[GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] GRASS6.3 on Windows, nviz

[Helena Mitasova]

I forgot to cc to grassdev list so here is my response to Michael
Helena

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Helena Mitasova <hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu>
> Date: August 26, 2007 12:46:50 AM EDT
> To: Michael Barton <michael.barton at asu.edu>
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-user] GRASS6.3 on Windows, nviz
>
> Michael,
>
> I think that you are right with your diagnosis of the problem.
> It is really in reading - GRASS6.2.1 (dec. 2006) correctly reads
> state files saved by 6.2.1 but also those saved by 6.3 (april 2007)
> (although the 6.3 is missing the light info, but size of the window
> and viewing position is loaded correctly in 6.2.1).
> GRASS6.3 cannot read correctly neither the 6.2.1 file nor 6.3 file.
>
> But even in 6.2.1 the state file can be loaded only at the beginning
> to have any effect - e.g.
> nviz elevation
> Load state -> teststate.nviz
> works
>
> but if you are working in nviz and then want to load it again -
> it would not resize the window - this may be actually intentional,
> I don't remember.
>
> As for the suggestion to change the formatting of the state file -  
> that would be good
> to post to users list to see whether that would be concern
> (it should be easy to update an existing state file).
>
> Both the state file issue and the names of the files in the file  
> sequencing tool
> would be very useful to solve so that the landscape evolution can be
> visualized as dynamic surface. We can even
> have multiple surfaces - one showing terrain with erosion and the  
> second one showing
> the changing land use with the people represented by dynamic point  
> symbols.
> What do you use for viewing the landscape evolution now?
>
> thanks a lot for looking into this, it would be great to have this  
> capability back
> as we now have quite a bit of data from various projects and the book
> that would be nice to show as dynamic surfaces,
>
> Helena
>
> Helena Mitasova
> Dept. of Marine, Earth and Atm. Sciences
> 1125 Jordan Hall, NCSU Box 8208,
> Raleigh NC 27695
> http://skagit.meas.ncsu.edu/~helena/
>
>
>
> On Aug 25, 2007, at 4:11 PM, Michael Barton wrote:
>
>> Here is an example of what a state file is like for a raster  
>> surface and
>> vector lines map.
>>
>> 1
>> surf*1188064015
>> map elevation.10m at PERMANENT
>> 0
>> map elevation.10m at PERMANENT
>> 0
>> unset
>> 0
>> unset
>> const 60.000000
>> unset
>> #888888
>> 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
>> 3 3
>> 2 2
>> poly
>> grid_surf
>> gouraud
>> 1
>> vect*1188064015
>> roads at PERMANENT
>> #0000ff
>> 2
>> 1
>> surf*1188064015
>> 0
>> 0
>> 400 400
>> 34.0
>> 1.615
>> 6333.66
>> 0.304 0.696
>> 1
>> 9480.000000 6975.000000 1453.245850
>>
>> The line BEFORE the line starting surf* or vect* is where a new  
>> group of
>> parameters go that need to be read by a panel.
>>
>> For example, panel_surf.tcl needs to read everything from the  
>> first line
>> (with the number 1, indicating that there is only 1 surface to  
>> deal with),
>> up to the line BEFORE "vect*1188064015" (another number 1), where the
>> information on the vector starts. This makes it hard to parse this  
>> file into
>> the parts that need to go to the separate panel modules.
>>
>> It looks like it was doing this before by simply letting the  
>> general load
>> procedure and each panel load procedure generate umpteen error  
>> messages to
>> the terminal while picking out the stuff that each could use from  
>> the whole
>> file. This could get mixed up very easily.
>>
>> What's needed is a way to delimit each section: surf, vect,  
>> lights, etc. A
>> very easy way to do this would be to begin each section with  
>> "start surf" or
>> "start vect" and end with "end surf" or "end vect", and so on.
>>
>> But of course this means changing the format of nviz state files a  
>> little.
>> Old files won't be readable without adding start and stop section.  
>> On the
>> other hand, they're not readable now and I really wonder how well  
>> they could
>> be read in the past with this kind of format.
>>
>> What is your opinion on this?
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> __________________________________________
>> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
>> Director of Graduate Studies
>> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>> Arizona State University
>>
>> phone: 480-965-6213
>> fax: 480-965-7671
>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>
>>
>