The navigation tools method is the easiest to use and works almost exactly the same way for both Index and Scene maps.
Here's a fake copy of the Navigation Tools. The real one sports active Windows ToolTips. This one links to names and descriptions of the action for each button. Here's the definitive reference on how to navigate using the Navigation Tools.
Navigation Tools
Now is the time to mention that you can at any time use the navigation tools to navigate the Index map in much the same way you use it to navigate a Scene map. Why would you want to? Because it permits you to re-center and re-scale the Index map to a particular region of the Earth and perhaps allowing more precision when re-centering a Scene window!
Navigating by Menu
You can navigate an Index map from the Index menu bar by selecting
Atlas | Index map Geometry | Change.... The current projection,
scale and center are displayed in a pop-up dialog box named "Scene:
atlas-name". You may then select a different projection, scale and/or
center point and then click on Change Scene to see the effect in the
Index map field. Values may be expressed in any of the formats generally
supported for the specification of geometry.
The dialog stays on screen so that you may experiment with different values.
To end the process click on End/Cancel. To merely see the current
geometry, select Atlas | Index map Geometry | Report. The current
geometry is reported in the message area.
You can navigate a Scene map from the Scene menu bar by selecting
Geometry | Change.... The current projection, scale and center are
displayed in a pop-up dialog box named "Scene: scene-name". You may then
select a different projection, scale and/or center point and then click on
Change Scene to see the effect in the Scene map field. Values may be
expressed in any of the formats generally supported for the specification of
geometry. The dialog stays on screen so that you may
experiment with different values. To end the process click on
End/Cancel. To merely see the current geometry, select Geometry |
Report. The scene's current geometry is reported in the message area.
Two other navigation options for Scenes are Geometry | Center
on POI... (Point of Interest) and Geometry | Center on Survey
System Graticule. In this version of Georama both are greyed
(inactive).
Center on POI... is presents a dialog box titled
"Select Point of Interest" listing the names of available "Points of
Interest" for this Atlas. To re-center the current scene to focus on one of
these points, select a "Point of Interest" entry and click the
Re-center button. Alternatively, you can simply double-click the
"Point of Interest" entry. Either way, the scene will then shift to focus on
this point. If you don't want to change the focus at this time, click
Cancel. Re-centering a scene by reference to an Atlas's "Points of
Interest" control file provides a convenient mechanism for focusing several
scenes on the same spot. The "Points of Interest" for an Atlas are contained
in an ASCII file that associates geographical coordinates (latitudes and
longitudes) with place names. This file has the generic name atlas-name.poi. It is optional for an Atlas. As
described in a later section, this file can be created, modified or extended
by use of any text editor, providing only that the file is (or will be) disk
resident.
Center on Survey System Graticule supports map centering by legal
land description, necessarily applicable only for specific regional Atlases.
A prototype of this method of centering Scenes is operational for an Atlas of
the Province of Alberta, Canada.
Navigating by Gazetteer
You can navigate any scene by reference to objects named in one or more of
Georama's gazetteers. (Gazetteer being just another word for
"dictionary of geographic names").
From the Index menu, you select Atlas | Gazetteers... This brings
up a dialog box titled "Select Gazetteer". Listed are the names of the
Georama gazetteers available for this Atlas. The names are suggestive of the
types of objects featured by the gazetteer. To work with a specific
gazetteer, you select and click the Open button. Alternatively, you
can simply double-click your selection. (Otherwise click the
Cancel button).
Next you are presented with another dialog box named "Select Name in
gazetteer-name Gazetteer". This box contains a text entry field and lists
up to four columns of names arranged alphabetically. You can designate a
selection by either of two methods: type the place name you want into the
text entry field or scroll through the list and click on a displayed entry.
To enter a place name directly, you may only need to type the first few
letters to narrow the range of place names on file in this gazetteer. As you
type the name, the list is changed dynamically to select (at the top of the
second column) the first name on file that matches the letters typed thus
far. If none match at this point, then the first name following
alphabetically is selected. If you have typed the complete name and there are
multiple matches, then the first on file is selected.
To scroll through the name list, you use the scroll buttons below the name
list. |< changes the displayed list to the beginning while
>| changes it to the end, < moves the displayed list back
three columns while > moves it forward three columns. When you see
the entry you want, just click it or use the arrow keys to select it.
By whichever means you use to select an entry, you will see its name and
coordinates in bold beneath the scroll buttons. If there are multiple
entries with the same name you may be able to select the entry you want by
selecting them in turn and comparing coordinates. Some of the gazetteers may
contain additional textual information associated with objects. When
available, you may view this information by clicking the Display Text
button. (If additional text is unavailable, this button is greyed). You can
use this feature without having to open a scene. If you don't see the name
you want, click End/Cancel. If you do, click Re-center Scene.
If you currently have more than one scene open, yet another dialog box
will appear named "Select Scene to Re-center". Just select the name of the
scene you want re-centered and click Re-center. Otherwise click
Cancel.
When a scene is re-centered using a gazetteer, the name selection box
remains on screen, just in case you might want to re-center a scene on
another place. To clear it, click End/Cancel.
