The information in this guide is organized into the following sections:

This section describes the typographical conventions and terminology for mouse actions that are used in this guide.

You will notice that other varieties of Lucy are available on the LuciadLightspeed launcher and in the list of launch scripts: Lucy GXY and map-centric Lucy.

For a more in-depth explanation of all front-ends, see Choosing a Lucy frontend.

To see Lucy’s software version and the copyright information, select the Help→ About menu item. The Help→ Open user guide…​ menu items open this guide in your internet browser.

The toolbar of the map, as shown in Figure 4, “The map toolbar”, allows you to interact with the map.

The toolbar of the map contains the following map tools:

The Lucy GXY toolbar additionally contains the following tools:

The map navigation controls help you move around on the map. Figure 5, “Lucy navigation controls and 2D Lucy GXY navigation controls” shows that the navigation controls for Lucy maps and 2D Lucy GXY maps are very similar.

Move the mouse over the controls to:

On 2D maps in Lucy GXY, there is just one navigation control icon to move and rotate the map, while you can use two separate controls on 3D maps.

The location of the current mouse position is displayed at the bottom of the map by default, as shown in Figure 3, “The basic elements of Lucy’s user interface”. The mouse location is given in the specified coordinate system. To change the coordinate system and format, select Edit→ Point Format. To hide the mouse location, deselect the Map→ Show Mouse Location menu item.

To move around on the map, you can either use the navigation controls, as explained in The map navigation controls, or the computer mouse.

When the select tool is active, you can:

The color of Lucy objects changes once they are selected. You can change the colors applied to these selected objects. To change the fill, line, text or icon color of selected objects, go to Map→ Style settings…​ and open the Selection colors…​ tab. You can only change the object selection color on 3D maps, and not on 2D maps in Lucy GXY.

When you have opened a map, you can:

To resize panels, select the division line between two panels. Move the mouse between the panels until the cursor changes into a shape with arrows left and right, then click to make the division line visible. Drag the division line to resize the panel. If a panel becomes too small to display all contents of the toolbar, an icon is added at the right side of the toolbar. Click on the icon to add the missing content in a box under the toolbar.

There are multiple ways to load data to the current map:

Appendix A, Supported data formats shows the file formats and corresponding file extensions that Lucy supports. To add support for some of the file formats, you need to install extra LuciadLightspeed components.

The loaded data files are added to the map and to the Map Layers panel. The busy icon in front of a layer indicates that not all data for that layer has been loaded yet. You can continue with your operations as the data is loaded in the background.

Click on the Fit to layer button or double-click on the newly added layer to fit the map view to the layer data. Use the icons on the right hand side of the layer list to change the order in which the layers are rendered in the map view. Working with layers describes how to work with layers.

A prerequisite for the correct display of data on a map is the availability of georeference information for that data. The georeference is the coordinate reference system associated with a set of map data. Usually, that information is either loaded with the map data, or stored in a separate file alongside the data file by the map data provider. For example, a .shp file typically comes with a .prj file of the same name, which stores the georeference.

If you load a data file with an unknown georeference system, for example a .shp file without a .prj file, the Choose geo reference dialog pops up when you try to load the file. This dialog box allows you to select or define the georeference system. To learn more about the contents of the dialog box, see Specifying the georeference system.

To save the georeference system you selected in a file in the directory of the data, select the Auto save check box in the bottom left corner of the dialog box. When you click OK, Lucy stores the reference file, and loads the data. The reference file gets the same name as the data file, and an .epsg, .prj, or .ref file extension. When you open the data file afterwards, the reference file is opened as well.

Data files may come with companion style files, stored in the same folder as the data files. Such style files can define what the data should look like on the map, and possibly if the data should be filtered for visualization. Lucy automatically picks up and applies style files with .sty or .sld extensions:

Delimited data is table-like data that typically comes in the form of Comma-Separated Value (.csv) files. Each line in the file represents a data record. Each data field or column in the line is separated from the other with a delimiter such as a comma, a semi-colon, or a tab. Data separated by tabs may come in a Tab-Separated Value (.tsv) file. In some files, the first line serves as a table header row that identifies the data fields in the other lines.

If you want to load CSV files in Lucy, geospatial information is required, such as the required geometries and their coordinates. That information allows Lucy to visualize and position the data on the map. It is typically made available in the CSV file itself, or in a companion file.

To load a CSV file in Lucy, you can open it like any other file. Lucy automatically configures the settings for correctly loading the CSV file. To allow you to confirm or change those CSV loading settings, Lucy shows you a preview of the configuration result:

You can assess the effect of the settings in the Table preview as well as on the Map preview. Both previews update automatically if you change the settings.

When you are satisfied with the data previews, click OK to display your CSV file as a map layer.

If you have edited map data you can save the changed data by selecting the File→ Save As menu item. A dialog box pops up in which you can select the layer from which you want to save the current data. After selecting the layer a dialog box appears that allows you to choose the format, the name, and the location of the file to save the data to.

KML is an XML-based file format for exchanging geographic annotations and visualizing them in Earth browsers. It was originally developed by Keyhole, Inc. as part of their Earth Viewer application, which is currently known as Google Earth. The KML file format was designed to be flexible and customizable. It allows content providers to store a wide variety of vectorial shapes and raster data, as well as dynamic behavior, external resources, visualization and temporal information. LuciadLightspeed officially supports KML version 2.2, though given the backward compatibility of the KML file format, a large subset of files that are of version 2.0 and 2.1 are also supported.

