ENCOM DISCOVER 2DCOMPLETE TRAINING (WORKSHOP) Compiled By E.P Table of Contentsi Table of Contents 1Introduction1 Getting Started ................................................................................................2 Reference Manual and On-Line Help..............................................................2 Conventions Used in this Manual....................................................................3 Obtaining Additional Help................................................................................3 2The MapInfo/Discover User Interface5 Menus and Toolbars........................................................................................5 MapInfo Toolbars .......................................................................................6 Discover Toolbars ......................................................................................8 Discover & AutoLoad.......................................................................................8 Vector and Raster Data...................................................................................9 Spatial and Attribute Data .............................................................................10 Data Display Windows ..................................................................................11 Configuring MapInfo......................................................................................11 System Settings .......................................................................................12 Map Window.............................................................................................13 Start-up.....................................................................................................15 Directories ................................................................................................16 Output Settings.........................................................................................17 Printer .......................................................................................................20 Styles........................................................................................................20 Image Processing.....................................................................................21 Other Settings ..........................................................................................22 3Tables and Workspaces23 Multiple Views of the Same Table.................................................................25 Map Windows and Layering..........................................................................25 Displaying Browser Fields.............................................................................26 Workspaces...................................................................................................27 Workspace AutoSave...............................................................................28 Map Window Navigation Tools......................................................................28 Info and Ruler Tools ......................................................................................29 Projections.....................................................................................................30 Mapper Projection ....................................................................................30 Map Window Options ....................................................................................31 Map Autogrid............................................................................................31 4Layer Control33 Visible, Selectable, Editable and Label Settings...........................................34 Style Override................................................................................................35 Zoom Layering...............................................................................................35 Auto-Labels ...................................................................................................36 The Cosmetic Layer ......................................................................................39 Discover Enhanced Layer Control (ELC) ......................................................40 ELC Options.............................................................................................41 Layer Controls..........................................................................................42 Layer Properties.......................................................................................43 Aliases and Groups..................................................................................44 Map Controls............................................................................................45 Standard Views .............................................................................................46 Map Linking ...................................................................................................46 Interactive Cursor Positioning .......................................................................47 5Opening and Importing Files49 iiEncom Discover Workshop Manual Opening Files Using MapInfo........................................................................49 Excel Spreadsheet ...................................................................................49 Access Database .....................................................................................51 ASCII Text Files .......................................................................................52 Update Table using Values from another Table ......................................53 ESRI Shape Files.....................................................................................54 Universal Translator Tool .........................................................................54 MapInfo Files............................................................................................56 Raster Data ...................................................................................................56 Register Raster Image .............................................................................57 Web Map Service.....................................................................................62 Web Feature Service ...............................................................................63 ECW Images ............................................................................................64 Web ECWP Servers.................................................................................65 Grid Data Files .........................................................................................66 Importing Files using MapInfo.......................................................................66 Importing Files using Discover ......................................................................67 AutoCad DXF Files ..................................................................................67 Advanced ASCII Import............................................................................68 Build Objects from Table..........................................................................70 MapInfo Export Options.................................................................................71 Google Earth Link ....................................................................................71 Discover Export Options................................................................................74 Convert Map to Registered Raster ..........................................................75 Make Movie or Animation.........................................................................75 6Selecting and Querying Data77 MapInfo Graphical Selection Methods ..........................................................77 Discover Graphical Selection Methods .........................................................78 Textual Selection Methods............................................................................79 Saving Selections..........................................................................................81 The Query>Find Selection Tool ....................................................................81 The Query>Find Tool ....................................................................................82 The Query>Select Tool .................................................................................83 The Query>SQL Select Tool .........................................................................84 Basic SQL Syntax ....................................................................................85 7Create Tables and Map Objects89 Create Map Objects ......................................................................................89 Moving, Deleting and Copying Map Objects............................................90 Re-scaling and Rotating Map Objects .....................................................90 Reshaping and Adding Nodes to Map Objects........................................90 Snap Mode, AutoTrace and AutoNode....................................................90 Create MapInfo Table....................................................................................91 Deleting and Renaming Tables.....................................................................96 Packing Tables..............................................................................................96 8Map Making Tools97 The Layout Window.......................................................................................97 Create a Map using Scaled Output ...............................................................98 Overlay Map Grid...................................................................................100 Add Titleblock and Scalebar ..................................................................101 Create Map Legend.....................................................................................103 Other Layout Options ..................................................................................108 9Display Geological Data111 Creating a Thematic Map............................................................................111 Individual Thematic Map ........................................................................112 Table of Contentsiii Ranges Thematic Map...........................................................................114 Pie Chart Thematic Map.........................................................................119 Create Bi-variate Thematic Map ............................................................120 Thematic Grids.......................................................................................122 Creating a Colour Look-Up Table................................................................123 Create LUT from Thematic Map..................................................................123 Editing a Colour Table.................................................................................125 Create LUT from existing Geology Map......................................................126 Creating a Geological Legend.....................................................................126 Multiple Column Update..............................................................................130 Assigning Mean Grades to Bounding Polygons..........................................131 Text Labels..................................................................................................133 Create Stacked Profiles...............................................................................135 10Advanced Querying SQL139 Using Queries to Order Data.......................................................................139 Using Queries to Group Data......................................................................140 Multiple Table Queries ................................................................................143 Textual Joins using SQL ........................................................................144 Geographical Joins using SQL...............................................................145 11Advanced Object Creation and Editing149 Screen Digitizing ....................................................................................149 Enter Browser Attributes ........................................................................150 Update Column ......................................................................................150 Combine Map Objects............................................................................150 Pack Table .............................................................................................150 Key in Shapes ........................................................................................150 Cut Out In-Lying Polygons .....................................................................152 Rename Table........................................................................................152 Modify Map Objects................................................................................152 Save Table .............................................................................................152 Styles