When the scene is re-centered it may not neccessarily be in focus (or
visible). If totally hidden, you can bring it into focus by clicking in the
Index or any other Scene and hitting the Tab key one or more times.
Navigating by GPS
When installed in a suitably configured portable computer, Georama
supports the real-time integration of GPS receiver inputs. The GPS receiver
must first be connected to the notebook computer via one of its serial ports
and have its GPS output function activated appropriately. Alternatively, you
can simulate the real-time inputs using a pre-recorded ASCII text file of
locations. (Real time or simulated input is specified by the
georama.gin control file).
With both an Atlas and Scene already open, you activate Georama's GPS
navigation and position tracing by selecting the Index menu option Atlas |
GPS Input. You are then presented with the GPS monitor dialog box. Its
name will be either "GPS input from COMx (yyyy,8,N,1)" (where COMx is
a serial com port and yyyy is a baud rate) or "GPS input from
source-name (where source-name file containing pre-recorded simulated
GPS locations). These values are set by the georama.gin control file.
You use this dialog initially to open a GPS trace file. Click on
Open. You will be requested to supply the name of a trace file,
located in a directory set by the georama.gin control file. An
extension will be supplied by Georama. Click Save. If you name an
existing file, you will be asked whether to open it in "write" or "append"
mode. (In this way you can go for a drive with your GPS running, stop for
lunch and shut down, then pick up the trace again when you get back on the
road).
Assuming that you have connected your GPS correctly (or specified a
simulation file), you will now be in a position to start GPS navigation and
tracing in a specific Scene. In the GPS Input dialog box (the GPS
Monitor) click Start. Now select an appropriate scene, then, in the
Scene window, toggle the drop-down menu item Tools | GPS Trace ON.
On first receipt of a location from the GPS receiver, Georama logs the
location to the trace file, re-centers the scene to that location and draws a
track start marker. On receipt of subsequent locations (typically, one per
second), the location is logged and the progress traced in the scene. If the
track approaches an edge of the map field, the scene is re-centered, re-drawn
and overlaid with the entire track up to that point in time. Because the
stereographic projection is always renderable, anywhere, we recommend that
wherever possible the stereo projection be specified for the scene.
If you reselect the GPS Input dialog box you will see displayed the
messages as they arrive (or are simulated). Also displayed are calculated
horizontal and vertical speeds. Note that you can
Pause the recording, enter a description for the last point displayed,
then Resume recording. (In this way, if out bird-watching, you might
stop to view the rarely-seen Left-Handed Jibber-Jay, record that fact, then
continue.
You discontinue real-time GPS operation via selection of the menu option
Scene | GPS Trace OFF toggle. Of course, the GPS temporary
trace file remains available for post-processing.
If you are operating Georama in an environment where mouse management is
impractical, be aware that once a scene window is selected, several keyboard
keys become equivalent to mouse click operations. Here are the keys that
become active:
The <PageUp> and <PageDown> keys are equivalent
to the Scene's ZoomOut and ZoomIn navigation tools.
<Arrow> keys are equivalent to the Scene's
East-West-North-South Step navigation tool options. The
<Backspace> key is equivalent to the Scene's Previous
navigation tool. The <Tab> key toggles between Scene and Index
windows. (When either type of window is active, its menu options become
accessible from the keyboard using the normal Windows <Alt> key
shortcuts).
Georama is programmed to process GPS NMEA "sentences"
output from the receiver in any of three formats: $GPGGA, $GPGLL and $GPGSA.
$GPGGA sentences provide time-stamped latitude, longitude
and elevation while $GPGLL sentences provide time-stamped
latitude and longitude without elevation. $GPGSA sentences
identify the satellites used by the receiver. Either $GPGGA or $GPGLL
sentences must be present while $GPGSA sentences are optional. Although only
the latitude and longitude data are used by Georama to plot the current
position, all received data is logged to an output file for possible
post-processing. NMEA sentences are assumed to be coded in ASCII as 8 data
bits, no parity and one stop bit.
A Scene may contain point object locators that can be sought out and
inspected using the mouse. This action is called "inspecting" and is
initiated from the Scene menu by toggling the Tools |
Inspect... option. (If greyed, then the scene has no "inspectable"
locators). You are presented with a dialog window titled
"Select Object Locator" listing the "inspectable" objects defined for
this scene. You can select and Open the object you wish in the usual
manner. Otherwise, you can just Cancel the inspection.
Now when you move the mouse into the map field of the Scene, the cursor is
replaced with a "magnifying glass" icon. As you move around in the map
field, the nearest instance of the selected object type is highlighted by a
marker of some type and text describing attributes of that instance is
displayed in the message area to the right of the toolbar.
You can Zoom Out, Zoom In, Step, or
go back to the Previous scene without interrupting the inspection
mode. However, any navigation operation that would (or could) re-center the
scene will terminate the current inspection. (Of course, it can easily be
re-initiated from the menu).
You can deliberately end the inspect process by selecting the Tools |
Close Inspect toggle or by pressing the <Esc> key.
