Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Main Window

There are two sets of menus - the main menu bar shown at the top of the main window and subsidiary View and Projections menus that are associated with the 3D display.

• New
  This sub-menu allows you to create new windows.
  • View Window
    Allows you to create new view windows.
  • Data Source
    Allows you to open the Data Source Chooser window.
• Open...
  Allows you to select a previously created bundle to load in from your file system.
• Windows
  Allows you to select one of the open windows.
• Save As...
  Allows you to save the current application state as a bundle or Web Start JNLP file.
• Save As Favorite...
  Will save the state off as a specially located and named favorite. This allows you to easily create a set of favorite bundles and readily access them through the Displays->Favorite Bundles menu.
• Default Bundle
  This menu allows you to manage the "default bundle", the bundle that is loaded every time the IDV starts up. See here for more information about bundles.
  • Save
    Save the current application state as the default bundle.
  • Remove
    Delete the default bundle.
  • Open
    Load in the default bundle.
• History
  This menu lists the recently accessed data sources and allows you to easily load them.
• Exit
  Exits the application.

• Remove All Displays
  Remove all displays.
• Remove All Displays and Data
  Removes all displays and loaded data sources.
• Formulas
  This menu contains items related to end user formulas.
  • Create Formula
    Show the Formula dialog window to create a new formula.
  • Jython Library
    Show the Jython library editor.
  • Jython Shell
    Show the Jython Shell.
  • Import
    Import a formula from a file.
  • Export
    Export a formula to a file.
  • Edit Formulas
    Edit a previously defined formula.
• Display Settings
  This menu allows you bring up the Display Settings editor.
• Preferences
  Show the User Preferences window.

The displays menu contains facilities to create new displays and lists the currently created displays.

• Favorite Bundles
  Bundles hold application state. Favorite bundles are just normal bundles that are categorized and saved off in a particular location on disk and serve as a convenience to the user. This allows the user organize their favorites by category and readily load them in.
  • Save As Favorite
    Save the current IDV state as a favorite bundle. This will show a dialog that prompts you for a category and bundle name.
  • Manage
    This shows the list of favorites that you have created and allows you to manage the categories and remove favorite bundles.
  • Menu List
    The rest of this menu holds menu items for the favorite bundles, categorized by the favorites category.
• Maps and Backgrounds
  This menu provides facilities for creating new map displays or background image. Note, once a map display is created you can add new individual maps to that particular display.
  • Add Your Own Map
    Select a shape file or McIDAS map file from the local disk.
  • Add Default Maps
    The default map is the map display (the set of actual maps, their color, line width, etc.) that is automatically created in each view window. You can define what is the default map through an instance of a map display control. This menu item creates a new map display control with the default map state.
  • Add System Map
    The IDV comes pre-configured with a set of base system maps. This menu allows you to create new map displays using these system maps.
  • Add Background Image
    Select a background image for the display using the Background Image Control.
• Locations
  This menu lists a variety of point location plots that can be created: NEXRAD sites, state names, state locations, etc. It will create a Location Control with the chosen location information.
• Special
  This menu lists allows you to create displays that do not require data.
  • Range Rings
    Create a radar range ring display. Radar range rings are a set of concentric rings centered on a point, and radial lines, used to show distance and bearing from the center. The initial position is at the center of the view's current projection. For more information see Range Rings. You do not need to use radar data to see this measuring device.
  • Range and Bearing
    Creates a display to show the range and bearing between any two points. The initial position is near the center of the current entire map area. If you are zoomed in, the range and bearing line may be off screen. For more see Range and Bearing Line.
  • Text note
    Creates a simple text message box. This note can be saved for later use, or sent to other users of the IDV so they can see the same display with your notations. See Text Notes.
  • Drawing Control
    Create a drawing tool that allows you to annotate IDV displays.
  • Transect Drawing Control
    Create a drawing tool that allows you to create transects for the Transect View
  • Location Indicator
    Creates a location indicator cross-hair on the display. See the Location Indicator Control.
  • WebCam Display
    Creates a display of available WebCam sites. See the WebCam Control.
  • ProbSevere Display
    Creates a display of ProbSevere Statistical models output. See the ProbsevereJson Control.
  • WorldWind Locations
    Add locations from the WorldWind database. See the Location Control
• Current View
  This is essentially the View and Projections menu of the currently active view window.
• Current Displays
  If displays have been added to the IDV, they are shown at the bottom of the Displays menu. Selecting one of these items brings up that displays control window.

This menu allows you to load in a new data source from the Data Source Chooser. It also lists all of the currently loaded formulas and data sources and provides options to select fields and edit properties.

• Choose Data
  Provides ability to access the individual Data Source Chooser-s from the sub menus.
• Special
  Provides access to special data sources that have preconfigured location (e.g. Weather Text and hurricane tracks).
• Favorite Data Sources
  Provides ability to access and manage the saved favorite data sources
• Formulas
  Provides ability to access formulas

This menu allows you to configure and edit different IDV resources.

