http://www.weathergraphics.com/dl/dapatch.exe
This is the first update I've been able to release in three months. My time has been heavily absorbed by our family and our one-year old son.. lately I just haven't been able to get those all-night programming sessions. Also compounding things were the Christmas rush, visitors, an endless stream of support/sales E-mails, and a cold that I got over the holidays. I am just now starting to find time again, but as many of you know, my time management has been an uphill climb.
Here is what is new:
* A retooled weather font is packaged with the software. It should yield better results at many different scales. Since I have not field-tested font replacement, after installation you should go into Windows > Start > Settings > Control Panel > Fonts, and look for "WeatherSymbols". Right click to see Properties. It should show a creation date of January 19 and a size of 36,232 bytes (36,864 bytes on disc). If this is not the case, try restarting Windows and try again. If still no dice, let me know.
* GRIB file support has been improved by raising the grid size from 20,000 to 150,000. This should allow larger files to be imported.
* The 250 mb height bug (occurring with heights below 10000 m) has been fixed.
* Intervals have been added to the scheduler. For the time, use M followed by the minute interval expressed as three digits. For example, to run the script every 12 minutes use M012. For NEXRAD a good value to use is M006. A new interval begins immediately after the prior one has ended, rather than after the completion of any task at hand, so the time accuracy is reliable and predictable.
* Every-hour execution has been added to the scheduler. Simply use ** for the hour; e.g. to execute at :12 of every hour, use **12.
* The default Fleetcode URL has been changed to http://ftp.hb-yacht.ch/ASXX21.@D@S00 .
* Digital Atmosphere now supports NMC/NCEP font sets in station plots (see graphic below). This is a welcome change for the users who liked the "hardcoded" fonts in older Digital Atmosphere versions. These are enabled by going to File > Font Mode and choosing NMC/NCEP Raster. These fonts, originally handcrafted by NOAA programmer Gloria Dent in the late 1960s, are known for their print legibility and versatility, but are sadly heading down the road to obscurity as NCEP aims for functionality rather than aesthetics. I extracted the fonts this week from the original NCEP Cray FORTRAN code, converting from arrays of 64-bit words into a raster format that Digital Atmosphere can use. Note that at this time they only plot black, so plots against dark maps are not yet supported. The fonts are a fixed size and cannot be made bigger or smaller. To scale the fonts for your printouts, adjust the chart size by using Map > Generate; the bigger the map, the smaller the fonts will appear. This optional font system will likely be expanded into other areas of the program.
* A rudimentary "add aeronautical route" capability has been added under Map > Add Aeronautical Route. You must enter the desired route in the form of:
cc/iiiii-cc/iiiii-cc/iiiii..... where cc is the country code and iiiii the identifier
For example, US/ORD-US/OKC would plot a route from Chicago to Oklahoma City. You may specify aeronautical waypoints that use the 5-letter convention. There are about 90,000 aeronautical identifiers in the database. When done entering, choose File > Exit in the editing window and the route will display.
Finally, to polish things off I recommend taking a look at Wally Mayo's excellent station file updates... see this thread for more info.
Tim Vasquez
