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The table below gives you a list of all the formats that Magics/Metview support and how you can use them.
| Format | parameter | How to visualise | What to use for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qt | Metview display window | Interactive usage within Metview | |
| PostScript | ps/eps | okular, ghostscript/gv | Printing, publications |
| okular, acroread | Web, archiving | ||
| PNG | png | web browsers, display, xv | Web, presentations -> animations |
| SVG | svg | web browsers, vector graphics editor (e.g. Inkscape) | Web HTML5, for further editing in drawing programs |
| KML/KMZ | kml | Google Earth, Google Maps, OpenLayers | Interactive (non-scientific) publications |
The KML output format
KML is a very special output format. It has no notion of output size since it is displayed on the globe. KMZ is the compressed version of the KML files and is written by default. You can write out the uncompressed KML if you want to debug the output.
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The following piece of code shows the simplest way to save your plot as a PostScript PDF file instead of creating an interactive Display Window.
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
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# set up the output format ps pdf = pspdf_output( output_name : "my_plot" ) setoutput(pspdf) data = read("z500.grib") plot(data) # the plot will be sent to the PostScriptPDF file |
Try it!
The pspdf_output() function defines how a PostScript PDF file should be generated. More options are available to further customise it. The setoutput() function selects this output format. So our code can contain many output format definitions and then select just one (or more) with the setoutput() function at run-time (see later).
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If you have time, you might want to try opening your SVG file from the first exercise above in inkscape and alter it and save it to a PNG.
Using Web Map Services (WMS)
Metview provides a module to request maps from a Web Map Services (WMS). The WMS standard is defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), which is very popular in the GIS community. The WMS module can be used to query an OGC-compliant WMS server, retrieve maps from it and overlay them with other data. The WMS icon is a great way to integrate web services within Metview.
We have a separate tutorial which shows in more detail how you can use maps served by web map services within Metview.
Tasks
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