Library..........................................................................................153 Streamlined Data Entry ..........................................................................153 Modify Linestyle......................................................................................155 Annotate Lines .......................................................................................156 MapInfo AutoTrace.................................................................................157 Polygonize Linework ..............................................................................159 Digitizing Hints........................................................................................162 Clip to Polygon .......................................................................................162 Additional Object Editing Tools ..............................................................163 Create Custom Titleblock.......................................................................164 Add a Company Logo to Titleblock ........................................................165 12Display Structural Data169 Add Discover Structural Codes to a Table..................................................169 Creating Structural Symbols from Discover Codes.....................................171 Digitizing Structural Symbols into a Table...................................................172 Orientation of Fault Lines ............................................................................173 Display Fault Orientations in a Rose Diagram............................................174 Proximity Search using Structural Data ......................................................175 13Managing Tables and Workspaces177 Opening Tables ...........................................................................................177 Deleting and Renaming Tables...................................................................177 Packing Tables............................................................................................177 Append Tables ............................................................................................177 Modify Table Structure ................................................................................178 ivEncom Discover Workshop Manual Save Table in New Projection.....................................................................178 Favourite Tables, Workspaces and MapBasic Programs...........................178 Open Corrupt Workspaces..........................................................................178 Workspace Editor ........................................................................................178 Save Tables and Workspace to Single Directory........................................179 Update Records in a Column......................................................................179 Assign Unique RowID .................................................................................180 14Environmental Monitoring181 Compute Area Change................................................................................181 Temporal Trends.........................................................................................182 Temporal Trends Data Format ....................................................................183 Temporal Trends Graph Display.................................................................184 15Local Grids and Coordinate Transformation187 Local Grid Layout ........................................................................................187 Transform Coordinates using Two Sets of Coordinates .............................189 Transform Coordinates using Bearing and Offset.......................................193 Create Custom Affine Projection.................................................................194 Display Points using Custom Projection .....................................................196 16Tenement Searches and Applications199 Tenement Searches....................................................................................199 Search by Licence Type.........................................................................200 Search by Company Name....................................................................201 Search by Date ......................................................................................202 Australian Tenement Applications...............................................................203 17Accessing Remote Database Tables209 Installing DBMS Support and Drivers..........................................................209 Creating a New Data Source ......................................................................209 Opening a DBMS Table ..............................................................................213 Linked vs Live DBMS Tables ......................................................................214 Create MapInfo_MapCatalog......................................................................215 Make DBMS Table Mappable .....................................................................217 Make DBMS Table Mappable Options...................................................218 Display DBMS Map Objects........................................................................219 Save Changes to DBMS Table ...................................................................220 Refresh a DBMS Table ...............................................................................220 Unlink Table from a Remote Database.......................................................221 Disconnect from Remote Database ............................................................221 Remove DBMS Data Source ......................................................................221 acQuire Database Import ............................................................................221 18Drillholes225 Introduction..................................................................................................225 Steps to Create Drillhole Sections ..............................................................226 Drillhole Data Format ..................................................................................226 Collar Table............................................................................................227 Downhole Survey Table.........................................................................227 Downhole Data Tables...........................................................................228 Create Drillhole Project ...............................................................................229 