Introduction to Tour Builder
Configuring Tour Builder
Permalink to Configuring Tour BuilderTours are scripted presentations (similar in concept to power point presentations) that run on SOSx and take a user through the datasets and can include a storyline. Tours often include text, images, guiding questions, pop-up web content, videos, and click-able place marks, audio, pausing for user input, etc.
To configure Tour Builder, access this from the File menu:
Choose a local datasets directory (the location where your SOSx datasets reside). Click the Browse button to pop up a window that enables you to navigate to the directory containing your datasets.
Most users should set the tour audience to “SOSx”.
Datasets
Permalink to DatasetsSOSx datasets appear in the search window on the left side of SOSx. A dataset can be a series of images wrapped around the globe, a KML file, a satellite orbiting the Earth, etc. Users can choose a dataset category and select a dataset to load.
Dataset Editor
Permalink to Dataset EditorTour Builder enables you to create your own datasets. From the Tools menu, you can create a new dataset or open/edit an existing one.
If the dataset is a series of images, set the start time and end time to match your image files.
The image Format should be image/dds. If your images are not already in dds format, go to ToolsDDS Converter to convert your .png or .jpg images into .dds format.
For detailed information about creating a dataset, see the tutorial video entitled Tour Builder: Introduction to Dataset Editor.
Create New Tour
Permalink to Create New TourA tour is a list of “tasks” to perform, in sequence. For example, a tour might turn off clouds, turn on world borders, load an aurora dataset, then display a text box with information about auroras. That could be a complete, but simple, tour.
To create a new tour in Tour Builder, go to the FileNew Tour. You will be prompted for the directory for your new tour. Tour Builder will default to the <local-datasets>/custom directory. Click the Create Directory button to create a directory for your new tour.
Next, you will be prompted to provide other information (metadata) about your tour.
You must provide a Category and a Title. Other fields are optional but recommended. You can return to this window later on by selecting FileEdit Tour Details.
Once your tour is created, you can drag tasks from the top horizontal bar onto the “main tour timeline”.
A complete list of the tasks and an explanation of each can be found on the Tour Task Reference.
Once tasks are on the timeline, you can drag them around to reorder them. To delete a task from the timeline, click the little trash can icon.
You can organize a big tour into smaller “sub tours”. For example, perhaps you have 5 tour tasks that you always want at the start of any tour you create. You could create this 5 task tour in Tour Builder, save it, and then whenever you create a new tour, just include this 5 task tour with a single Load Tour (ReadOnly) task.
Some tasks, such as Text Box, require you to provide additional information below. Just fill out the pertinent information. For example, to show a text box with the caption “My new tour!”, enter the following:
- Text Box ID: textbox1
- Caption: My new tour!
- CaptionPos: Center
- CaptionBestFit: True
- FontSize: 20
- FontColor: white
- IsClosable: False
- X Position (%): 50
- Y Position (%): 50
- Width(%): 40
- Height (%): 30
- ShowBorder: True
Play Your Tour in SOSx
Permalink to Play Your Tour in SOSxTo play your tour in SOSx, go to FilePlay From Start or FilePlay From Task #. You would choose the later option, for example, if your tour has 100 tasks and you want to test tasks starting at task 80 and beyond (without having to go through all 100 tasks in SOSx.
You’ll see a window reminding you to launch SOSx.
When you click the Close button (and if SOSx is running on your computer), your tour will immediately run. This is a helpful feature when you are working on a tour and want to test your progress.
Additional Information
Permalink to Additional InformationSelect HelpManual and Tutorials for additional information about running Tour Builder.