Week of January 22
Today’s agenda:
Announcements & reminders
Printing
Using Zip disks vs. hard-drives
MFworks help resources
Discuss Assignment #2
Flowcharts
How to submit your work
Work session for Assignment #1 and #2
Announcements & Reminders
Lab Supervisor schedule has begun = GIS lab now available for drop-in use
Drop-in use schedule: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
If you come to the GIS lab for drop-in use and the Lab Supervisor is not here, contact Daniel Fox, Spark Lab - Room 2410 SSC, djfox@uwo.ca
My lecture notes are now available online at the Geog280b course website: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Printing
Not possible to make printing available to you (because it is not possible keep track of use and bill you for it)
So you will submit your assignments digitally
Someone else will be printing your submissions for you
You will only be preparing Black & White prints
Gabor will mark the paper copy
More on this later today
Zip disks and Hard drives
Be sure that you are working off of the macintosh HD instead of your zip disk
Zip disks should be used for backup storage only
At the beginning of a work session, move your assignment folder from the zip disk to the hard-drive
At the end of a work session, move your assignment folder back to the zip disk
moving a folder from your zip disk to the hard-drive User Files (Temp) folder
"double click" the hard-drive icon
Find and then "double click" the User Files (Temp) folder
"double click" your Zip disk icon
Find the folder you want to transfer from the Zip disk
"drag and drop" your folder into the User Files (Temp) folder window
Why bother with this - isn’t it ok to work off the zip disk?
Zip disks are relatively small
Programs like MFworks need large amounts of free disk space to work well and minimize crashes
Zip disks are relatively slow
Hard-drives are much much faster = MFworks will work faster too!
Zip disks are relatively fragile
Morale of the story
Work on the hard-drive
Backup to the zip disk
MFworks help resources (in addition to myself)
ColleenMcCauley's MF Guide - a good primer on MFworks
Available in the Geog280 folder on OSX1B
ThinkSpace, the producers of MFworks Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Assignment #2
Gain experience working with Basic Operations (I and II) as they are implemented in MFworks
2 part assignment
Part 1 - work on Spatial Relations. Measuring distances and areas
Part 2 - concept of Competing Distances and cartographic visualization.
Starting Assignment #2
Do this now…
Double-click your computer’s hard drive icon
Double-click the temporary user files folder
Choose the File menu and select New Folder
Name the new folder "Assignment#2-yourname"
Data files
Open the Geog280b folder on OSX1B
Find and open the "SW Ont DMSP Base SDB" folder. This folder contains all the source files for the assignment
Select all the source files and then "Drag-and-drop" them into the "Assignment #2-yourname" folder you just made previously in the "User Files (Temp)" folder
Start a new project in MFworks. Add all these maps to the project. Use the "Project" menu "Add multiple" to do this.
Be sure to save the project
Part 1: Light Blobs Problem
Note a mistake in Part I: step A.
The instructions should read "Cover the map SW-Ont-Light100 with SW-Ont-DCW to see the nighttime lights…"
Need to apply things discussed last week
Cover, Spread, Recode, Count, Clump, binary maps, mask maps, and colour sequences
Quick review
What is "Cover" used to do?
to place one (or more) maps on top of a base map
to mosaic two (or more) maps together
What does the "Spread" operation do?
it measure distances from non-VOID cells
What does the "Recode" operation do?
it explicitly specifies zones from an old map that will appear in a new map
What does the "Count" function do?
it measure zone areas
What does "Clump" do?
assigns unique identifications to patches of cells
Quick review continued…
What are "Binary" maps?
maps consisting of only 2 zones
What are "Mask" maps?
binary maps with one VOID zone
How are colour sequences applied
First select the legend entries and then use the Legend:Color Sequence menu dialog box
Part 2: Nearest Airports
Tracker tool to access direction (azimuth) and distance information
Map: Ruler Coordinates menu item
Filter operation
Apply it as written, we will talk about filters in more depth in future
Flowcharts
A graphical way to describe a solution to a problem
Used in this course to graphically explain the steps in your script
Note that details are not important, the goal is to explain the overall logic behind the solution
A simple example
ApparentTempC = (ApparentTempF - 32) * 5 / 9 ;
Flowchart may look like this
Symbols are available for the MFworks operations discussed so far
Where is the symbol library found?
Open the Geog280b folder on OSX1B
Open the "FlowChartSymbolLibrary" MFworks file
Look at the layout window
Copy and paste the icons from this layout into your own layout window to build flowcharts
Preparing assignments for submission
Use the MFworks "Layout" window to prepare your work
When finished use the "print to PICT file" button to output your work to the hard-drive
Be sure to include your name and the assignment # and the part # in the filename!
Ex: "Ripley-Ass#1-part1"
Verify that the output is what you expected using SimpleText to view it
After you have created your PICT files and you are happy with them
Make a new folder to hold the files you are submitting
Call the folder "yourlastname-Assign#"
Ex. "Ripley-Assign#1"
Place all the PICT files you are submitting into this folder AND the script files
How to Submit the
Assignment to me
Open the Apple Menu
Select "Chooser"
Using the chooser
Connect to Eagle as "Guest"
Select the "Geog280b" folder
Check your Desktop
Transfer "yourlastname-Assign#" output folder to the dropbox
"Drag-and-drop" the "yourlastname-Assign#" folder onto this dropbox
Any questions?