ElVis Display Program

1.  ElVis on the PPPL petrel Cluster

    ElVis displays graphs sent from data sources.  Users can run a shell script for starting ElVis.  On the petrel cluster, the scripts are in /u/efeibush/dist/elvis/. 

    If you will be running from a C-shell then type: source  /u/efeibush/dist/elvis/elvis
    If you will be running from a Bash shell then type:  source  /u/efeibush/dist/elvis/elvis.bsh
            This will start the ElVis display program (if it is not already running).
            The port number for receiving data and host computer name will be displayed in the titlebar.  These will be needed by Fortran and C programs for connecting to ElVis.
         

2.  ElVis on a Windows PC

    Installation:
        Copy /u/efeibush/dist/elvis/elvis.jar to a folder or the desktop on your PC.

    Run:
        Double click on the icon for elvis.jar.  This will start the ElVis display program.  The port number for receiving data and host computer name will be displayed in the titlebar. 


3.  To run ElVis with rplot

    Start ElVis on your display.  The hostname and port number are shown in the titlebar.  Set these 2 environment variables to the hostname and port in the window where you will run rplot:

        ELVIS_SERVER
        ELVIS_PORT

        Run rplot.  It should print a message saying it detected an ElVis server.
            Plots will be displayed within the ElVis window.
 

4. netCDF Files

Browse for a netCDF file on the web and display graphs of the data.  Details for Reading and Displaying netCDF Files from the Applet.

5.  ElVis  Features

5.1  User Interface

    The menu bar contains File, Window, and Help.

    The File menu contains:
        Load - load a GraphWindow (.gw) file.        
        Save - save the highlighted GraphWindow to a file.
       Print - prints the highlighted GraphWindow to a PostScript file in the user's home directory.  The title of the GraphWindow is used as the file name.  The file extension is .ps for PostScript.

            If the GraphWindow contains more than 1 plot, each plot is saved to a separate PostScript file.  The file names will include the row and column number of the plot.

        Exit - exit the display program.


    The Window menu contains:
      Fit Scope Panel - resize the graphs so they are all visible.
      Reset Scope Panel - resize the graphs to their original aspect ratio.
      Fit Graphs - resize the graphs so each graph fills the window.
     Close All - close and delete all GraphWindows.
 

    The Help menu contains:
      About - shows the version.

5.2  GraphWindows

    GraphWindows are internal frames within the ElVis desktop window.  GraphWindows can be moved, resized, raised, and iconified.  The plots within the GraphWindow can be resized by dragging the right edge, bottom edge, or bottom-right corner.  Dragging the bottom-right corner with mouse button 3 will resize the plot while maintaining its aspect ratio.

    When a plot contains indexed datasets a row of VCR buttons will be displayed at the top of the window.  The buttons control the animation of the indexed datasets.  The VCR buttons are:

    |<      Jump to the lowest index.
    <<    Sequentially display the datasets by decrementing the index.
    <      Decrement the index by 1.
    ||        Stop the animation.
    >       Increment the index by 1.
    >>    Sequentially display the datasets by incrementing the index.
    >|      Jump to the highest index.
 
 

5.3  Plotting an X-Y File

    A plot of the x-y data in a text file can be displayed in ElVis.  The file should contain one x-y pair per line, e.g.:
 
.000029876      2.15
.000043210      4.36
.000065432      6.77
.000087654      8.58


The plot will be drawn in a new GraphWindow.  The title of the window is the name of the data file.

    To plot a file, run:   java -jar eplot.jar data.txt

 

5.4  Trouble Shooting

    ElVis logs messages to /tmp/elvis_client.username on Linux systems.  Check these log files if plots from rplot or x-y files are not being displayed.

     If warning messages Cannot convert string to type VirtualBinding are printed when ElVis starts, then check on .motifbind.

6.  Developers

    The API for C and Fortran programs is in the library elvis.a.  Link this with your application program.  Declarations are in elvis.h which should be included in your source code.

    The Java classes are in elvis.jar.  Some example Java programs are in /u/efeibush/dist/elvis:  EIndexed.java, ELabels.java, ESample.java, ESurface.java, and Eplot.java.  These examples can be compiled and run by putting elvis.jar in your classpath.

    The production version of ElVis is in /u/efeibush/dist/elvis.

    The latest development version of ElVis in in /u/efeibush/dist/elvis.new.