Working with the Map Data View

The map data view provides functionality for navigation and layout. All navigations options are available in the toolbar in the top of the GIS data view and layout options are available through the property control. Some examples on Map view functionality are provided below.

Adding data to a map data view

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To add new data to a map view right-click on a feature class or raster and choose “Add to New Map…” from the context menu.
To add more data to an existing map data view choose “Add to active map…” Feature classes are now visualized as feature layers in the Map data view with a predefined simple style. Rasters are added to a raster layer using a simple gradient fill style.

Map navigation and properties

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Basic navigation functionality such as zoom in and out, pan is located in the Map data view toolbar. The “Select object” mode allows for choosing objects such as the map data view itself or the feature layer legend.
Clicking somewhere on the map data view displays the general Map properties. These allows for modifying back-ground color, adding titles, scales, north arrow and display some of the non-editable map properties (e.g. coordinate system).
Clicking on a Feature layer in the legend displays the associated properties of that particular feature layer including the styles to use when drawing the feature layer.
Each style provides various options for changing the appearance of how a feature class is displayed including layout, color coding, text labeling etc. Please refer to “Map Layout Options” for details.

Map layout options (vector data)

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Feature classes may be presented in the map data view using feature class attribute values to create different types of color scales and legends. To modify the appearance of a feature layer click select the relevant legend in the map data view.
The associated property dialogue provides a number of options for changing the appearance of a feature layer.
The “style type” contains a list of different feature layer styles
Clicking the Map data view provides a limited number of general map options such as “North arrow”, “Scale” and “Title”.
Clicking a specific feature class in the tree view opens the feature class properties. In relation to map layout only the “Display Attribute” is relevant. The “Display attribute” will be added to the map if the “Text style” -> “Visible” is set to True in the Feature layer properties.

Map layout options (raster data)

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Grid type rasters are displayed using a gradient fill based on the value of the raster pixels. Image rasters are automatically displayed using the color values for each pixel. You can modify the colors and value range used to display grid type rasters. Image rasters cannot be modified. To modify a grid type raster, click on the layer name in the legend.
The associated property dialogue provides a number of options for changing the appearance of a raster layer. Expand the Layer Style node to see all the options.
You can quickly select a preset gradient by choosing one of the pre-defined raster pallets. If you want more control over the gradient colors, you can set the lower value color and upper value color directly. In addition, you can set the upper and lower values to be used to control what range the gradient will span. Finally, you can set the transparency of the raster so that you can view other rasters “underneath” the top layer raster.

Adding charts to a map

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Pending	Pending
Pending	Pending

Selecting features

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Click “Select features” in the toolbar.
Select features by clicking on the map. Note that only features on the “active layer” can be selected (here Ethiopia is selected).
Multiple features can be selected by holding SHIFT key when clicking on features or by dragging the mouse while clicking for draw a rectangle. All features intersecting the rectangle will be selected.

Selecting features using spatial query tools

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Different spatial query tools are available. The spatial query menu entry is enabled if one or more features have been selected.
All spatial query tools require that a “selection layer” is defined. The selection layer contains features to be selected using a spatial query. E.g. a query could be “find dams located within Ethiopia”. This query would require: 1: the feature “Ethiopia” is selected in the feature class “Countries” 2: The feature class “Dams” is used as “selection layer”.
The result would be as illustrated in the graphics.
If the attribute data table is open during a spatial query the selected features will be highlighted in the table view as well as on the map.
A number of different spatial queries are available.

Selecting features by querying by attributes

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To query features by attributes, start by setting the active layer.
The attribute query tool is found in the Query drop-down list.
Example 1: This query selects all features where attribute “name1_” starts with the letter “E”.
Example 2: This query selects all features with attribute “area” between 100,000 and 400,000.
The result of the above query on a specific feature class is illustrated to the right. Note that map view and data table are synchronized. Note that the two queries in Example 1 and Example 2 could be combined in one joint query.

Saving selected features in a new feature class

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If individual features have been selected in the map, either using the selection tool or using spatial or attribute query tools, the selected features may be saved in a new feature class.
Use the “To database” tool to save the selected features to a new feature class. See “To database” tool for further details.

Saving raster data

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If you create a new raster using a tool such as the raster interpolation tools (see GIS Tools for vector data processing below), you can save this to the database.
First, select the raster layer you created by clicking on its name in the legend.
Then, select and run the To Database tool in the Tools Explorer.
This will permanently save the raster to the raster database.

Zonal statistics tool strip

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The zonal statistics tools allow you to calculate basic statistics about the grid cell values in a raster within a specific area. There are two options to define the area, you can define the area by drawing a polygon on the screen, or you can select a feature. To calculate zonal statistics, the raster layer must be selected in the legend.
When selecting Zonal Statistics by Polygon, draw the polygon on the screen over the raster by clicking. To finish the polygon, double-click.
To calculate statistics within a polygon feature, the feature layer you want to select from must be the active layer, and the raster layer must be selected in the legend. Click on the feature you want to calculate statistics for.
The zonal statistics will be displayed in the Properties dialog.