|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are several visualization software packages available on MMM workstations. This chapter provides a brief, very general introduction to some of these packages, explaining their basic capabilities and uses. Please note that this chapter is not intended to cover these packages in depth, since detailed documentation exists elsewhere in most cases. The various sections of this chapter will direct you to the appropriate documentation or other information sources if you wish to explore any of this software in greater depth. This chapter includes sections on the following software
Return to top of page
setenv NCARG_ROOT /usr/local/ncargThe command, ncargf77 is used to compile and link FORTRAN programs which call NCAR Graphics routines. The programs ctrans, ictrans, or idt are used to display CGM files generated by programs compiled with ncargf77. The environment variable NCARG_GKS_OUTPUT may be used to direct the CGM output from NCAR Graphics. If it is not set, CGM output is written to a file named gmeta. The following set of commands will accomplish this procedure.
> ncargf77 -o plot plot.f > setenv NCARG_GKS_OUTPUT plot.ncgm > plot > ctrans -d X11 plot.ncgm
setenv DISPLAY your_system:0The CGM translators ictrans and idt read entire CGM files before they can display individual frames. Workstations, depending on their load, may not have enough memory or swap space available to process the file. Temporary file space is used when saving plots from ictrans or idt, and when editing CGM files with med. Workstations, depending on their load, may not have enough space in the /tmp area to perform these functions. These problems often may be resolved by login into another less used workstation.
>man ncargex >ncargex tsrfac
Return to top of page
Explorer is an interactive data analysis and display package from Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) and is available on the SGI and Linux platforms. This package displays gridded data in two- and three-dimensional space using a variety of visualization techniques. A number of numerical analysis tools are also available. You can integrate data analysis codes written in FORTRAN, C, or C++ into Explorer by creating Explorer modules from the code. You can generate Explorer modules to support a variety of data formats using a tool called DataScribe. You can also create an Explorer module from your own data input routines.
Explorer has a data flow, visual programming interface. With this type of interface, you can select modules from a widget menu, place them in a map area and connect them to form a network of operations. Modules each have their own control panel, and vary from data-ingest to numerical and visualization modules. Once you have established a network, data flows through it. You can control individual modules without worrying about data flow or sequential dependencies.
Explorer is one of several data flow visualization packages; others are AVS and KHOROS. Explorer is more advanced than the others but has several limitations. Explorer uses SGI's Graphics Library, GL, but not the X Window System or PEX. Therefore, SGI Explorer is only available on SGI systems. To use explorer, you need to set the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE.
Return to top of page
SUDS is the acronym for the RDSS software package for atmospheric, vertical sounding manipulation (System for User-editing and Display of Soundings). This program is Sun-specific.
It is capable of outputting the following:
It also allows limited editing of sounding data files, and can input the following sounding formats: It is driven by the RDSS User Interaction Package, which is designed for use on character terminals.For more information, look in /usr/local/rdss/suds/doc on the Sun Workstations.
Return to top of page
Cedric is a locally developed software package for analyzing 3-D gridded datasets. The package focuses primarily on analyzing gridded radar data, and includes many commands for that purpose. It also has many other very general commands, and can be used to analyze other mesoscale or 3-D datasets. For example, Cedric has a built-in function stack capability that allows users to create their own "subroutines" from mathematical primitives. It also has many commands for numerical analysis and manipulation of datasets, as well as commands for creating graphical frames that can be viewed with NCAR Graphics programs.
Cedric's user interface is a command language similar in concept to other programming languages. The user creates a script that contains all the commands to be executed by Cedric, and then runs the program with that script as input. A graphical user interface is planned for the future.
As mentioned above, input datasets to Cedric must be gridded. The format used by Cedric is locally developed, portable, and allows fast access. There are a handful of programs at NCAR that write this format, including Sprint (MMM) , which interpolates radar data to a Cartesian grid, REORDER (ATD), which grids radar data to a Cartesian grid, and several others. However, it is not necessary to use these programs to generate this format, since we have written routines that users can attach to their own programs to read and write this format.
Cedric runs on all MMM machines and the Cray computer. More detailed
Cedric documentation exists as well. Contact Jay
Miller or Sherrie Fredrick
for more information.
Return to top of page
Robot is a program for analyzing mesonet datasets. It was developed in ATD, and runs on our Sun systems. This software package reads in certain mesonet dataset types (including data from PAM, PROFS, and any dataset in the Common Mesonet Format (CMF)). The program can be used interactively or in a batch mode.
Robot is primarily a graphical analysis tool, and has many options for
that purpose. For more information, a copy of the Robot documentation is
available in our user area. For information about how to run Robot on our
local system, contact Sherrie Fredrick.
Return to top of page
Return to top of page
xyplot is a program for making two dimensional graphics. It features automatic scaling, logarithmic axes, error bars, labels with Greek letters, superscripts, subscripts, and special characters, and multiple graphics on one page. This software is available on all of the unix platforms. The document "xyplot, a program for making two-dimensional graphics'' is available from the division computing library.
Return to top of page
ncplot and ncxy, developed by RAF, are installed on the Solaris systems. ncplot and ncxy are an interactive netCDF data plotting tool. ncxy is used for xy plots. A few of their features are:
DATA_DIR should be set to where your NetCDFData resides.
XAPPLRESDIR should be set to /users/websterc/app-def
For example:
setenv DATA_DIR /mmmtmp/username
setenv XAPPLRESDIR /usr/openwin/lib/app-defaultsYou can add the above statements in your .cshrc file.
From simple calculator operations to large-scale programming and interactive document preparation, Mathematica is the tool of choice at the frontiers of scientific research, in engineering analysis and modeling.
Mathematica 4.1 is installed on the Sun, Linux, SGI and DEC systems. It can be installed on Windows 2000/XP systems on request.
To use Mathematica on a UNIX system, you first need to set your font path, by typing in the following command:
xset fp+ tcp/meeker.ucar.edu:7101
Then to run Mathematica, type mathematica (or /usr/local/bin/mathematica).
The first time you launch it, it will bring up a dialog box that says:
"No valid single-machine Mathematica password entry found. etc..."
Click on the button labeled Network License, enter fileserver.ucar.edu, and click on OK.
It will not prompt you for that information again.
On-line manuals are available under the Help menu in Mathematica.
There is a problem with using Mathematica from a DEC system. Before you can launch Mathematica, you will first need to log into another architecture (Sun, Linux or SGI) and start mathematica. This will create the correct files that you need and will allow you to run Mathematica from a DEC system.
There is a font issue the does not allow Mathematica be executed via the exceed software. You need to be actually sitting at a Unix system to run the software. To use Mathematica from a Windows 2000/XP system, please request the software to be installed.
For more information on Mathematica, please see the Mathematica Online Documentation
MATLAB handles a range of computing tasks in engineering and science, from data acquisition and analysis to application development. The MATLAB environment integrates mathematical computing, visualization, and a powerful technical language. Built-in interfaces let you quickly access and import data from instruments, files, and external databases and programs. In addition, MATLAB lets you integrate external routines written in C, C++, Fortran, and Java with your MATLAB applications.
Matlab is installed on the Sun, Linux, SGI and DEC systems.
To use Matlab, simply type matlab on the command prompt. We have licenses for Matlab and the Image Processing Toolbox.
SCD has licenses for Matlab and the following Toolboxes:
To access SCD's Matlab application and toolboxes, use the command: matlab -c 1726@fileserver.ucar.edu
See the Matlab Documentation for more information
Return to top of page