You can record for subsequent inspection and analysis a number of
interactive events. To initiate recording mode, while in the Index window
select Atlas | Reporter.... This brings up a dialog box named "GEORAMA
Reporter". This dialog features check-boxes for several interactive events:
Scene Geometry, Traverse Detail, Distortion and Locations. You activate or
deactivate the reporting/recording of an event type by checking or
un-checking the appropriate box. After making your selection, you may
Close the dialog box. The current selection remains in effect.
The action of the Reporter is to record in a simple text file ASCII
messages describing the event. This file is named in the georama.gin
control file (defaulting to \windows\temp\grprtr.txt). At the
conclusion of a session, this file can be inspected by any simple text
editor, such as Windows NotePad). Another interesting presentation is
in an independent window via the supplied program grtail.exe. This
program displays the last few lines of the recorded events as they happen. A
supplied batch procedure reporter.bat can be used in a DOS box to
initiate grtail.exe and point it to the Reporter file.
Here's where you get to keep your most beautiful scenes for posterity!
You can save a scene's map field as a bitmap, then reprocess it for use in
publications or on the Internet! (Note that this feature may not be available
in all distributions of Georama).
You access Georama's Scene bitmap output functions via the Output |
Bitmap > menu option. This leads to an additional list of options:
Size..., Save to Clipboard and Save to File ...
Size... optionally may be used to set the scene map field
to a specific pixel size. A dialog box titled "Set Scene Field Size in
Pixels" provides areas for the entry of field width and height in terms
of absolute display pixels. These entry areas have as default values the
current field size width and height. You may override either or both of
these values by direct entry of an integer, or by clicking the
increase/decrease spin buttons.
When ready, click the Re-size button to re-size and
re-draw the map field to the dimensions specified. Otherwise, click
End/Cancel. The dialog box remains on-screen, anticipating
further use in fine tuning the map field dimensions. When done, click the
End/Cancel button. The Size... operation
is equivalent to re-sizing the scene window with the mouse, but much more
precise. (Typically, you will use this option if you are publishing to a
specific pixel dimension standard and you want to avoid image re-sampling in
your downstream application).
Note that you specify the size of the scene's map field;
therefore the scene's window will be somewhat larger to accommodate its
borders, title and toolbar, etc.
Save to Clipboard or Save to File... is
used to output the scene's map field as a bitmap in standard
png format. Choosing the Save to Clipboard
option pastes the bitmap to the Windows Clipboard, overwriting anything else
that might be there.
Choosing the Save to File... option brings up a file
selection dialog. This dialog offers a list of files currently in a selected
temporary directory that have the png extension. You can
select one of these to be overwritten or you can enter a new filename. In
either case, you click the Enter button to write to the
named file. If you change your mind, click Cancel to
terminate the output operation altogether.
Note that bitmaps are prepared using the prevailing
Win32 color depth (8-, 16-, 24- or 32 bit). If in doubt about a bitmap's
parentage, you can determine its color depth by viewing it with any browser
that supports png and inspecting its image attributes. If you
need more or less color depth, you may be able to change the prevailing
setting using the Windows Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display |
Settings options.
Here's where you get to produce high-quality plotted hard copy of selected
Scenes!. You can save a scene's map field as an HP-GL/2 plotter command
stream. Then you can direct it to an HPGL-aware printer/plotter for immediate
plotting, or save it in a file for later publication.
You access Georama's hard copy output functions via the Atlas |
Hard Copy... menu option. This leads to an additional dialog box
titled "Georama Hard Copy Output". This dialog is used to specify a
Scene and its geometry for rendering as an HP-GL/2 plotter command stream,
and to then direct that stream to an attached HP-GL/2 compatible
printer/plotter (such as most HP LaserJets), or to a file for later plot
processing.
The "Georama Hard Copy Output" dialog box has four entry areas
and two main action buttons.
The Scene entry area lists all of the Scenes of the
selected Atlas. If a Scene is currently open, then its name is highlighted
in the list. You may select some other Scene for output by clicking on its
name.
The Geometry entry area has two radio buttons. Unless no
Scene is currently open, Current Window is the default.
Selecting it sets the geometry for the plotted output scene to that of the
currently open scene. On the other hand, selecting Scene
File sets the geometry for the plotted output scene to that
specified in the Scene control file. Note that the
dimensions of the map field of the plotted Scene will generally differ from
those of the map field of the displayed scene, revealing less or more data
(see next paragraph).
The Format entry area lists (by name) all available plot
output formats. These are the section names of hard copy generation
parameters in the georama.gin control file. These generally
control the orientation and map field dimensions of the plotted hard copy.
Several formats are supplied with the Georama CD-ROM. They can be modified or
others added by judicious editing of the disk-resident copy of the
georama.gin control file. You select one of the available formats
by clicking on it.
The Output entry area specifies whether the plot stream
is to be directed to a printer/plotter or to a file for later processing.
