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Modify Feature Info

Marius Lazar
Updated

When a single area, line, or point feature is selected with the Digitizer tool, there is an option on the right-click context menu to edit the feature, EDIT - Selected Features.  

Selecting this option is one way to access the Modify Feature Info dialog (below), though the Modify Feature Info dialog can also appear as a part of other tools, including the digitizer feature creation tools. It can also be accessed by double-clicking on a feature.

The Modify Feature Info dialog allows you to modify the Name, Feature Type, Layer, Drawing Style, and Attributes for the selected feature. The 3D settings at the bottom vary depending on whether it is a point, line or area feature. For example, for 3D point features, a 3D Model may be used for the Point Symbol, and an Altitude Mode specified for the selected feature(s). When creating a new feature, there is also an option to Copy Attribute Names from feature layer.

Name

The Name field can be used to modify the display name of the feature.

If editing or creating a road feature, the name can be set to a commonly supported symbolized road name (like I-35 or US40). After pressing OK, a prompt will ask whether or not to display an icon for the road name. This allows the creation of nice symbolized display for most highway types.

To split point and area labels up onto multiple display lines, add the new line escape sequence (\n) to your display label. When pressing OK a prompt will confirm to split your label onto multiple lines.

Location

If editing a point feature, the Location button will appear to allow modification of a selected points location. After clicking the button, a Select Location window will open that allows for the point location to be modified using a Current Projection coordinate, Geographic Coordinates, or MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) Coordinates.

Vertices

If editing an area or line feature, the Vertices button will appear to allow editing the vertices of the selected feature. Additional options for vertex editing can be found in the Vertex Editing section of the Digitizer Menu

  • Edit Position - This option displays a dialog allowing you to manually position the selected vertices by entering their new position in either latitude/ longitude coordinates or coordinates in the currently configured view projection/ datum.
  • Add Elevations - Add or modify the elevation value of the currently selected vertex. If there is no Z or Elevation column in the vertex list, per vertex elevations have not been enabled. There will first be a prompt to enable per vertex elevations and create this column. It will automatically populate all vertices with any existing feature elevation attribute.
    The elevation unit will be displayed in the column heading. The unit interpretation of the elevation numbers can modified in the Elevations Tab (Vector Data)
  • Edit Length - Specify the length of the subsequent line segment. This will update all subsequent vertex locations.
  • Copy to Clipboard -The feature vertex list, including headings, will be copied to the windows clipboard in comma delimited format.
  • Delete Selected Vertices - The selected vertex will be removed. Other vertex attributes will update to reflect the change in length and heading.
  • Update Elevations from Terrain - Replaces existing elevation information from a loaded terrain layer.

Right-clicking on a selected vertex in the Feature Vertex List will provide a list of options:

  • Center Main Map on Vertex if Offscreen - When a vertex is highlighted in the list, the 2D map display will center on the selected vertex if it is off-screen. Double clicking on a vertex in the list will also center the map display on the vertex.
  • Create Point Features from Selected Vertices - A new point feature will be created from the selected vertex location. It will inherit the attributes of the original line or area feature, include the vertex elevation.
  • Duplicate selected Verticies (Use to Turn Off Area Segments) - The selected vertex will be duplicated. Duplicate vertices can be used to turn off the border style for part of the area feature, so there is also a prompt to specify whether to turn of drawing at the duplicated segment.

    For example, when drawing a shoreline from a large water body made up of multiple area features, duplicate vertices at the start of the shoreline can turn on border drawing, then a duplicate vertex at the segment abutting the other pieces of the lake along the shore, can turn off the border drawing, so there are no lines intersecting the water body.

Right-Click anywhere within the Feature Vertex List to access:

  • Apply an Offset to the Selected Elevations - Add a positive or negative value to the existing vertex elevation value. The units are displayed in the Feature Vertex list in the Elevation column label.
  • Apply a Scale Factor to the Selected Elevations - Multiply the existing vertex elevation by a number to scale the value.
  • Evenly Spread elevations Between the First and Last Elevation - The elevation values will be evenly spread along the length of the area feature to maintain a consistent slope from the first elevation to the last.
  • Add Per-Vertex Time Stamps - will add a TIMESTAMP attribute with a value set to the current system time. If a TIMESTAMP attribute already exists it will be updated with the current system time.

Feature Type

Choose which Global Mapper classification to assign to the feature. Create a new Global Mapper type with the Create New Type button.

Feature Layer

Choose which layer the feature will be assigned to. The default option is to enter a new layer name, which is done by simply clicking in the text field, and typing in the new name. To choose from an existing layer, or to use the <User Created Features> layer, click on the dropdown icon at the right end of the text field, and select the desired option from the dropdown menu.

