The session state (i.e. the current settings) of the VAPOR GUI can be saved to a vapor session file, and restored from a session file. This is useful if you would like to remember or recreate a visualization, or if you would like to communicate an important visualization setup to another user.
To save the current session: From the File menu, choose "Save Session" or "Save Session As". Note that you must first load or import a dataset before you can save a session. When you choose "Save Session", the current session state is saved to disk, using the most recently used session file name. By default, the session file name is "VaporSaved.vss". When you choose "Save Session As", you specify the file name for saving the session.
To restore VAPOR GUI from a session file: From the File menu, click "Open Session", and specify the session file (file of type .vss) to read. You will then need to specify the data on which to operate, using the Data menu: Choose either "Load a Dataset into Current Session" or "Import WRF-ARW output files into current session", and then specify the file(s) containing the data you want to visualize. Finally you must choose the visualization to perform, by enabling the desired renderer instances. Note that the session file does not remember which visualizations you had enabled, and the session can be applied to a different data set (if the different data has similar names and grid shape).
To reset the VAPOR GUI to its default state: From the File menu, click "New Session". Note that the current session state will be lost.
Autosaved sessions: The VAPOR GUI will automatically save the current session to a file, which may be used to recover after a system crash or if you need to return the user interface to a recent state. By default the session is automatically saved after every 10 changes to the user interface. The default name of the autosave file is "/tmp/VaporAutosave.nnnnnn.vss" on Linux or Mac, and "$TEMP\VaporAutosave.NAME.vss" on Windows, where "nnnnnn" is the user number on Linux or Mac, $TEMP is the value of the Windows environment variable "TEMP", and NAME is the Windows user name performing the autosave. You can reset the autosave interval and the autosave file name in the VAPOR GUI User Preferences panel.
What is NOT saved in a session file: The saved session does not include user preferences settings. The VAPOR GUI window size or position, and the layout of the visualizers are not saved. The enablement state of a renderer (i.e. whether or not a renderer instance was enabled) is not saved.
