A: The XView toolkit that CIDD uses as a GUI layer has a relatively ambiguous specification for its default font. It finds a really big font because your X server lists big fonts first when it sets up the default X font path and XView does not scale the size of the widgets to fit the fonts.1.2 Under Mac OS 10.4 and above: CIDD's popup panels are non-functional. The Mac OS window manager never gives focus to the popup panels, so the user cannot select or change GUI elements.The current, preferred workaround is to add specific Openwindows font specifications into your .Xresources file:
- OpenWindows.MonospaceFont: fixed
- OpenWindows.RegularFont: -b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-sans-12-100-75-75-*-*-iso8859-1
- OpenWindows.BoldFont: -b&h-lucida-bold-r-normal-sans-12-100-75-75-*-*-iso8859-1
or, if lucida sans fonts are not found on your system, try:
- OpenWindows.MonospaceFont: fixed
- OpenWindows.RegularFont: 6x13
- OpenWindows.BoldFont: 6x13bold
For a Mac with minimal fonts installed try:
- OpenWindows.MonospaceFont: fixed
- OpenWindows.RegularFont: times-medium-12
- OpenWindows.BoldFont: times-bold-12
Merge this into your current resource set with: 'xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources' After editing your ~/.Xresources file.
Another Simple work-around is to ask for a specific font on the command line;
CIDD -font lucidasans-bold-12 -p CIDD.myparamfile
CIDD -font times-medium-12 -p CIDD.myparamfile
Note: Older versions of CIDD will honor but complain of unknown command line arguments when using the -font or any other Openwindows command line options on startup. These can be safely ignored. Newer versions of CIDD do not complain.
A: Enter the following commands in a terminal window, then quit and restart X11.defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_click_through -bool true
defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm -bool true
Check your current settings with 'defaults read com.apple.x11' For the latest XQuartz server, the preference name is org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 So enter the following commands in a terminal window, then quit and restart X11.
defaults write org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 wm_click_through -bool true
defaults org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 wm_ffm -bool true
Dennis Flanigan (dennisf@ucar.edu) Adds:
I installed the Xquartz version of X windows and not the Apple version when I upgraded to Leopard. I discovered that for Xquartz, the defaults are not kept in the com.apple.x11 preferences , but in the org.x.X11 preferences instead.
So Xquartz users should replace com.apple.x11 with org.x.X11 in the commands listed in section 1.2 of the CIDD FAQ.
A somewhat easier procedure is to navigate to ~/Library/Preferences. From the command line use 'open org.x.X11.plist' or from the finder double click on org.x.X11.plist. Either of these steps will bring up the Property List Editor. Opening the Root property list will allow access to the wm_click_through and wm_ffm properties.
A: CIDD can run completely stand-alone if gridded data are requested from the local disk and no SPDB data are being visualized. However, in cases where SPDB data are being visualized or the data are located on another machine, the following programs programs are required.
- DsServerMgr - The Master Server - Should always be running.
This server automatically starts other servers as needed. NOTE: This is typically the only "Server" that needs to be started independently from CIDD.- DsMdvServer - The Gridded Data Server - Serves 'MDV' data
- DsSpdbServer - The Symbolic Product Data Server - Serves raw 'SPDB' data.
The following executables provide support for real time operations
- procmap - The Process Heartbeat Collector. Used in concert with auto_restart (A perl script) to keep process running in case of failure.
- DataMapper - The Master Index of data availability within a "system". All data sets 'register' their deposits of new data into the database. This registry of data is used by clients to detect the presence of new data on the system.
- DsFileDist - A daemon which traverses a database and distributes files to remote hosts. Requires DsServerMgr and DsFCopyServer be available on the remote host.
- Janitor - Scrubs data from our databases in an intelligent way.
- Scout - Finds (scouts out) and registers data in our databases.
The following executables provide graphical representations of data stored in the binary, Symbolic Product Data Base (SPDB) as of Spring 2005..
- AcTrack2Symprod - Converts Aircraft Track (ac_data.h> data to Symprod format
- Acars2Symprod - Converts Aircraft telemetry data to Symprod format
- BasinGenPt2Symprod - Converts data to Symprod format
- Bdry2Symprod - Converts convergence line boundary data to Symprod format
- Chunk2Symprod - Converts raw data to Symprod format
- Contour2Symprod - Converts contour/Contour.hh buffers to Symprod format
- Edr2Symprod - Converts Turbulence EDR data to Symprod format
- FltPath2Symprod - Converts Flight path data to Symprod format
- GenPoly2Symprod - Converts Generic Polyline data to Symprod format
- GenPt2Symprod - Converts Generic Point data to Symprod format
- GenPtField2Symprod - Converts Generic Point Field data to Symprod format
- HydroStation2Symprod - Converts HydroStation data to Symprod format
- Metar2Symprod - Converts SPDB Metar (station_report) Data to Symprod format
- Ltg2Symprod - Converts Lightning data to Symprod
- Mad2Symprod - Converts ?? data to Symprod format
- Pirep2Symprod - Converts Pilot Report data to Symprod format
- PosnRpt2Symprod - Converts Position data to Symprod format
- Rhi2Symprod - Provides MDV Rhi scan indicators in Symprod format
- SigAirMet2Symprod/ - Converts Sig AIRMET data to Symprod format
- Sigmet2Symprod - Converts Sigmet data to Symprod format
- TrecGauge2Symprod - Converts raw Reflectivity Trace data to Symprod format
- Tstorms2Symprod - Converts raw Titan storm track data to Symprod format
- Vergrid2Symprod - Converts ?? data to Symprod format
- WxHazards2Symprod - Converts Weather Hazard data to Symprod format
- simpleAcTrack2Symprod - Converts Aircraft Track (ac_posn.h> data to Symprod format
The following executables provide support for optional and infrequently used features.
