XOMEGA Graphical User Interface The OMEGA System is composed of several distinct Components that are activated in sequence, one after another to build and run a simulation. They are linked together by two programs: the graphical user interface "XOMEGA" and the text interface "omega". When creating an OMEGA simulation you will make choices about the geography and meteorology you wish to simulate. XOMEGA and omega are the tools that translates those choices to input for the other OMEGA System Components. With XOMEGA, the mouse and keyboard are used to make selections and input data. First, a Case and Run are selected. Next the time span and spatial domain are chosen. The OMEGA grid is then generated. You will choose meteorology to use as the initial and boundary conditions for the simulation. The met data is fit to the grid by the OMEGA preprocessor. The last two sections control optional features of the model, and what mode to run under. X Window Basics XOMEGA is an X windows client. This means that it is an application program that issues requests to an X Display Server (your machine) to show text, buttons, and pictures in windows. These are the elements you will interact with to make choices about your OMEGA simulation. You will use the mouse to enclose regions on a map, press buttons, and toggle switches. You will also use the keyboard to input text. Several additional windows will "pop up" and "pop down" during the session. These are called dialog boxes and serve to divide the input process according to the Components of OMEGA. Warnings and errors may also appear in dialog boxes. There are a few standard X Windows conventions that are used in XOMEGA and listed below. These key strokes are used when dialog boxes appear on the screen. The current control is usually outlined in black. TAB - move the current control down (or right) one element. Shift-TAB - move the current control up (or left) one element. Return - activate the current control. (button press, text input) OK, Yes, Done - close the current window with affirmative status. Cancel, No, - close the current window with negative status. Cancel will clear any text data input in that window. Help - invoke the Help dialog box. Clear Form - blank out text input boxes, clear options Default - set all controls to the system defaults. Menus are activated by holding down the first mouse button, moving the mouse over the menu, and dragging down. The menu items will appear below the title. Release the mouse button on the desired item. The menus may also be accessed via keyboard strokes. By holding down the ALT key and pressing the underlined letter in the menu name the menu will "pull down". For example if you press ALT-f the File menu will come down. Once a menu is brought down in this manner, you may use the up and down arrow keys to cycle through the menu's items. Pressing RETURN will active the highlighted item. The left and right keys may be used to skip to other menus and "pull down" them. Once the menu is down you may release the ALT key. Each of the items on the menu also has an underlined letter. Pressing the underlined letter will activate that item. At the top of each of the pull down portions of the menus is a thin dashed line. If the mouse button is released on this line the menu will "tear off" from the menu bar and become a separate window. This allows for semi-permanent access to the menu items. The tear off window may be closed by using the window managers built-in means (typically by double clicking with the middle mouse button on the title of the window.). NOTE: Due to US Security restrictions and SAIC license agreements, some features of OMEGA may not be installed on your system. The corresponding elements of XOMEGA will be shaded gray and may not be used. NOTE: By default some controls may be initially shaded gray. These controls are inactive and may not be used. Some controls may become active as a result of certain other parameter settings. Once they become clearly visible they may be used as normal. Please refer to your operating system manual and window manager help system for more information on your particular X Window Server. XOMEGA The XOMEGA application window has four main sections: Menu Bar, OMEGA Settings Column, XOMEGA Status Messages, and, Drawing Area. Each of these sections has a different purpose and features. The Menu Bar spans the top of XOMEGA window and allows for intermediate and advanced use. The OMEGA Settings Column is the group of buttons at left and is for basic use. Status Messages are displayed in a large text box at the bottom. The Drawing Area displays graphics and user selections. Each section of the interface is described below. File Menu The File Menu is used to manipulate Cases and Runs, to open and close files, and exit XOMEGA. Choosing "Case & Run Manager" will pop up the Case Run Manger dialog. This dialog box has its own documentation section. Choosing any of the "Open ... File" items will will pop up a file selection dialog that allows you to navigate among the directories and files, looking for the desired file to open. The default location is within the current working directory. The filter line is set to show files with the proper naming conventions for the type of file you are trying to open. Once you have opened a file the information will be read into the appropriate data structure. If the data contains errors, then an error dialog box and the corresponding Settings dialog box will be popped