Units System

There are two units systems available in the TrueMap program:  Metric and Imperial.  Since TrueMap software can be used to analyze surface data from virtually any instrument, the software allows you to select the type of units and the number of decimal places displayed.  If the type of units is set to 'Auto', the software will attempt to use the units that are most logical for the size of the surface.

After selecting the units system, the specific units for the X/Y axes and the Z axis, and the number of decimal places, click the 'Apply' button to make the changes active.

Graphics Options

The General Options page allows you to select the colors used in the Surface Windows.  In order to reset the colors to the program's defaults, click the 'Reset to Defaults' button.

The width of the extracted profiles in the Cross Section View is selectable on this page.  The minimum width is one pixel and the maximum length is three pixels in width.

The 'Rendering quality when moving' combobox controls the option for the quality of the OpenGL rendering during rotate, pan, and zoom operations.

The 'Rendering quality when static' combobox controls the option for the quality of the OpenGL rendering at other times.  The "Smart Rendering" option will intelligently attempt to render only the surface detail that would be visible.  This option uses the monitor's screen resolution to determine if samples can be skipped during the rendering process.  The "All Samples" option will make the rendering engine draw every sample regardless of the data set's number of samples.  This can slow the rendering process dramatically on very large data sets, but may be necessary for surfaces with "one pixel wide" spikes, for example.

The 'Enable per-pixel OpenGL Phong lighting model' option is only available when the video card supports it.  Enabling this option turns on the per-pixel rendering feature which dramatically increases the quality of the 3D rendering.

After making changes on this page, click the 'Apply' button to make the changes active.

Height Map Lighting

The image of the surface located in the Navigation Pane is commonly referred to as a height map.  This height map relates the Z height of the surface at any point to the matching color in the legend gradient.  If the 'Simulate lighting on height maps' checkbox is not checked, the color used in the height map is directly related to the legend gradient.  If the checkbox is checked, an algorithm is applied to the image to simulate the effect of a light source shining on the surface.  The location and intensity of this light source can be changed using the controls on this page.  Please note that since the height map is shaded while the simulated lighting is turned on, the color on the surface will differ slightly from the gradient.  However, the simulated lighting often enhances small details in a surface that might not be as noticeable without this effect.

Dynamic View Lighting

The Dynamic View Lighting page is used to define the OpenGL lights used in the rendering of the surface topography.  There are four individual lights available as well as an ambient light source.  The ambient light source can be thought of as a light source that is emanating from all directions evenly.  If ambient lighting is used, the surface is lit evenly from every direction.  The individual light sources can be enabled/disabled individually.  The diffuse component of a light source is reflected evenly off of the surface, but since it is directional, the surface appears brighter when it is facing directly at the light source.  The specular component of the light is reflected sharply off of the surface and tends to cause highlights on the surface in regions of high curvature.

Legend Gradient

There are a number of predefined legend gradients.  To change the active gradient, simply click on the image of the gradient in the list.  Custom defined legend gradients can be created by clicking the 'New Gradient' button.  This will display the Gradient Editor dialog.  Custom defined gradients can be removed by clicking the 'Delete Gradient' button.

Miscellaneous Options

The 'Display preview image' shows/hides the preview image in the Open Data dialog.

The 'Folder Monitor' option can be used to "watch" a specific folder.  Whenever a surface data file is added to or modified within the folder, TrueMap will automatically load the data file.  Click the 'Browse' button to select the folder to "watch".

The 'Autorun macro when opening a file' option allows a specific macro to run automatically when a data file is opened.

The 'Gridding Dialog' option can cause the gridding dialog to be displayed when irregularly gridded data files are opened.  The dialog is displayed by default.