STARTING and RUNNING the GeoVu Access Software 


Instructions for STARTING and RUNNING GeoVu are 
described below for each platform. The instructions 
for running GeoVu are the same for all platforms 
with a few noted exceptions.

Exercises are also provided below for displaying 
data, viewing histograms, and exporting subsets of 
data.


STARTING GEOVU

1.  To start GeoVu as a Windows desktop application, 
    double-click on the GeoVu icon.
    
    To start GeoVu for Macintosh, double-click on the 
    GeoVu icon. 

    To start GeoVu for Motif, as a desktop application, 
    click on the GeoVu icon.  
    To start GeoVu on a UNIX machine from your /geovu 
    directory type g2 


RUNNING GEOVU

Pull-down menus appear at the top of the application 
window, titled GeoVu, and each displays a family of 
commands when you click on it. The GeoVu menus are 
File, Edit, Search, GeoReference, Utilities, Windows
and Help. 


GEOVU STATUS WINDOW

GeoVu first appears with a STATUS window. The lists
will help you keep track of your open data and search
definitions. The Windows menu shows a list of all
top-level display windows and allows the current
(front) window to be slected from this list.

After opening GeoVu, enlarge the display window
by clicking on the UP arrow located in the upper right
corner of the GeoVu display screen.

NOTE:  The display windows on the MACINTOSH and UNIX
machines disappear behind the STATUS window. To bring
a display to the front, select the GeoVu Windows menu
and select the desired plot.


VIEW FACTS, DISPLAY X-Y PLOTS, AND OVERLAY BOUNDARIES

1.  From the GeoVu screen, select File/Set Data Source. 
Highlight the North American Earthquake CD. If the 
information in the CD-drive box is incorrect, change it 
according to the following instructions:

  WINDOWS:   Type in the CD-ROM drive on your machine
  MACINTOSH: Type in the name of the CD-ROM:  EQCD1_96
               or EQCD2_96 if you are opening the Global CD
  UNIX:      Type in the correct path to the CD-ROM, 
               usually /cdrom

Click on OK to open the North American Earthquake CD. 
If this CD is not in your reader, a warning message will 
appear; after you've inserted the CD into the drive, click 
Ready and the session will continue. Scroll through and 
read the Introduction screen. 

2.  Select the Open Data option. The MAIN MENU will 
appear. Notice that the Canadian Earthquake Catalogs 
option is highlighted. Select Facts and read the 
description of Canadian Earthquake Catalogs. Cancel 
to return to the MAIN MENU. Now select Next>>. Seven 
Canadian data sets will appear. Select Facts to view 
attributes of each data set (note: the Next>> and 
<<Prev buttons let you scroll through these fact 
screens) and when completed select Cancel. Highlight
the first data set and click OK to open the Canadian
regional data from Ottawa, 1946-1994 data set.

3.  An X-Y Plot screen will appear with 
X=longitude and Y=latitude as defaults. Click on 
GO located in the upper right part of the display
(on Macintosh machines the data are automatically
plotted and you do not need to click on GO).
A Processing Information screen will appear, followed 
by an X-Y plot of the latitude/longitude values.

NOTE:  On Macintosh and Unix machines the X-Y plot
disappears behind the STATUS window. Select 
Windows/GeoVu-Plots:Canadian regional data from Ottawa
to bring the display to the front.

4.  To overlay a latitude/longitude X-Y plot onto 
a plot of coasts and geopolitical boundaries, select 
GeoRef/Load GeoVu Rivers/Coasts and then select 
GeoRef/Load GeoVu Boundaries. Next select 
GeoRef/Display/GeoRef Overlay from the Vector/Point
Overlays display. Now choose the Overlay option on 
the upper right, causing a Draw GeoReference Overlays 
screen to appear. Click the Rivers and Coasts box, 
the GeoPolitical box, and select a color. Next click
on the Add Plot Data From... box and select the 
Canadian regional data from Ottawa plot, and then 
click OK. The X-Y values should now be plotted with 
coasts and political boundaries. If you open another
data set and create another X-Y plot it could also 
be plotted with the Canadian data. 

