1. Open the View Window Properties dialog with the View→Properties menu.
   
   
2. Uncheck the Show Wireframe Box item to turn off the 3D box in the display then click the Apply button. Check it again to turn the box back on and click the Apply button.
3. Uncheck the Show Cursor Readout item to turn off the lat/lon/alt readout at the bottom of the View Window and click the Apply button.
4. Uncheck the Clip View At Box menu item to turn off clipping of the map lines and other displays at the 3D box and click Apply. Check it again to turn on clipping.
5. Check the Show Times In Display item to turn on the time label in the view window. Uncheck the Show Display List item and click Apply. The Display List is no longer shown, but the time label is now shown. Note that the time is also shown as part of the Display List for each of the displays and in the Time Animation Widget.
6. Change the foreground and background colors by clicking the Color widgets and selecting a new color. After making your selection, click Apply.

1. Select the View→Show menu to see which of the items we changed above are available. Use some of these to change your display.
2. Select the View→Color menu to change the foreground and background colors of the display. You can select one of the pre-defined foreground/background color pairs, or create your own. Select one of the predefined options to change the display colors. Select View→Color→White on black menu to return to the system default.
3. Select the View→Full Screen menu to expand the view to the full screen. Click the X to return to normal screen mode.

Another useful menu item is the Viewpoint menu. This menu can be used to control which side of the 3D box you are looking at.

1. The five top menu items, Top through West instantly reset the point of view to one of the orthogonal directions. The menu icons show which side of the box will be displayed. Note that Top is the same as the reset command Ctrl-r which we used earlier.
2. Select the South menu then rotate the box with the keyboard or mouse to see the orientation.
3. Reset the view to the top.
4. The Perspective View item toggles between a parallel (unchecked) and perspective (checked) view. Check the box and see what effect it has.
5. The Viewpoint toolbar:
   
   provides the same functionality as the menu items described above.

Other Viewpoint menu items

Viewpoint Dialog... displays a dialog box for you to enter the azimuth and tilt of a desired point of view.

Vertical Scale...displays a dialog box to set the linear vertical scaling between the top and bottom the wireframe box. The default is 0 to 16 km. This can also be changed through the Vertical Scale tab of the View Window Properties dialog.

Map projections define the region of the earth that you are viewing. The IDV is configured with a set of pre-defined map projections. In a later exercise, you will learn how to create your own. In this exercise, we will learn how to change projections using the system set.

1. Select the Projections→Predefined→US→CONUS menu item to switch to the continental US projection.
2. Choose another projection from the Maps→Projections→Predefined menu

The Projections→From Displays menu has a list of projections from the data of any displays.

The Projections→History menu has a list of recently used projections.

The Projections→New/Edit.. menu item is used to bring up the Projection Manager which is used to define projections. You will use this in a later exercise to define your own projections.

Other Projections Menu Items

• The Auto-set Projection menu item allows you to control whether the display projection is changed when you load in new data.
• The Enable Adaptive Resolution menu item allows the IDV to calculate the resolution of the map view window, dynamically sets the data sampling, and loads sufficient data to generate the image.
.
• The Share Views menu item allows you to share the maps and projections between different View Windows.
  1. Select the File→New→View Window→Map Display→One Pane menu item to bring up a new View Window.
  2. Rotate the view in each display.
  3. Use the Projections→Predefined menu in each View Window to change the projections to be different in each display.
  4. Check the Projections→Share Views item in each View Window.
  5. Rotate the view in one display. Notice how it affects the other.
  6. Change the projection in one of the displays. The same projection will be applied to the other display.
  7. Close the second View Window by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the window.

Unidata IDV Workshop for version 6.3 > Starting the IDV/GUI Basics > IDV Basic Concepts