[GRASS-dev] more NVIZ updates

Michael Barton wrote:

I took out the scale panel. It had no functionality at all. It was
just a set of widgets that didn't do anything. In the docs it is
listed as not implemented.

note: the nviz docs are notoriously out of date, don't take their word
for it that something is or isn't implemented.

I'm playing around with adapting the north arrow code, but I see in the
code comments that there is a TODO for better scaling. I don't want to
enable a scale which is known to be incorrect. (see attached patch
[crude, using north arrow Tcl controls to draw it. "Nset_Narrow" C code
will be the same, so reused it (need to migrate to wrapper fn)])

I also took out the label sites panel. It has some related code, but
it is not functional. In the docs it is listed as not implemented.
Looking at the code, it seems to apply to the old sites format. I
don't know what it would take to make it work with current vector
formats.

It would be nice to be able to label vector points, I suggest v.label as
an easy method of doing this.

I kept all other panels, but split some up (e.g., separated labels and
legend into separate panels). I took out a very few non-functional
widgets: the clear screen checkbutton on the main panel, the lower
entry in the fringe panel, and I think one other (can't remember right
now). None of these had any functional commands attached. I kept in
the z-coord slider for the cutting planes. It doesn't seem to do
anything, but it has code attached. Maybe I should have cut it out
too.

Having an interface with a bunch of controls that do nothing is really
frustrating. So I tried to avoid this. NVIZ does a lot anyway. Taking
out the non-functional parts helps people make better use of the parts
that do work.

ok.

I also got the auto draw toggle checkbox to actually work in most
panels.

where's that? ah I see, top right pulldown menu from the main controls

some comments/suggestions:

* "Visualize->Volumes" is confusing as vector volumes can exist too
(watertower, dinosaur)

* make the green text of "DRAW", DRAW CURRENT darker. It's hard to read
against the grey window background. the NSEW placement arrow isn't as
bad, but I'd still make it and the blue text a bit less bright.

* In Vis->Vect points get rid of the empty space when no map is loaded.
when a map is loaded, have the thematic controls toggle down instead of
always there. aka hide the advanced options so not to overwhelm the
user with a 747 cockpit of controls.

* Rast/Vol panels: don't bother with drop down menus for lists of 2 or 3
items (Drawmode, Style, Shading ; Vis type, Shading) You can have all
opts on the main panel + a column title without losing much real estate.
There's plenty of vertical space in those two panels to play with.

* If you go Vis->Vector pts then Vis->Scaled diff, the points panel
doesn't close automatically. Same with a number of other combinations of
panels.

* fringe: fix the positioning of the fringe corners. Setting the Raster
fine resolution to "1" helps a bit. the error depends on that setting.

* default Label text size is very small. Suggest default font size of
17? (16 doesn't exist for me "Cannot Load Font\nTrying default Font")

thanks for the updats, NVIZ has long lingered in a semi-finished state,
especially the various decorations.

Hamish

(attachments)

scalebar.diff (7.31 KB)

Hamish wrote:

some comments/suggestions:

* "Visualize->Volumes" is confusing as vector volumes can exist too
(watertower, dinosaur)

Hmm, a possible source of confussion. Could these 2 things use
different names? Eg. use '3D raster' consequently for raster volumes
everywhere in GRASS, and keep 'volume' for vector volumes only?

One note more:

In past it was possible to change the value for any slider by entering
the number and pressing Enter. Now it doesn't work. Try with eg. exag.

thanks for the updats, NVIZ has long lingered in a semi-finished state,
especially the various decorations.

Yes it looks a way cleaner now. Cool.

Maciek

On 12/5/06 2:14 AM, "Hamish" <hamish_nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

Michael Barton wrote:

I took out the scale panel. It had no functionality at all. It was
just a set of widgets that didn't do anything. In the docs it is
listed as not implemented.

note: the nviz docs are notoriously out of date, don't take their word
for it that something is or isn't implemented.

I'm playing around with adapting the north arrow code, but I see in the
code comments that there is a TODO for better scaling. I don't want to
enable a scale which is known to be incorrect. (see attached patch
[crude, using north arrow Tcl controls to draw it. "Nset_Narrow" C code
will be the same, so reused it (need to migrate to wrapper fn)])

I also took out the label sites panel. It has some related code, but
it is not functional. In the docs it is listed as not implemented.
Looking at the code, it seems to apply to the old sites format. I
don't know what it would take to make it work with current vector
formats.