up. If there are no errors the corresponding button in the OMEGA Settings Column will be colored gold, to indicate completion of that operation. The chart below shows the correspondence between File Menu choice, file type, and Settings button: File Menu Choice File Type Settings Button --------------------------------------------------------------- Open a Temporal Domain File time.inp Set Time Domain Open a Spatial Domain File grid.inp Set Spatial Domain Open a Meteorology Control File met.inp Set Meteorology Open a ADM Sources File adm.inp Set ADM Sources Open a Model Input File omega.i Set Model Options Choosing "Quit" will quit XOMEGA and return you to the Unix command shell. Edit Menu The Edit Menu choices offer alternative ways to pop up the various "Set ... " dialog boxes. The main method is too use one of the buttons in the Settings Column. This menu is included for completeness. Choosing "Preferences" will pop up a dialog box with text entries for the user configurable parameters for the Grid Generator and Model Components of the OMEGA System. The options and their defaults values are explained below. Grid Preferences Number of Stretchable Levels - This is the number of levels that are created during the grid generation process. Valid Range: 10 to 40 Default Value: 28 Vertical Stretching Factor - This number is used to determine the spacing of vertical layers in the grid. Valid Range: 1.0 to 2.0 Default Value: 1.2 Grid Iterations - This is the maximum number of iterations that the grid generator will processes before finishing. Valid Range: 1 to 20 Default Value: 10 Model Preferences Diagnostic Output Interval - Number of model steps between each diagnostic report file. Valid Range: 10 to 1000 Default Value: 50 Time Step Factor - Multiplier on time step figured from velocity calculations. Valid Range: 0.1 to 1.0 Default Value: 0.8 Action Buttons Clear Form - This button will reset the text entries to blanks. Default - This button will reset all text entries to their default values. OK - This button will check the Preference data, and close the dialog box. If any values are in error, a Preference Error dialog box will pop up alerting you of the specific errors and suggestions on how to correct them. Cancel - This button will decline the Preference data, reset the values to default, and close the dialog box. There is no confirmation process. Help - This button will open the Help dialog and load this section. Programs Menu The Programs Menu choices offer alternative ways to execute the external program Components of the OMEGA System (Grid Generator, Call Fetch Met, Call Prep Met, and Operations Manager). The main method is too use one of the buttons in the OMEGA Settings Column. This menu is included for completeness. Window Menu The Window Menu is used to open other XOMEGA windows, or start XGrid. Choosing "Map Controls Dialog" will pop up the Map Controls dialog, and set the initial map state to global coverage. Choosing "Start XGrid" will start the XGrid program. Advanced Menu The Advanced Menu has two choices: Set Refinement Disks and Select Alternate Geography Data Sets. Choosing the Set Refinement Disks menu will pop up the Set Refinement Disks dialog box. You may use this box in combination with the Drawing Area and Map dialog to define circular zones within your OMEGA domain. How to use the Refinement Dialog box is discussed in the section on Setting Spatial Domain. Choosing the Select Alternate Geography Data Sets will allow you to change which 30 arc seconds terrain data set is available for your simulation. The three choices are: Commercial, Military, and Atlantis. The first two are different versions of the same data covering selected regions of earth. The Atlantis data set is an artificial continent that should only be used in specialized cases. Help Menu All the choices on this menu activate a Help dialog box and fill the text window with the appropriate help file. The help topics available are: XOMEGA Case & Run Manager Set Temporal Domain Set Spatial Domain Call Grid Generator Set Meteorology Data Call Fetch Met Call Prep Met Set ADM Sources Set Model Parameters Operations Manager When a topic is selected the appropriate help file will be loaded into the dialog's text window. The text will scroll to the top of the section. As you request more help sections they will be appended to the text window. The text will always scroll to the top of the most recent section. All Help text will remain in the window even when it is closed and reopened. You may refer back to prior help messages at any time by simply selecting Open Help from the Help menu and sliding the scroll bar up and down. OMEGA Settings Column This group of controls is presented in order of use (top to bottom). Each button will open either a dialog box for detailed input to a Component, or a dialog for controlling an external process. The buttons are listed below with their basic function. The details of each dialog and action, including user guidelines for input, are presented in the their own sections. Case & Run Manager - Case & Run Manager dialog box - Input/Control Set Temporal Domain - Temporal Domain dialog box - Input Set Spatial Domain - Spatial Domain and Map Controls dialogs - Input Call Grid Generator - Call Grid Generator dialog box - Control Set Meteorology Data - Meteorology Parameters dialog box - Input Call Fetch Met - Fetch Meteorology dialog - Control Call Prep Met - Preprocessor dialog - Control Set ADM Sources - ADM Sources and Map Operations dialogs - Input Set Model Parameters - Model Options dialog box - Input Operations Manager - Operations Manager dialog box - Control For each button there is an associated dialog box and process. The dialog box will pop up when the button is pressed. Once the dialog is finished, or the process completed without errors the button will be colored gold. If there are input errors, or the process does not complete the button will be colored grey. In addition to the buttons, the Settings column also has two display boxes. The Current Case & Run box shows the currently selected Case and Run. The Map Bounds box shows the current maximum and minimum latitude and longitude of the map. Status Messages As you build your OMEGA simulation you will receive messages in the text block at the bottom of the interface. Errors, warnings, and other status messages will be printed in this window. Using the scroll bar you will be able to see previous messages. To increase the size of the Status Messages window use the mouse to grab the small square on the right hand side above the scroll bar. Be sure to drag the window back when using the Drawing Area. Drawing Area The Drawing Area is the largest part of the interface and is used to display images, maps, and user input. When you are Setting the Spatial Domain, Setting ADM Sources, or Setting Refinement Disks, you will use the mouse and Drawing Area to "point and click" your input. How the mouse behaves is controlled by toggle buttons on the Map Operations dialog box. While XOMEGA is drawing the cursor will change from an arrow to a watch. No other activity may take place in the XOMEGA windows while drawing. Map Controls Dialog Box The Map Controls dialog box is the main control for the function of the cursor when it is inside the Drawing Area window. This dialog will be popped up automatically as needed. There are four drawing modes: Zoom Box, Domain Region, Refinement Disk, and ADM Point. The four modes represent the geometric shape drawn by the cursor and the input to the interface. The mode is changed by clicking one of the radio buttons on the dialog. The coordinates of the cursor are displayed as you track over the map. The cursor will change shape for each mode of map control. Before you draw in the window make sure that the cursor is the correct image. Use these visual cues to help prevent mistakes. Mode Cursor Image Drawing Geometry ------------------------------------------------------------ Zoom Box four pointed arrow Rectangle Domain Region simple cross-hair Rectangle Refinement Disk circle Circle ADM Point solid dot Point The Zoom Box mode is for enlarging sections of the map. While holding down the first mouse button, drag the cursor into a rectangle shape enclosing the area of the map you would like to zoom in on. This new portion of the world will fill the activity window. The Domain Region mode is used to enclose specific regions of the map that will become part of the OMEGA domain. While holding down the first mouse button, drag the cursor into a rectangle shape enclosing the area of the map that you would like to be the outer-most, or largest, region in the domain. Note that all subsequent regions must be within this first region, so make sure it encloses all of your intended domain. A total of ten (10) regions may be selected. The Refinement Disk mode is used to enclose circular areas in the domain that will undergo a refinement process in during grid generation. The ADM Point mode is used to select points in the domain that will act as sources for the Atmospheric Dispersion Model within the OMEGA System. Simply place the cursor over the desired location and press the first mouse button. Up to one-hundred (100) points may be placed. There are four buttons on the bottom row of the Map Operations dialog box. The "Close" button will close the dialog, leaving, the cursor in the current mode, the map in the current state, and with no loss of data. "Zoom" will zoom in on the center portion of the map and expand it ten times. "Un-Zoom" will return the map to the previous state. Drawing Area Window Features When the Map Operations dialog box pops up a world map will be drawn in the Drawing Area Window. The map has several static features. You should use these to aid your choice of domain parameters such as size and terrain data set. Lines are used for cartographic features. Coverage areas are shown as square panels and indicate what resolution of data is available for a given portion of the world. The dynamic features of the map are objects drawn by the user. These are features used to represent data input and other selections. This chart is a key to the map's features. Static Features Shape Style Weight Color Feature ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Line Solid Thick Black Equator Line Solid Thick Black Prime Meridian Line Solid Thin Black Tropics Line Dash Thin Black/Gray 10deg Latitude Line Dash Thin Black/Gray 10deg Longitude ------ ------ ----- White Areas of 5 minute Resolution Coverage Square Filled Thin Yellow Areas of 30 second Resolution Coverage Dynamic Features Shape Style Weight Color Feature ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rectangle Outline Variable Black Region using 5 minute Resolution Data Rectangle Outline Variable Blue Region using 30 second Resolution Data Circle Outline Variable Plum Refinement Disk Square Solid Variable Orange ADM Source Location END XOMEGA Graphical User Interface