Radio button selection of output mode defaults to Device at
port PRN (other on-line devices can be selected). The
alternate selection (File) leads (via the
Change button) to an output file selection dialog. This
dialog offers a list of files currently in a selected temporary directory
that have the hpg extension. You can select one of these to
be overwritten or you can enter a new filename. In either case, you click the
Enter button to write to the named file. If repeatedly
outputting to the same file, no Change will be necessary
(but you will be required to confirm the overwrite).
When all four entry areas of the dialog have been completed, you may
commence plot stream generation by clicking the Generate Plot
Output button. Otherwise, you may cancel the dialog without
plotting by clicking the End/Cancel button.
Once initiated, plotter stream generation takes place in the
background. Although you are free to continue with other operations in
Georama, you must be careful to avoid making changes to the Scene control
file selected for plotting, until you are sure that the plot stream
generation activity has terminated.
Your printer/plotter may have limitations with respect to its capability
to draw complex scenes. These may be a function of its memory and/or
sophistication of raster generation. If you suspect that your printer
limitations have been exceeded, you should first direct the plot stream to a
file where you can inspect it with a text editor such as WordPad.
The simplest way to get around printer/plotter limitations is to reduce the
scale factor and/or map field. If this is not practicable, then you should
consider dropping themes or labels from the scene. Look also to restrict the
use of point markers having circular components. (See Making
Modifications and Troubleshooting).
If you wish, you can run the plot generation program
(geplout.exe, in the runw32 sub-directory) from the
command line, independently of Georama. Geplout takes
twelve positional parameters (so be careful!): For example, to plot the hydrography in and around New Zealand:
c:\georama\runw32\geplout c:\georama\runw32\georama.gin
Letter.portrait e:\georama\world
c:\georama\world c:\georama\world\world.atl c:\georama\world\oceanview.scn
s41 e173 1e6 stereo 0 PRN
If you are encountering difficulties in getting started, either from
CD-ROM or from your hard disk, then you will not likely be reading these
words on-line. Perhaps the best remedial action you can take is to review
the instructions on the jacket of the CD-ROM and be sure you are attempting
to run in either a PC Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows NT(4+)
environment. Remember also that you can view these pages directly with your
browser pointed at \georama\runw32\georama.html).
If your intent is to run Georama exclusively from CD-ROM, then be sure
that none of your hard drives have a root directory named georama.
If this is the case, delete or rename such directories and try again. If
your intent is to run in dual-residency (or exclusively hard disk) mode, then
you should delete all existing (and possibly corrupted) Georama components
from your hard disk(s) and then re-copy Georama from the CD-ROM to a selected
hard disk using the Setup | Copy Georama to Hard Drive...
menu options.
If you have successfully started Georama, and can read these Help notes
on-line via Georama, but are encountering difficulties, then the first thing
you must do is review your operating environment by activating the
Setup | Information menu option. There you will see a
report giving the release date of the software and the operating
environmental parameters that the software has assumed. Inspection of this
information may reveal if you have incorrectly set up Georama for
dual-residency operation.
If this information does not provide an answer to your challenge, you
should use the feedback.txt file that may be found in the
runw32 sub-directory of the georama directory on the
CD-ROM. This file is set up as a NotePad .LOG
file. As such, you will be able periodically to append your notes, questions
and suggestions to the disk copy of this file, then e-mail or fax it to
Geodyssey. You should be especially aware that you can freely copy
and paste the contents of the Index window Setup | Information
panel into the feedback.txt file. We stronglyly recommend
that this information accompany any trouble reports to Geodyssey.
On receipt of your notes, suggestions or trouble reports, we will try to
determine if corrective action can be taken. Our findings will be aggregated
periodically and published on our web site at
http://geodyssey.github.io.
Providing you have established a modicum of hard disk residency, you are
free to make modifications. (If you are serious about making modifications
and have not already established some hard disk residency, now would be a
good time to review the Setup and Dual
Residency topics).
Modifying Scenes
The mechanism is simple. While the Scene is open, select the
Tools | Edit Scene... menu option. This action opens the
scene control file (scene-name.scn) within the Win32
NotePad editor. Here you are free to make whatever changes you
wish. To see their effect, you will need to save the NotePad file
and re-open the Georama Scene. If it's not quite right, you can make more
modifications and repeat the test cycle.
When you've got it right, just Exit NotePad. Be
aware that the effect of any intervening geometry change actions could be
lost. If you mess up beyond repair, you can always restore the scene control
file from its twin on the distribution CD-ROM. And of course, you can easily
create a new scene based on an existing one by use of NotePad's
Save As operation. The new scene will be included automatically in the
Index window's Scene | Open Scene... selection list.
That's the easy part! The harder part is knowing what to modify.
You must begin with an understanding of the general purpose and form of
Georama control files. Then you should move on to
review the more specific purpose and form of
scene control files. In particular, you should
then view a specific scene control file, the world Atlas Scene
template template.scn.
As you will note, the Template Scene is intended to provide examples of
all the possibilities example of each type of possibility for this Atlas. You
could simply activate one or more of these possibilities and use the Template
directly, perhaps renaming the file and assigning a new title and description.
need. The scene.title keyword defines a title that will display in the
open scene window and on any hard copy output that you might produce from the
scene. The scene.description keyword provides the text that is
displayed in response to selecting the Scene's Help | Scene
Description. You might want to change some of this information. Note the
use of "newline" line endings "\n", the "to be continued" line ending "\" and
the single column indentation of continuation statements.
