Opening and viewing GIS projects
In this section, you will be introduced to all the essential elements for using an existing PlanetGIS project.
Launching PlanetGIS
Once PlanetGIS is installed, you will be able to launch it from your Start menu. The quickest way to locate Planet in the menu, is by searching for it:
Then simply hit enter or click on the menu item. There may also be a list of recently opened projects in the right half of the menu.
You can also launch PlanetGIS by double-clicking on a project file in Windows Explorer:
If you will be using the software regularly, it is highly recommended to pin
it to your task bar. When PlanetGIS
is open, locate its icon in the task bar, right-click on it and then click Pin to taskbar
:
Opening a GIS project
After launching PlanetGIS (by means other than double-clicking on a project file, or a recent item as shown above),
you will be presented with a Quick start
window that lists all your recently opened projects.
Initially, the list will be empty (containing only the Browse for .db... item). Items will be added as you
open more projects in different locations. You can clear the list by clicking on the Clear list button, or remove a single item
by right-clicking on it and then clicking Remove from list. To find a project that is not in the list, double-click
on Browse for .db...
or with Browse for .db... selected, click OK.
This will open a standard Windows File-Open dialog box, with which you can locate your
project file.
Alternatively, or when you need to open a project after you have dismissed the Quick start window, you can use the File menu which also maintains a list of recent projects at the bottom:
The following examples use the World Map, which is available from your account downloads section, if you want to follow along.
The User Interface
If you pause your mouse over most of the elements shown above, a small tool tip
will appear that explains the element's
function. A longer explanation will appear in the hint bar at the bottom.
The first six buttons of the map toolbar are mutually exclusive click modes
. Each changes the way that the mouse will
interact with the map. When you hover the mouse over the map, you will notice that the hint bar provides instructions on how to
interact with the map. A mouse with a wheel is recommended.
Rolling the wheel will change the position on the scale bar, zooming in or out with the location at the mouse cursor remaining
in the same place. In zoom mode (),
clicking on the map will zoom as well as
pan
the map so that it is centred around the
location where you clicked. Right-click zooms out, with the same centering action. If you hold the left mouse button down
and drag
, you can indicate a rectangular area to zoom into, once you let go of the mouse button.
In all click modes, you can right-click and hold the mouse button down for ½ second for a popup menu with useful functions for the particular click mode. In the capturing/editing modes, right-clicking will not zoom out but provide an instant popup menu, since in those modes you need to use the menu often.
The Map toolbar
Tag.
In this mode, a feature is selected, and the existing selection is cleared. <Ctrl> changes the click mode
to
Tag multiple
, and <Alt> changes it to Untag
. Alternate selection modes will appear to the
right of this button when the mouse cursor is over the button.
Info.
This mode is the same as Tag, except that the attribute information window pops up on top of the map every time you
select a feature. Use Info only in situations where you don't want the Attributes tab active or expanded,
and it is usually only useful when you keep the popup window open next to the main application window, using a large or
multiple monitors.
Measure.
In this mode, you can measure distance, direction, and area. Click once on the map to indicate the starting position of a
measurement and move the mouse in the direction of measurement. The distance from the start location, direction, and bearing
are displayed in the scale box. The total distance will be updated continually as you move the mouse. Click one or more times
to fix a coordinate and create further line segments. If you keep the mouse button depressed, a path will be captured with
many points as you move the mouse. To measure area, return to the starting point. Clicking at the starting point clears the
measurement polygon. The <Esc> key cancels the current measurement.
Capture.
In this mode, you can create your own points, lines, or polygons on the map. Alternate capture modes will be
shown to the right of this button when the mouse cursor is over the button.
Zoom.
In this mode, you can click on the map to centre that position and reduce the scale by ¼, or alternatively, click and
draw (drag) a zoom rectangle by moving the mouse while keeping the left mouse button down. Right-clicking, as with most other
modes, will zoom out by doubling the scale.
Pan.
In this mode, you can change the visible part of the map without changing the scale. Click on the map and drag (move the
mouse while the left button is held down), then let go of the mouse button to pan.
