User's Guide
Table Of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1.Overview
- 2. Setting Up Your System
- 2.1Setting Up Map Layers
- 2.2Setting Up Display Levels (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.3Adding Water-Fill Points (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.4Fixing Floods with Anti-Fill Points (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.5Editing the Places Database
- 2.6Adjusting the Color Palette
- 2.7Using the Baron Chart
- 2.8Editing Colors for 256-Color Palettes
- 2.9Customizing Font Displays
- 2.10Manipulating the Automatic Legend
- 2.11Using Overlays
- 2.12Setting Up Icons
- 2.13Points to Remember
- 3.Adjusting Views
- 3.1Using the View Main Panel
- 3.2Setting Map Parameters
- 3.3Editing Topographical Data
- 3.4Saving and Organizing Views
- 3.5Using the View Options
- 3.5.1Adding Text to a View
- 3.5.2Zooming In and Out From a View
- 3.5.3Pointing to Features on a View
- 3.5.4Panning on a View
- 3.5.5Labeling Streets with Street Spotter
- 3.5.6Controlling Display of Radar Data
- 3.5.7Utilizing TeleTrac
- 3.5.8Displaying Lightning Strikes on a View
- 3.5.9Displaying Storm Spotter( Van data
- 3.5.10Toggling High-Definition Data Processing
- 3.5.11Displaying NEXRAD forecast data
- 3.5.12Displaying Neighborhood Weather Net( Sensor Data
- 3.5.13Zooming to a Specific City
- 3.5.14Adding Fronts and Pressure Markers
- 3.5.15Creating Temporary Pixel Query Points
- 3.5.16Creating Fixed Pixel Query Points
- 3.5.17Displaying Precipitation Type Maps
- 3.5.18Saving the Current View as a Bitmap
- 3.5.19Printing the Current View
- 3.5.20Highlighting Your Spotter Network On-Air
- 3.5.21Displaying National Weather Service Warnings
- 3.5.22Displaying Wind Speed and Direction
- 3.6Points to Remember
- 4.Managing Storm Tracks
- 5.Using SEQUENCER
- 6.Controlling Your Radar
- Glossary
1. Overview
This manual describes the FasTrac Millennium product. FasTrac Millennium is the industry
standard for providing real-time, local weather information to your users, allowing you to analyze
real-time radar and to translate it into meaningful predictions of potentially harmful weather
phenomena for your community. It also provides NEXRAD data, combining exceptional
resolution, topography, and street-level mapping with Baron’s unique, intuitive user interface.
Most users use the program both for NEXRAD sites and their own, real-time radar. This chapter
introduces the main system components, including the databases, the file structure and the main
FasTrac Millennium display.
1.1 Databases
Two databases, known as Places and Maps, provide the mapping information underlying the
functions. When Baron Services introduced these databases to the meteorological world, they
were referred to as liquid databases because the user could smoothly change the map display and
effortlessly zoom into and out from points of interest rather than using the static one or two radar
displays that were then the norm.
When Baron Services installs your system, the databases are populated and ready for use.
However, as discussed in Chapter 2, you can specify which communities are displayed (referred
to as prioritizing places) and add important features, such as schools, malls, and parks, to the
Places database. Thus, you easily can customize your display to fit your needs.
1.2 File Structure
All the Baron files are in the C:\fastrac directory or one of its subdirectories. While there are
many files and subdirectories in the \fastrac directory, the following table lists the ones that you
must have to run your system properly.
File or Directory Name Description
Basepal.bmp file The color palette bitmap that defines the colors for
all data displays.
Fast95.exe file An executable file that activates the main program.
Lapses directory The directory that contains time-lapse files created
through SEQUENCER (see Chapter 5, Using
SEQUENCER).
Logs directory The directory that contains archived radar data (in
the \Radar subdirectory) and archived lightning
strike data (in the \Strikes subdirectory).
Maps directory The directory that contains the files for the map
databases, including roads, rivers, and state lines.
Nexrad directory The default directory for storing NEXRAD files.
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