Location Control

5.6.4 Location Control

Overview

The IDV provides a collection of locations. These may be NEXRAD stations, states, counties, geographical features, countries, etc. The Location Control is used to display these locations. The list of locations is accessed through the menu. You can add additional stations to the collection using the steps described in the Location XML Files section of the User's Guide.

The user interface consists of four tabs. The first allows the user to control the display.

The second tab shows two sub-tabs that list all the locations and the currently displayed locations. At the bottom is shown the details of any locations that have been clicked on in the main display (turned off with the button) or have been selected in the lists. You can Shift-Click and Control-Click on a location in the list to center and zoom in/out in the main display. Turn off this behavior with the check box.

The Data Sets tab lists all of the location files that are being displayed. You can add new locations with the menu. You can remove a set of locations by selecting the location entry in the list and pressing the "delete" key.

The Filters tab allows you to filter what locations are being shown based on their internal attributes. There is more information about the filter mechanism in the documentation for the Point Data Plot Control.

Properties

Declutter
Click off the Declutter checkbox to see all locations. The display otherwise shows only selected locations that do not overlap. As you zoom or pan in the display different locations will be shown. When decluttering is turned on you can change the density level of the locations. The small "lock" button allows you to fix the currently displayed/decluttered locations. Using the lock button allows you to zoom or pan without changing what locations are displayed.
Display
The display of the locations can be done through a fixed specification of a symbol and/or and identifier as well as by using one of the station models available.
Use the options in the Identifier panel to control what station information is displayed. Use the Visible checkbox to toggle the visibility of the identifier in the plot. Use the options in the Symbol panel to control what marker symbol is displayed. Clicking an item will immediately change the display. Use the Visible checkbox to toggle the visibility of the symbol in the plot.
When you select the Layout Model radio button the station model facility is used to display the location. You can edit and/or create new station models. The predefined "Location" station model is a good one to use for display and as a basis to create your own.
Vertical Position
You can choose to display the locations at their altitude (if there is one) or you can override this and specifically define the vertical position.

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Display Controls > Observation and Location Controls