The next 5 buttons do not change the click mode selected above. They all perform a single action, which usually does not need to be repeated.
Zoom All.
Display the map to its full extent, or if the maximum extent is limited, go to that limit.
Zoom previous.
Revert to a prior location and scale. This is similar to “undo” for zooming and panning operations. All locations since opening
the map are remembered.
Zoom to selection.
Fit selected features into the visible area, zoomed in as close as possible.
Clear selection.
Clear the selection and remove all tags.
Redraw.
Re-render the map.
The Menu toolbar
The buttons at the top are shortcuts for items in the main menu:
File & print
(Buttons corresponding to items in the File menu.)
New.
Create a new PlanetGIS project.
Open.
Open an existing PlanetGIS project.
Print preview.
Change the view mode to visualise the map as when printed on paper, as per the currently selected printer, page size and
orientation. (
File→Print setup to change). Click again (toggle) to change to normal map view.
Print.
Open the
Print
dialog, in order to select a printer and print the current view of the map.
Application interface mode
Map mode.
The map is visible (the default mode).
3D view.
3D viewer. (Only available if the current map has a 3D spatial index.)
Design mode.
Design mode exposes the entire structure of all open projects. Operations are often more efficient in this mode.
Database manager.
Access to the internal as well as linked databases, lookup lists, scripts, pages (reports) and more.
Map tools
These buttons correspond to menu items in the View, Locate, Select and Calculate menus.
Expanding tabs
The tabs on the right of the user interface expand once you click on them or the small arrow button above them, and can be collapsed again by clicking the arrow button. Each tab serves a different purpose, as explained below. The content of the tabs is determined by the currently active view and the current selection of features on the map.
If enough vertical space is available, the names of each tab will be visible; otherwise, only the icons will be displayed,
and you'll have to move your mouse over each to see the tab’s name. The expanded area of the tabs can be resized by dragging
the splitter
between the tabs’ content area and the map's scale trackbar.
Legend.
Legend for the content of the current view at the current scale. This is an alternative to having a floating legend on top of the map.
Displays.
The Display Manager is used to control the visible content (layers) of the map, i.e., the displays that make up a view, the visibility
conditions of each display, the order of displays, and more.
Selection.
The selection tab shows a summary of what has been selected on the map, in the form of the number of features per feature class.
Features of a particular feature class can be unselected.
Attributes.
Attribute information for each selected feature can be viewed or modified in this tab. Most users will be using this tab much
more than any other.
Attachments.
This tab displays all attachments (photographs, documents, etc.) linked to selected features. New content can also be attached
to features, though the Attributes tab is usually better for that purpose.
Forms.
Customised input fields can be set up for each feature (and other) class, allowing for quicker data entry, especially on
mobile devices. Without a special form set up for a class, this provides a simpler interface for entering data for a single
selected feature.
Geometry.
This tab provides a view of selected features' geometries (coordinates) and tools for making changes.
Pan & scale trackbars
Use the East-West and North-South pan bars directly next to the map area below and to the right to pan the visible area of the map as desired.
The scale trackbar has levels of rounded and commonly used scales. The scale trackbar corresponds to each position of the mouse wheel when rolled forward or backward slowly. (The mouse wheel will skip scale levels when rolled continuously to speed up zooming.)
The status bar
The status bar at the bottom of the screen has four areas:
- Hint bar. Displays hints and descriptions based on the location of your mouse cursor. On the map, the hint describes commonly used actions that you can perform with your mouse, based on the current mode of operation. Outside of the map, the hint will describe the user interface element (button, tab, or menu item).
- Scale. The current scale of the map. Click to change to a specified scale.
- Coordinates. The map coordinates of the mouse cursor. Click to change the format.
- Coordinate system. The name of the coordinate system of the active map. An asterisk at the end indicates a secondary coordinate system (not the actual coordinate system of the map).