Data Validation............................................................................................231 Create Drillhole Sections and Plans............................................................233 Display Downhole Data on Section.............................................................236 Create Drillhole Colour Pattern ...................................................................237 Using the Drillhole Section Manager...........................................................240 Adding a Drillhole Section to a Layout ........................................................241 Table of Contentsv Extracting Maximum and EOH Assay Values for a Drillhole..................243 Drillhole Log Display....................................................................................243 Digitizing Boundaries and Exporting to 3D DXF .........................................245 Calculating Sectional Resources.................................................................246 Data Compositing........................................................................................247 Compositing by Unique Attribute............................................................247 Compositing by Cut-off Grade................................................................248 Compositing by Elevation and Downhole Depth....................................248 Calculate 3D Coordinates ...........................................................................248 Drillhole Project Management .....................................................................249 19Surfaces251 What is a Surface Grid? ..............................................................................251 Configuring Grid File Formats .....................................................................253 Create Surface Grid ....................................................................................254 Input Tab ................................................................................................255 Modify Grid Appearance..............................................................................257 Assign Grid Values to Vector Layers ..........................................................259 Surface Profile over a Grid or Contour Plan................................................260 Contouring a Grid File .................................................................................261 Grid Query using Multiple Ranges ..............................................................262 Convert Grid to New Grid Format................................................................264 Importing a Grid Surface .............................................................................264 Clip Grid.......................................................................................................265 Reproject Grid .............................................................................................266 Gridding Geochemical Data ........................................................................267 Inverse Distance Weighting ...................................................................271 Kriging ....................................................................................................274 Grid Calculator.............................................................................................274 Gridding Geophysical Data .........................................................................275 Filtering a Surface .......................................................................................277 List of Available Grid Utilities.......................................................................278 20GraphMap281 Graph Creation............................................................................................282 Pre-conditioning data ..................................................................................283 Data Selection .............................................................................................283 Viewing Selection Records and Statistics..............................................285 Permanent Selection Regions................................................................285 Spatial Analysis by Attribute Field...............................................................286 Displaying MapInfo Map Window Content as Images in GraphMap...........287 Spatial Analysis by Numeric Field...............................................................287 Derived Fields..............................................................................................288 21Geochem293 Summary Statistics......................................................................................293 Data Levelling..............................................................................................294 Point Classification......................................................................................295 Compute Correlation Matrix ........................................................................296 ADiscover Button Bars and Icons299 Discover Toolbar ....................................................................................299 Map Window Toolbar .............................................................................300 Map Making Toolbar...............................................................................300 Object Editing Toolbar............................................................................301 Surfaces Toolbar ....................................................................................302 Drillholes Toolbar ...................................................................................303 GraphMap Toolbar .................................................................................303 viEncom Discover Workshop Manual Cursor Position Toolbar .........................................................................304 Enhanced Layer Control ........................................................................304 BDiscover Structural Symbol Fonts305 CDiscover Geological Symbol Fonts309 DMapInfo Tool Manager313 Workshop Notes 315 Introduction1 1Introduction MapInfo is a Desktop GIS (Geographical Information System) package. GIS software provides functionality to: Display georeferenced spatial data (software takes into account shape of the earth and different projections to display spheroidal data on a flat screen or paper) Perform spatial analysis e.g. find all of the sample points that lie within 1 km of NE trend faults Display attribute data with spatial data e.g. colour sample points according