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Map Window

The Map Window or GIS Window is located to the right of the Workspace Manager. The main component of the Map Window is a map where different GIS layers are shown on top of each other with the order given in the GIS layer control on the right side of the window. The layers are shown from top to bottom. The order can be changed either by dragging the layer up or down or using a right-click on a layer followed by a Send Layer to Front or Send Layer to Back. Each layer can be checked on or off in the layer control as needed.

The size of the map window can be adjusted as with any other window. Similarly the width of the GIS layer control window can be adjusted by holding the mouse near the edge between the map and the GIS layer control.

Below the GIS layer control there are a number of filters that can be applied to the list of layers. It is possible to filter using drop downs on the type of layer or the currently selected visibility of the layer. And it is possible to filter by typing part of the name of the layer into the empty field. To the right of the filters the Clear Filters button allows the filters to be reset.

The last two buttons in the lower right corner of the Map Window is the Open External GIS Layer button and the Open Web Based GIS Layer button. The first is used to add external files with formats such as MapInfo Tab files, OpenGIS Shape files and GeoTIFFs to the GIS. The second is used to add Web Map Service (WMS) layers to the map. Both are used to bring in different kinds of backgroundmap images.

The external file can also be a grid, but if it needs to be used as anything other than a backgroundmap image, it should instead be imported as an External Grid or Elevation Grid from the Workspace ribbon so that it gets added to the Workspace Manager.

The line below the map can show a color scale. This color scale can be set to Update with the active layer in the GIS layer control, which is simply the last clicked layer in the GIS layer control. It is also possible to set it to be Frozen, so that it doesn’t update when you click between similar layers, or to set it to be Hidden. Both these last two options can save a bit of load time. This is not the only way to show a color scale, it can also be done by right clicking on the different nodes in the Workspace Manager and select Show Colorscale there.

Also in the line below the map there is a map scale, the coordinates of the pointer and the name of the used coordinate system and projection. The width of the individual fields can be adjusted just as the width of the GIS layer control, by holding the mouse near the edge of two fields.

GIS Tools on the GIS ribbon

The GIS tools used to SelectNavigate, and Draw on the map can be found on the GIS ribbon. It also include the Use selection (for ...) dropdown menu.

The Select group include a few different tools to can be used to select points from a layer. The type of layer determines what the selection can be use for. Typical uses would be to make a selection from a Model Selection layer to view the data and how the inverted models fits the data directly from the GIS, or to make a selection from an SCI layer to add apriori to the models directly from the GIS before inverting the SCI.

In order to select something, the layer has to be shown on the map, and it also has to be the active layer in the GIS layer control. The active layer is indicated by a blue highlight around the layer in the GIS layer control, and it is simply the last clicked layer either directly in the GIS layer control or in the Workspace Manager. The Select tools will only be available if it is possible to make a selection from the layer.

The Select group includes the following tools:

  • The select Rectangle tool used to select all points within a rectangle by clicking and dragging a rectangle.
     
  • The select Polyline tool used to select all points near a line. Click on the map to start using the tool and insert the first waypoint, Click again to insert additional waypoints and double click to end. This tool works best when zoomed in fairly close to the points.
     
  • The select Polygon tool used to select all points within a polygon. Click on the map to start using the tool and insert the first corner of the polygon, click again to insert additional corners and double click to end. This is usually the most useful tool for selection.
     
  • The Clear tool used to clear all points in the selected layer.
     
  • The Clear All tool used to clear all points in all layers.
     
  • The Find Nearest tool used when processing data. When selected and used on the GIS map, any opened processing AEM Edit Form (EditFormAEM) automatically centers on the position closest to the clicked location on the GIS map.

Note that it is possible to keep adding to a selection, so there is no need to get everything with a single complex polygon selection.

Note that all the click to add a waypoint or corner type tools keeps track on the last activated waypoint. If this last activated waypoint is clicked a second time, it is removed. This makes it relatively easy to remove the last few entered waypoints. If however instead another waypoint is clicked, then this waypoint become the last activated waypoint, and new waypoints will be inserted between this and the next waypoint. This tends to be more confusing than helpfull, so it might be easier to ignore this feature.

There is one last select option down in the GIS layer control. By right-clicking on a profile or line, the option to Select in layer becomes available for the clicked profile or line layer. This special select option can be used to select points in a different layer within a given distance of the clicked profile or line layer. This is often more useful than the Select polyline tool and makes it quite easy to for instance make a Model Selection with models along a profile that then can be exported.

Once a selection has been made, the type of layer determines the options available in the Use Selection for dropdown menu:

  • For a Model Selection layer, the selection can be used to view the data and how the inverted models fit the data. The selection could also be used to make a Model Selection, which is just a Model Selection subset of an existing Model Selection covering only the selection and otherwise behaving like any other Model Selection. Or the selection could be used to enable or disable points in the layer.
     
  • For an SCI layer, the selection can be used to add apriori to the models. The typical example is adding apriori in the form of a different starting model to models over water.

The Navigate group include:

  • The Zoom (to Drag) version of zoom. This tool is used by clicking and dragging a rectangle on the map. If the rectangle is dragged down and to the right, the map will zoom in to an area at least large enough to cover that rectangle. If the rectangle is dragged in any other direction, the map will instead zoom out by an amount based on the area difference between the current map area and the area of the dragged rectangle.
     
  • The (Zoom to) Click version of zoom. This tool is used by either left-clicking or right-clicking on the map. The map centers on the clicked location and is zoomed in for a left-click or zoomed out for a right-click, always by the same fixed amount.
     
  • The (Zoom to) Layer version of zoom. This tool is used to zoom to a previously selected layer.
     
  • Undo and Redo options for zoom.
     
  • The Center tool centers the map on the clicked location on the map.
     
  • The Ruler tool is used for measuring distances on the map. Click on the map to start using the tool and insert the first waypoint, click again to insert additional waypoints and double click to end. The resulting distance from the initial waypoint, through any additional waypoints, to the current mouse location, is shown in the lower right corner of the Map Window. The measured distance will stay there until the Pointer tool is selected and the corner again show coordinates of the Pointer tool.
     
  • The Label tool used to show and hide Labels of the active layer on the map.
     
  • The Info tool makes it possible to select single points directly on the GIS map and read a few entries about it from the database. To select from a layer it has to be shown one the map and it has to be the active layer, which simply means that it has to be the last clicked layer in the GIS layer control. This tool is rarely needed, but can be quite useful as it makes it possible to read line file numbers from soundings of an SCI.

Note that if the mouse is held over the GIS window after having clicked on GIS window, it is also possible to zoom in and out using the mouse wheel. The zoom is centered on the mouse pointer.

There are keyboard shortcuts (KeyboardShortcuts) for the most commonly used options. 

The Draw group include a few options for drawing points, lines and regions and then saving them as a layer. When the drawing option has been selected the drawing style for that drawing option can be adjusted. The drawing style of the layers can also be edited, given labels and so by right-clicking the layer and selecting edit drawing in the layer control. The last option is to delete a drawing rather than saving it.

One particularly interesting use of draw regions is that these polygon layers can be used to limit the data selection during the SCI setup. Simply draw a polygon and save the layer, then select the layer during the SCI setup where all polygon layers will be available in a drop down menu.