Lucy allows you to load and display Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data from files in the LASer or E57 formats. These files contain large numbers of points. The LASer formats typically have a .las or .laz (LASZip) extension, and the E57 format has an .e57 extension. These collections of points in LIDAR files are also referred to as point clouds. The LAZ files in particular can contain a large number of points.

Lucy can visualize the point clouds in various styles:

The styling options depend on the information available in the LIDAR layer.

When the data is loaded, Lucy automatically selects a default styling for the points. To style the loaded data differently, use the options in the Lidar Style panel, as shown in Figure 19, “Selecting a LIDAR style”. Select the appropriate radio button to apply a particular styling based on the available information.

The selected option is applied to all LIDAR layers. If a certain layer does not support the styling, the layer is marked with a warning icon. If none of the layers support the styling, the corresponding radio button is grayed out.

The Lidar Style panel also provides options to enhance the depth perception of the point cloud data:

Lucy allows you to work with a number of SQLite-based formats. You can:

OBJ is a 3D file format developed by Alias WaveFront. You can load OBJ files in a 3D map using the File→ Open menu. Note that when opening an OBJ file you have to specify the georeference system as described in Specifying the georeference system.

Open Flight is a 3D file format developed by MultiGen Paradigm, Inc. for use in visual simulation applications. You can load Open Flight files in a 3D map using the File→ Open menu.

Once you entered a new data URL and successfully connected with it, the URL will be stored for future usage. It becomes available in the location URL drop-down menu of the various client dialog boxes. Favorite data locations are listed first.

To remove URLs from the drop-down menu, click Manage collected locations/connections…​ below the drop-down menus. The Cache dialog box displays a list of previously entered URLs.

Your favorite data service URLs are marked with a filled Star icon. To remove a service as a favorite, click the Star icon in front of the data service location. You can also mark additional data sources as favorites by clicking the Star icon in front.

To remove a service URL, select it from the list, and click Remove selected. To clear all URLs from the locations list, click Remove all. If you want to remove all service URLs except your favorite ones, click Remove non-favorites.

Most Lucy connection clients come with a number of pre-defined service URLs in the locations collection. If you have accumulated a number of your own URLs in your collection of locations, you can remove all those extra URLs and keep just the pre-defined URLs by clicking Reset to defaults.

The Fusion Client offers support for connecting to a LuciadFusion data service, and retrieving data from it. A LuciadFusion service serves data through the Luciad Tile Service (LTS) protocol.

The OGC web clients offer support for connecting to and retrieving data from a number of web services that are compliant with the specifications and standards defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The supported web services are:

Connecting with an OGC web service explains how to set up an OGC service connection via the Lucy OGC clients. This setup is nearly identical for each of the supported web services. Retrieving and displaying WMS data, Retrieving and displaying WMTS data, Retrieving and displaying WFS data and Retrieving and displaying WCS data discuss the data selection and visualization specifics for WMS, WMTS, WFS and WCS respectively.

Bing Maps (previously named Virtual Earth) is a web mapping service provided by Microsoft, offering traditional road maps, aerial photo views, and searching capabilities. The Bing Maps imagery service is integrated by LuciadLightspeed.

If you load multi-dimensional data served by a web service, such as data originally made available in the NetCDF or GRIB format, Lucy displays sliders in the map view. You can make use of those sliders to filter the data on one or more of its dimensional ranges.

The layer tree in the Map Layers panel shows the separate layers of the map and has a similar function as the legend on a paper map. The check box next to the layer indicates if the layer is visible on the map or not. The icon next to the layer name shows the painting style that is used to represent the layer in the map view. Grouped layers have a plus icon next to them; click on the plus icon to expand the list and click on the minus icon to collapse an expanded list. Figure 30, “A Map Layers panel with an expanded AIXM 5.1 layer” shows the Map Layers panel with an AIXM 5.1 layer expanded in the layer tree.

The layer tools and options describes the icons in the toolbar above the layer tree.

The toolbar in the Map Layers panel offers tools to perform actions with the map layers. You can only use these tools if one or more layers are selected. To select a layer, click on the layer in the layer tree. To select multiple layers, keep the Ctrl-key pressed while clicking on the layers. The selected layers are highlighted as shown in Figure 30, “A Map Layers panel with an expanded AIXM 5.1 layer”.

The following layer tools are available:

The order of the layers in the tree reflects the order in which the layers are rendered in the map view. To change the order of the layers use the following icons which are located next to the tree:

When you right-click in the layer tree, a menu pops up with all the layer tools and the following additional layer options:

Each layer has a set of properties that you can view and change in the layer properties panel. To open the panel for one or more selected layers, right-click in the layer tree or click on the Layer Properties icon in the toolbar. If multiple layers are selected, the panel will only show the properties that the layers have in common. As the properties of a layer depend on the data type of the layer, the properties panel might be different for the different layer types.

The layer properties panel contains the following tabs:

After changing the settings, click on Apply to display the layer in the map view with the new settings. To accept the new settings, click on OK, otherwise click on Cancel.

The paint style that is used to represent the layer in the map view depends on the data type of the layer. Figure 32, “The Paint style tab of a layer with vector data” shows the Paint style tab of a vector data layer.

The Paint style tab of a vector layer allows you to set a regular paint style or a density paint style.

To keep all the changes that are made to the layer properties and use the same properties every time the layer is loaded, it is possible to save the layer settings to a layer style file. The layer style file stores the current properties of the layer separate from the layer data file.

To save the changed properties of a layer to a style file either choose:

Remote sensing imagery, such as the images captured by satellite sensor equipment, consists of multiple spectral bands. They each capture sensor information on one band of the geomagnetic spectrum. For instance, Landsat 7 images consist of the bands blue, green, red, near infrared (NIR), Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) 1, thermal, SWIR 2, and panchromatic.

To visualize and analyze the information captured on invisible bands, Lucy allows you to map the bands to the Red, Green, and Blue color channels. You can set up your own mapping, or use one of the preset mappings made available by Lucy.

To copy one or more layers from another map to the active map, click on the Copy layers from another map icon in the layer control toolbar. A dialog box appears as shown in Figure 39, “The dialog box for copying layers from one map to another”. If multiple maps are open, select a map from the drop-down list. The layer tree shows the layers of the selected map. Select the layer in the layer tree by clicking on the layer. To select multiple layers, Shift- or Ctrl-click on the layers in the layer tree. Click on OK to copy the selected layers to the active map or click Cancel to close the dialog box without copying layers.

The Tools menu displays a Previewer menu item. When you select this item, the Previewer panel appears in the top left corner of the application window. Figure 40, “The Previewer panel” shows an example of the Previewer panel.

The Previewer panel allows you to visualize and control the progress in time of dynamic data on the map.

The Playback section provides the following functionality:

The first of the list boxes on the right in the Playback section controls the maximum CPU usage that the previewer can consume. The second list box controls the relative speed of the playback. Click in the drop-down list to select other values.

Use the Time control slider to manually control the playback time. The three boxes below the slider show the start time, the current Previewer time, and the end time of the playback. To specify a different Previewer time, click on the icon next to the current time to open a calendar selection box and select a time.

The sliders in the Time range section control the playback time, as shown in the Time control section. The full time range is the union of the time ranges of all data sets. Adjusting the time range allows you to focus on a smaller time frame.

You can also set the time range of the playback to the time range of one particular data set by:

The time ranges in the Time control and Time range sections are adjusted to the time setting of the data.

To reset to the full time range, use the Reset item in the Range list box, or double-click the sliders.

You can link a camera to an object moving on the map, to follow the object from the perspective of the camera.

On a 3D map, activate the camera view by right-clicking on a selected object and choosing the Follow Object menu item. You can then select one of the following camera options:

On a 2D map in Lucy GXY, select the object in the map, right-click and select the Link menu item. When multiple maps are opened, select This map. You have the following camera options:

To deactivate the camera select the menu option Don’t link.

To display data, Lucy offers the possibility to either use:

When customizing or creating a geodetic reference you need to specify the parameters of the geodetic datum. The geodetic datum is an approximation of the shape of the earth based on an ellipsoid. A commonly used geodetic datum is World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 1984). The following parameters apply to a geodetic datum:

To save a georeference system to file and use it for one or all data files located in the same directory, use the Tools→ Create geo reference file menu item. A dialog box allows you to select the georeference system and define the related settings as described above. Click on the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box to save the defined georeference system in a file with the extension .epsg, .prj, or .ref. To use a .ref file for all data files in the same directory, enter the file name directory.ref. To use the .ref file for one data file (for example world.shp), give the .ref file the same name as the data file (world.ref).

When you are changing the colors of the map or of map objects, you can select the colors from a color selector dialog box. Figure 44, “The color selector on a Windows client” shows the color selector on a Windows client.

With the Transparency slider you can specify the transparency of objects or make objects opaque. The Transparency preview section shows the selected setting.

To accept the selected settings, click on OK. To close the window without making changes, click on Cancel.

To change the display colors of data such as pressure or temperature, an additional color bar is available on the Paint style tab in the layer properties panel. It displays a color bar as shown in Figure 45, “The color bar for pressure in a layer properties panel on a Windows client”. On 2D maps in Lucy GXY, you can also modify the display colors of elevation data layers with this color bar. To modify elevation colors in Lucy, see Setting elevation colors (Lucy).

To change all settings, click on the icon above the color bar. A dialog pops up that allows you to set the minimum and maximum value and the delta of the intervals. To change the settings of individual values, select the value in the color bar by clicking on the arrow next to it. The defined value appears in a text box in which you can enter a new value or you can drag the arrow with the mouse to the new value. The color icons allow you to change the display color of the individual value. Click on the color icon left of the arrow to open the color selector and change the color as described in The color selector. To use gradient colors instead of distinct colors to represent the defined values, click on the gradient icon above the color bar. To remove a value level, select the level and click on the icon with the minus sign above the color bar. To add a level, select the level above which the new level should be added and then click on the icon with the plus sign.

The magnetic north declination panel contains the following properties:

Click on the Calculate button to calculate the magnetic north declination lines as defined in the panel. A layer for the lines is added to the layer tree and the lines are displayed on the map. Figure 48, “A map with magnetic north declination lines” shows a map with magnetic north declination lines. On the black line the magnetic north declination is 0, the brown lines have a negative magnetic north declination, and the blue lines have a positive magnetic north declination.