to gold grade Perform complex queries using a standard database engine, allowing you to combine textural and spatial analysis of your data Generate high quality hardcopy output Discover version 9.0 is an extension to MapInfo Professional (including MapInfo Professional 9.0) specifically developed for geoscientists by Encom. Discover 9.0 runs with MapInfo Professional version 7.8 or later on Microsoft Windows 2000/ XP and Vista. Building on the many powerful Geographic Information System (GIS) features of MapInfo, Discover converts MapInfo into a sophisticated and easy-to-use tool for managing, manipulating and displaying exploration datasets. Discover gives users the ability to process and view data in ways that previously required a number of software packages. A geologist in the field, an exploration manager in head office or a draftsperson in a regional office can use Discover to track tenement activity, grid and contour point data, view drillholes in plan and section, analyse geochemical data, facilitate map creation, easily produce scaled hard copy output, and more. The MapInfo/Discover combination is widely used throughout the global exploration and mining community. The aim of this workshop is to familiarise both new and existing MapInfo/Discover users with the suite of functions available in Discover 8.1. You will find many of the functions in Discover indispensable when working with real geological data. During this workshop we will address typical geologic problems involving geological, geochemical and geophysical data. The workshop is designed to take a hands-on approach so you, the user, can learn by using the software. These notes are designed to accompany the presented workshop. The notes are relatively self-contained however you will find many useful hints passed on during the course that can be added to this workshop manual.Throughout the duration of this workshop you will be working individually or as part of a small team. To gain the most from the course, you are encouraged to ask questions if any concepts are unclear or you require additional explanation. 2Encom Discover Workshop Manual Getting Started As a starting point copy the training datasets across to your local computer. Follow the procedure outlined below to create an Encom Training folder and copy the training files from the CD-ROM into this folder.Steps Create a folder on your hard drive called Encom Training (e.g. C:\Encom Training) and copy the contents of the provided workshop CD into this folder. Select all the files (or directories) and click the Right Mouse Button. Choose Properties from this menu and the Properties Dialog should appear. Clear the check in the Read Only box, as shown below: If you are using Windows 2000 or XP you should be presented with another dialog asking if you want to apply the changes to the selected folder only or to the selected folder and all the contained subfolders and files. Choose Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files. Reference Manual and On-Line Help For detailed information on specific aspects of Discover, you are encouraged to refer to the Discover On-Line Help, Discover Reference Manual and Discover User Guide which can both be accessed from the Discover Help menu. The Discover Reference Manual provides a comprehensive description of many Discover functions and is the best source for information if you are experiencing problems. Introduction3 Conventions Used in this Manual Certain conventions are used throughout this manual. Keys on the keyboard appear in small capital letters e.g. the Ctrl key appears as CTRL in the text Menu options and dialog items are in normal bold text e.g. choose File>Run MapBasic Program Buttons to be clicked are bolded e.g. click the OK button Table names denoted by capitals e.g. DRAINAGE with column names bold font: e.g. SampleID References to sections in other MapInfo or Discover documentation are italicized. e.g. see the Data Utilities chapter Obtaining Additional Help If you need to contact product support for Discover please have the following details available: Licence Number (shown in the Discover>About Discover dialog e.g. 1000001121) Discover Version (shown in the Discover>About Discover dialog e.g. 9.0) MapInfo Version (shown in the Help>About MapInfo dialog e.g. 9.0) A full description of the problem or query. This should include any system messages (from Discover, MapInfo or the operating system) and other pertinent information detailing the circumstances. Select the Technical Support item from the Discover Help menu to generate a form that can be emailed or faxed to Encom. Contact details are: Emaildiscover_support@encom.com.au Webwww.encom.com.au Telephone+ 61 3 9523 0033 Fax+ 61 3 9523 2296 If you experience any problems with Discover, or have suggestions or comments, Encom would be pleased to hear from you. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface5 2The MapInfo/Discover User Interface The MapInfo/Discover interface provides powerful spatial manipulation functionality behind a familiar Windows interface. The MapInfo and Discover interface Menus and Toolbars As with other Windows programs, users of MapInfo and Discover choose options from menus and toolbars. Toolbars can be docked into the toolbar area or can be made floating simply by dragging them. As the mouse is placed over each menu option or button, a message is displayed in the Status Bar (at the bottom left corner of the MapInfo screen) with a short description of what that item does. If the status bar is currently hidden, use the Options>Show Status Bar command to re-display. Many of the tools and utilities can be selected by one or more methods including selecting the option from the pull-down menus, clicking on a toolbar icon or using a keyboard shortcut. Keyboard shortcuts are displayed next to some pull-down menu options e.g. the Open dialog can be displayed using File>Open or CRTL+O. 6Encom Discover Workshop Manual MapInfo Toolbars Standard Main functions of MapInfo such as table Open. Save, New, Print, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Open New Mapper, Browser, Layer, Graph windows, Help Main Map Window Selection Tools (Select, Marquee, Radius, Polygon, Boundary, Unselect, Invert Selection), Navigation Tools (Zoom, Pan, Change View, Info Tool, Hotlink, Label, Drag Map Window, Layer Control, Ruler, Legend, Statistics, Set Clip Region Drawing Object Creation Tools (Symbols, Line, Arc, Polyline, Polygon, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Text), Object Editing Tools (Reshape, Add Node, Modify Symbol/Line/Region/Text Styles) and Layout Frame Tool Tools