- DsFmqServer - A server that is required when distributing or operating File Message Queues (FMQ's) across remote hosts.
- DrawFmq2Bdry - A program which translates human generated drawings into SPDB format boundary products.
- RemoteUI2Fmq - A program which sends the contents of a file to CIDD's Remote User Interface FMQ. - Used in concert with scripts, php or cgi mechanisms to deliver output for interactive users or for static graphic generation. mechanisms
- WMS2MdvServer - A program which translates Mdv requests into WMS requests and returns the resultant image as a Mdv encapsulated geo-tiff.
The following utilities are often used to view the contents of the data bases, files, and server stats and info.
- PrintDataMap - Prints the contents of DataMapper.
- print_procmap - Prints the contents of procmap.
- print_mdv - Prints the contents of Mdv files.
- fmq_print - Prints the contents of FMQ files.
- print_server_mgr - Prints the status of DsServerMgr.
- print_spdb - Prints the low level SPDB data.
- print_spdb_index - Prints the low level SPDB data index files.
- didss_print - Prints many RAP format data, including TITAN track data.
- PrintMdv - Prints the contents of Mdv files.
- SpdbQuery - Prints the contents of SPDB data. - Command line driven.
- XSpdbQuery - An X windows Application which prints the contents of SPDB data. GUI Driven.
A: "Terrain" must be a Mdv file/URL which contains elevation data. It is used primarily to obscure data above a particular elevation. For example, looking at the 900Mb plot over Colorado, or a cross section of model data, on pressure layers, over a mountain range.
Note: Niles Oien has instructions on preparing these data.Landuse, is gridded data that is rendered underneath all other data. Many choose to use the same URL as their terrain data and use a color scale to provide a false colored topological map. Many choose to use a colorscale that uses "ocean blue" for elevations of 0 meters. This works pretty well, unless you are looking at coastal areas where your map will show "Ocean" far inland. A better approach, and much more pleasing to the eye is to take a geo-referenced image, like a geotiff and run it through Image2Mdv to produce an Mdv encapsulated geo-tiff, which CIDD and JADE know how to render. Shaded relief images are available from the USGS that contain a combination of topological features as well as land category to produce very pleasing maps. There are detailed notes in the Image2Mdv source code directory which illustrate its use.
Note: Landuse can refer to a non-static data set. For example you could use a WMS Server(via WMS2MdvServer), or a Mdv Server to feed it live data showing maps that include up-to-date- traffic, flood coverage, satellite imagery, etc.
If you are using a totally new data type, you'll need to create a Symprod server for this new data format. In OO terms - you need to create a vi1G method for your new model. This process will translate your binary format into lines, text and symbols (Symprod format spdb data) which CIDD renders. If you used a pre-existing data format you just need to place the proper "SPDB to Symprod Server" in your URL's. See question 2.1
Check out cvs/apps/dsserver/ and look at all the different *2Symprod apps. Pick one with similar data format and/or and rendering. Copy that and create a Edr2Symprod server. Once this gets built, you can then add a config line in CIDD's param files to load and render this product.
You'll also need to coordinate with Mike Dixon (author of DsServerMgr) to add a hook for your new data type into the server manager, so it can fire up your new Symprod server automatically.
A: The likely cause of this problem is that the cidd.data_timeout_secs: parameter is set too small. Spdb Servers can sometimes take a long time to do their work and respond, especially if they have a lot of data to process.In some cases it may be advantageous to set up CIDD to request SPDB products for each individual frame, rather than requesting data which covers the entire movie loop. To enable this, set the parameter; short_requests = TRUE; in the <SYMPRODS> section of the parameter file.
Note: The 'short requests' mode will often return data quicker, but will take a longer time overall to build a movie loop because products which appear in more than one movie frame have to be re-requested. Additionally, several of the time selection modes become ineffective due to the limited storage of product data across time.
Another possibility is that your DS_COMM_TIMEOUT_MSECS environment variable is set too small. The default value is 30,000. (30 sec). 30 seconds is high enough for most access across the Internet. Unless you have reset this, this is probably not an issue.