To compare data by swiping between two side-by-side layers:

To change the orientation of the swipe line from vertical to horizontal, drag the swipe line up or down. Drag it to the left or right to change the orientation to vertical again.

To compare data by quickly swapping map layers in the map view:

To compare data by overlaying layers, and inspecting a data layer set through a porthole cut in the data layers on top:

To move the porthole, move the mouse around the map.

To change the size of the porthole, press and hold the Shift key while scrolling the mouse wheel up or down.

You can peel off layers in the porthole only, and still display all layers in the rest of the view. To do so, select just the layer that you want to peel off in the left column of the Choose layers to compare dialog. Do not select any layers in the right dialog column. As a result, the porthole peels off the selected layers, but still displays the other layers. The rest of the view displays all layers.

To change the layer selection, click the Pencil icon on the swipe line/toggle/porthole label. You can re-define your layer selection in the Choose layers to compare dialog.

To stop comparing layers and return to the regular map view, select the X icon on the swipe line/toggle label.

To make a particular elevation level stand out from the others, you can assign a different color to it. This can even be a color that falls completely outside the color gradient. To change the color of an elevation level, click the colored squares next to the elevation levels, and select a color from the Choose Color dialog.

You can also re-assign a color to a different elevation. To do so, select the elevation specified next to the color, and type in the required elevation. When you press ENTER, the color and the elevation specification move to the requested position on the gradient.

You can re-define the extent of your elevation color model. You can stretch it to include higher and lower elevations, or you can shrink the extent and introduce more color variation within a smaller elevation range.

To re-define the extent of the color model, select the icon, and enter new minimum and maximum levels. The Delta field allows you to specify the elevation intervals between color transition points. If you set a delta of 50 m, for example, the elevation color will change every 50 meters.

To add an elevation level within the color gradient and assign a color to it, select the elevation level right above the level you want to give a color, and click the icon. A new elevation level is added and assigned a color along the gradient.

To remove an elevation level, select it and click the icon.

To distinguish more clearly between elevation levels, you can switch off the smooth color progression in the color model, and display sharp color transitions where elevation levels change on the map. To switch smooth color progression on or off, click the icon.

To display the elevation color map on a linear scale, click the icon. In the linear scale view, you can increase or decrease the elevation range covered by a specific color. Drag the sliders next to the elevations up or down to the required color transition points.

If you want to undo all your changes, and return to the original Lucy elevation color map, select the Default color map from the Predefined drop-down menu.

This section describes which shapes you can create using the shape icons in the drawing toolbar and what the properties for each of these shapes are, as shown in the Object properties panel. Changing the shape properties describes how to change the properties of a created shape.

If the drawing toolbar is not visible, select the Map→ Drawing bar menu item. The drawing toolbar appears under the map.

Use the shape icons in the drawing toolbar to quickly draw one of the following shapes:

This section describes which shapes you can create using the Draw button in the drawing toolbar and what the properties of each of these shapes are, as shown in the Object properties panel. Changing the shape properties describes how to change the properties of a created shape.

If the drawing toolbar is not visible, select the Map→ Drawing bar menu item. The drawing toolbar appears under the map. When you click on the Draw button in the drawing toolbar, a list with shapes pops up, as shown in Figure 65, “The list of shapes from the Draw button”.

With the shape list you can quickly create one of the following shapes on the map. First select the shape in the list and then follow the drawing instructions for the selected shape:

Once the shape is created it is possible to:

After you have created one or more shapes, you can edit those shapes. To edit one or more shapes, select the shapes you want to change, and click the Edit button in the drawing toolbar. It offers the following drawing options:

To export a selected drawing layer to a .shp, .mif, or .pol file, click on the Save current layer icon in the drawing toolbar. A dialog box allows you to specify the name and the location of the file. Select the file type from the Files of type drop-down list. Note that when you export a drawing layer to another file format the restrictions mentioned in the list of supported file formats above apply here as well. It is possible that some information is lost.

You can search the data displayed in the table by entering a search term in the Find field at the top right of the table. To move the focus from the table to the search field, Press Ctrl+F. All object properties in the table are searched for a match. The Up and Down arrows next to the field allow you to scroll through the search results in the table.

To restrict the items in your table to just the objects visible in the map view, click the Only show elements visible on map icon.

While the icon is selected, the table content adapts as the user pans or zooms in the map view.

To configure a filter for the table view and the layer data shown in the map view, click the Add filter icon.

A filtering tool bar is added to the table view. It allows you to configure the filter:

To start over with your filter configuration, click the Delete icon next to the filter fields.

The Visibility icon at the right of the last column allows you to change the display of the columns in the table view. Click on the icon to display the list of columns. Select a column to show it in the table and deselect the column to hide it. If the option Horizontal Scroll is selected, the columns are sized to their contents and a horizontal scroll bar appears under the table to scroll through the columns. If this option is not selected, all columns are resized to fit in the available table width. Select the menu item Pack All Columns or Pack Selected Columns to fit all or the selected columns to their contents.

Clicking on the column header sorts the column data in ascending order. First, the data currently loaded in the table view is sorted, quickly followed by a sorting of the source of the layer data, and an update of the table view with the first 1000 sorted elements.