It would be nice to be able to label vector points, I suggest v.label as
an easy method of doing this.

I kept all other panels, but split some up (e.g., separated labels and
legend into separate panels). I took out a very few non-functional
widgets: the clear screen checkbutton on the main panel, the lower
entry in the fringe panel, and I think one other (can't remember right
now). None of these had any functional commands attached. I kept in
the z-coord slider for the cutting planes. It doesn't seem to do
anything, but it has code attached. Maybe I should have cut it out
too.

Having an interface with a bunch of controls that do nothing is really
frustrating. So I tried to avoid this. NVIZ does a lot anyway. Taking
out the non-functional parts helps people make better use of the parts
that do work.

ok.

I also got the auto draw toggle checkbox to actually work in most
panels.

where's that? ah I see, top right pulldown menu from the main controls

some comments/suggestions:

* "Visualize->Volumes" is confusing as vector volumes can exist too
(watertower, dinosaur)

* make the green text of "DRAW", DRAW CURRENT darker. It's hard to read
against the grey window background. the NSEW placement arrow isn't as
bad, but I'd still make it and the blue text a bit less bright.

* In Vis->Vect points get rid of the empty space when no map is loaded.
when a map is loaded, have the thematic controls toggle down instead of
always there. aka hide the advanced options so not to overwhelm the
user with a 747 cockpit of controls.

* Rast/Vol panels: don't bother with drop down menus for lists of 2 or 3
items (Drawmode, Style, Shading ; Vis type, Shading) You can have all
opts on the main panel + a column title without losing much real estate.
There's plenty of vertical space in those two panels to play with.

* If you go Vis->Vector pts then Vis->Scaled diff, the points panel
doesn't close automatically. Same with a number of other combinations of
panels.

* fringe: fix the positioning of the fringe corners. Setting the Raster
fine resolution to "1" helps a bit. the error depends on that setting.

* default Label text size is very small. Suggest default font size of
17? (16 doesn't exist for me "Cannot Load Font\nTrying default Font")

thanks for the updats, NVIZ has long lingered in a semi-finished state,
especially the various decorations.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into these.

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

On 12/5/06 2:14 AM, "Hamish" <hamish_nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

Here are some initial comments and questions before I start working on
these...

some comments/suggestions:

* "Visualize->Volumes" is confusing as vector volumes can exist too
(watertower, dinosaur)

I thought about this too. There is no separate vector volumes panel (it
might be nice though), which is why I went with the simpler 'Volumes'. Maybe
call this one...

    Raster volumes
    Voxels
    Grid 3D volumes

other?

* make the green text of "DRAW", DRAW CURRENT darker. It's hard to read
against the grey window background. the NSEW placement arrow isn't as
bad, but I'd still make it and the blue text a bit less bright.

I'll see if I can find a darker color that still looks sort of green. The
idea is to make the "draw" button stand out.

* In Vis->Vect points get rid of the empty space when no map is loaded.
when a map is loaded, have the thematic controls toggle down instead of
always there. aka hide the advanced options so not to overwhelm the
user with a 747 cockpit of controls.

I'd like to have this one close too. I might have figured out how to do it
in the volume control panel, but I'm not sure. I'll see. Same with the
controls. This is doable but complicated. What makes it worse is that the
code is so old and convoluted.

* Rast/Vol panels: don't bother with drop down menus for lists of 2 or 3
items (Drawmode, Style, Shading ; Vis type, Shading) You can have all
opts on the main panel + a column title without losing much real estate.
There's plenty of vertical space in those two panels to play with.

I agree. I want to keep some consistency among panels, but it is good to
save space--especially with the very large volume panel. I want to do some
other things to tighten this on up if I can.

* If you go Vis->Vector pts then Vis->Scaled diff, the points panel
doesn't close automatically. Same with a number of other combinations of
panels.

To be frank, I don't know what makes some panels close and others stay open.
The best would be for panels to stay open until a certain cumulative
vertical size is reached and then close.

