REL: v1.2.0

Version 1.2.0 is a major update, in that a number of important changes were made to add new features, fix a few potential problems, and enable easier startup and initialization. Please upgrade to this version. The specific changes, fixes, and additions are noted below. See the updated User Manual for more details.

Changed

• Several changes were made to allow W2Anim to be started from a command prompt in a more flexible and robust fashion. W2Anim now determines the path to its scripts in a way that should be more reliable, thus ensuring a more dependable start.

• When W2Anim starts up, one of its first tasks is to search for and find the locations of the Ghostscript and FFmpeg helper programs, if they are installed on the local system. Previously, W2Anim would perform a more extensive search for these programs if they were not found initially in an expected location, and that search could take several minutes and be confusing to the user as a sluggish start. Now, only a cursory search for the helper programs is performed, and the user is alerted if these helper programs are not found. An option to perform an automated search is then provided as an option to the user. The File::Find::Object module is now used for such searches because it is faster and provides options to exit early; that module hopefully is part of the standard Perl distribution.

• The vertical profile goodness-of-fit statistics calculation was modified to allow the modeled profile to be vertically interpolated to match the depth or elevation of the points in a measured profile, if the user asks for an interpolated match.

• In order for W2Anim to properly handle sloping model grids and accurately represent the elevation of the bottom of each model segment, the relevant model bathymetry file(s) must now be read by W2Anim, even when using W2 Contour and Vector (w2l) output files that include similar, but less reliable, information. The user interface was updated to include this new requirement.

• All pop-up windows in the W2Anim program now check their size and location to ensure that the entire pop-up window is shown on the screen. Previously, some part of the pop-up window or menu might have been initially located off of the user's screen.

• The minimum user-defined cell height for each color in a color scheme legend was decreased from 3 to 2 pixels.

• The maximum match tolerance for vertical profiles was increased from 120 to 180 minutes, but the default remains at 10 minutes.

• Linked text objects now use the default slant characteristic (italics or normal).

• In the absence of data, linked text objects now show an "na" value.

Fixed

• The match tolerance algorithm for time-series datasets and for vertical profile dataset comparisons was updated to recognize that such a date/time comparison must take into account the minute (60) and hour (24) branch cuts. The previous algorithm was too simple and unreliable.

• Changes were made to ensure that W2Anim accurately tracks and plots the bottom elevation of each model segment in W2 graph types. W2Anim now recognizes situations for sloped branches when the surface layer may be temporarily located below the segment bottom. The water surface should still be above the real segment bottom in such cases, and W2Anim now accurately plots the segment bottom elevation. This fix is particularly important for W2 Longitudinal Slice plots, but is relevant for all W2 graph types.

• When plotting rectangular color regions to an image (such as for vertical profile plots or longitudinal slice plots or time/distance maps), it turns out that single-pixel horizontal or vertical line plotting or individual pixel plotting was not supported with the same syntax by the toolkit. Changes were made to the code to ensure that these special cases are now handled properly.

• Code was modified to ensure that when a W2 model branch is sloped, the W2 Longitudinal Slice plots reflect that slope. Previously, the code was configured to handle only zero-slope branches. The updated longitudinal slices for sloped branches are now more accurately visualized.

• When many branches or waterbodies are used in a W2 Time/Distance Map or a W2 Longitudinal Slice plot, many input files may be required. The user interface now employs a vertically scrolled menu to ensure that the list of required inputs does not push the bottom of the menu off of the screen. The same type of optionally scrolled menu is now used for the list of time-series datasets in the graph properties menu.

• A rare issue with a date/time axis label that might be double printed was fixed.

• In the code that scans a W2 vector output file, a problem with the specification of the file name was fixed.

Added

• Two new lines were added to the w2anim.ini initialization file to allow the user to set the paths for the Ghostscript and FFmpeg helper programs. For systems in which those programs reside in non-standard locations, this will help W2Anim to find those programs more quickly. If either program is not installed, an "off" entry can be substituted for the program path.

• The w2anim.ini initialization file can now be saved from the Edit/Preferences menu.

• The numeric legend plotted with a color scheme previously was set using only the minimum and maximum values along with the number of color steps used in that color scheme. In this version of W2Anim, the user has an option to set the scale increment for the legend. This does not affect the values associated with the boundaries between adjacent color steps, but does allow the user to more cleanly set the numeric legend entries that are plotted next to the color scale. The original behavior is retained by setting the scale increment to "auto".

• Vertical profile goodness-of-fit statistics can now be computed using (1) a vertically interpolated model profile or (2) the original method that simply finds the model layer in which the measured point resides.

• Vertical profile goodness-of-fit statistics are now reported both in aggregate based on the pairs of points compared and also as mean statistics averaged over the number of measured vertical profiles compared.

• When comparing W2 Vertical Profile plots to measured profiles, linked goodness-of-fit text objects can now be created, and those linked statistic objects will be updated for each new date/time as the W2 Vertical Profile graph is animated. The linked statistic objects can be moved and grouped just like other objects, and their properties can be modified.

• For W2 models that are run using time zones that do not correspond to the local standard time, all of the W2 graph types in W2Anim can now be configured with a time offset (default: +00:00) so that the model output can be changed to the local standard time. For example, if the model was run based on a time standard of UTC but the waterbody is located in the Pacific Standard Time zone, then a time offset of -08:00 would be used to convert the model date/time to a local standard time of PST. (W2 models typically are run in standard time, or at least do not deal with any changes related to daylight saving time.) Similarly, any W2-type time-series input files now also have the option to specify a time offset when being read.

• Grouped objects can now be deleted as a group, such that all of the members of the group are deleted, as opposed to just removing the group tag (ungroup).

• A segment axis option was added to the W2 Longitudinal Slice graph type. In the Graph Properties menu, the segment axis options are under the "S Axis" tab. A segment axis can replace the X distance axis or can be placed above or below the X distance axis. Optional vertical grid lines can be placed at segment major increments, and optional vertical grid lines can be placed at branch boundaries.