5.  To enlarge the screen click on the Up arrow and 
select ZOMMIN. Position the cursor at the upper left 
Canadian region and drag the mouse to the lower right
of the Canadian region.

6. It's a good practice to periodically close
plot windows. Double click on the close box in the
Vector/Point Overlays to close the vector plot.
Double click on the close box in the X-Y plot 
display to close the X-Y plot.

7.  It's also a good practice to close data and  
data sources to avoid memory overflow conditions. 
Select File/Close Data option. Holding the mouse 
button down, highlight all opened data sets, let 
go of the button, then select OK. Using a similar 
technique, you can close the CD Data Source.


VIEW HISTOGRAMS OF DATA DISTRIBUTION

1.  If you have already set the data source to
the North American Earthquake CD, go to step 2.
If not, from the GeoVu screen, select File/Set Data 
Source. Highlight the North American Earthquake CD. 
If the information in the CD-drive box is incorrect,
change it to the correct drive. Click on OK to open 
the North American Earthquake CD. If this CD is not 
in your reader, a warning message will appear; after 
you've inserted the CD into the drive, click Ready 
and the session will continue. Scroll through and 
read the Introduction screen. 

2.  Select the Open Data option. The MAIN MENU will 
appear. If the you have already opened data sets and
the MAIN MENU is not displayed, click on <<Prev until
the MAIN MENU is displayed. Select United States 
Earthquake Catalogs and click on Next>>. Select the 
California catalogs and click on Next>> and then select
Historic California catalogs and click on Next>>. Select 
Calif. Div of Mines & Geology (CDMG) 1769-1974 and 
click OK to open this data file. You can now click 
on GO to display the X-Y plot of the data or go to 
step 3.

3.  Select Utilities/View File Histograms. A 
Histogram screen will appear displaying the 
histogram for the data source, CDMG. Click on the 
Down arrow located to the right of the variable 
source. Scroll down and select the variable 
century_and_year. Click on Terms to see a definition
of the variable displayed. Click on Next>> to see 
definitions of other variables used in this catalog
and click on CANCEL to return to the histogram screen.
Click on FACTS to display the data documentation.
Click on the Down arrow to scroll through and read
the documentation. Select CANCEL to return to the
histogram screen.

4.  Using the ZOOMIN button on the right, zoom into 
the region on the graph between 1930 and 1974.  This
is done by positioning the cursor at the upper left 
of this region, and dragging the mouse to the lower 
right. Click on ZOOMOUT to display the entire range
of the variable.

5.  Double click on the close box in the Histogram
window to close the histogram. Double click on the 
close box in the X-Y Plot window to close the display.
Select File/Close Data option. Holding the mouse button
down, highlight all opened data sets, let go of the 
button, then select OK. 


SET CONSTRAINTS AND SET OUTPUT/VIEW TYPE

1.  If you have already set the data source to
the North American Earthquake CD, go to step 2.
If not, from the GeoVu screen, select File/Set Data 
Source. Highlight the North American Earthquake CD. 
If the information in the CD-drive box is incorrect,
change it to the correct drive. Click on OK to open 
the North American Earthquake CD. If this CD is not 
in your reader, a warning message will appear; after 
you've inserted the CD into the drive, click Ready 
and the session will continue. Scroll through and 
read the Introduction screen. 

2.  Select the Open Data option. The MAIN MENU will 
appear. If the you have already opened data sets and 
the MAIN MENU is not displayed, click on <<Prev until
the MAIN MENU is displayed. Select the Caribbean 
Earthquake Catalog and click on Next>>. The Regional
catalog for the Caribbean Sea 1502-1994 will be 
highlighted and click on OK. 

3.  An X-Y Plot screen will appear with 
X=longitude and Y=latitude as defaults. Click on GO 
located in the upper right part of the display. A 
Processing Information screen will appear, followed 
by an X-Y plot of the latitude/longitude values.