Additional MapInfo Tools toolbar DBMS Remote database connection tools The MapInfo/Discover User Interface7 The Discover application adds a separate menu and a new set of button pads to the MapInfo interface. The Discover Menu that is added to the MapInfo menu bar 8Encom Discover Workshop Manual Discover Toolbars Main Main functions of Discover such as Scaled Output Map Window Map window tools such as Select by Graphical Style Map Making Map making tools such as Text Labels and Line Annotation Object Editing Object editing functions such as Line Cut and Smoothing There are also module-specific button bars for Drillholes, GraphMap and Surfaces modules. The button bars are only displayed when these modules are run. For a complete list of Discover button bar icons see Appendix A. Discover & AutoLoad Discover should automatically load each time MapInfo is run providing the Automatically Start Discover when MapInfo starts checkbox is selected in the Discover>Configuration>Settings dialog. If you do not want Discover to start automatically simply uncheck this box. If the Discover menu does not appear in the Menu Bar automatically the program can be started manually by selecting the MapInfo Tools>Run MapBasic Program menu option. Browse to the C:\Program Files\MapInfo\Professional\Discover folder (or wherever Discover has been installed on the computer) and select the Discover.mbx file and click OK. The Discover menu should be added to the Menu Bar. To load Discover every time MapInfo is started check the Automatically Start Discover when MapInfo starts checkbox is selected in the Discover>Configuration>Settings dialog. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface9 Vector and Raster Data Data can be represented in MapInfo as either a vector map or raster image. Vector data consists of points, lines and polygons. One of the strengths of MapInfo is in its representation of vector data. Each point, line or polygon is referred to as a Map Object. Raster images are composed of square elements called pixels (picture elements). Some common examples of raster data include Landsat or SPOT satellite images, scanned maps or DTM (Digital Terrain Models). The image may appear like a photograph however, if you zoom in, you will see that the image is composed of squares of equal size. Each pixel has a value associated with it and within a pixel any value (colour, height etc) is constant, so the size of the pixel limits the ultimate resolution of the image. Raster images may have a header file associated with them which details where the raster image is located in real world coordinates along with any projection information. Alternatively, a raster image may be georeferenced after being imported into MapInfo. 10Encom Discover Workshop Manual Spatial and Attribute Data It is difficult to think of geoscience related data that does not have both a spatial and textual component. The textual components are often referred to as attributes of the spatial data. The spatial data (points, lines, polygons, etc.) are often referred to as objects. For example: A geochemical sample has a geographic location (the spatial component) and any number of assays (the textual component, or attributes) An exploration licence has a geographic boundary as well as attributes such as the licensee name, expiry dates, etc. A stream catchment has its boundary and attributes like the catchment area, number of contained samples, etc. MapInfo and Discover provide an interface to visualise and analyse spatial data and their associated attributes. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface11 Data Display Windows MapInfo contains four different types of views. Geographical objects are displayed in a map window and attribute data is displayed in a browser window. Data may also be displayed in a graph window and maps to be printed to hardcopy output are displayed in a layout window. Examples of different types of MapInfo windows Configuring MapInfo The first task will be to configure MapInfo. You may wish to apply some of the following preferences to your system at work. Exercise 1Configure MapInfo Preferences.From the MapInfo menu bar, select Options>Prferences 12Encom Discover Workshop Manual System Settings Paper and layout units should be in centimetres. Set Distance Units to kilometres or metres. Set Area Units to square kilometers or square metres. Enter in an appropriate Number of Undo Objects. The default is 10 which means that up to 10 edits can be undone using File>Revert Table after data has been modified. Change this setting to 600 to enable more modifications. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface13 Map Window From the When Resizing Map Window control, select Preserve Current Scale. This option will allow you to see more of a window if you resize the window. If you choose the Fit Map to New Window then you will always be presented with the same map view even after resizing the map window. Uncheck map window Scroll bars if desired Check the Autoscroll. Autoscroll will automatically scroll the map window view when the cursor reaches the map window limits.Check the Show Info Tips to display information such as the function of a toolbar icon or the first browser entry for a map object whenever the cursor is placed over icon or map object. Uncheck the Automatic Raster or Grid Zoom Layering options. When opening large raster or grid images or multiple images at once it may be desirable to automatically apply zoom layering so the images will only be visible within low zoom ranges. See Layer Control for more information on Zoom Layering). Check the Cartographic Scale so as to view the map window in printed scale units. The Enable Hardware Acceleration for 3D Map Window is checked by default but if there are problems working with the MapInfo 3D map window turn off this option to improve graphics capability. 14Encom Discover Workshop Manual From the Move Duplicate Nodes in control, select the Same Layer. This option when using Reshape will look for duplicates and move all at the one time. Select how you wish to Display Coordinates: Degrees Decimal is usually the preferred option. Check Distance/Area using Spherical The MapInfo/Discover User Interface15 Start-up You have the option to save a workspace of the last working session (MapInfow.wor) when MapInfo is closed, and then re-load this workspace next time MapInfo is started. Save Queries in Workspaces enables any query tables created using the Query>Select or Query>SQL Select menu options to be saved in a workspace. If this is not checked then the queries will need to be saved as permanent tables and re-opened to be saved within a workspace. Save/Restore Printer Information to Workspaces will save current printer settings into the workspace and then restore these settings when the workspace is next opened. To view the Display Quick Start Dialog every time MapInfo is started leave this option checked otherwise it may be unchecked. Can also set a default DBMS connection to connect automatically when MapInfo is started. 