Re: ElevationGrid

["Theresa-Marie Rhyne" <trhyne@vislab.epa.gov>]

Hi Bob:

"I believe I'm hearing that the valuable asset,
the one that's kept, is the geo file, be it DEM
or height field image map or whatever.  The
VRML file is only the *means* of viewing and
sharing and combining for analysis the geo
data, and at the end of the day the VRML file
may be discarded."

"So (and the answer to this is probably domain
specific) are VRML files permanent assets or
simply means to view the real assets?"


yes... the geo-file (or the data as some might call
it) is the valuable asset.  so valuable, that
there are many agencies (US and worldwide) (e.g. USGS)
that have put alot of effort in to making the data publically
available via the Web.

is to whether at VRML file is discarded at the end of
the day... alot depends on how hard it was to make it.
if it takes alot of work to make a VRML file, there is
tendency to hang on to it rather than having to duplicate
that work the next day.

there is another way to view this situation.  VRML could
be considered the viewer of the data and what would be
nifty would be to be able to load different types of
data sets into the VRML browser (or whatever such a tool is
called) and view the data.  then it would not be necessary to
create a new VRML file for every data set. this utility
could be called a data reader for the VRML browser.


Smiles.... Theresa-Marie