4.  Click on the Set Constraints box causing a Plot 
Axes and Constraints screen to apear. Click on the 
List box and scroll down and select the 
century_and_year variable and click OK. Change
the MIN value to 1502 and the MAX value to 1900 then
click OK. Next click on GO to display the X-Y plot 
of data from 1500 to 1900. Notice that the majority
of the catalog is not displayed.

NOTE: For large files, only the first 10,240 points
will be plotted. When you Set Contraints the data
displayed are only from the 10,240 points that were
just displayed. If you Set Constraints and select
Write out to a file, the search is done on the entire
data file.

5.  To export this subset of the catalog, click on  
Set Output/View Type. Click on Write out to a file 
and then OK. Next Click on GO and an Output File 
Information screen will appear. Type in the output 
path you would like the data exported to and the 
file name CARIBSUB.DAT  Select the ASCII Data Type
and GeoVu Header Type and then click OK. A 
Processing Information screen will appear. When 100% 
of the data have been processed click on CANCEL. A 
subset of the Caribbean Catalog for 1502 to 1900 has 
now been created and copied to your hard drive. 
(Do not delete the file CARIBSUB.DAT, it is used
in the last exercise.)

You have just created a data subset, on your hard 
disk containing:

    caribsub.dat--an ASCII data file
    caribsub.fmt--a format file
    caribsub.hdr--a header file

GeoVu has standard file extensions used when writing 
and reading files:

    .dat      ASCII data files
    .bin      binary data files
    .fmt      format description files
    .hdr      header files documenting grids
    .doc      documentation files
    .lst      data field histogram information
    .cst      character version of the .lst files

Note: If you export data to a binary file, it must
have a .bin extension to be viewed by GeoVu.

6.  Double click on the close box in the X-Y plots
window to close the display. Select File/Close Data
option. Holding the mouse button down, highlight all
opened data sets, let go of the button, then select OK.


OVERLAY X-Y PLOTS ONTO ELEVATION DATA DISPLAYS

1.  If you have already set the data source to
the North American Earthquake CD, go to step 2.
If not, from the GeoVu screen, select File/Set Data 
Source. Highlight the North American Earthquake CD. 
If the information in the CD-drive box is incorrect,
change it to the correct drive. Click on OK to open 
the North American Earthquake CD. If this CD is not 
in your reader, a warning message will appear; after 
you've inserted the CD into the drive, click Ready 
and the session will continue. Scroll through and 
read the Introduction screen. 

2.  Select the Open Data option. The MAIN MENU will 
appear. If the you have already opened data sets and 
the MAIN MENU is not displayed, click on <<Prev until
the MAIN MENU is displayed. Next highlight the 
Supplemental catalogs and click on Next>>. Next 
highlight U.S. Intensity data, 1638-1985 and click 
on OK. 

3.  An X-Y Plot screen will appear with 
X=longitude_epicenter and Y=latitude_epicenter as 
defaults. Click on GO located in the upper right 
of the display. A Processing Information screen 
will appear, followed by an X-Y plot of the 
latitude/longitude values. To change the symbols, 
click on LEGEND located in the upper right of the 
display and then click on Change Symbols. Change 
the Marker Radius to 5 and the PlotPen Color to 
Yellow and then click OK.

4.  To open another data set select File/Open Data 
and click on <<PREV until the MAIN MENU appears. 
Select the Global 5-minute Digital Terrain Data and 
click on OK. When the Processing Information screen 
appears, click on CANCEL and click on Yes in answer
to the question Do you want to abort the processing?