16Encom Discover Workshop Manual Directories Change the default folder locations for a range of MapInfo file types. Locate and save files to commonly used directories or specific project areas. Initial Directories for File Dialogs Change the default folder locations for a range of MapInfo file types. Locate and save files to commonly used directories or specific project areas. Search Directories for Tables Specifies the directories to search without qualified path references in workspaces If necessary, change the following paths by highlighting the selection, pressing the Modify button and entering the correct path. TablesC:\Encom Training\ WorkspacesC:\Encom Training\ Once set up you can utilise your MapInfo Places to quickly locate data. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface17 Output Settings Display/Print/Export Raster in True Colour When Possible will display 24-bit raster or grid images in true colour providing the display settings are set to greater than 256 colours. Select Dither Method from Halftone or Error diffusion to determine how the pixels will be blended together to improve the look of an image.18Encom Discover Workshop Manual Choose Printing Output Method. Use Print Directly to Device to print image directly from MapInfo. Use the Print using Enhanced Metafile (EMF) to generate an enhanced metafile of the MapInfo image before sending it to the printer. This method decreases the spool size and must be used if the map contains translucent raster or grid layers Check the Print Border for Map Window option to print a black border around the printed image. Check the Internal Handling for Printing Transparent Vector Fills and Symbols box to use the internal MapInfo handling of transparent fill patterns and bitmaps for vector images during printing or exporting.Check the Scale Patterns box to print non-transparent fill patterns that look like what you see on your screen otherwise the printer driver will have exclusive control over rendering pattern fills. Use ROP Method to Display Transparent Raster to enable internal ROP (Raster Overlay by Pixel) to manage the transparent pixel display and printing in raster images. Not all printers can use this display method. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface19 You can also access the EMF option through theFile > Print option click on the Advanced button to change the output method. Check Use Anti-Aliasing if you wish to smooth the raster image. 20Encom Discover Workshop Manual Printer The Windows Default option displays the path to the default printer specified for your operating system. The MapInfo Preferred option enables you to choose a different default printer or plotter to use when printing in MapInfo. Default page size and orientation can also be set. Use the Network button to locate the default printer or plotter on the network if has not already been setup. Styles Set the Default Object Styles region to a pattern fill of None. Set the Default Find Style to a symbol that will be quite visible in your map window. This symbol will display in the Cosmetic Layer. The MapInfo/Discover User Interface21 Image Processing It is recommended that you leave the default settings as they are, but when you have an image that you wish to process then go to Map>Options and change your settings there. Reprojection MapInfo is able to recalculate the pixel values of your image and display them correctly. Always Will always reproject by way of recalculating the images coordinates based on a precise formula Optimised The reprojected image is determined by the look of the destination rectangle after transformation into the original image space dependant on the Resampling Method used. Resampling Method Options Cubic Convolution provides more accurate image resampling as this method calculates a value for a pixel in the resampled image based on a 4x4 pixel window centred on the pixel in the original image. Recommended for satellite images or aerial photographs. Nearest Neighbour assigns a pixel in the resampled image with a value taken from the closest pixel in the original image. This method is the fastest and is recommended when reprojecting scanned images, raster grids or other raster images. 22Encom Discover Workshop Manual Other Settings Options>Toolbars To show toolbars docked under the MapInfo menus check the Show box next to the desired toolbars. To view the toolbars floating in the MapInfo screen check the Floating box. To save the current toolbar configuration so that the positions will be retained when MapInfo is re-opened check the Save as Default box. Map>Options Change the current map window settings for the current seesion. This will override any global settings selected in Options>Preferences>Map Window. These settings will be saved as part of a workspace. Tables and Workspaces23 3Tables and Workspaces A MapInfo table may contain textual and spatial information. The common MapInfo file format used to open a table is the .TAB file. This file is a header file and MapInfo uses it to determine how to open and access the data referenced within a table. Data may be stored in native MapInfo format or in any of the other file formats supported by MapInfo. Any file you want to open in MapInfo must have a .TAB associated with it. This applies to all raster, database or spreadsheet files. The MapInfo file format is called a table and can be made up of between 2 and 5 individual disk files as follows: Tablename.TAB contains the database description or header information Tablename.DAT, .XLS, .MDB, .TXT etc contains the attributes in rows and columns Tablename.MAP contains the map objects (spatial data) for mappable tables Tablename.ID contains the spatial index for mappable objects (i.e. links the spatial objects with their associated attributes) Tablename.IND contains column indices if created (speeds up the query process) When you use the File>Open Table command from within MapInfo, you will only see the .TAB file listed in the file open dialog. When you view the contents of the folder in Windows Explorer, you will see the various constituent files, which accompany the .TAB file.Exercise 1Opening native MapInfo Tables Select File>Open from the MapInfo menu bar.It is possible to open a range of different file types from this dialog along with MapInfo workspaces. If you click on the icons on the left hand side of the Open dialog the folder path should correspond to the path set-up in the Options>Preferences>Directories settings. 