Clicking again on the column header sorts the column data in descending order. Click a third time on the column header to undo the sorting of the column data.

Select one or more objects (rows) in the table and adjust the map view to the selection by using one of the icons above the table:

When you right-click a table row, a menu allows you to perform the following actions on the selected objects:

To export the table data to a file, select the data in the table, and click the icon.

The selected data is saved to a .csv file. A dialog box appears in which you can browse for an existing file or enter the name of a new file.

Only data present in the table view is exported, so 1000 data elements are exported at most.

To limit the view to particular line sections or to a particular height, use the sliders next to and below the line to view sections of the line.

To set the minimum and maximum display height, use the Min/Max button above the line. This allows you to zoom in or out on specific sections of the view.

To change the height of the selected shape, either drag one or more points of the shape in the vertical view to the required altitude.

Alternatively, select the points in the Object properties panel and enter the desired height in the Altitude column. To open the Object properties panel at the top left of the map view, double-click on the line in the map view .

To make sure that the shape is above the terrain:

If you want to print a specific area of a 2D map in Lucy GXY, rather than the entire map displayed on screen, you can select a print area. To define a print area on a map, select the File→ Define Print Area menu item. Click on the map to start drawing the area and move the mouse to define the area. Click once more to finish the creation of the area. The resulting rectangle contains the map area that will appear on your print-out, as well as a well as shaded section that indicates how much space of your printout will be covered by a page footer with extra information. To learn more about defining the information in this footer, see Viewing and editing the print settings.

To resize the print area, move the mouse over one of the corners of the area until the cursor shape changes. Click with the left mouse button and drag the corner to resize the area. The width and height will change relative to each other to keep the aspect ratio and avoid distortion of the map. To move the area, move the mouse over the area borders until the cursor shape changes. Click with the left mouse button and drag the area to another location.

When you have defined a print area, a Print Area layer is added to the layer tree and a Print Area panel displaying properties for the print area opens at the top left of the map view, as shown in Figure 81, “The Object properties panel of a print area”. In the Object properties panel you can define some of the print settings as described in Viewing and editing the print settings. The selected print area automatically adjusts to your new settings.

Use the Printer Settings options Portrait and Landscape to change the paper orientation of your printout.

The Print on a fixed number of pages option allows you to change the number of pages on which the map is printed . This is useful to spread larger maps across more printed pages. To expand the print area horizontally over more pages, increase the number of pages in the Width spin box. To expand the print area vertically over more pages, increase the number of pages in the Height spin box. Figure 82, “A landscape print area with a height of two pages and a width of two pages” shows a print area on the map that will be printed on four pages in landscape. The Width and Height spin boxes have both been set to 2.

You can also indicate a scale to print the map area on, instead of specifying an exact number of pages. The Print on scale option allows you to select a specific scale from the Scale dropdown menu. In that case, Lucy will calculate the number of pages required to print the map.

If you want more print options than the ones displayed on the Print Area panel, open the menu{Print preview} page. For more information about these options, see Viewing and editing the print settings.

You can view and change printing options from the Print Preview window. Open the Print Preview window by selecting the File→ Print Preview menu item. The Print Preview window contains the following sections in which you can view and edit the print settings. The preview area will automatically adjust to new settings. Figure 83, “The Print Preview page” shows the Print Preview window.

To define the page setup and additional printer settings, click the Page Setup link in the Print Preview window. The File→ Page Setup menu item offers the possibility to define printer settings. Which printer settings are available depends on the operating system.

To print the entire map or a defined print area, select the File→ Print menu item or the Print button in the Print Preview window. The Print dialog box allows you to select a printer, define its properties, define the pages and the number of copies to print.

Select Tools→ Hypsometry → Hill shading from the main menu. A Hill shading layer is added to the map layer overview. The terrain slope is computed, and hill shading is applied to the currently visible map. The terrain shading is based on the direction and angle of inclination of a light source. You can change that direction and inclination on the Hypsometry tab of the Hill shading layer properties panel.

Enter a light reference direction in azimuth degrees or manipulate the arrow in the disk. To change the inclination, enter an alternative inclination in degrees, or manipulate the arrow in the quarter disk on the right.

Lucy applies shading to the map with color variation going from dark for shaded areas to transparent for lit areas. The layer properties panel allows you to choose alternative colors in the Colors bar. For more information about using the color bar, see The color bar.

Select Tools→ Hypsometry → Azimuth from the main menu. An Azimuth layer is added to the map layer overview, and the azimuth is visualized for all terrain points on the map. The point coloring is based on the angle between the given reference direction and the orientation of the terrain.

To change the reference direction, open the properties of the Azimuth layer, and go to the Hypsometry tab.

You can enter a reference direction in azimuth degrees or manipulate the arrow in the disk.

Lucy visualizes terrain azimuths on the map as colors from a graduated color scheme. The layer properties panel allows you to choose alternative colors in Colors color bar. For more information about using this bar, see The color bar.

Select Tools→ Hypsometry → Orientation from the main menu. An Orientation layer is added to the map layer overview, and visualizes the angles of steepest descent of the terrain with reference to a given direction on a Cartesian plane.

To change the reference direction, open the properties of the Orientation layer, and go to the Hypsometry tab. Enter a reference direction in azimuth degrees or manipulate the arrow in the disk.

