Anyone like GRLevel3 version 2?...

[Mike Gibson]

If it is so it's very nice. I actually thought that LSR could be updated on the Grlevel2 with a late time (that is within 60 min).

As regards my opinion about shapefiles, I would appreciate an effort to eliminate the shapefile-stylefile system in order to introduce a faster and more practical uploading method of roads and cities, but it's just an opinion.

GRLevel3 2.xx shows the LSRs as soon as it receives them from the public NWS server, which is usually less than five minutes from the time they go out (the NWS server batches them into five minute intervals, why, I don't know).

The 60 minute part means that if you're viewing data for, say, 1705z, you'll see all the LSRs with times >= 1605z and <= 1705z. This is so that your screen isn't littered with old LSRs in a big event and so that the LSRs animate with the radar data.

Mike

 

[Mike Gibson]

The biggest advantage in doing so is having access to dual pol as well as LSRs, I would say its worth it for those 2 add-ons alone. It has a google map background which I personally am indifferent towards but many find it useful. Keeping v1 on the chase laptop though since its less graphic intense.

GR3 2.xx shouldn't be more graphic intensive than 1.xx if you turn off the automatic background (uncheck GIS->Show Background) and set the GIS elements to be a single pixel wide. The only showstopper is if your laptop doesn't have Shader Model 2.0 support, other than that 2.xx should be fine.

Mike

 

[Adam Lucio]

Thanks for the suggestions Mike.

Andrea, here is a screenshot (sorry for the slow reply here, been away from home a few days.) It shows one of the dual pol products (Coorelation Coefficent to be exact)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=376906369071574&set=pb.167447826684097.-2207520000.1358830937&type=3&theater

 

[Mothra]

I'm not meaning to interrupted with my noob question, but is GRLevel3 worth it? is it radar and gps? or is there more?

 

[STexan]

I'm not meaning to interrupted with my noob question, but is GRLevel3 worth it? is it radar and gps? or is there more?

I guess a lot depends on what type of hardware you have and you're budget and long term outlook for storm chasing. I've avoided it and used Radarscope for Mac because a Mac notebook was what I had and preferred for mobile use and GrLevel products only run on Windows machines. But due to other needs, I' have to get a high-end Windows 7 laptop, so I'll go ahead and transition away from my little indestructible Mac to a Windows beast and get GrLevel3 soon when my laptop is built and shipped. For me, the biggest reason for doing so is it's integration with a GPS puck to display current location on the radar map that some other apps don't do.

 

[Bob Hartig]

GR3 has been and remains the "industry standard" for storm chasers and is absolutely worth purchasing. It provides all four tilts of level 3 radar products, it integrates with GPS, it offers lots of other features, and in summary, it's a tremendous value for your money. While more and more chasers are using smartphones for radar, laptops haven't gone away, and the recent upgrade to GR3v.2 brings even more functionality to this software with the addition of dual-poll features. There are, of course, other options for radar, but you can't go wrong with GR3.

 

[Paul Townsend]

Paul, how are you going with those files? Are they accurate?
Thanks

They have as their basis what any other mapping software would have. But then they are edited by cartographers and road enthusiasts to more accurately reflect the roads, such as stretches of road that have been upgraded to multiple lane divided highway. As it says on Scott's webpage, he last updated his files from the December 2011 update of the roads from the Open Street Map database. You must use a style file to tell GR3_V2 how to present the roads in the program. Scott has a style file on his webpage and it can be edited to your liking.

 

[ericjkelly]

Help loading

They have as their basis what any other mapping software would have. But then they are edited by cartographers and road enthusiasts to more accurately reflect the roads, such as stretches of road that have been upgraded to multiple lane divided highway. As it says on Scott's webpage, he last updated his files from the December 2011 update of the roads from the Open Street Map database. You must use a style file to tell GR3_V2 how to present the roads in the program. Scott has a style file on his webpage and it can be edited to your liking.

I am having a little problem with Scott's site. Maybe someone can help me. I download and unzip them. I know the process from using GR3 v.1 but where can I get the .sty file? Scott has a link but how do I save that website? How can I save this to a file? http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/~slincoln/GRS/shapefiles/OpenStreetMap_Roads.sty

When I use the old tiger sty it doesnt add the streets. Not sure if you HAVE to use the site above for it to work or not!

 

[Jeff Duda]

You can just copy the text to a text file. A style file isn't anything special. ASCII will work.

If you're using an updated version of Mozilla, there's an option for "save page as" that also works. I think Chrome also has that option.

 

[ericjkelly]

thanks for the help! when I save as...its just lets me save it as a text file....which grlevel3 doesnt take.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Keep the extension as .sty

 

[ericjkelly]

thanks Jeff I appreciate it! You have to save the link as .sty. You cant open it and save as. MY BAD