VGIS User
Documentation
Last Modified: 1/13/2006 8:27:00 PM
Source: main.doc
Original Author: Zachary Wartell
Current Document Maintainer: Zachary Wartell
Contributors:
Derrick H. Karimi
Martin J. Tuck
MODIFYING
INSTRUCTIONS: Do not modify main.html. Modified main.doc and follow the
documentation guidelines in $VGISROOT/documentation/developer/developer.html in
the section Updating
Documentation.
AUDIENCE: This document is written
for both people working on VGIS at the
Table of Contents
2.2.1 Two Hand Weather Visualization
Interface
2.5 Cite Specific Instructions
2.5.1 Department of Computer Science,
UNCC
2.5.1.1 Precompiled VGIS versions
2.5.2 College of Computing, Georgia
Tech
2.5.2.1 Precompiled VGIS versions
2.5.2.3 Virtual Workbench at TSRB
3.1 Building Terrain Elevation +
Imagery
3.1.1 Converting
to Geotiff format
3.1.2.1 Linux/Windows Command Line Build
3.1.2.2 Standalone GUI Windows Build
3.1.2.3 EOEML VGIS Runtime Build
3.2 Steps for Creating Paged Objects
(Buildings, Trees, etc.)
3.2.2 Command
Line Object Build
7 Compatible and TEsted Systems
1 Introduction
This
document discusses running VGIS applications
1.1 Typological Conventions
In this text italic symbols preceded by a @ refer to some text that should be conceptually substituted for the given symbol. For example @VGISHOME means “conceptually replace this symbol with the text found by following the link.
1.2
Getting
Help
First,
read this document. Second, you can
send email to 
. [w1]This is the Georgia Tech email
group used for questions/discussion about VGIS. (People developing VGIS or who received a
source code distribution must also read
VGISROOT/documentation/developer/developer_main.doc)
2 Running Vgis
This section contains information on running VGIS. The opening section contains generic instructions. Subsequent sections contain further instructions specific to certain machines and operating systems.
2.1 General Instructions
First you need to get an executable copy of VGIS. If you received a VGIS source code distribution or were given access to the VGIS CVS repository see ..\developer\developer.html for compilation instructions. Otherwise you should have received an executable distribution and you don’t need to compile the source code. Second you need to get a copy of some VGIS dataset. Subsections in Section 2.5 Cite Specific Instructions describe where to get datasets depending on your physical location.
Once you have a executable version of VGIS and a VGIS dataset do the following:
1) Determine the file location and path of the VGIS executable. A subdirectory in “@VGISROOT/bin” will contain the VGIS executable called “vgis” or “vgis.exe”. (The subdirectories under “@VGISROOT/bin” contain the executables for specific operating systems, computer architectures, compilation configurations, etc.)
2) Determine the path to the VGIS dataset you want to view in VGIS.
3) Change your current directory to @VGISROOT.
4) Type:
Path-to-VGIS-executable/vgis -rd . –dd Full-Path-to-VGIS-database
Further details about the command line arguments are discussed here VGISConfig.
2.2 Navigation
At present, navigation methods are constantly being updated. To avoid inconsistencies between code implementation and the external documentation, navigation interface descriptions are found by following links to the descriptions found in the code itself. Start here.
2.2.1 Two Hand Weather Visualization Interface
This is partial documentation of the two hand VR desktop interface for weather volume visualization.
RBx refers to right hand tracker button number “x”. LBx refers to left hand tracker button number “x” (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Tracker Sensors
There are two navigation modes currently available, one is more geared to large-scale navigation and the other mode is more suitable for close-up navigation within the weather. The system switches automatically between these two modes. In both modes weather manipulation is available. The left hand is used for navigation; the right hand is used for interaction.
In Navigation Mode the navigation (left hand) works as follows:
Trackers:
left hand b0 – rotate about a point at end of ray
left hand b1 – zoom to/from location at end of ray
left hand b2 – pan planet at end of ray
In Weather Interaction Mode the navigation (left hand) works as follows:
Trackers:
left hand b0 – [hold button down]
rotate around the condition box as if it’s in your hand
left hand b1 – zoom with respect to the box, OR
[when cursor is close to vbox corner]
resize vbox
left hand b2 – [hold button down]
grab&drag, OR
[hold button down and press and hold right button2]
perform two-handed grab/drag/rotate, OR
[when cursor is inside vbox]
translate vbox
The interaction (right hand) always maps to the same functions. There are different submodes, through which the user can toggle:
State Diagram:
Trackers:
right hand b0
-ALL SUB-MODES: switch between different sub-modes (box editing, cutting-plane, measuring).
right hand b1
-BOX EDITING SUB-MODE && [hold button down]: create a box with one corner a cursor location. Second corner follows the tracker until button is released.
-BOX EDITING SUB-MODE: if right cursor is close to rbox corner (corner is highlighted with a sphere), grab the corner of a rbox in order to reshape the rbox.
-PLANE LENS SUB-MODE: release/pick-up the cutting-plane
-VIEW-LINE MEASURING SUB-MODE: select one of two points in space whose separating distance will be measured. For each point, press the button once to select the view-ray, then press it again to select the point along the frozen view-ray. You will have to adjust your vantage point to see the frozen view-ray.
-PLANE CONSTRAINED MEASURE SUB-MODE: select one of two points in space whose separating distance will be measured. The point is constrained to be in the cutting plane. A cutting-plane must be present in the scene. A white dot appears as the projection of the right cursor on the cutting plane. When the dot is inside the plane’s boundaries white lines appear from the plane’s borders to the dot. Pressing RB1 selects the dot’s position as the first measure point. Pressing RB1 a second time selects the dot’s position as the second measure point.
right hand b2 –
-ALL SUB-MODES: when the cursor is inside the rbox (the box must be highlighted), translate the rbox.