Description: The Aerial/Satellite Imagery Manager provides the ability to designate aerial photographs to be displayed as background images on the Animator's map graphics screen. Easy to use facilities for repositioning and resizing the photographs are also provided. The user need only drag the designated locations on the image to edit the images position or size. Additionally, the following capabilities are supported: Displaying multiple images simultaneously. Images may be designated as only being visible when the field of view (zoom level) is within a particular range. Images may be prioritized, thus designated which will be drawn below and which on top. Similar to ordering a deck of cards. A transparency factor can be applied to each image. Useful when you want to display a togographic map which otherwise would appear as clutter underneath the SIMMOD link/node network. An ageing factor can be applied per image. Aerial image files can require substantial amounts of computer memory. If several large images aer to be displayed at random zoom, or pan, levels the APECS Animator will keep track of how many full screen refreshes have occurred since the last display of an image. If no portion of a particular image has been displayed in "Ageing Factor" number of screen refreshes then the image is removed from memory and the memory is released to be used elsewhere in the program. Components: Drag location - To either reposition or to resize the image click the mouse on a yellow square and then drag it to a new location. Note that images draw themselves underneath all other Animator objects, thus, you may need to turn off some map item's visibility to view all of the drag locations. Save - Save the currently designated images. New - Add a new image. Refresh - Reload currently selected image from disk. Use this functionality to refersh an image after you have edited it (such as rotated it) using a third party program. Edit - Open the Aerial/Satellite Imagery Manager Spreadsheet which allows you to edit attributes about all imported image files. A description of this tool can be found further below. Delete - Delete the currently selected image. Set Scene - Set the scene to a scene which has been previously stored. Zoom In Immediately - Press this button to immediately zoom in the map graphics. Zoom In After Click - Press this button then click on a point of interest on the map graphics to pan to the point and then zoom in. Zoom Out Immediately - Press this button to immediately zoom out the map graphics. Zoom Out After Click - Press this button then click on a point of interest on the map graphics to pan to the point and then zoom out. Center Map Graphics - Press this button and then click on a point of interest on the map graphics to center the point of interest. Get Latitude Longitude Location - Press this button and then click on a point of interest on the map graphics. After clicking on the map graphics a window will open which contains the latitude and longitude of the point of interest. Then the latitude and/or the longitude can then be easily copied to other tools. Aerial/Satellite Imagery Manager Spreadsheet The Aerial/Satellite Imagery Manager Spreadsheet has several columns which are explained below: Filename - The name of the aerial image file. Visible - Sets whether or not the image is visible. Priority - The order in which the image is to be displayed. Images with a smaller priority number will be drawn first. Ageing Factor - The number of full map graphics screen refreshes (initiated by a zoom, pan, or change of scene) that may occur without the specific image being displayed before the image is removed from memory. If on a subsequent zoom, pan, or scene change the image is required it will be reloaded from your hard drive. The value should be greater than zero. Use a large ageing factor to permanently load images into memory. Opaque Value - The transparency factor for the image. The value must be between 0.0 and 1.0. Values closer to zero will be more transparent. Min. Longitude - The minimum longitude to which the upper left hand corner of the image should be anchored. Max. Latitude - The maximum latitude to which the upper left hand corner of the image should be anchored. Max. Longitude - The maximum longitude to which the lower right hand corner of the image should be anchored. Min. Latitude - The minimum latitude to which the lower right hand corner of the image should be anchored. Min. FOV - The minimum field of view at which the image will be displayed. The field of view is the distance in nautical miles measured diagonally from the current map graphics upper left hand corner to the current map graphics lower right hand corner. As the user zooms in and out of the Animator's map graphics the field of view varies with each successive screen change. Zooming in results in a smaller field of view and zooming out results in a larger field of view. If the user zooms in so close that the field of view on the map graphics is smaller than the image's designated Min. FOV then the image is not displayed. Otherwise, depending on the Max. FOV (described below) the image may be displayed. Max. FOV - The maximum field of view at which the image will be displayed. The field of view is the distance in nautical miles measured diagonally from the current map graphics upper left hand corner to the current map graphics lower right hand corner. As the user zooms in and out of the Animator's map graphics the field of view varies with each successive screen change. Zooming in results in a smaller field of view and zooming out results in a larger field of view. If the user zooms out so far that the field of view on the map graphics is larger than the image's designated Max. FOV then the image is not displayed. Otherwise, depending on the Min. FOV (described above) the image may be displayed.