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5.0 Overview
A Display Control is the interface through which a display can be managed. A display is usually shown in a view though they can be stand-alone.
5.0.0 Display Legends
The legend in a View lists the set of Display Controls within that view. In the image below, the legend has been floated from the main view window into its own window. This is done with the Float Window button.
Side Legend
Image 1: Side Legend

The legend shows each display under the "display category" of that display. For example, the legend in the above image shows the categories "Maps", "General", "Imagery", "Plan Views" and "Point Data". The display category may be changed (see below). This is useful for grouping and controlling the visibility of a group of displays.

The legend label shows the parameter or field name, the display type, and sometimes other information such as the level of a plan view or value of an isosurface. The label may be changed by a user using items under the Edit->Properties menu item (described below). Clicking on the highlighted part of the label will bring up the displays control window. Right clicking will bring up the displays control menu.

The category display within the legend can be toggled to show or hide the displays under that category with the Toggle Category button. The details of a display can also be toggled with the Toggle Details button. The visibility of the displays under a category (i.e., the graphical display within the main view window) can be changed with the Category Visibility Checkbox. The visibility of an individual display can be changed with the Display Visibility Checkbox

The Remove button allows you to quickly remove a display. The Lock Visibility Toggle allows you to "lock" the current visibility of the display and not change it while doing the visibility cycling.

Detailed information about a display may also be shown in the legend. For example, for those displays that use a color table, the color bar will also be shown in the legend. Moving the mouse over the color bar shows intermediate values. Click on the color bar to get a Color Table Editor with the color table for that display.

5.0.1 Drag And Drop
By clicking and dragging on this legend label you can drop it into another View to change which View the display control is in. Also, within the Dashboard's Displays tab, you can use drag and drop button to drop it onto one of the View labels to also change the View. Within the legend you can also drag label onto another Category label to change the display category.
5.0.2 Menus
All display control windows share a common set of File, Edit, View, and Help menu items, shown in the menu bar. Different controls may also have custom items in these menus as well.

The File menu has these common choices:

  • Remove Display
  • Save
    • Save Data in Cache
    • Save As Parameter Defaults
    • Save Display as Favorite
    • Save Display as Bundle
  • Reload Data
  • Close Window
The Edit menu has these common choices:
  • Color Table
  • Selector Color, et. al.
  • Change Parameter
  • Change Display Unit
  • Change Contours
  • Sharing
  • Properties
The View menu has these common choices:
  • Visible
  • Lock Visibility
  • Bring to Front
  • Show View Window
  • Use Times in Animation
  • Times
    • Use Times in Animation
    • Drive Times with this Display
    • Uses Time Driver Times
  • Display List
  • Use Data Projection
  • Enable Adaptive Resolution
  • Match Display Region
The Help menu has these common choices:
  • Details
  • User's Guide
5.0.3 Properties Dialog
The Properties dialog is brought up with the Edit->Properties menu:
Display Control Properties
Image 2: Display Control Properties
The Display Category field is arbitrary text and is used to organize the legend. The "<<" button shows a list of all of the current display categories and allows you to easily set this field.

The Legend Label field is the label used in the legend of this display control. It can contain arbitrary text as well as a set of "macros". The macros can be added to the label with the Add Macro button:

  • Short Name This is the short name of the parameter being displayed.
  • Long Name This is the long name of the parameter being displayed.
  • Data Source Name This is the name of the data source that produced the parameter being displayed.
  • Display Name The name of the display.
  • Timestamp The time of the data that is currently being displayed using the default time format preference. You can also use a macro of the form %time:<time pattern>% to set a specific time format other than the default. <time pattern> follows the same rules defined in the User Preferences section. For example, %time:HHz EEE dd MMM yyyy% would give something like 12GMT Fri 16 Feb 2007.
  • ... And other values depending on the display.

The Extra Legend Labels field acts like the Legend Label field (e.g., with macros).

The Display Label field acts like the Legend Label field to define the text label that is shown in the display list. The color swatch shows the current color for the labeld. Clicking on it brings up a color menu that can be used to change the color of the label.

The Id field is used to define an ID for this display. The ID is used for accessing particular displays from the IDV Scripting Language.

There may be a variety of check boxes:

  • Show In Display List Allows you to toggle the visibility of the label in the view window. Note that you must enable showing the list of display labels that are toggled on using the View->Properties dialog of the view window, or by setting the global property for all display through the User Preferences dialog.
  • Lock Visibility Toggle Locks/unlocks visibility toggling.
  • Show Note Text Arbitrary text notes can be added to a display. This checkbox menu item shows or hides the text field that allows you to edit the notes.
  • Use Fast Rendering When this is checked on, the IDV will not try to account for projection seams. This will cause displays to be rendered faster at the expense of accuracy.

There may be other tabs shown, depending on the display. For example, the Color Scale tab allows you to configure where the color scale bar is shown (see below). The Spatial Subset tab allows you to change the spatial subsetting of the data.

5.0.4 Color Scale
For those controls that include color tables, you can display the color scale (legend) in the main view window. Use the options under the Color Scale tab to configure the positioning and labelling of the color scale.
Color Scale Properties
Image 3: Color Scale Properties
5.0.5 Display Visibility
  • In the legend the Display Visibility checkbox to the left of the label can be used to toggle the visibility of that display.

  • The function keys F1, F2, F3* can be used to cycle visibility as follows:
    • The F1 key cycles visibility through all non-locked displays, showing one at a time.
    • The F2 turns on all non-locked displays.
    • The F3 turns off all non-locked displays.
    *On a Mac laptop, you may need to press the "Fn" key along with the particular function key.
  • The padlock icon on the right side of the Legend is used to block the effects of the visibility toggling described above. When locked the visibility of a display is not affected by the toggling.
  • Use the View->Visible checkbox menu item in each display control's menu.

 


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