Tutorial 1: Using Boundary View

Boundary View is a means for viewing grids in order to enable their identification. For an explanation – see Boundary View.

 If you encounter errors during the processing, then view the System Log File  –  File|View System Log File. 

Creating a Boundary View

Run GridMerge by double-clicking the desktop icon. Take a moment to familiarise yourself with the main window. You will notice that almost all the sub-menus off the menu bar are not enabled. These will be enabled once the Working Directory and Aliases and Parameters are set. We first set the Working Directory, then Check the Grids if this has not yet been done. Finally, we have to generate a grid Priority Order, as a Priority Order File is required in order to create a Boundary View.

  1. Set the Working Directory – File|Set Working Directory.  Navigate to the "eucla_mag" folder and click the Select Folder button. A message will be displayed in the Messages showing the Working Directory set. The Utilities menu items are now enabled.
  2. Check Grid Parameters – Utilities|Check Grid Parameters.  On the Check Grids window use the File Icon buttons to select/specify the Input Grid Directory as "GRIDS_ORIGINAL" and the Report File as "report.txt". The Report File will be created if it doesn't exist. Click the Run button. On completion of the task, load the report file into a text editor to view the output. All grids should share the same projection and datum, have rotation=0 and zero for registration coordinate's offset. 
  3. Create a Priority Order File – Utilities|Generate Priority Order.  On the Generate Grid Priority Order window use the File Icon buttons to select/specify the Input Grid Directory as "GRIDS_ORIGINAL" and the Priority Order File as "priorityOrder.txt". The Priority Order File will be created if it doesn't exist. Click the Run button. On completion, you can view the grid Priority Order File in a text editor.
  4. Create the Boundary View grids – Utilities|Create Boundary View.  On the Create Boundary View Grids window, use the File Icon buttons to select/specify the Input Grid Directory as "GRIDS_ORIGINAL", the Output Grid Directory as "GRIDS_BOUNDARIES_ORIGINAL", and the Grid Information File as "boundaryInfo_original.txt". The Output Grid Directory and Grid Information File will be created if they don't exist. If the Output Grid Directory does exist, its contents will be deleted at the start of processing.  Specify values for Boundary Margin, Fill Pattern Size and Pattern Separation. For large surveys, typical values are Boundary Margin = 2000m,  Fill Pattern Size = 3000m, and Pattern Separation = 9000m. Click the Run button. The Boundary View grids are created and written to the GRIDS_BOUNDARIES_ORIGINAL directory.


Create Boundary View outputs a new Boundary View grid to the Output Grid Directory for each of the grids in the Input Directory. The grid names stay the same, just the directory changes. These grids must now be merged into a composite Boundary View grid. While we are here, we will also create a Merge of all the grids in the "GRIDS_ORIGINAL" directory. Before we can merge the grids, we have to set the aliases and parameters.


  1. Set Aliases and Parameters – Set Aliases And Parameters|Set Aliases and Parameters.  On the Set Aliases And Parameters window, in the Merge Grids section, set the following: Input Directory = GRIDS_BOUNDARIES_ORIGINAL, Output Directory = MERGES, Output Grid Name = boundaries_original.ers, Priority File Path = priorityOrder.txt, and Cell Size = 0.002. You can leave the grid bounds blank – GridMerge will calculate these. Click the Save And Close button. The parameters for creating a merge of the Boundary View grids are now set.
  2. Merge the Boundary View grids – Grid Merge|Merge Grids.  This will launch the Grid Merge process using the current alias and parameter settings. Wait for the process to finish. The merged Boundary View grid has been created in the MERGES directory.
  3. Set Aliases and Parameters – Set Aliases And Parameters|Set Aliases and Parameters.  On the Set Aliases And Parameters window, in the Merge Grids section, set the following: Input Directory = GRIDS_ORIGINAL, Output Directory = MERGES, Output Grid Name = merge_original.ers, Priority File Path = priorityOrder.txt, and Cell Size = 0.002. You can leave the grid bounds blank. click the Save And Close button. The parameters for creating a merge of the original grids are now set.
  4. Merge the original grids – Grid Merge|Merge Grids.  This will launch the Grid Merge process using the current alias and parameter settings. Wait for the process to finish. A merge of the original grids has been created in the MERGES directory.


The boundary view merge should look like this:



Using Boundary View

  1. Set the Working Directory (if not already set) – File|Set Working Directory.  Navigate to the "eucla_mag" folder and click the Select Folder button. A message will be displayed in the Messages showing the Working Directory set. 
  2. Load the Boundary View Grid – File|Load Boundary View Grid. Navigate to and select "boundaries_original.ers" from the MERGES directory. Wait while the Boundary View Grid is loaded to the left-hand-side (LHS) panel. The Boundary View check box on the Main Window will be checked. 
  3. Load the Boundary View Information File – File|Load Boundary View Info File.  Navigate to and select "boundaryInfo_original.txt"  The Boundary View Information File is loaded to memory. The Grid Info File check box on the Main Window will be checked. 
  4. Load an image to the RHS panel – Click the File Icon button to the right of the RHS Grid text box on the Main Window. Navigate to and select "merge_original.ers" from the MERGES directory. Wait while this grid is loaded to the right-hand-side (RHS) panel. Resize the Main Window if you wish.
  5. Zoom And Pan – Try panning and zooming the panel displays. Check that you are in Zoom/Pan Mode – the Zoom/Pan Mode button on the Main Window should be highlighted. With the mouse pointer over either of the panels, the mouse scroll wheel will zoom the displays about the current pointer position. Click and drag the left mouse button to pan.
  6. Identifying a Grid – Zoom in to any of the grids in the Boundary View display. Then switch to Select Mode by clicking the Select Mode button on the Main Window. Now click on either the coloured boundary, or infill pattern, of a grid in the LHS panel – the name of the grid will be displayed in the Grid Name text box on the Main Window. Conversely, if a grid name is typed, or pasted, into the Grid Name text box, and the Zoom To button pressed, then the display will zoom to the specified grid. Grid Merge will try to centre the grid in the display panel, but this may not be the case if the grid is on the edge of the compilation. In any event, the selected grid should be wholly within the display panel.


The Reset button on the Main Window will reset the zoom and pan to their initial values. The Clear button will clear the panel displays.