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Unidata IDV Workshop for version 3.0u2 > Accessing and Displaying Data > Miscellaneous Displays

3.11.0 Drawing Control
The IDV provides a 3D drawing tool.
  1. First, start fresh Show popup and go to a CONUS projection.
  2. Create a Drawing Control with either the Displays->Special->Drawing Control menu item or with the toolbar button.
  3. When the Drawing Control first comes up it is in polygon drawing mode. Note the button.
  4. Draw some shapes
    • In the main display click and drag to draw.
    • Select the button and check on the "Straight" button to draw a straight line polygon. Click and drag in the main display. Press the "space" key to add a polygon point.
    • Select the button to draw a rectangle. Click and drag in the main display.
    • Go to smooth polygon mode with the button.
    • Tilt the display and draw some more shapes. Note how you are drawing in 3D.
    • Go back to the overhead view (Control-R).
  5. Go into move mode by pressing the the button. Move some of the shapes. Note: You have to select on the corners for squares, at the start for text, etc.
  6. Select and delete the shapes.
    • Select the button to go into selection mode.
    • Click on one of the shapes to select it. You should see small blue highlight rectangles.
    • Press Control-X to cut the shapes.
    • You can select multiple shapes by pressing the control key when you click on them.
    • You can select all of the shapes by pressing Control-A
    • Delete them by pressing Control-X
  7. Change the properties of a shape.
    • Add a new text shape.
    • Select it with the mouse or with a Control-A. Note: to select text you need to click at the beginning of the text.
    • Press Control-P to bring up the properties dialog.
    • Change some of the properties and press OK
  8. Creating text shapes
    • Select the button and click in the main display to add text.
    • In the dialog box add in some html. e.g.:
      <h2>Some example text</h2>
      <a href="http://www.unidata.ucar.edu">Click here</a>
      
    • The HTML is shown in the preview window.
    • Press "OK" when you are done.
    • Try clicking on the link.
  9. Add a Quicktime movie.
    • Select the movie reel icon:
    • Click in the display. In the File dialog select /data/idv/misc/storm.mov
    • Note: Not all movie encodings can be displayed in the IDV.
  10. Drawing in coordinate systems.
    • There are 4 coordinate system you can draw in: Lat/Lon/Alt, Lat/Lon (with fixed Altitude), X/Y/Z, X/Y (with fixed Z).
    • Draw some shapes.
    • Change the projection to a world projection (Projections->Predefined->World menu item) and note how the shapes are reprojected.
    • Select X/Y from the Location menu.
    • Now draw some more shapes.
    • Change the projection to back to CONUS (Projections->Predefined->US->CONUS menu item) and note what shapes get reprojected.
  11. Export/Import
    • You can export and import drawings with the File->Export and File->Import menu items.
    • Try exporting your drawing to the file workshop.xgrf.
    • The xgrf file can be loaded as a data source or imported into an already existing Drawing Control. Let's try loading it as a data source.
    • Remove the existing Drawing Control
    • In the Data Source Chooser go the Files tab and select the workshop.xgrf file.
    • You should see a new Drawing Control created with what you exported.

 


Previous: Miscellaneous Displays Next: Doing More with the Drawing Control Table of contents Frames User guide
Unidata IDV Workshop for version 3.0u2 > Accessing and Displaying Data > Miscellaneous Displays