Google Earth is Free

[James_In_Utah]

Hi Tom,
I work for a unit that monitors and records radar data from around the country. As part of that monitoring we need a visual display to indicate radar coverage at different altitudes, and WW displaying ESRI shapes seems to be able to do that. We indicate the status of the site by color. The status of these sites can change minute by minute, so it would be great if the color displayed for a particular ESRI shape could be changed without having to reload the whole set.

In addition to displaying coverages, we are able to plot radar data in WW using a pluggin which pulls the information out of our recordings using a C++ dll. We can also display aircraft live using the KML output of a tracking algorythm we developed in-house. With a "run of the mill" laptop I can track and display the data from maybe 10 radar sites. There must be memory issues however because after 15 - 30 minute the whole earth disappears for a while, and comes back a little later. I leave the lat/lon lines on in case this happens.

I have also given the users a plugin that pulls detailed information about the radar sites from our Oracle database and display the sites as Icons. When the user mouses over the site icon, he gets the detailed info in the lower left corner.

This is all running on a closed LAN. I've made some changes that will allow for an "Work Offline" mode, which speeds things up greatly. Now that there is a work around for the shapefile distortion problem, I'll upgrade the users to V1.4 when it comes out.
James