Plot Layout 

Sophisticated layouts are possible in Metview, with multiple plots on a single page as shown below:

To demonstrate the plot layout facility in Metview, let's re-create the above plotting:   

• instantiate a new Display Window icon and edit it.
• click on the Add new frame button to create the first frame. By default, this contains just a single plot scene which uses a Geographic View. 
• select (left-click) this plot scene and click Expand selected frames to make it fill the whole area.
• divide it up into three areas as follows:
  • click Split selected frames, select 2x1 in order to obtain two vertically stacked frames and click OK.
  • select (left-click) the lower frame, click Split selected frames and select 1x2.
• give a different View to each scene:
  • drag a Cross Section View icon (either one you previously created or else a new one) into the top scene.
  • drag a Vertical Profile View icon into the bottom-left scene.
  • drag a Geographic View of your choice into the bottom-right scene.

Your Display Window editor should look like this:

Now do the following:

• Save the changes and Visualise this icon.
  
• drag the t_fc96.grib icon into all three of the scenes in the Display Window.
• apply some Visdefs:
  • drag the shade icon into the cross section scene.
  • drag the vdline icon into the vertical profile scene.

Your result should look something like the plot at the start of this section.

If you look at the Frames and, more interestingly, the Layers tabs, you will see that they are linked to only one of these scenes at a time. Try using the Active scene control to change which on is used. You can also right-click on a scene and choose “Select as active scene” from the context menu.

Legend   

Legends are an important part of any scientific and operational plot. If enabled, an automatic legend will be built from the data provided.

To enable a legend, parameter Legend needs to be set to On. This parameter is available in some of the Visual Definition icons (e.g.  Contouring, Graph Plotting and Wind Plotting).

To specify how a plot's legend is displayed, Metview provides a specific icon, named Legend. It controls features such as the legend's position, style and fonts.

To demonstrate the Legend's concept, do the following:

• Visualise icon t_fc24.grib.
• drop icon shade into the Display Window (verify that parameter Legend is set to On).
  

The result shows a default legend sitting at the top of the plot. Let's move the plot legend into a column at the right of the map:

• create a new Legend icon and rename it to legmap. Edit it, setting the following parameters, noting that the position of the legend is specified in cm from the bottom-left corner of the page, and that the default page size is A4:

• Apply the changes and drag this icon into the Display Window.

Automatic legend	Positional Legend

Note that the direction of the legend, by default, is computed automatically depending on the dimensions of its positional box (here, it was originally horizontal, then it became vertical). It can also be manually set.

Annotation View   

The Annotation View icon provides a container for user-defined text boxes. This View can also be used for layout purposes - if no user text is defined then an empty box will be created in the Display Window / paper sheet.

The user-defined text is provided by means of a Text Plotting  icon.    

• create a new Annotation View icon and visualise it.
• create a new Text Plotting icon and rename it to note1. Edit it, setting the following parameters:
  

• Apply the changes and drag this icon into the Display Window.

Multiple Text Plotting icons can be placed in this View:

• duplicate the note1 icon and rename it to note2.
• customise it by changing for instance the font style and size (remember to re-define an appropriate text box).
• drag it into the Display Window.

Extra work

Create an A3 plot, projection Mollweide

• Hint: the page size is a setting in the Display Window icon

Customise the size of the drawing area

The exercise given in the Legend section above has a hidden feature related to the value 27.4 assigned to parameter Legend X Box Position in the icon legmap. This value was carefully chosen to allow the legend box to cover completely the latitude labels on the right hand side of the map. Change this value to 27, for instance, and check the result. One possible solution to avoid this issue is to reduce the width of the mapping area; thus, giving more space to draw the legend box.

Redo the Legend section's exercise by reducing the width of the mapping area. The mapping area is known as the subpage.

• Hints: 1) this is a setting in the Geographical View icon; 2) create an new instance of this View, and change the subpage size.

Re-create the following plot:

Choose one of the given GRIB files.

Build the equivalent Macro program.

5 Profiles

Create a layout with 5 Vertical Profile views, each showing a profile for a different location. Arrange the views any way you wish.