GISWorldDataBank

Synopsis

provides a convenient user interface (UI) to the GISCIAMapII module

Input Ports

None

Parameters

precision	UIdial	Set precision of CIA Map II data.
Western Longitude	UIdial	Set the western most boundary.
Eastern Longitude	UIdial	Set the eastern most boundary.
Southern Latitude	UIdial	Set the southern most boundary.
Northern Latitude	UIdial	Set the northern most boundary.
Geographic	UIlist	Select the geographic features to use.
Political	UIlist	Select the political features to use.
Coastal	UIlist	Select the coastal features to use.
Rivers	UIlist	Select the river features to use.
Ingest	UIbutton	Read and filter the CIA World Map II file.

Output Ports

geoPolylines	Mesh	Polylines representing geographic info.
polPolylines	Mesh	Polylines representing political info.
coastalPolylines	Mesh	Polylines representing coastal info.
riverPolylines	Mesh	Polylines representing river info.

Description

This macro is a user interface wrapper around the module GISCIAMapII which provides a convenient user interface for reading in the CIA World Databank II database, which contains vast amounts of information organized in an extremely complex fashion.

This module provides the means for you to set filtering parameters such as latitude and longitude boundaries, precision information and feature information to applying while reading in the data set. For a complete description of information contained in the CIA World Databank file, please consult GISCIAMapII .

Parameters

precision

The CIA World Databank II files are high resolution (1:4 million mapping), compressed data sets that must be decompressed as the information is ingested. By specifying a precision required in arc-seconds, you can degrade the information as it is read in from the databank. The default setting is 3600 arc-seconds, or 1 degree of resolution.

Western Longitude

The western most longitude of data to ingest from the databank. The value is entered by manipulating the UIdial to the desired longitude. Although the dial allows values from -180.0 to 360 for convenience, any longitude value entered between -180.0 to 0.0 is converted to the 0.0 to 360.0 longitude system.

Eastern Longitude

The eastern most longitude of data to ingest from the databank. The value is entered by manipulating the UIdial to the desired longitude. Although the dial allows values from -180.0 to 360 for convenience, any longitude value entered between -180.0 to 0.0 is converted to the 0.0 to 360.0 longitude system.

Southern Latitude

The southern most latitude of data to ingest from the databank. The value is entered by manipulating the UIdial to the desired latitude. The dial only allows values between -90.0 and 90.0.

Northern Latitude

The northern most latitude of data to ingest from the databank.The value is entered by manipulating the UIdial to the desired latitude. The dial only allows values between -90.0 and 90.0.

Geographic

This is a UIlist containing the ASCII strings that are allowed as input to the geographic feature filter. For a complete description of each of the values, please consult GISCIAMapII .

Political

This is a UIlist containing the ASCII strings that are allowed as input to the political feature filter. For a complete description of each of the values, please consult GISCIAMapII .

Coastal

This is a UIlist containing the ASCII strings that are allowed as input to the coastal feature filter. For a complete description of each of the values, please consult GISCIAMapII .

River

This is a UIlist containing the ASCII strings that are allowed as input to the river feature filter. For a complete description of each of the values, please consult GISCIAMapII .

Ingest

Once all of the filters required are in place, pressing the Ingest button causes GISWorldDataBank to fire off the GISCIAMapII module to read the CIA map data files. Note that the file will be read only when the Ingest button is pressed. Typically, once a region has been selected and viewed, high resolution analysis is performed by resetting the precision dial and re-ingesting the file.

Output Ports

geoPolylines

This is an irregular Mesh data field containing polylines for the geographic features requested. Note that these are polylines, not polygons -- do not rely on the structures in this Mesh to be closed areas. This field can be passed directly into GISMeshProject for standard map transformations.

polPolylines

This is an irregular Mesh data field containing polylines for the political features requested. Note that these are polylines, not polygons -- do not rely on the structures in this Mesh to be closed areas. This field can be passed directly into GISMeshProject for standard map transformations.

coastalPolylines

This is an irregular Mesh data field containing polylines for the coastal features requested. Note that these are polylines, not polygons -- do not rely on the structures in this Mesh to be closed areas. This field can be passed directly into GISMeshProject for standard map transformations.

riverPolylines

This is an irregular Mesh data field containing polylines for the river, canal and irrigation features requested. Note that these are polylines, not polygons -- do not rely on the structures in this Mesh to be closed areas. This field can be passed directly into GISMeshProject for standard map transformations.

About The CIA World Databank II

For convenience sake, the CIA World Databank II data files are included on the AVS/Express CDROM in the data/Maps subdirectory. This information can also be obtained from the Internet (a web search will turn up several sources), or on CDROM or tape from several US Government vendors. Some of these sources will include national, political boundaries for South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

The CIA World Databank II database included with this release of AVS/Express was placed into the public domain and as such this data can be distributed. No portion of the cost of AVS/Express is being used to charge against this data set.

Example

None

File

v/gis2.v