The chances are you'll want to change the color, marker size, line width
or something. These attributes (and others that control the rendering) are
collectively called a style. Here's a browse sequence that tells the whole
story about styles.
The geometry. keywords define a scene's opening
geometry. You might want to set the geometry
section to center the scene every time on your home town! Remember that these
statements will be adjusted automatically whenever the Scene is used and the
geometry changed through use.
Modifying Atlas Index Maps
You can also modify an Atlas Index map. Using an editor such as
NotePad, simply edit the atlas-name.con control file, located
in the atlas-name subdirectory of the georama directory.
As you can see, this file has many statements in common with
the scene control file. You can make similar modifications.
Note that you will have to save the modified atlas-name.con file and
re-open the Atlas to see the effect of your modifications. As in modifying a
scene control file, if you mess up beyond repair, you can restore this file
from its twin on the CD-ROM.
Adding New Feature Data to an Existing Atlas and Adding Additional
Atlases
If you know how, you can extend an Atlas to include your own feature data
and/or gazetteers. You can also add entirely new Atlases. You will require
no programming skills as such, but you may need to massage your data somewhat
and run some Georama-related stand-alone data preparation utilities. To
learn how to do all this you will need to review another document called the
"Georama Atlas Author's Guide". This HTML document is available at
Geodyssey website http://geodyssey.github.io.
If you see an opportunity to redistribute your augmented version of
Georama, be sure to contact Geodyssey Limited for details regarding our
generous quantity discounts and alternate Georama licensing arrangements.
Adapting Georama for Use in Other Applications
If you are a C or C++ programmer and you guess that you might adapt
Georama to fit your specific application, consider acquiring the
Hipparchus Development Tools for Intel platforms. Besides providing
the essential Hipparchus Library that lies at the heart of Georama,
this SDK provides you with the complete and recyclable C language source
programs and data for Georama (including any updates released subsequent to
publication of these pages). These programs exploit the native Win32 API. No
additional tools or proprietary products are required. You can read all about
it at the Geodyssey website http://geodyssey.github.io.
Hipparchus (pronounced hih-PAR-kuhs) was perhaps
the greatest of the ancient Greek astronomer mathematicians. The inventor of
latitudes and longitudes, he used these measurements to calculate distances
on the surface of the Earth. As you read on you will see why we named our
product as we did.
Hipparchus (our product) is a C/C++ language
function library that provides application developers with the geographic
tools to deal with the "where" of an application. Hipparchus is the engine
that calculates the spatial relationships between objects on or near the
Earth's surface. Hipparchus also provides efficient indexing for your
location-specific external data. Coexisting with your chosen database
management system (DBMS) and graphical user interface (GUI), Hipparchus
communicates with your application via C/C++ language memory structures.
For an extensive overview of Hipparchus, please see our Georama website
http://geodyssey.github.io. Alternatively, you might browse
the HTML documents overview.html, which may be collocated
with this HTML document.
Georama and Hipparchus are exclusively owned and
distributed by Geodyssey Limited of Calgary, Alberta,
Canada. Geodyssey is a privately owned company of software professionals who
are dedicated to the promotion and support of these remarkable products.
Geodyssey makes this technology available under simple development and
end-use licensing agreements, usually free of on-going royalties.
Geodyssey's general licensing policy provides the developer with
affordable access to this remarkable technology while deferring payment of
any additional licensing fees until the resulting end-use application has
demonstrated to customers the benefits of the technology.
Geodyssey also offers extensive training, consulting and application
development services.
For additional information, please visit our extensive web site
maintained at http://geodyssey.github.io.
You have come to the end of the main thread of the Georama story.
What follows are Reference topics, which are accessed either directly via the
Table of Contents or links embedded in the main topics or
other reference topics.
To establish the minimum dual residency for Georama, you will need to
create a georama directory in the root of one of your hard disk
drives and then copy strategic sub-directories and files into this directory.
To remove Georama from your hard disk, you can simply delete the entire
georama directory structure.
To make it easy, these processes are provided through the Index window
menu option Setup and its drop-down option list:
Information..., Copy Georama to Hard Drive... and Remove
from Hard Drive...
Select Setup | Information... to view an information panel
addressing version information and the current state of dual residency.
To establish our recommended minimal dual residency, you will require
about 10 megabytes of hard disk space. Select Copy Georama to Hard
Drive... You are presented with a list of hard drives on your system and
the amount of free space on each. Select one of the drives and click
Copy. (Otherwise, click the Cancel button). A directory
georama is created in the root of the selected hard disk and the
recommended minimal sub-directory structure and content is copied from the
CD-ROM. Dual Resident mode commences immediately, without need for a
system re-start. If Georama is already established on hard disk, this option
is greyed.
Depending on your performance requirements, you are free to add or delete
data files from your hard disk. To learn the names and paths of these files,
consult the atlas-name.atl, atlas-name.con and
scene-name.scn control files.