5.  Select Search/Create and a Data Source Selections 
screen will appear. Highlight the TerrainBase GLobal 
5-min DTM Ver 1.0 (NGDC) and click on OK. An Image 
Search Parameters screen will appear. Click on Set 
Search Parameter Limits resulting in an Image or 
Map Area Definition screen emerging. The bounding 
rectangular limits of the data set will appear in 
rectangular boxes. Change the Left LONG to -125, the 
Right LONG to -60, the Top LAT to 50, and the Bottom 
LAT to 10 by either editing these numbers or using 
the associated slide bars. Also change the Reduction
Scale to 1. Now click OK, returning you to the Image
Search Parameters screen, and click OK again. The 
elevation data for the United States will now be 
plotted.

6.  To overlay the U.S. intensity epicenters, select 
the OVERLAY button on the TerrainBase DTM display. 
Next click on the Add Plot Data From... box and 
select the U.S. Intensity data, 1638-1985 plot, and 
then click OK. The X-Y values should now be 
overlayed onto the elevation data. If you open 
another data set and create another X-Y plot it 
could also be plotted onto the elevation data.

7.  Double click on the close box in the TerrainBase
display window to close the display. Double click on
the close box in the Vector/Point Overlays to close 
the vector plot. Select File/Close Data option. 
Holding the mouse button down, highlight all opened 
data sets, let go of the button, then select OK. 


DISPLAY EXPORTED DATA AS DISK FILES

1.  If you did not do the SET CONSTRAINTS AND SET
OUTPUT VIEW/TYPE exercise, please do that exercise
to create a CARIBSUB.DAT file.

2.  The CARIBSUB.DAT data can be accessed and plotted 
with GeoVu as a disk file. Select File/DiskFiles.
A dialog box will now be displayed that varies depending
on the platform you are working on. Navigate through
the various directories until you find the file 
CARIBSUB.DAT. Highlight the file CARIBSUB.DAT and 
click OK.

3.  Select Search/Create and a Data Source Selections
box will be displayed. Highlight the CARIBSUB.DAT
file and click OK. 

4.  An X-Y Plot screen will appear with 
X=longitude_abs and Y=latitude_abs as defaults. 
Click on GO located in the upper right part of the 
display. A Processing Information screen will appear, 
followed by an X-Y plot of the latitude_abs/longitude_abs
values. You will notice that the points are plotted in 
reverse. This is because you are plotting the absolute
values of the longitude and latitude. To correctly 
display the data you need to convert CARIBSUB.DAT to 
a binary file.

5.  Click on Set Output/View Type. Click on Write out 
to a file and then OK. Next Click on GO and an Output 
File Information screen will appear. Type in the same 
output path and the new file name CARIBSUB.BIN  
Select the Binary Data Type and GeoVu Header Type and 
then click OK. A GeoVu screen will display the 
caribsub.fmt and caribsub.hdr file names and ask if you
want to overwrite those files. Click on Yes in response
to the question, Replace existing files?

6. Select File/DiskFiles and select the CARIBSUB.BIN
file. Select Search/Create and a Data Source Selections
box will be displayed. Highlight the CARIBSUB.BIN
file and click OK. 

7.  An X-Y Plot screen will appear with 
X=longitude and Y=latitude as defaults. Click on GO 
located in the upper right part of the display. A 
Processing Information screen will appear, followed 
by an X-Y plot of the latitude/longitude values.
The data should now be plotted correctly. 

NOTE:  If the variables in the GeoVu ASCII format 
file are anything other than latitude and longitude, 
such as latitude_abs/longitude_abs, the ASCII file
will not be displayed correctly with GeoVu. You must
convert the ASCII file to binary and then redisplay 
the data. Both files, ASCII and binary are correct, 
but only the binary files can be correctly displayed
with GeoVu.

8.  Double click on the close box in the X-Y plots
window to close the display. Select File/Close Data
option. Holding the mouse button down, highlight all
opened data sets, let go of the button, then select OK.


EXITING GEOVU

To quit the application click the File menu item 
Exit GeoVu or use the close box on the GeoVu window.


MORE INFORMATION

Questions? Contact Allen Hittelman at NOAA's National
Geophysical Data Center:

    Phone: 303-497-6591;  FAX: 303-497-6513
    Internet e-mail: amh@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov