[GPlates-discuss] Scotese's Suggestions for GPlates - Any comments?

Fri Jan 18 01:24:13 AEDT 2019

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your suggestions.

In terms of current plans… There’s a symbology plan (that’s been on paper for a while) for more flexible control over points/lines/fill/etc.  Same with selecting multiple features.

The SHIFT-click to select all geometries with same plate ID sounds good – although currently SHIFT-click shows properties of selected feature – however what you suggest sounds more useful (and we could eventually add more SHIFT-click choices besides “select all geometries with same plate ID”).  For CTRL-click, it might be good to save this for incrementally adding a feature to the selection (ie, the user CTRL-clicks multiple features to build up selection).

Just to be clear, currently the “camera location” places moves the specified lat/lon to the centre of the viewport (for both the 3D globe view and the 2D projection views).

I guess the “move geometry” tool sounds similar to the Modify Reconstruction Pole tool, except you’re modifying the present-day position of a geometry instead of its rotation. That sounds useful.

Regards,
John

From: GPlates-discuss <gplates-discuss-bounces at mailman.sydney.edu.au> On Behalf Of Christopher Scotese
Sent: Thursday, 17 January 2019 12:57 PM
To: gplates-discuss at mailman.sydney.edu.au
Subject: [GPlates-discuss] Scotese's Suggestions for GPlates - Any comments?

 Dear GPlates Community,

After using GPLates for ~10 years, I have come up with a short list of things that would make map-making a little easier (for me & maybe others, as well). I will be using GPlates extensively to produce the figures for my book, "Evolution of the Earth System".

I thought I would run these suggestions by the GPlates community, for your comments (can this be done already some other way?) and support (would you also like to see this functionalty implemented?).

I woudl be happy to answer any questions concerning my suggestions.

Best Regards,

Chris
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scotese's  top 4 suggestions/requests are:

Not very important
1. It would be nice to be able to set the transparency (opacity) of line work as well as filled polygons.
Justification:  Why not?

2. At the moment the "camera" location is ignored when changing to flat projections (like Mercator, Mollweide, etc.). It would be useful if the camera location could be used to make "oblique" projections, i.e. a polar Mollweide projection centered on 90N, 180E or transverse Mercator Projections.
Justification: Provides many more cartographic options.
Potential Complication: Graticule would need to be rotated as well (or not shown).

An enhancement useful for data management (delete & copy).
  3. Currently the "select" (Feature Inspection) tool, only selects one geographic element at a time. It would be useful if:
-"shift - select (click)"  selected all geographic elements with the same plate ID.
and
-"control - select (click)" selected all geographic elements with identical attribute information.

Jusrification: With these modifications it would be much easier to delete or copy multiple geographic elements. At the moment, deletions/copies must be done one at a time. Very tedious.

A new tool useful for "adjusting" geographic data. (This one is a little bit of a mind bender!).
4. Right now there are very useful tools to move, insert, or delete vertices in existing geographic elements. But sometimes I want to slightly adjust the position of an entire geographic feature - just a little. For example, say I have a shapefile of a modern outcrop belt, but for some reason the shapefile is offset/misplaced from where it should be. I would like to select the shapefile and "move it" (i.e. rotate it) to where it should be.
 This feature would behave like the "rotate" tool in Photoshop or Illustrator.

I would envision that this tool would be located below the "split feature" icon in the "choose feature" menu. It would look like the "view" icon - it might be called the "adjust" icon.
Basically, you would select the feature to "adjust", then hit the "adjust" feature icon. This would allow you to freely move (i.e. rotate) the entire feature. When you got it where you wanted it to be, you would then need to confirm the changes by hitting an "Adjustment OK" button- sort of like the "Create Feature"button. Then (point of no return) all the vertices in the selected feature would be overwritten with their new geographic coordinates.

Justification:  At present there is no way to do this sort of adjustment, which means either redigitizing the feature or adjusting the feature, vertex by vertex.

Prof. Christopher R. Scotese, Director, PALEOMAP Project
134 Dodge, Evanston Illinois 60202, 817 914 7090 (cell)

I know this is a long signature, but I think you'll enjoy the treasures hidden within.

Wow!  Check out the interactive paleoglobes at:  https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/a3WaCOMxNyt1pW0xhExlD1?domain=dinosaurpictures.org<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/a3WaCOMxNyt1pW0xhExlD1?domain=dinosaurpictures.org>. You can see where your home was located at the time of the Permo-Triassic extinction or any other time in Earth History.

Digital elevation models of all of the paleogeographic maps are now available at: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/B3EmCP7yOZtzKpoXi0Vudv?domain=earthbyte.org<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/B3EmCP7yOZtzKpoXi0Vudv?domain=earthbyte.org>

Maps and software can be freely downloaded at: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/RrOcCQnzP0tvk03PSMvrmc?domain=earthbyte.org<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/RrOcCQnzP0tvk03PSMvrmc?domain=earthbyte.org>

View Scotese animations at:  https://www.youtube.com/user/cscotese

Paleogeographic Atlases can be downloaded at:  https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/APegCROAQot4v2RWHO86Pn?domain=uta.academia.edu<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/APegCROAQot4v2RWHO86Pn?domain=uta.academia.edu>

Map Folios for different time periods can be downloaded at:
 https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7_O3CVAGXPtqxG5yhQxqyK?domain=uta.academia.edu<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7_O3CVAGXPtqxG5yhQxqyK?domain=uta.academia.edu>

An archive of Scotese publications can be found at:
 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Scotese3

Download Google Earth (kml) versions of maps at: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/6EkbCWLJY7ir5JPqtpv9NO?domain=globalgeology.com<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/6EkbCWLJY7ir5JPqtpv9NO?domain=globalgeology.com>

Download Scotese CV with links to publications: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ThkzCXLKZoiEXwqKs7XXu4?domain=uta.academia.edu<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ThkzCXLKZoiEXwqKs7XXu4?domain=uta.academia.edu>

Lecture given at the Geological Society of London on October, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVGFv-1Wqc&feature=youtu.be

Hear Chris play the "Paleogeographer's Song"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qesJYbwKtY
"Sailing away on uncharted seas, who knows what we might find.
You needn't go far to take this trip because the journey's through your mind."

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