To remove all traces of Georama from the hard disk, select Remove
from Hard Disk... Here you will receive instructions concerning the
removal of Georama from your system.
If you have opted for at least partial hard disk residency, you may reset
persistence settings such as Georama's windows desktop positions and sizes.
You do this by exiting Georama and deleting the persistence settings file
named georama.dtp (which resides in the georama\runw32
directory on the hard disk). Otherwise, if running from CD-ROM, you need only
re-initiate Georama. You may also reset persistence settings for specific
windows. For the complete story see Desktop
Persistence.
When you start Georama for the first time "out of the box", its windows
are positioned and sized on your desktop according to specifications
contained in its associated control file georama.gin. If you
subsequently opt for at least partial hard disk residency (using the
Setup option, for example), then you are free to edit the hard disk
version of georama.gin and change these settings.
However, regardless of whether you are running from CD-ROM or from hard
disk, you can manually change the position and size of Georama's windows and
have those changes persist. If running from the CD-ROM, any changes you make
will persist for the session only. If running from a hard disk, any changes
you make will persist across multiple sessions, indefinitely.
When running from hard disk, changes are recorded in an ASCII file called
georama.dtp, which is created afresh in the
georama\runw32 directory any time you start Georama from hard disk
without georama.dtp present.
For operation from hard disk, desktop window persistence is separately
defined for three categories of Georama's windows: the initial index/console
window, Atlas-specific Index windows and Atlas/Scene-specific Scene windows.
Moreover, changes are associated with specific instances of windows in each
of these three categories.
Any changes you make to the console/index window before opening an Atlas
are recorded as parameters of an entry in georama.dtp having the
keyword georama (there can be only one of these). Any subsequent
session will position and size the initial console/index window according to
these parameters. In the absence of this entry, Georama positions and sizes
the window according to the generic specifications contained in
georama.gin.
When you open an Atlas, Georama checks for an Atlas-specific entry having
the keyword atlas-name. If found, Georama opens the Atlas Index
window using position and size parameters saved previously. In the absence
of a matching entry, the Index window for this Atlas inherits the position
and size of its immediately preceding instance (either the initial
console/index or another Atlas Index). Georama then manufactures an entry
for this atlas-name. If, subsequently, you manually change this
window, its old settings will be replaced with the new (unless maximized or
iconized). Any subsequent opening of this Atlas will position and size its
Index window according to its recorded parameters.
Similarly, when you open a Scene, Georama checks for an
Atlas/Scene-specific entry having the keyword atlas-name.scene-name.
If found, Georama opens the Scene window using position and size parameters
saved previously. In the absence of a matching entry, however, the Scene
window for this Scene inherits the position and size of its immediately
preceding instance (either the initial settings or those of another Scene).
Georama then manufactures an entry for this atlas-name.scene-name. If,
subsequently, you manually change this window, its old settings will be
replaced with the new (unless maximized or iconized). Any subsequent opening
of this Scene will position and size its Scene window according to its
recorded parameters.
Scene window size changes made using the Output | Bitmap > |
Size... menu option are recorded just as if made manually. If you are
building a folio of Scenes for output, all requiring the same pixel
dimensions, you will need to Size... only the first. The others will
inherit the same size and position, if not already specified in the
georama.dtp file.
The control file georama.dtp is freely accessible. You can reset
desktop persistence altogether by simply deleting or renaming the file. Or
you can reset persistence for specific windows by editing the file and either
deleting or "commenting-out" specific entries. (You comment-out an entry by
inserting a semi-colon (";") in column 1).
Map navigation may be performed by clicking on buttons in the
Navigation Tools toolbar, which is available in the Index window and
all Scene windows. Using these tools, you can change the map center point,
scale and, indirectly, projection.
Here's a fake copy of the Navigation Tools. The real one sports Windows
ToolTips. This one links you to definitions for each button.
Previous restores a prior configuration of
the current index or scene. When the geometry of an index map or scene is
altered, (for example by re-centering), the specifications for the existing
index map or scene are saved on a stack for possible re-use. If requested (by
use of the Previous button), the immediately preceding index or scene
map is re-drawn. Previous takes you successively backwards through
previously-stacked specifications. (There is no provision to re-navigate
forwards through the stack). A scene stack is cleared whenever a Scene is
opened. All stacks are cleared when an Atlas is opened. Pressing the
<Backspace> key is equivalent to clicking on the Previous
button. NOTE: If the window has been re-sized, then previously-stacked
views are re-drawn in the re-sized window, with less or more data displayed
in the map field than was displayed in the preceeding views.
Zoom Out by a scale factor of two. The map center point
remains the same but the scale denominator is doubled. The index or scene
map is re-drawn. In some situations, such as a high-latitude local mercator
map, the resulting map may be unworkable and an error message raised. In
such cases, the operation is suppressed. Pressing the <PageUp>
key is equivalent to clicking the ZoomOut button.
Zoom In by a scale factor of two. The map center point
remains unchanged but the scale denominator is halved. The index or scene
map is re-drawn. The position and size of the window remains unchanged.
