use -V, they can have a session with these preset buttons to do some displays for them.

One other feature of a data source is called polling. With realtime displays and image loops, you can turn on polling to automatically update a loop with the latest data from a server. Once you add data from the Data Sources tab of the Data Explorer, when you are in the Field Selector you can right-click on the Data Source in the left hand column. Choose Properties, and in the Properties window you can check the "Automatically Reload:" checkbox to turn on polling for that data source. If polling is turned on when you create a bundle for a display, then when you reload the bundle the polling will be on and continue the automatic updating.

I hope this information helps.

Thanks, Jay
McIDAS User Services

[carlospsneto]

Thank you very much Jay, your guidance helped alot.
I wrote a script that loads the 7 latest images of a directory and repeat the process every 15 minutes. The only problem i have is that I don't know how to start the Animation using only script.
I will try the other sugestions.
Thank you very much again.

[mhiley]

Hi Carlos,

I just came up with this in the last few minutes so it is not well tested, but you can accomplish controlling the animation with a script using the following code:

Code: Select all

# assuming you've got "panel" defined with something like this:
panel = buildWindow()[0]

# you can start and stop the animation this way:
panel.getAnimation().setAnimating(True)  # start
panel.getAnimation().setAnimating(False)  # stop

# you can also set animation properties like speed:
panel.getAnimationInfo().setFwdSpeed(0.05)
# after setting animation properties you need to "apply" them like this:
panel.getAnimationWidget().applyProperties(panel.getAnimationInfo(), False)

Here's the relevant Javadoc. This should give you what you need to script most animation-related stuff:

Animation class - for starting/stopping, setting current frame, etc:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/id ... ation.html

AnimationInfo class - for setting properties like dwell, direction, etc:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/id ... nInfo.html

Hope that helps!
Mike

[carlospsneto]

Thank very much Mike.
That was exactly what i was looking for.

Is there some website or document that i can learn more about fuctions that are not mentioned in the McIDAS-V tutorials? I want to learn more about function and its capabilities, and try to not bother you guys so much.

Thank you so much for your guidance. You guys helped me alot

[jayh]

Hi Carlos-

The other source of documented -V scripting functions is the User's Guide. You can go to Help -> User's Guide and search for "Scripting" Or you can go on our website here: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/doc/mcv ... pting.html There are links to the -V functions and methods descriptions, and at the bottom there are links to the javadoc that Mike referenced above.

Thanks, Jay