Views
A PlanetGIS project has at least one view, and by default, this view will have the same name as the project. You can create any number of additional views for a project. Views are shown as tabs at the top of the map. When selecting a different view, the same geographic location is displayed, but with a different set of displays. There are a few reasons for creating multiple views:
- To display different themes, e.g., displaying population while hiding certain layers of the map to make it clear what the
theme
of the particular view is. - To set up views for specific purposes, e.g., separating water utilities from electricity. You can also set up separate views used for printing, and it is often a good idea to have special views set up for making changes to or capturing new features to avoid making changes to features in other classes.
- When multiple users are using the same map, each user can set up their own views for their own purposes.
- Views can have special limitations (in addition to the selection of visible layers), for example a geographic limit (keeping the visible map inside a specified area) or which displays (layers) can be selected, edited, etc.
To make changes to views, right-click on a view tab:
Views can also be created in a hierarchical structure where you have views within views. An ellipsis ... will
indicate that a view has sub-views. This is useful to reduce the number of top-level tabs, create a logical structure, and
reuse a group of displays. For example, you can have your background displays (e.g., country borders) in a parent view and
different themes overlaid in sub- or child
views. By default, child views will first draw the displays
of parent views. This can be switched off in the view's properties.
The Select view button in the menu bar ()
and
View → Views → in the main menu list the views and might be helpful in selecting a view, especially
when there is a hierarchy of views.
Displays
Displays are similar to layers in Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. In PlanetGIS, a display is a reference to a feature class or a thematic classification. A view is a collection of displays. A display acts as a link between a view and a feature class or a thematic classification.
The visual appearance of features is determined by the style that is selected. While feature classes and thematic layers have their own default styles, the display ultimately defines which style is to be used for a layer in a particular view. A display, therefore, also acts as a link between a layer and a style.
Displays have many properties that control when and how to display a layer and how features are labelled. A display can also be a group for other displays, or refer to a feature class used as a group for subclasses or a thematic query that has layers for its classification.
The visibility of layers is indicated by the eye icons and controlled by clicking on the eye icons. The yellow question mark
() indicates that a display's visibility is dependent
on scale. As you zoom in on the world map, you will see more eyes opening in the
Places
group. To change when such
displays are visible, you need to edit either the display or the style's properties.
You can right-click on an eye for a popup menu that can be used to show or hide all (sibling) displays in a group, and if a display has scale-conditional visibility, a menu item will take you to either the display's or its style's property window to change the setting:
Closing the eye of a group display, hides all its members (children), and you can collapse a group in order to see more displays in less space.
Adding displays to a view
You can click anywhere on the white space in the Display Manager or right-click on a display to add displays or create a group. If you right-click on an existing display, new displays will be inserted underneath it, unless it is a group, in which case new displays will be added inside it:
To select multiple feature classes, use Shift or Ctrl when clicking to select.
To delete a display, right-click on it and select Delete.
Ordering displays
Displays are listed in the order in which they are drawn. The topmost display is drawn first, and so on. If you think of
displays as layers, the topmost display is the bottommost layer. However, by default, Planet uses smart draw ordering
.
Planet will first draw all raster images, then fills (of polygons), then lines/outlines, then symbols, and lastly text (labels).
Within each of these steps, displays are drawn in top-to-bottom order. As an example, if you drag the Landcover
display
to the bottom of the list, the map will look the same: the land cover raster image does not obscure anything because rasters
are still drawn first. If you switch off smart draw ordering, the landcover will obscure everything else. It is therefore good
practice to place raster displays at the top of the display list.
Smart draw ordering can be switched on and off in the view’s properties (right-click on the view tab).
With smart draw ordering switched on (the default), only the order of displays with similar style elements is important.
For example, in the World map, the Sovereignty
display (switch it on if you want to test) must be before (above) the
Urban areas
and Lakes & dams
displays; otherwise, the latter will be obscured by it. Similarly, if you want
one display’s pen (outline) to be drawn on top of another's, that display must be lower in the list.
To change the order of displays, simply drag them to a new position. Care needs to be taken with grouped displays, and this applies to many other places in Planet where items can be dragged to new positions. If you drag-and-drop a display onto the name of another display that is a group of displays, the dropped display will go inside the group. If you drop a display to the right of the name of a group display, it will be moved to above or below the group (depending on the direction of the move).
Display properties
Attributes
Next: Working with PlanetGIS