| iTool User's Guide: Working with Contours |

## Contour Properties

The iContour window is a self-contained contour display and manipulation device. You can import and export contour data, and modify and manipulate contours. For more information on the basic iContour interface and its layout, see iTools Interface Reference.

With the contour selected, the Edit Properties... option allows access to the contour property sheet. You can change many contour properties through this sheet.

Figure 12-7: Contour Property Sheet

Figure 12-7: Contour Property Sheet

The following examples show how to modify some contour properties. These examples are performed on the contours imported by using the following steps:

1. At the IDL Command Line, enter:

    ICONTOUR

2. Select File Open from the pulldown menus of the empty iContour tool. The Open dialog will appear.

3. Use the Open dialog to find and select the `convec.dat` file in the `example/data` directory. The Binary Template wizard will appear.

4. In the Binary Template dialog, click New Field, and enter the following information in the New Field dialog:

- Field name: `data` (or a name of your choosing)

- Type: `byte`

- Number of dimensions: `2`

- 1st dimension Size: `248`

- 2nd dimension Size: `248`

5. Click OK to close the New Field dialog and the Binary Template dialog, and the contours are displayed in the tool.

Figure 12-8: Earth Convection Contours in the iContour Tool

Figure 12-8: Earth Convection Contours in the iContour Tool

IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)