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Welcome to the mapViz 1.0 Beta download page! mapViz is a mapping application written in IDL that allows users to visualize their geographic data. While mapViz works very well from the command line its real strength is as a "back end" to another IDL application. For example, say that you have a progam that simulates temperature data across the world and you want to display the results on a map. The standard way of doing this is to imbed the map_set... etc commands in your program. The downside of this is twofold. First, you have to do this every time you need to display data to a map. Second, once you send the data to the map you cannot easily zoom, change projections, and so on. mapViz is designed to make all this easy. Indeed, since mapViz is a single application you can have multiple routines send data to the same map! Communicating with mapViz is simple. If you are comfortable with objects you can use the mapViz method calls to send data to the map. If you want to stick with procedures we have provided two routines to assist you. The first creates a new instance of mapViz (mapVizCreate) and the second allows you to add data to the map (mapVizAdd). Once data is added to the map the drawing order can be changed using a easy to use layer manager. The following types of data may be displayed on mapViz. 1. Lines, points, and polygons. Basic attributes can also be controlled such as color, symbol type, thickness, etc. 2. Contour data. Basic attributes such as levels and colors can be set when adding the data to the map. However, using the layer manager the user can change the levels, colors, line thicknesses, etc, AFTER the data has been displayed on the map. 3. Image data. Attributes such as the interpolation method used, compression value, etc can be set when the image is added to the map, or after it is displayed. 4. Data with an altitude component. This was originally designed to display satellite orbits, but any trajectory can be displayed. Using the perspective projection (unique to mapViz) the trajectory will appear above the earth. Coasts, grids, labels, political boundaries, rivers, horizon, and filled continents can all be toggled on and off from the main pull down menu. GAC and LAC AVHRR images can also be imported directly onto the map. NEW!!!! ESRI shapefiles can also now be imported into mapViz! A built in HTML users guide will allow you to get up to speed quickly. NOTE! A few Netscape users have had trouble downloading the IDL save files succesfully. If this happens to you please email me at ronn@rlkling.com and I will send you the files directly. IDL5.4 mapViz zip file