* fringe: fix the positioning of the fringe corners. Setting the Raster
fine resolution to "1" helps a bit. the error depends on that setting.

This is a togl issue that Bob is working on. Might not be fixable.

* default Label text size is very small. Suggest default font size of
17? (16 doesn't exist for me "Cannot Load Font\nTrying default Font")

Is the same on all systems? I didn't change the defaults because of this
very problem you mention. Any way to find out which sizes might be standard
on most systems?

Michael

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

On Dec 5, 2006, at 8:01 PM, Michael Barton wrote:

On 12/5/06 2:14 AM, "Hamish" <hamish_nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

Here are some initial comments and questions before I start working on
these...

some comments/suggestions:

* "Visualize->Volumes" is confusing as vector volumes can exist too
(watertower, dinosaur)

just a note -

there is a difference - 3D rasters represent trivariate functions
so at each point in 3D space you can have a different value - I think
calling this a volume is quite intuitive

watertower, dinosaur - 3D vector surfaces are quite different - if you try to represent
it by a volume you would have it filled with just 1 and no-data.
So I don't think that 3D surfaces or 3D vectors should be called
volumes - you essentially have 3D points, lines and areas.

Helena

P.S. I am working on the GRASSbook 3rd edition and I have a list of terminology
troubles that we have in the manual pages and other documentation.
I will bring it up for discussion when I feel I have most of them to make the discussion
most efficient and get the big picture too.

I thought about this too. There is no separate vector volumes panel (it
might be nice though), which is why I went with the simpler 'Volumes'. Maybe
call this one...

    Raster volumes
    Voxels
    Grid 3D volumes

other?

* make the green text of "DRAW", DRAW CURRENT darker. It's hard to read
against the grey window background. the NSEW placement arrow isn't as
bad, but I'd still make it and the blue text a bit less bright.

I'll see if I can find a darker color that still looks sort of green. The
idea is to make the "draw" button stand out.

* In Vis->Vect points get rid of the empty space when no map is loaded.
when a map is loaded, have the thematic controls toggle down instead of
always there. aka hide the advanced options so not to overwhelm the
user with a 747 cockpit of controls.

I'd like to have this one close too. I might have figured out how to do it
in the volume control panel, but I'm not sure. I'll see. Same with the
controls. This is doable but complicated. What makes it worse is that the
code is so old and convoluted.

* Rast/Vol panels: don't bother with drop down menus for lists of 2 or 3
items (Drawmode, Style, Shading ; Vis type, Shading) You can have all
opts on the main panel + a column title without losing much real estate.
There's plenty of vertical space in those two panels to play with.

I agree. I want to keep some consistency among panels, but it is good to
save space--especially with the very large volume panel. I want to do some
other things to tighten this on up if I can.

* If you go Vis->Vector pts then Vis->Scaled diff, the points panel
doesn't close automatically. Same with a number of other combinations of
panels.

To be frank, I don't know what makes some panels close and others stay open.
The best would be for panels to stay open until a certain cumulative
vertical size is reached and then close.

* fringe: fix the positioning of the fringe corners. Setting the Raster
fine resolution to "1" helps a bit. the error depends on that setting.

This is a togl issue that Bob is working on. Might not be fixable.

* default Label text size is very small. Suggest default font size of
17? (16 doesn't exist for me "Cannot Load Font\nTrying default Font")

Is the same on all systems? I didn't change the defaults because of this
very problem you mention. Any way to find out which sizes might be standard
on most systems?

Michael

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

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grass-dev mailing list
grass-dev@grass.itc.it
http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grass-dev

On 12/5/06 7:01 PM, "Helena Mitasova" <hmitaso@unity.ncsu.edu> wrote:

there is a difference - 3D rasters represent trivariate functions
so at each point in 3D space you can have a different value - I think
calling this a volume is quite intuitive

watertower, dinosaur - 3D vector surfaces are quite different - if
you try to represent
it by a volume you would have it filled with just 1 and no-data.
So I don't think that 3D surfaces or 3D vectors should be called
volumes - you essentially have 3D points, lines and areas.

Good points. Wish I could say I thought of this so clearly.

Volumes *are* different from 3D surface features. Thanks for pointing this
out.

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton