[IDV #KMO-892017]: Display label color and contour/vector color

Hi Dave-

> I'm using IDV v2.5 on a MacBook Pro laptop, fully updated.
> 
> I plot wind vectors on a pressure surface from model data. The IDV
> picks a color (the same color) for both the vectors and the display
> label. I then change the color of the vectors (Displays > Edit >
> Color). However, the color of the display label doesn't change, so the
> two no longer match.

That is by design. ;-) As a first guess, it uses the autoselected
color of the vectors/barbs/streamlines for the display list color.  
However, the user can change the color or display list color independently.  
Users can also set the default color for all display list items if they want.  
So, keeping track of whether the display only has color and whether the display
list color came from the initial display color, or whether it was set
in from the view or system defaults is problematic, but not impossible.
I put in some code to keep track of this which will be in the next nightly
build.



> For a single field in the display, this is no big deal. However, when
> I plot another set of vectors at a different pressure level on the
> same display with a different color, the color cue that connects the
> display label to the data field suddenly becomes important.

Just don't change the default colors. ;-)
 
> Ideally I'd be able to do the same think for a contoured field (e.g.,
> temperature) when the contours have a single, solid color.

This is too tricky.  As far as the IDV knows, you have a color table, not
a single color in this case.  Also, you can have vectors colored by
another field.  Right now, the color widget still shows in this latter
case, but I'll fix that.

> I couldn't figure out how to change the color of the display label to
> match the color of the data field. Would it make sense to change the
> color of the display label automatically when the data are a single
> color and that color is changed, to maintain the correspondence?

It's a good suggestion. You can use the View->Display List Color-> menu to 
change the Display List color for now to keep them in sync. 

> On a vaguely related topic, I plotted four fields (wind vectors and
> geostrophic winds at 850 and 500 mb) and wanted to modify the vector
> skip, the vector length scale, and the range on all four so that they
> match. At the moment it appears that I have to make those changes for
> all four fields separately because these display parameters don't
> appear in the Edit > Edit Display Settings dialog box for that
> particular display--only labels and flags show up there. Is this a
> technical limitation of the software?

Yes in that we haven't implemented those options for the Display Settings.
Jeff's working on that and it will be in the next nightly build.

Don Murray

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: KMO-892017
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open