Pressing the <PageDown> key is equivalent to clicking
the ZoomIn button.
Step [EWNS] one-half field-width East, West, North or
South by clicking on the appropriate arrowhead. In the world-wide
Mercator (wwmerc) and Miller-like wwview projections, stepping
East or West changes the central meridian by 90 degrees while stepping North
or South results in a stereographic view of a Pole. Pressing a keyboard
<Arrow> key is equivalent to clicking one of the
East-West-North-South Step arrowheads.
Re-center the current map field at a location designated
by left-clicking the mouse. (You may determine the current geographical
coordinates of the mouse at any time by right-clicking it; the coordinates
appear in the message area to the right of the toolbar). Scale and projection
remain unchanged. The position and size of the window on the desktop remains
unchanged also. Note: if you are currently navigating a scene window,
you can select a new center from within either that scene's map field
or the Index map field. To re-center the scene to the same point as some
other scene, click in that other scene's title bar.
Slide the current map field. Click on a point in the
scene you would like to relocate, then point to a new location and click
again. The map is re-drawn. While re-positioning, a "rubber band" shows
you where you're coming from). Scale and projection remain unchanged. The
position and size of the window on the desktop remains unchanged also.
Re-frame the current map field. Click on a new center point
for the map, then move your mouse away to define an edge of the new map
field. Depending on the current scale and projection, the edge outline in the
current map may not appear rectangular! Left-click the mouse again to set
the field edges (and new scale factor) and to re-draw the map. The position
and size of the window on the desktop remains unchanged.
Control files are simple ASCII text files that provide Georama with
initialization and other information. Unless specifically marked for
"read-only" access, these files may be edited using any simple text editor,
such as Windows NotePad.
Control files have a format somewhat similar to Windows .ini files. Empty
lines or lines beginning with a semi-colon (";") are treated as commentary.
Unlike Windows' .ini files, Georama's control statements are NOT accessed via
the Win32 API. Instead, they are accessed via the cross-platform facilities
of the Hipparchus Auxiliary Library, which do not depend on "[sections]".
Nevertheless, for typographic effect, lines beginning with "[" may be used to
set off related groups of control statements in the familiar way.
Control statements have the general form:
keyword[.keyword[....]] = value1[, value2[, value3[,...]]]
where: Active statements begin in column 1. Statements may be continued from line
to line. A statement line to be continued ends with a backslash character
"\". A statement continuation line begins in column 2.
A character string value extends from the first non-space character
following the = sign to the (possibly continued) statement end (excluding line
ending codes and any continuation backslashes).
An integer or real value is parsed from immediately following the = sign to
the first non-numeric, non-sign, non-decimal following. When an array of
numbers is accessed, parsing continues to the end of the (possibly continued)
statement.
Hipparchus Auxiliary Library access facilities provide for access to
control statements explicitly by case-sensitive keyword or compound keyword,
or to statements that are members of groups having some leftmost keyword
characters in common. Access to any control statement may be to read or write
a character string value (which may span several continuations), a
numeric value or an array of numeric values (which may span several
continuations).
The rules of composition for these control files and control statements
will be readily apparent by inspection of the various control files using any
simple text editor.
This is the control file used by Georama to supply program initialization
parameters. It is required and MUST be collocated with the running copy of
georama.exe. Therefore, if georama.exe is copied from CD to
hard disk, then a copy of georama.gin must accompany it. If on disk,
it is user modifiable.
This desktop windows persistence control file can exist only on a hard
disk drive. If running from hard disk, this control file is generated and
maintained automatically by Georama. It will be collocated with
georama.exe in the hard disk directory georama\runw32.
Entries are generated automatically the first time a particular window is
opened. Subsequent changes to that window generate new parameters that
overwrite previous parameters. It is user modifiable.
Atlas control files define the basic components of an Atlas. They are
located in their respective atlas-name sub-directories of the
georama directory located on a hard drive and/or a CD. If on disk, it
is user modifiable.
This is a required control file that specifies the form and content of an
Atlas's Index window (aka "console"). It is located in the atlas-name
sub-directory of the georama directory. If on disk, it is user
modifiable. (It is a subset of the more general scene-name.scn control
file, described next).
This is the control file that specifies the basic styles,
linework, theme content, labels, search locators and initial map geometry of
each Scene within an Atlas. scene-name.scn files are located within
an atlas-name sub-directory of the georama directory located on
a hard drive and/or a CD.
The optional Points of Interest control file is collocated with the
atlas-name.atl control file in the atlas-name sub-directory of
the georama directory. It contains only comments and lines containing
the latitude, longitude and the name of a "point of interest". Latitude and
longitude may be expressed in the same way as for the geometry.center
statement of the scene-name.scr file (see Geometry).
If the name of a point of interest contains spaces or other punctuation, the
name should be enclosed in matching single or double quotes. Here's an
example: Geometry defines the center point latitude, longitude,
scale and projection for an Atlas index or scene map.
