DX'ers,
I am trying to plot the path of multiple aircraft with respect to
time. I have X(lon), Y(lat), Z(hgt) and T. What I would like to
do is animate through T and plot all points equal to or older
than T for all aircraft. In otherwords I would like to animate
the aircraft tracks and with DX be able to view this from any angle.
Of course I also have a nice topo dataset to make the whole thing
look nice but will add that in later.
Being a little bit new to DX, how would I approach this problem?
Any ideas for what modules to look at?
Thanks.
Bill Thorson
--
Let me offer a bit of perspective.
I'm taking a break (to write this reply) from a project I've been
doing for a client.
We've been collaborating for several months (not full-time, but a
significant number of days of consulting have been consumed) and a
significant amount of money has changed hands (from his company to
mine).
The project involves tracking several thousand particles through the
internals of a machine (particulates being ejected in a fluid
medium). Not only does each particle have XYZT, but several other
data values are being carried on each. One of his key requests is the
ability to choose and track any or all from the beginning to any
current time along their respective paths and to show this in various
ways (path lines, glyphs, glyph trains, etc.) and of course from any
angle, and additionally to set up automatic animation generation
paths which make all the frames in a batch process suitable for
making movies for the analysts and sales weenies (we've done this
before and they love it).
Currently, the DX net that does essentially exactly what you request
is 18 pages in size. I would guess there are 500-600 modules in it at
this time. Now I grant you that this client has requested a system
that allows him a great deal of flexibility in creating animations in
many different ways based on data of this nature, but I thought you
should know that this is not necessarily a trivial undertaking.
I am however, eager and capable of converting this system for another
client, like say, Aster Co.
Keep it in mind.
Open source (in my mind) does not equal (extensive) free consulting.
The software is free; the experience and knowledge a few of us (Dave
Thompson, me, etc.) have built up over the past decade of using DX is
only as free as we have time to donate it. I do (as does Dave and
others) try to answer as many questions as I can on this list, so I
don't think I'm too greedy. But I like to eat too. (:-) Some things
can't be done in a simple net, but the good news is they can be done
in DX.
Very short answer: the work is done more by clever data structuring
than by any magic module in DX. The Tao of DX is understanding the
data model.
This is not meant to be a harsh reply to you Bill. The funny thing
about DX is you never know which are the totally easy (one magic
module) questions and which are the hairy gigundo net questions til
you ask. I think you are looking at a hairy gigundo net when all is
said and done. I can imagine a very cool final product (and yes, I've
done 3D topo maps and flight simulators in DX).
Chris Pelkie
Vice President/Scientific Visualization Producer
Conceptual Reality Presentations, Inc.
30 West Meadow Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
