Mapper Tutorial  |
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of Contents: Key
Mapper Concepts
We map the location of each parcel and identify which attributes belong to which. This is the foundation of GIS. A GIS tells us where something is and what it is. Computers are synonymous with GIS, and using a computer we can have hundreds of fields (different attributes) for thousands of records (parcels). You will be able to examine the attributes of features as you navigate Geographic Data Viewer maps. Concept #
2: Information is separated into layers. A map represents
the landscape in an artificial way. Vector layers represent
features in one of several ways:
You might hear people talk about coverages, themes, or shapefiles. All these terms are other names for layers of information. With individual
layers we can conduct analysis between layers and only display
layers of interest. As you are work
with Geographic Data Viewer maps you will be able to turn different
layers on and off as you desire.
(left) Providence
Neighborhood Mapper; (right) Providence Urban Land Reform Mapper 3. Enter
Your target address in the "Address" field. You can use the
whole or partial street name. Number is optional.
8. Click
on the "Map this Property" link in the upper right hand
corner of the screen. This will lead you to your selected property.
It will be located in the center of the mapper. We're working
on improving the program so the property you select will also
be highlighted.. With The
Mapper you can look at a specific area of interest...
The tool with
the little plus sign First, select one of them, go somewhere on the map and press the left mouse button. If it is the Zoom In tool the map zooms in. The center of the new map is wherever on the map you clicked the mouse button. The Zoom Out tool zooms out the same way. Second, you can zoom in more precisely by pressing the mouse button somewhere on the map, holding it down, and dragging a box. When you let go of the mouse button the new map extent will be the area defined by the box. When zooming out, the area defined by the box becomes the new map extent. Note: On The Mapper, a maximum and minimum scale
may be set. A maximum scale is set so you can't zoom in further
than the data is designed to be used at. A minimum scale is so
that people don't zoom out beyond where there is information.
As well, some layers or labels for layers may only appear at certain
scales. This is to improve the speed of the maps and to prevent
them from getting cluttered at different scales. There are a few other handy buttons that will make life easier:
Turning Layers On and Off and Making a Layer Active Hopefully you've had a chance to take a look at the introduction to GIS Concepts section where we discussed layers.
After you
turn a layer on or off, you will need to click the By default, some layers may be turned on and others may be turned off when you initially open the map. In our example
above, you can see that only the "Advertised Foreclosures" layer
is turned on (checked box). You can also see that it is 'Active'
(radio button selected This means that the spotlight is on this layer. In other words, this is our way of telling the computer that this is the layer we are interested in. You can only perform an action on the active layer. The different actions are described below. Querying Attribute Information for the Active Layer The introduction to GIS Concepts section discussed layers and how features have attributes in a GIS. Suppose you are interested in who owns properties in a particular area. First, you ensure that the layer with property attributes is the active layer (see the above lesson to do this). In this case, 'Plat-Lots' is made active. The Identify
Tool -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Display or Remove an Inset Map
If it isn't
useful, you can easily switch it off. Just press the Hide/Show
Inset button -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating a URL for a Map -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To print a map,
press the Print button
Simply print it as you would any other page on your computer, but make sure you set it to print landscape (sideways). The required steps depend on your printer, but they should be fairly straightforward. Once you have printed the map, close the window and you'll be back to the Geographic Data Viewer interactive map. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps you
want to measure the distance from your house to your child's school,
or just the length of your street. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selecting Features with Attribute Queries You can select
records using a logical expression called a query which
selects records based on certain attribute criteria. The Query
button You select "Residential-Apartments"
as the value. You then click the Add to Query String button.
At this point you could add more criteria to our query string,
but let's not get carried away. When the Execute button is clicked,
the computer runs the expression and the results are displayed
on the map and the corresponding attribute table displays. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can also select specific spatial features and look at their attributes. This is essentially asking, What are the attributes of these specific features? To do this, you select the layer of interest and then pick how you want to select the features. First, you can
draw a selection rectangle using the Select by Rectangle tool
Second, you
can select features using the Select by Line/ Polygon tool
The buffer enables you to highlight features from a particular layer (i.e. schools, libraries, hospitals, parcels) within a specified distance from a selected parcel. The resulting buffer zone is displayed on the map and attributes of all highlighted features are listed in the table below the map. Here's how to
create a buffer zone. First, select a parcel of interest. You
can either select a parcel using the select by rectangle tool
If a specific address is not known, manually zoom in on a specific area of the map. Zooming in may have to be repeated if the area selected is too large and individual parcels are not visible. Make sure that
"Plat-Lots" the active layer. Click
on the Buffer tool
The buffer function can be used to create a mailing list, to find neighborhood schools and hospitals, and for many other functions. See this instruction sheet (200KB PDF) That's it for the tutorial. Have fun mapping! |
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You can move around the map using the Pan Tool. The Pan
tool lets you slide around to different parts of the map. Suppose
you want to go north (up the map). Grab the Pan tool and grab
(press and hold down the mouse button) onto the map and pull it
down. Whatever part of the map you grab with the little hand will
end up where you let go of the mouse button.This works for moving
any direction on the map.
The
Zoom Tools are unique to digital maps. They are very much
like using an actual magnifying glass, as the icons imply.
The
first is the Previous Extent Tool. This button jumps back
to the previous map extent you were at. If you want to go back
to where you were three zooms or pans ago, press it three times.
Another
button is the Zoom to Full Extent Tool. It zooms you out
to the maximum extent of the information.
The
Zoom to Layer Extent Tool zooms to the maximum extent of
the active layer. Next, you will find out how to make a layer
active.
button before these
changes are reflected in the map. If you want these changes to
happen automatically, check the 
box. Turning this function off and refreshing the map manually
will result in much faster loading of the map. 
and highlighted in green).
allows
you to get attribute information about a feature by clicking on
it. You select the Identify tool to click on the feature whose
attributes you want to examine.
.
on the toolbar to create a URL that can be pasted in a browser
address bar to recreate the current map. This URL will preserve
the viewscale of the map as well as the layers displayed, so be
sure your map is the way you would like it before creating or
sharing a URL. Clicking the tool will open the yellow URL panel
seen below. Then, simply copy the link and paste into an email
or browser. 
on the toolbar.
.
Select the tool, click on the start location (A) and then click
on the end location (B). As you move the cursor, you can see how
far the pointer is from the start location in the Segment length
box. The distance between the two points is given.
to reset
the units of measurement.
!
The Clear Selection tool clears/unselects any selected
features, distance measurement lines, etc. This tool is the equivalent
of a few good shakes of an etch-a-sketch. Unless you want to print
a map with features selected (they usually appear shaded yellow)
it is a good idea to hit this button before you create a print
page.
opens the query panel seen below. This is essentially asking,
Where are the features that have these specific attributes?
.
Every feature touched by the rectangle is selected and the associated
attributes display as a table.
. You can use this tool to
draw a multi-segmented line across the landscape. This is depicted
in the diagram (below). When you click the Complete Line &
Select button, all the features of the active layer that touch
the line are selected. An attribute table will display.
.
Fill in the buffer field with the features that you would
like to be highlighted (i.e. Plat-Lot Labels) and the distance
of the radius of the desired buffer zone (i.e. 300 ft). Note that
your features layer selected in the dropdown
menu cannot be the same as your active layer.
