Profile Viewer

The profile viewer can be used to view elevation profiles, signal along a profile, and fresnel zones.

To open the profile viewer, enter the path parameters on the Transmitter / Receiver window and press the “View 2D Profile” button.

Manually Entering Profile Parameters

To specify the profile you wish to view type in the latitude and longitude for the starting point, and either specify a latitude/longitude for the end point, or enter a distance and bearing in the appropriate edit boxes. After you have entered the parameters for the profile you wish to view, press the "Draw" button to draw the profile.

Display Options

Use the check boxes in the upper right hand corner of the profile viewer window to select what you want to display. The color of each item can be changed by clicking on the color box next to the corresponding item. If you choose to display a fresnel zone, you can pick which zone is displayed by clicking the appropriate radio button located under the "Fresnel " check box. Use the "Antenna Properties" button to set the transmitter and receiver heights (and frequency) to be used in the fresnel calculations.

Displaying Signal

The profile viewer will display signal values for a given profile calculated using the modified PTP methodology. The power used is that which was entered on the Transmitter / Receiver Window when the profile window was opened. To display signal make sure that the “Signal” check box in the “Show” section is checked.

Earth's Curvature

You can set the earth's curvature "K" constant which is used in computing elevations in the edit box located directly above the close button. Typical values for this constant are 1.33 for 4/3 earth and 1.0 for true earth. Setting this value to 0 will cause the profile viewer to use flat earth (i.e.. no elevations will be added to the profile to compensate for the earth's curvature). The earth's curvature is displayed as the amount of elevation (in meters) added to the profile as a function of distance, however all of the elevations will be shifted up by the minimum value of the elevation graph. This is so the earth's curvature can be displayed with the rest of the profile.

Copying to the Windows Clipboard

To copy the graph shown in the window to the Windows clipboard press the "Copy" button. This will allow you to then paste this profile into another application, such as a word processor or graphics package.

Saving to a Graphics File

Press the "Save" button to save the current profile to a standard graphics file. When "Save" is pressed the save dialog will appear where you can use the “File Type” selector to choose which format to save to. Terrain-3D supports BMP, GIF, JPG, and PNG formats.

Printing

To print the current profile, press the "Print" button. The following box will appear in the window:

You may enter a title for the printed output in the edit box labeled "Title:". T3d will print a full page printout of the current profile, you may choose whether this is printed in landscape or portrait mode (Landscape is the default printing mode). Press "OK" to send the profile to the printer.