|
MapViewer: Selecting Objects,
Part 2
Introduction
Many operations in MapViewer require first
selecting an object or objects. Understanding the different ways to select
objects is key to using MapViewer efficiently. Part
1 of this article, in the previous newsletter, examined some basic ways to
select objects. This article will look at some more advanced object selection
techniques.
The selection techniques discussed in this
article are:
- Select/Deselect by PID
- Using the Find command
- Records in Regions
- Closest Neighbor
Part 3, the final article in this series, will
examine selecting objects with queries. Look for it in the next newsletter.
Most methods of selecting objects apply only to
objects on the active layer. If you have multiple layers, check the status bar
or the layer manager to see which is active.
1 - Select/Deselect by PID
Edit | Select/Deselect by PID (F7) allows
you to select or deselect areas, curves, and points by their primary IDs.
Choose one or more PIDs to
select or deselect.
This tool is similar to just selecting objects in
the Object Property Manager (OPM), but there are several differences that would
sometimes make this the selection tool to choose.
- The Select/Deselect by PID dialog will
only list objects that have Primary IDs. If you have a lot of objects
without PIDs, then this will show you a smaller list than you see in the
Object Property Manager.
- The PIDs will be listed in alphabetical order.
The objects in the OPM may be in a different order. Although you can sort
the OPM on the PID, you may have a drawing order that you wish to maintain.
- The Accumulative checkbox gives you the
choice to add to an existing selection or to clear the selection.
2 - Using the Find command
The Edit | Find command can be used to
select objects whose attributes contain a certain text string.
Search all attributes of all
objects for "AZ"
Controls in the Find Object dialog allow
you to limit the search to only certain attribute fields (PID, SID, Attrib1,
Attrib2, Hyperlink) and to only certain object types (Area, Curve, etc.). You
can also choose whether to match whole words only and if the case must match
exactly.
After setting the search parameters, click the Find
All button to select all objects that match, or Find Next to just
select the single next matching object.
Edit | Find Next (Ctrl-Q) will let you
repeat the last search to step through all the matching objects one at a time.
There is also a shortcut Edit | Find in MapViewer's toolbar area. Just
type in a string and hit Return to quickly search using the default settings.
The find tool on the toolbar.
3 - Records in Regions
The Analysis | Records in Regions command
can be used to select objects that fall within a certain region of your
map. Consider the following map, which shows the cities and counties of
Colorado, on two different layers.
Map showing the cities and
counties of Colorado.
The Analysis | Records in Regions command
can be used to select the cities that fall within a particular county as
follows:
- With CO Counties as the active layer, go to Analysis
| Define Region | By Selecting.
- In the Define Regions by PIDs dialog,
select the PID of the county of interest and click OK.
Choose the PID for Larimer County (08069) and click OK.
- Since we are going to be wanting to select
objects on the other layer (CO Cities), we need to move the region to that
layer. Scroll to the top of the Object Property Manager to see the area
object that was created for the region. Click on it to select it and use Edit
| Move to Another Layer to move it to the CO Cities layer.
- Double-click on CO Cities in the Layer Manager
to make it the active layer.
- Go to Analysis | Records in Regions.
- In the Data Records in Specified Zone
dialog, note that 75 records were found. Click Select All and then Close.
Click Select All to
select the objects found.
- Now that the cities in Larimer County are
selected, go to Draw | Properties (F9) to change their symbol
properties.
- Go to Edit | Deselect All to clear the
selection.
- Go to Analysis | Clear Regions to
delete the region that was created in Steps 1 and 2.
The cities in Larimer
County, CO, were selected
and changed to a different color.
4 - Closest Neighbor
The Analysis | Closest Neighbor tool can
be used to find and select the point object that is closest to another point
object. For example,
| 1. |
Select the point object for which you want to
find the closest neighbor.
|
The community of Virginia
Dale has been selected.
|
| 2. |
Go to Analysis | Closest Neighbor.
|
| 3. |
In the Find Closest Neighbor dialog,
click Find. The closest neighbor is Livermore, 12.60 miles away
|
MapViewer finds that
Livermore is the closest neighbor to Virginia Dale.
|
| 4. |
Click Close. The closest neighbor is
now selected.
|
Livermore, CO, is now
selected.
|
If you have any questions about MapViewer or this
article, please contact us at mapviewersupport@goldensoftware.com.
Back to
Newsletter Index
|
