The Images Menu

The following options are available via the file menu:

Display File Browser

If XDir is not running, start it. If the XDir directory browser is running, this option will raise the browser to the top of the window stack (or un-iconify it, if necessary). XDir then can be used to send image file names to SAOtng for display.

Load Image

Brings up a dialog box into which an image file name can be entered for display. Press carriage return in the text window or click the OK button to load the image. (See Image File Formats.)

Save Image

Regardless of the original image file format, SAOtng maintains a FITS image of the displayed image section in its memory. This FITS image has the data type of the original data and is used for rescaling, analysis, etc. It can be saved to disk using this menu option, which brings up a dialog box into which an output FITS file name can be entered.

Display FITS Header

Display the FITS header in the Messages area (or to stdout if in verbose mode).

Send Screen To Printer/File

Brings up a dialog box into which a print directive can be entered. Pressing carriage return in the text window or clicking the OK button will cause SAOtng to create PostScript of the image and pipe or redirect the output to the specified print command. The default command is lpr which causes the PostScript to be piped to lpr. The Postscript output can be sent to other processes or saved on disk. (See Printing Images.)

Save Screen To GIF File

Brings up a dialog box into which a filename can be entered. Pressing carriage return in the text window or clicking the OK button will cause SAOtng to store the current display frame in GIF format.

Set Blocking Factor

Specify the blocking factor at which an image section is extracted. Block factors range from 1 to 32 (in powers of 2) by default. Larger block factors can be added by means of the Add New Block Factor option. If auto is chosen, then the block factor will be calculated automatically so that the entire image is displayed.

Set Blocking Function

Specify blocking by summing pixel values or blocking by averaging pixel values. (These choices are not necessarily be supported by all file extraction programs. They are, however, available for IRAF and FITS files.)

Reload Current Image

Re-extract an image section from the current image file and re-display it.

Display Full Image (with Autoblock)

Select the block factor so that the full image will be displayed in the current frame, re-extract and re-display the image. This is a shortcut for setting the blokc factor to "auto" and then selecting Reload Current Image.

Destroy Current Image

Erase the current image and destroy internal data structures. Note that loading a new image into the current frame accomplishes the same thing.

Set Max FITS Memory Size

Set the max size (in bytes) of a FITS file that SAOtng will manage in memory. Files larger than this size will be managed using the external fitsextract program. (Note that if a positive value is input for maxsize, then Hogmemory is also turned on so that raw data will be maintained in memory. If a negative value is input, Hogmemory is turned off and raw data will not be maintained in memory.)

Help

Bring up the SAOtng Help window.

Messages

Bring up the SAOtng Message window. This window displays messages that normally would be sent to the SAOtng stderr. Use of a separate message area is essential in cases where the SAOtng is started from a menu in the window manager (so that stderr is not displayed on the screen).

Version

Display the SAOtng version in the SAOtng Message window.

Control Panel

Bring up the XImtool Control Panel.

Quit

Exit the SAOtng program.

Last Updated June 17, 1998