Lucy visualizes terrain orientation on the map in the colors of a graduated color scheme. The layer properties panel allows you to choose alternative colors in the Colors bar. For more information about using the color bar, see The color bar.

Select Tools→ Hypsometry → Slope from the main menu. A Slope layer is added to the map layer overview, and visualizes a computed terrain slope degree in a range of colors. The computed values range from 0 for horizontal terrain to larger values for increasingly sloping terrain.

To arrive at this result, the Terrain Analysis Engine computes the angle between the given reference direction and the direction perpendicular to the terrain (the normal).

You can change the reference direction and inclination for the slope computation in the layer properties panel. Enter the direction in azimuth degrees or manipulate the arrow in the disk. To change the inclination, enter an alternative inclination in degrees, or manipulate the arrow in the quarter disk on the right.

Lucy visualizes slope on the map in the colors of a graduated color scheme. The layer properties panel allows you to choose alternative colors in the Colors bar. For more information about using the color bar, see The color bar.

Select Tools→ Hypsometry → Ridges and valleys from the main menu. A Ridges and valleys layer is added to the map layer overview. It visualizes how strongly the terrain deviates from a locally fitted plane.

Lucy visualizes ridges and valleys on the map in the colors of a graduated color scheme. High ridges are blue, and deep valleys are red. The layer properties panel allows you to choose alternative colors in the Colors bar. For more information about using the color bar, see The color bar.

The line-of-sight (LOS) coverage is the area that is visible from a point (for example a radar). For more information, see About LOS coverages.

To calculate the LOS coverage for a point:

Lucy and Lucy Map Centric allow you to visualize and track the visibility of a shape object to an observer. The shapes, or parts of the shape, are marked with a color that indicates their visibility from a specific vantage point on the map.

To calculate the elevation contours of an area on the map, select the Tools→ Terrain Analysis→ Contours menu item. The Contours panel appears in the top left corner of the application window and a Terrain Contours layer is added to the layer tree with an empty Contour layer that is used to store the contour calculations. It is possible to add separate contour layers for each calculation by clicking on the icon in the bottom left corner of the Contour panel. Make sure to select the appropriate layer in the layer tree when calculating new elevation contours. The title of the panel shows the selected layer. Figure 98, “The Contours panel” shows the Contours panel.

The next sections describe the functionality provided by the Contours panel.

To calculate the visibility from one object to another, select the Tools→ Terrain Analysis→ Visibility menu item. The Visibility panel appears in the top left corner of the application window and a Visibility layer is added to the layer tree. The Visibility layer first contains an empty layer that is used to store the visibility calculations. It is possible to add separate Visibility layers for each calculation by clicking on the icon in the bottom left corner of the Visibility panel. Make sure to select the appropriate layer in the layer tree when calculating a new visibility. The title of the panel shows the selected layer. Figure 103, “The Visibility panel” shows the Visibility panel.

The next sections describe the functionality provided by the Visibility panel.

The line-of-sight (LOS) coverage is the area that is visible from a point (for example a radar). To calculate the LOS coverage of a point, select the Tools→ Terrain Analysis→ Line-of-sight Coverage menu item. The Line-of-sight Coverage panel appears in the top left corner of the application window and a LOS Coverages layer is added to the layer tree. The LOS Coverages layer first contains an empty layer that is used to store the calculated LOS coverage. It is possible to add separate LOS Coverage layers for each calculation by clicking on the icon in the bottom left corner of the Line-of-sight Coverage panel. Make sure to select the appropriate layer in the layer tree when calculating a new LOS coverage. The title of the panel shows the selected layer. Figure 107, “The Line-of-sight Coverage panel” shows the Line-of-sight Coverage panel.

The next sections describe the functionality provided by the Line-of-sight Coverage panel.

The Style section allows you to view and edit the altitude intervals and color settings as described in The color bar. When Create raster data is selected in the Output section, an icon with a gradient indication is added above the color bar. Click on the icon to use gradient colors instead of distinct colors to represent the defined heights.

The Unknown box shows the display color of areas that have no elevation data. The Invisible box shows the display color of the area that is invisible. With the altitude intervals you define for which elevation values contours are calculated. The color settings are used to display areas that have an elevation value within one range of defined elevation values. The yellow areas in Figure 115, “The line-of-sight coverage for a point on the map”, for example, represent the areas with a height between 50.00 m and 100.00 m. Click on the color box to open the color selector and change the colors as described in The color selector.

To calculate hypsometric rasters from elevation data, select the Tools→ Terrain Analysis→ Hypsometry menu item. The Hypsometry panel appears in the top left corner of the application window.

The next sections describe the functionality provided by the Hypsometry panel.

To calculate the viewshed for a given 3D scene, select the Tools→ Terrain Analysis→ Viewshed menu item. The Viewshed panel appears in the top left corner of the application window.

The next sections describe the functionality provided by the Viewshed panel.

This section describes the functionality that is added by the Terrain Analysis Engine in addition to the functionality described in the above sections.

When you are using a 2D map, you can view a terrain in the profile view. To do this, select the Map→ Controls→ Profile view menu item. A Profile panel appears under the map view. Point the mouse to a location on the map to display the altitude of that location in a box next to the mouse pointer. Click on the map and drag the mouse over the map to see the profile of the selected terrain in the Profile panel. Figure 123, “The Profile view” shows the Profile view. The altitudes of the start and end point of the terrain are shown left and right of the profile.