• Color Table Editor
  Show the Color Table Editor, which allows you to view, create and modify color tables.
• Layout Model Editor
  Show the Layout Model Editor, which allows you to view, create and modify layout models for plotting point data.
• Projections Manager
  Show the Projection Manager, which allows you to choose, edit and save map projections for use in Unidata applications.
• Parameter Alias Editor
  Show the Parameter Alias Editor, which allows you to define aliases for parameters in data sets that the IDV does not know about.
• Parameter Defaults Editor
  Show the Parameter Defaults Editor, which allows you to define the default display conventions (e.g., color tables, ranges, etc.) for parameters.
• Parameter Groups Editor
  Show the Parameter Groups Editor, which allows you to define the groups of parameters for use in derived data formulas.
• Plugin Manager
  This menu allows you to manage the IDV plugins.
• Plugin Creator
  This menu allows you to create plugins.
• Resource Viewer
  This menu allows you to show the resources currently used by the IDV

The Help menu allows you to view this user's guide, show error messages, etc.

• User's Guide
  Go to the top-level user guide page
• Getting Started
  A quick overview of the IDV
• Zooming, Panning and Rotating
  Describes how to navigate in the view windows.
• Show Console
  Shows a console window which has the error messages and other text output from the IDV.
• Show Help Tips
  Shows the help tips window.
• Support Request Form
  Shows a form that allows you to post support requests to the Unidata Program Center.
• Release notes
  Displays the release notes for this version of the IDV.
• About
  Gives information about this version of the IDV.

Each display or View Manager has a View and Projections menu. The View menu lists the displays shown in this window, change the point of view, capture images and movies, and make some other changes in the overall view.

• Displays
  This menu deals with the displays that are shown in this particular view, which are shown at the bottom of the menu.
  • Hide/Embed Legend
    Remove or embed the legend.
  • Float Legend
    Show the display legend in their own window.
  • Remove All Displays
    Remove the displays shown in this view.
  • Visibility Animation
    Cycle through the visibility of each display, showing one at a time. Click the check box "on" to start animation, check off to stop. You can increase or decrease the speed with the provided Faster and Slower choices. Note this is not a time animation loop; it loops through the visibility of the displays present in this view window.
• Capture
  You can capture the current view as a JPEG image, send it to a printer, or capture a QuickTime movie. See here for more information.
• Show
  A set of menus to toggle the visibility of certain features one at a time. All these can also be toggled in the Properties dialog as well (see below)
• Viewpoint
  This menu allows you to change the point of view.
  • Top View through West
    These 5 items reset the point of view to one of the orthogonal directions.
  • Perspective View
    Provides an alternate 3D view of the display. The default is a parallel projection.
  • Viewpoint Dialog
    This shows a dialog box for you to enter the azimuth and tilt of a desired point of view. Azimuth is from North, clockwise to 360 degrees. Tilt is degrees down from overhead, vertical. A top view has tilt of 0. Oblique views from the southeast have azimuth 135, and a tilt of about 45 degrees. A view from the "east" has an azimuth of 90, tilt 90.
  • Vertical Range
    This shows a dialog box to set the vertical range between the top and bottom of the wire frame box. The scale is linear. You can specify the units for the max and min values. Units must be convertible with meters (e.g., km, ft, fathoms, etc)
  • Auto-rotate View
    Allows you to automatically rotate the view.
• Color
  Change the background and foreground colors of the view (not the map lines) to predefined colors or set your own. When setting your own colors you can also save off the chosen color pair as a named predefined color pair which will appear in the list.
• Saved State
  This menu allows you to save the current view state (e.g., projection, colors, viewpoint) and to load previously saved view states into the current view window.
• Full Screen
  Show the current view in full screen mode.
• Animation Timeline
  Show the Animation Timeline
• Properties
  Show the properties dialog for the view. See the View Properties for more information.

The Projections menu lets you change the map projection in the 3 dimensional display.

• Predefined
  Contains the list of pre-defined projections you can choose from, including both system-supplied and your own projections.
• From Displays
  Lists the native data projections of any displays being show.
• Viewpoints
  Allows you to define, select or delete saved viewpoints.
• History
  Contains the projections that have been used for this view. It allows you to easily go back to prior projections.
• New/Edit
  Show the Projection Manager dialog to view, create and edit projections.
• Use Displayed Area
  Resets the projection to that of the current zoom level.
• Go to Address
  Change the projection to a given address, zip code, city, etc.

  

  The formats include:

  12345 oak street, my town, my state
  my town, my state
  80303 (zip code)
  latitude longitude
  "ip" for the location of this computer
  

• Auto-set Projection
  Toggles the behavior of automatically setting the projection to the projection of the most recent display that has been added.
• Enable Adaptive Resolution
  Toggles the behavior of adaptive resolution setting for all data sources associated with this view window.
• Share Views
  Control whether Sharing is turned on or off for this view. If sharing is turned on then view point and projection changes are shared with any other views that also have sharing turned on.

 

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Main Window