[Xastir] Line of sight

[Rob Campbell]

Tom Russo wrote:
> On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 02:50:41PM -0700, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <rcampbell at pcwi.net> flavor, containing:
> 
>>Hello,
>>
>>I have used Xastir off and on for a few years now.  I haven't used the 
>>most recent versions yet, so I don't know what the new features are.  Is 
>>there currently any way to calculate line of sight when using 
>>topographic or DEM maps?  If not, how hard would it be to add this feature?
>>
>>It's a little off topic, but are there any Linux programs that can do 
>>this?  I am currently using MapTech's Terrain Navigator Pro for this, 
>>but I would prefer using something on my Linux systems.
> 
> 
> Grass can do LOS calculations.  It is not simple to use GRASS, but it has the
> capability, through the "r.los" command.
> 
> http://grass.itc.it/
> 
> Since Xastir has no current capability to read and grok DEMs, and can only 
> display contour maps, it would probably be a good bit of work to get such 
> a capability directly into xastir.  
> 

Thanks for the quick reply.  I have seen Grass, but haven't tried it 
yet.  It would be nice if Xastir could do LOS as well, but I guess it's 
not really meant to be a general purpose mapping/GIS program.

I have another quick question that's not really related to LOS.  I was 
wondering if there is a way to draw lines between objects in Xastir, to 
show relationships between them.  An example of this would be to draw 
lines from a base station to all stations it has heard directly.  That's 
not exactly what I would be using it for, but it would be a nice feature 
to have.

Rob Campbell
KG6HUM