A layer corresponds to a single entry in the Control Center.

Feature Description

When Use Custom Description is selected, the associated text entry field will be enabled. The text typed into that field will be saved as the custom description for the feature(s). When the box is not checked, the existing custom description, if any, will be cleared.

Feature Style

The Feature Style section controls the drawing style of the selected feature. Selecting the Use Default Style for Selected Feature Type option will use the configured style for the Feature Type from the Area, Line, or Point Styles tab of theConfigure when rendering the feature.

Alternatively, choose the Specify Style to Use When Rendering Feature option and select how this feature is drawn, independent of the selected Feature Type or layer settings. For more information on style settings, see:

Feature Attributes

The Feature Attributes section displays and allows editing of the attributes that are associated with this feature. When creating new vector features, default attributes for feature measurement are automatically added. This behavior can be disabled from the Configuration Vector Advanced options. Select an existing attribute from the list to enable the Edit or Delete buttons.

When editing attributes created from a Feature Template, the designed template attribute restrictions will be respected limiting the free form editing of some attribute values.

When you add or edit new attributes, the dialog that appears includes drop-downs for both the attribute name and value showing previously entered names and values for easy selection. These values are stored in an easy to edit text file named attr_previous_vals.txt in your setting file path.

The format is described in the file so you can set this up initially with values for particular customers if you don't want to wait to have it filled in as it's used. When more than one area, line, and/or point feature is selected, there is an option on the right-click popup menu allowing you to edit the selected features. Selecting that option displays a dialog which allows you to modify the Name, Feature Type, Feature Layer, and Drawing Style, and Attributes for the selected features.

*When editing multiple features, if some features use a custom description and others do not, the box will be filed with a light grey check mark and the text field will be empty and disabled.  Checking or clearing the check box will set or clear the custom description for all selected features.

The Add... button will create a new attribute and attribute value. The drop-down lists will populate with recent values.

The Add File Link(s)... button in this section will add attributes that point to files stored in another location without having to manually type in the file name. These file links can later be followed from the Feature Information dialog displayed with the Feature Info tool. If linking to a PDF document the parameter #page=<page number> can be added at the end of the File Link attribute value. This additional value will open the PDF at the noted page on machines where Adobe Acrobat installed. Example attribute value: C:\GeoPDF\Rt_Map_Book.pdf#page=10

The Add Time Stamp button will add a TIMESTAMP attribute with a value set to the current system time. If a TIMESTAMP attribute already exists it will be updated with the current system time.

The Add/Edit Notation button allows adding notes to a feature. These notes are stored in a special attribute named NOTATION. See Feature Notation for more information about Notations.

For more information about special attributes names, see ASCII Field Options.

3D Settings

Specify at the feature level how elevation or height values are interpreted. The default values will defer to settings at the Layer level, and then in 3D View Properties Settings.

Altitude Mode

Specify how height or elevation values for the layer are interpreted. The default value Use Layer Setting will defer to Layer and 3D View Properties settings.

  • Use Layer Setting
  • Absolute
  • Relative to Ground
  • Clamp to Ground
  • Depth

Extrusion Mode (Area Features)

Extrusion Mode extends 3D features to the ground, so they appear as solid objects. Unspecified extrusion mode will default to the Layer and 3D View Properties settings. Otherwise, extrusion can be turned on or off for the selected feature, and On or Off here will override other settings.

Model Placement (Point Features)

Specify how 3D model point symbols are placed relative to the height attribute. For more information see Working with 3D Models

Edit Fly-Through Path (Line Features)

This brings up the Fly Through Path Properties dialog which allows for creating or editing Fly Through paths. For more information see Defining or Editing a Fly-through Path

Apply Settings from Selected Feature

If the user selects exactly one feature (of the same type as the feature being created) before entering the Digitizer, this button will be enabled on the Modify Feature Info dialog when the user creates a new feature.  When the user clicks this button, the Name, Feature Type, Description, Style, and Attributes from the selected feature will be filled in on this dialog.

Apply Settings from Previous Feature

If the user has already created a feature with the Digitizer, this button will be enabled.  When the user clicks this button, the Name, Feature Type, Description, Style, and Attributes from the most recently created feature of the same type will be filled in on this dialog.

Copy Attribute Names from Feature Layer

This button will be enabled when a Feature Layer is selected other than the User Created Features layer, or Create New Layer options.

When clicked, any existing attributes will be replaced by the attributes from the selected layer.

This function respects the Configuration option to automatically add measure attributes to new features. If this option is checked, then the measure attributes will remain in the list; if it is not checked, they will be removed.

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