Short answer; Yes. But...
The last object in a .dx file is the object Import imports by default, thus
you get the "series" without problem. You can override this with the
"default" keyword (see Import Help). You can also specify the object name
you want Import to get from a file, so use 2 Imports, one for "Bathymetry"
and the other for the series object.
You could also append to the end of your file:
object "everything" class group
member 0 value "Bathymetry"
member 1 value "series"
Then, Select("Bathymetry") after Importing and do static things to it, and
Select("series") and do dynamic things.
However, I would probably not do this myself; I'm sure there are arguments
for binding these together, but I try to avoid creating groups of arbitrary
objects since it involves more understanding of the object structure when
you start manipulating it in the net (more Selects and stuff). If you do,
use lots of "#" comment lines in the .dx file so the person who inherits
this monster can figure out what you were up to.
I more often simply create a "data" subdirectory for a project, then put
things like series time step files in a sub-subdir, and other files in
other sub-subdirs, then in the net establish one or more String Interactors
(on Control Panels) to allow the "data directory" to be specified, along
with the various subdirs, and the basenames and Sequencer. Join these into
whole pathnames with Format("%s/%s/%s.%04d.dx") for example and send these
constructed names to Import(s). Or just construct the "series.dx" filename,
Import, the Sequence through the steps within it. Then when you move the
project to another filesystem, you only have to change the master data
directory value on the Control Panel. I also avoid using hardcoded paths
within DX files since this really limits portability (esp. if it's a full
absolute path).
Another trick worth knowing is that you can create a series header file
with nothing but the member references (essentially file pointers). Thus,
you can have say 1000 time step files, (probably in the same directory, but
not absolutely required), then one series file (.dx). For example,
series.dx might be:
object "my_series" class series
member 0 position x.x file time001.dx
member 1 position x.x file time002.dx
....
where x.x is some arbitrary position value of your specification (could be
the real time for example). The nice part is you can easily write a csh
script or something to auto-create this series file given start, end,
increment of the time steps, so you can easily create alternates, like
every 10th time step for testing purposes (the member numbers must be
continuous starting at 0 in all series, however, but the file names
associated with each member name may differ).
>Thanks for the info. I have another question. Can I use one file to read
>in more than one data field. Example, I have some static data and a time
>series. I can read it all in but I cant seem to show the static data.
>Here is my file. In this example I want to view "Bathymetry". I can view
>the time series just fine
>Thnaks for any help you can give
>Matt
>
>object 1 class gridpositions counts 9 9
>origin 0 0
>delta 1 0
>delta 0 1
>
>object 2 class gridconnections count 9 9
>
>object 3 class array type float rank 0 items 64 ieee data file
>input/ohgrd_1.A, 1024
>attribute "dep" string "connections"
>
>object "Bathymetry" class field
>component "positions" value 1
>component "connections" value 2
>component "data" value 3
>
>object "e1" class array type float rank 0
>items 64 ieee binary data file
>output/outsf_1.A, 0
>attribute "dep" string "connections"
>
>object "e1o" class field
>component "positions"value 1
>component "connections"value 2
>component "data"value "e1"
>.....
>object "series" class series
>member 0 value "e1o"
>member 1 value "e2o"
>member 2 value "e3o"
Chris Pelkie
Vice President/Scientific Visualization Producer
Conceptual Reality Presentations, Inc.
30 West Meadow Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