Click in the Profile view to add a slider that controls the terrain location in both the map and profile view and shows the corresponding altitude.

When you are using a 3D map, you can access the profile view functionality in the vertical view. For more information about the vertical view, see Displaying shape height in a vertical view. During the creation of a polyline, the underlying profile is automatically updated.

Most of the Asterix files contain data relative to the location of the radar which captured the data, without specifying the location of the radar itself. If you know the location of the radar you can pass this information to Lucy, which will in turn use the radar location to place the data in the correct location on the map. You can enter the location in the ASTERIX settings dialog, which is opened from Edit→ ASTERIX settings…​ (see Figure 130, “The ASTERIX settings panel”).

In Specify radar systems, add the SAC and SIC radar identification codes of the data you want to load, and then enter the location coordinates of the radar system with those System Area Code (SAC) and System Identification Code (SIC). Click the + button to identify and locate more radar systems, and the - button to delete a radar system specification.

Furthermore, the Ignore check box in Specify radar systems allows you to mark which radar systems should be included and which ones should be ignored. Lucy will only load the data of the radar systems for which the Ignore check box is not selected. Radar systems that are not specified, are always loaded.

The ASTERIX settings dialog also provides filtering functionality for the loaded Asterix data. You can choose which categories to include from the list of supported ASTERIX categories. Only the selected categories will be loaded. You can also filter out ASTERIX data above a maximum altitude limit and below a minimum altitude limit.

The list of categories contains two versions of category 30: the default version and the version '2.5 ter'. The '2.5 ter' version originated in 1997 and is a draft of the category 30 specification. The default category 30 is the final version of this draft (V6.1). Data in the draft version cannot be automatically distinguished from data in the final version, and the two versions are binary incompatible. Therefore, you must explicitly select the version you want to use in the ASTERIX settings dialog, which prevents you from selecting them both at the same time. By default, the final category 30 is selected.

The ASTERIX standard only defines the format for live feeds. It does not define a file format to store recorded feeds. Simply dumping the live feed to a file has its limitations because certain timing information would be missing. Lucy therefore recommends the (unofficial) ASTERIX final file format. The ASTERIX final format is a simple extension of the ASTERIX standard. Each ASTERIX final record is composed like this:

These ASTERIX final records are concatenated in a file, one after the other.

The header of eight bytes is composed like this:

The length is a two byte integer, starting with the most significant byte. It includes the length of the header and the footer itself. The fields board number, line number and recording day are generaaly not used and set to 0. The time is expressed in hundredths of a second past midnight as a three-bytes integer, starting with the most significant byte.

The footer of 4 bytes is composed of 4 times 0xa5 (decimal 165).

Files in the ASTERIX final format typically have the file extension .astfin.

The ASTERIX data model contains a lot of properties. Many of them change with time, like the location or altitude of a track. Other properties, a callsign for instance, are the same for an entire ASTERIX trajectory. In many cases these constant properties have no values, meaning that that information was not available in the feed that was stored. Lucy allows you to fill in missing data for most constant properties using the Table view or the Object properties. It also allows you to delete trajectories you are not interested in, for instance cars that are picked up by the radar.

To edit trajectory properties, first make sure that the corresponding ASTERIX trajectory layer is editable, as explained in Working with layers. Note that you can only edit the properties of an editable layer. You cannot edit the geometry of the trajectories on the map. You can remove selected trajectories, however, by pressing the delete button or by right-clicking the map, and choosing the Delete menu item from the popup menu.

You can also edit ASTERIX properties in the table view and the Object Properties panel. To edit constant ASTERIX properties in a table, open the table view for a trajectory layer. If you move the mouse over the table, the table cells that can be edited will be highlighted. To edit properties in the Object Properties panel: double-click on a trajectory to access the properties in the panel, and move the mouse over the second column. Again, editable cells will be highlighted.

If you click on an editable cell, a text cursor will allow you to type the value. Certain constraints apply: a call sign can only contain ASCII^[1] characters, for instance, and has a maximum length of 7. Some other properties use the smaller IA5^[2] character set. If the typed text does not comply with the constraints, the background of the cell will turn red. For more information about what values are acceptable for the various properties, see Value constraints for editable properties.

If a property accepts a limited number of possible values, a combo box will appear instead of a text cursor. The combo box allows you to choose a value from a list of options.

Note that you can also change the constant properties for a track layer in the table view, or in the Object properties panel for a selected track. Track changes will automatically be applied on the entire trajectory.

You can save your changes you made to ASTERIX trajectories by using the menu items Save and Save As…​ in the File menu. If the destination filename ends with .astfin, the ASTERIX data is stored in Using the ASTERIX final format. Otherwise the data is saved in the raw ASTERIX format.

Note that you can only save original ASTERIX layers this way. You cannot save trajectories you drew yourself as an ASTERIX file, for instance.

To view the properties of a terminal procedure, select the procedure on the map, right-click and select Properties to open the Object properties panel. The AIS Procedure Trajectories tab in this panel shows the details of the procedure’s trajectories, as illustrated by Figure 131, “The AIS Procedure Trajectories tab of the procedure properties panel”.

