IDL Frame Tools

Last Revision 9/9/1998 (Source code now available)

These IDL tools (FSET, AF, BF, LF, SF, FSAVE, FRESTORE) provide a handy replacement for the WINDOW command. The FSET command creates a graphics window (with or without scrollbars) which "contains" a user-specified number of frames. Any kind of graphic may be displayed in each frame, and you can

Advance one frame (AF command),
Backup one frame (BF command),
Loop over frames (LF command),
Show a particular frame (SF command),
New: Save all frames to a portable XDR file (FSAVE command),
New: Restore all frames from a portable XDR file (FRESTORE command).

Each frame retains all the characteristics of an individual graphics window (e.g. all plotting and mapping system variables, and color tables). I've found it to be very useful for applications such as comparing two plots or images of slightly different datasets, animating sequences of images, or temporarily storing different graphics windows. The FSAVE and FRESTORE commands also enable you to create slide-shows that can be saved in a platform independent XDR file, and then reloaded and played back in IDL (as long as the same version of IDL is used).

These tools are known to work in IDL 4.0 through IDL 5.1, and support 8 or 24 bit graphics on Unix, PC, and Mac displays. Each of the routines has help built in, which can be accessed by typing the routine name with the HELP keyword set, e.g.

fset,/help

Each routine is designed to have a default mode of operation when no keyword parameters are used. So a nominal sequence of commands could be as simple as the following:

fset
tvscl,dist(32)
af & tvscl,dist(64)
af & tvscl,dist(128)
af & tvscl,dist(256)
lf

Saving the current frames to a disk file is as easy as typing

fsave

and the frames can be restores using the command

frestore,'fsave01.xdr'

which can be done later in the same IDL session, in another IDL session, or even on a different platform.

Please feel free to download the source code, give it a whirl, and let me know what you think.

Liam E. Gumley
Last updated 9 September 1998