Jus' tryin' to figure this out...

Strictly for sharing scripts used in Digital Atmosphere and getting assistance from other users.
Post Reply
jim
Junior Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:47 pm
Location: Oregon

Jus' tryin' to figure this out...

Post by jim »

I'm new to DAWS and have been fooling around with scripting...this forum has been quite helpful.

Here are a few things I figured out (I think...please correct any mis-conceptions of mine. Please!)

Theory of Operation:

As near as I can figure out the process works like this.

Each basemap is a .bmp file. Associated with each base map is an attribute file (.dmf file) that
includes information about the bmp file's navigation and the name of a style file (.sty file)
to associate with that map/graphic.

The look of a graphic depends on preferences checked in the File>Preferences tabs and on the style
file invoked when the base map is first built. If the style file entries are changed...then the
look of overlays plotted over the base map can be changed too. Plotted information depends on the
plot model set in File>Preferences>Station Plots. Plot models are saved in .sps files.

It appears that the style file is read every time a new plot or analysis is preformed on a base map
since you can load a base map, overlay a plot or analysis, edit the style file in Notepad, and do
a new overlay and the changes in the style file are reflected in the new plot/analysis.

Scripting can override many (but apparently not all?) of the elements set in the style file associated
with a base map. (Scripting can also be used to generate a new base map.)



Scripting hints: (in no particular order)

1. Spaces after commands in scripts will cause that command to not run properly.

2. When in doubt put the complete path to a file in a script. DA apparently assumes some directory
locations. As an example, a script run from the main DAWS directory will load an .sps (plot model)
if it's also in the main DAWS directory. I keep my scripts in
c:/Program Files/DigitalAtmosphereWS/scipts. In order to successfully load a new plot model I have to
specify the full path name of the .sps file.
IE SFCPLOTMODEL,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\standard.sps

3. Lines in scripts that start with # are considered comments and are ignored by DAWS. Not sure
if comment lines increase execution time of scripts, but lots of comments sure make script
maintainance/debugging a lot easier.
Post Reply