Projection is the cartographic technique used
to map the round Earth onto the flat display (and vice versa for mouse
input). Several projections are supported. They are specifiable by keyword
(lower-case): Scale, in the cartographic sense, means the ratio
of the size of the display to the size of the map area depicted. For
example, a map's scale might be expressed as the ratio 1:500,000. The map is
said to be of scale "one to five hundred thousand", wherein one inch of the
map display represents 500,000 inches of terra firma (nearly eight
miles). A large-scale map is one in which individual features are depicted
as large objects while a small-scale map depicts the same features as smaller
objects.
In Georama's geometry specifications, scale stands for
"scale factor" or"scale denominator". Large-scale maps
have small denominators while small-scale maps have large denominators!
Typical values of Georama scales (ranging from large to small) are, (somewhat
paradoxically): 2500, 2.5e6, 25e6, 250e6.
In Georama, navigational re-scaling is bounded by a
large.scale.limit and a small.scale.limit, which are set by
entries in the Atlas control file atlas-name.atl.
Latitude-Longitude pairs can be specified in a
wide variety of precisions and formats.
Examples of acceptable latitude-longitude pairs are: A style is a string (aka "stylestring") consisting of one or more
pairs of letter codes and numeric values. Optionally, these pairs may be
separated within the stylestring by a colon (":") or slash ("/") character.
Unspecified codes have a value of zero. Examples of valid styles are: Style codes may be combined depending on the feature being rendered: or
intensity gradient: nnn.mmm (a real number)
width (code w): values 0 to 5 (thinnest to thickest)
dot/dash (code d): 0 - continuous, 1 - dotted, 2 -
dashed, 3 - dot/dashed
Note that the letter codes p and q are mutually exclusive
in any one style string.
Font size (code f): values 0 to 5, smallest to largest.
Pattern (codes p, q): see Patterns above.
Horizontal/vertical offset (codes h, v): number of
pixels to offset the center of a label box from the geographical position of
the labeled point. With h=v=0, the label box is centered with its "center of
lettering density" on the labeled point. Positive horizontal offsets place
the label to the right of the point while negative offsets place it to the
left. Positive vertical offsets place it above the center while negative
offsets place it below the center. Note: non-zero offsets
commence from the label's bounding box perimeter, NOT its center of lettering
density.
Inspecting a Scene
Recording Events
Outputting Bitmaps
Outputting Hard Copy Maps
Troubleshooting
Making Modifications
About Hipparchus
About Geodyssey
Reference Material
Setup
Reset
Desktop Persistence
Navigation Tools
Navigation Tools
Control Files
georama.gin
georama.dtp
atlas-name.atl
atlas-name.con
scene-name.scn
atlas-name.poi
; World Points of Interest
N48:52 E2:20 Paris
n90 e0 "North Pole"
S90 w00 "South Pole"
n47/34 w52/44 "St. John's"
+41:31:23 -70:40:11 "Woods Hole"
; end
Geometry
51,-114 n51.,w114. N51:00,W114:00 n51/00 w114/00
0,0 n0, w0 S0 E180 s0 w180
-90,+180 s90 e180 s90 w180 s90 w0
0 7/7/57 0 E7.132436 0 e7:07.94616 0 e7/7/56.77
Style
is a specification for the method of rendering thematic
features such as points, lines, regions, surfaces, grids, labels, etc.
c215
c198w2
r155:g175:b0/w2/p1
Style codes
are the lower-case letters:
c, r, g, b, m, w, d, p, q, n, f, h, v.
Note that the c and rgb letter codes are mutually exclusive.
000 Black 098 Dark Grey 196 Grey 117 Light Grey
102 Russet 150 Bright Red 186 Orange 167 Magenta
066 Green 204 Bright Green 039 Turquoise 210 Yellow
089 Blue 137 Bright Blue 137 Cyan 215 White
where nnn and mmm are the lower and upper limits of a color gradient.
Point Markers
(style code m):
00 single pixel 04 small square 08 medium bullet 12 airplane
01 fat dot 05 medium square 09 medium pillow 13 ship
02 small circle 06 large square 10 X 14 star
03 large circle 07 triangle 11 house 15 reserved
Line
style (codes w, d, p)
Fill pattern
(style codes p and q)
0= 100% fill
05= 50% crse A 06= 50% crse B
03= 50% medm A 04= 50% medm B
01= 50% fine A 02= 50% fine B
07= 25% fine A 08= 25% fine B
09= 12% fine A 10= 12% fine B 11= 12% fine C 12= 12% fine D
13= 6% fine A 14= 6% fine B 15= 6% fine C 16= 6% fine D
Note fill patterns A, B, C and D occupy separate pixel space
and are therefore mutually transparent.
0= 100% fill
01= 50% rndm A 02= 50% rndm B
03= 25% rndm A 04= 25% rndm B
05= 12% rndm A 06= 12% rndm B
07= 6% rndm A 08= 6% rndm B
Note fill patterns A and B occupy separate pixel space
and are therefore mutually transparent.
Label
style (codes f, p, q, h, v)
Index Menu Options:
Scene Menu Options:
Under Construction
This is a placeholder for referenced features still under construction.