USING THE LIBRARY FUNCTION OF WEATHERPRO
 
    • Overview

      • Using the WeatherProducer “Library” function is a powerful way to re-use existing products, or portions of products within other products (i.e. “nest” them) to make your products more modular and flexible. For example, if you wanted to add a digital time stamp to several existing products, it would be a time-consuming process to edit each one, and add the time-stamp auto-plot layer. It would also be very hard to get the time stamps in registration from one product to the next (useful if you want an aesthetically pleasing transition from one product to another within a show). But, by creating a single time stamp product and adding it to other products, you can solve the registration problem, and save a lot of time too.

    • Creating the Time Stamp Module (product)
      1. Create a new auto plot product (New, Product, Graphic, Auto Plot), and give it a name (e.g. “AP_Time_Stamp_Module”)
      2. If desired, turn on the safe title overlay (Options, Safe Title Area)
      3. Click on the Edit Parameters button
      4. Load a background snapshot such as a base map of your station’s look to use as a reference (Options, Background, Snapshot).)
      5. Click the “Add” button, then choose “Time Stamp”.
      6. While the time stamp object is selected, if desired, change the font attributes (type, size, etc), from the “Font” menu
      7. If desired, change the font color, shadow, etc, from the “Graphics” menu (make sure the time stamp object is still selected))
      8. Change the format of the time stamp by selecting the object, and pressing the “Format” button. For example, you might choose “Data Arrival Time”, then “12-Hour Local”.
      9. If desired, change the time rounding by clicking on the Format button again, and choosing “Round Time”, and select an appropriate rounding value (e.g. 5 minutes).
      10. Move the time stamp object to wherever is appropriate, and press the “Update Now” button to see how it will look against the safe title overlay.
      11. 11. Adjust any attributes as necessary, and save the product (it gets saved to the “Library”)

    • Nesting the Time Stamp Module In Another Product
      1. Find whatever product(s) you want to use with the new time stamp and (for insurance), make a copy of the product (right mouse click on the product, and choose the copy option).
      2. You may want to rename the copied product to reflect that it will use the time stamp module (right mouse click, and choose the rename option).
      3. Edit Parameters for the new product.
      4. From the Edit Parameters screen, click on “Insert Layer”
      5. Left click on the new layer, and choose “Library”, then select the time stamp product created above.
      6. Update the product, and the time stamp should appear.
      7. Repeat these steps for each product you want to have use the new time stamp module.
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