See Changing the APS settings of terminal procedures for more information about the Aircraft Performance Settings tab.

Once the aeronautical data has been loaded, you can edit the APS of one or more procedures and view the resulting visualization in real-time.

You can change the following APS settings:

You can change the APS of just one procedure, or of all procedures:

After installing the Aviation Standards component, you can load AIXM data for versions 3 and 4 by using the File→ Open menu. It is possible to select either snapshot data, data that has not been loaded before, or update data, updates to data that has already been loaded. If you select an AIXM file with snapshot data, a dialog box allows you to select the objects that you want to load, as shown in Figure 132, “The dialog box for selecting AIXM objects”. To load all AIXM object types, select the Select all check box first.

If you select an AIXM file with updates, a dialog box allows you to select the loaded layers that need to be updated, as shown in Figure 133, “The dialog box for updating AIXM layers”.

The loaded data is displayed in the map view, and the corresponding layers are added to the layer tree.

In Lucy GXY, the Map→ Colors→ AIXM 3/4 menu item is added. It allows you to change the colors of the displayed AIXM data.

After installing the Aviation Standards component, you can load AIXM 5.1 data by using the File→ Open menu. The loaded data is displayed in the map view and the corresponding layers are added to the layer tree. Each of the objects (or features) of the loaded AIXM 5.1 data set are represented in a separate layer, also the objects that are not displayed in the map view.

To edit an AIXM 5.1 geometric object, first make the layer editable by selecting it in the layer tree, right-clicking, and selecting Editable from the menu that appears. You can then select an AIXM 5.1 geometric object on the map and drag it to change its properties. Save the changes to the layer by selecting the File→ Save As menu item.

To view the properties of an AIXM 5.1 geometric object, select the object on the map, right-click and select Properties. The Object properties panel appears in the top left corner of the application window. The properties tree follows the XML structure of the selected object and allows you to view the available properties or all properties of the object.

AIXM 5.1 objects such as airspaces or navaids consist of time slices whereby each time slice contains the object properties that are valid for that time period. To view the properties of an AIXM 5.1 layer including the time slices you need to display the layer properties in table format as described in Displaying your data in a table view.

When you load a .dht or .lat file, the database structure is displayed as map layers organized in a layer tree.

If you do not see the data on the map, fit the map to the data, and start zooming in to make the data visible.

Figure 135, “A selection of VPF data with the corresponding layer tree” shows a selection of VPF data in the map view and the corresponding VPF panel and layer tree.

When you load a .dht or .lat file, the VPF panel appears in the top left corner of the application window showing the loaded database in a tree structure.

To display individual coverages and feature classes in the map view, select the corresponding check boxes and click on the Update button under the data tree. The corresponding data layers are added to the layer tree in the Map layers panel, and the map shows the selected data.

If you do not see the data, and the corresponding layer is grayed out in the layer tree, fit the map to the data, and zoom in.

To load multiple databases, select the Map→ Data→ VPF Browser menu item. Click on the Open database icon top left in the VPF panel. The Set VPF root dialog box appears that allows you to browse to and select the common parent directory of the databases that you want to load. After selecting the parent directory, click on the Set VPF root button next to the File name box. The subdirectories of the selected root directory will automatically be scanned and the databases in all directories will be loaded. The coverages of all loaded databases will be merged, irrespective of their level of detail (for example VMAP levels 0, 1, and 2). The VPF panel shows the union of coverages as if they are part of one VPF data set.

To limit the display area in the map view to the active Area of Interest, select the corresponding check box in the Options section of the VPF panel.

Symbols help you recognize what kind of data you are seeing. Therefore, Lucy GXY visualizes the VPF data according to the GeoSym symbology set standard. To remove the symbology from your map, de-select the GeoSym check box.

After installing the Defense Standards component, you can use the File→ Open menu to load and display MGCP XML files, which contain the metadata for the MGCP data set. Such an .xml file contains references to .shp files that each contain one feature class for a particular 1-degree-by-1-degree map cell. In the Choose a format: dialog, select MGCP, and click OK.

The result of loading such an XML metadata file is one layer, named after the file. The layer visualizes all MGCP features for one map cell. As you zoom in on the cell, more and more features become visible. You can select individual features to inspect their properties in the Object Properties panel.

To edit the properties of a symbol, like its affiliation or status, open the Object properties panel by double-clicking the symbol on the map, or by right-clicking the symbol and selecting Properties.

To set the properties, you either select predefined settings from a dropdown menu, or fill in text in a text field.

To add more information about the symbol, expand the More properties section in the Object properties panel. The More properties section displays the extra properties available for the selected symbol.

To change the symbol to another one, open its Object Properties panel, and enter a different symbol. You can specify a different symbol by clicking the symbol name at the top of the panel, and finding the new symbol in the symbol hierarchy dropdown menu. Click Select to replace the symbol on the map with the selected symbol.

To change a symbol’s location or shape on the map, click the symbol to select it. To move the symbol, drag it across the map to its new location. To change the shape of the symbol, hover over one of the shape’s editing points until the cursor changes to a cross, and then drag the editing points until the symbol has the required shape.

To delete a symbol, select it on the map, and press the Delete key. You can also right-click the symbol, and select Delete from the option menu.