24Encom Discover Workshop Manual Browse to the Australia folder. Select the AUSTRALIA.TAB file and then click Open to view the table in a map window. The Files of type pull-down list displays all of the available file types that can be directly opened by MapInfo (see Opening and Importing Files) The Preferred View pull-down list determines how a table is to be displayed (in a Map or Browser window). The default Preferred View is Automatic which means that if a table has spatial data associated with it the table will be opened into a New Mapper. If a map window is already open the new table may be opened into the Current Mapper or into a New Mapper. Alternatively, the table may be displayed in a Browser window only or opened but not displayed in either Map or Browser window (No View). This last option may be used to open a table that you may not wish to use until later in the work session. Exercise 2Open the AUSTCAPS, AUSRAIL, AUSHIWAY, AUSMAJRD and AUSMAJRV.TAB files. To open a contiguous list of tables from the same folder at the same time, select the first table, hold down the SHIFT key and select the last table to open. Press Open. To open non-contiguous tables from the same folder at the same time, hold down the CTRL key and select the files you wish to open. Press Open. Use the File>Close Table command to close a table and then re-open using one of the Preferred View options. To close all tables select the File>Close All menu option. Tables and Workspaces25 Multiple Views of the Same Table Window>New Map Window MapInfo displays spatial data (e.g. polygons, lines or points that make up objects such as geological units, tenement boundaries or geochemical sample points) in a Mapper Window. A map object ALWAYS has an associated Browser record. Window>New Browser Window Textual (or attribute) data is stored in a row and column spreadsheet-like database view in a Browser Window. A Browser record MAY have an associated map object. When you have opened a table the data can be viewed in a map window or in a Browser window. Data can also be viewed in a Graph window although the MapInfo Graph function will not be covered during this workshop. Multiple views of the same data simply show the data being displayed in different ways.Exercise 3Experiment with opening tables into new map or browser windows. See that up to four tables can be added to a map window using this method. Display the AUSTRALIA table in both a map and browser window so that both windows can be viewed simultaneously. Use the Select Tool to highlight a record from the browser and see the corresponding map object selected in the map window. Then select another map object and see the corresponding browser record selected. Multiple map windows can therefore be opened all showing the same data but with different locations, zoom settings and display styles. Any changes made to the table will be viewed in all windows in which the table is displayed. When a map window is closed, the table itself is not being closed only that particular view of the table. Map Windows and Layering It is recommended that each table stores data which is represented by a single object type, e.g. all points, all polygons rather than points, lines, and polygons all stored in the one table. This makes it much easier to view the data in a map window and to make selections or modifications. MapInfo can display a number of different types of Map Objects namely: Text e.g. drillhole or sample id Points e.g. geochemical samples, spot heights, drillholes Lines e.g. drainage, roads, contours Polygons e.g. geological boundaries, tenements When a table is displayed in a map window it may also be referred to as a Layer. This is because when there is more than one table being viewed in a map window, the tables are layered on top of each other. The order in which a table or layer appears in a map window depends on the type of map objects it contains. From top to bottom a map window will display text, points, lines, polygons and raster images. This is so the polygon or raster image will not obscure the other layers. MapInfo will automatically determine the layer order in which a table in a map window 26Encom Discover Workshop Manual appears depending on the map objects it contains. This layer order can be changed manually. (See Layer Control and ELC) Displaying Browser Fields If a table contains a large number of fields it may be useful to only display those fields you are interested in without having to use the scroll bars to see the data. Make the Browser window the active window (i.e. click in the blue header area) and then choose Browse>Pick Fields from the MapInfo menu bar. In the Pick Fields dialog use the arrows to add or remove fields to the Columns in Browser window. Tables and Workspaces27 Workspaces If there are multiple tables open in various map window and browser window displays it would be convenient to save these settings so the table views could be re-displayed in the future. By saving a workspace a user is able to create a snapshot of the current working session and instead of opening each individual table in the future only the one workspace file needs to be opened.A MapInfo Workspace file is a text file that can be opened with any text editing software such as WordPad, NotePad, Word, etc. It contains a list of all the tables opened at the time the workspace was saved and the size, location and layers displayed in any open map, browser, graph or layout windows. Exercise 4Display the open tables in a number of map and browser windows. Save the session to a workspace called AUSTRALIA in the Encom Training\Working folder using the File>Save Workspace command. MapInfo will automatically append the .WOR extension. A few important points about Workspaces to remember: A workspace is a text file containing MapBasic statements which open tables, open map windows, build thematic maps, etc. You can manually edit workspace files but should always make a backup first. Selections created using the MapInfo Query menu can be saved in workspaces. (see Options>Preferences to check your settings). Only queries made using Query>Select, Query>SQL Select or via the MapBasic window will be saved. Workspaces store information about where tables are located on your hard drive. If a table used in a workspace is deleted, renamed or moved to a new location the workspace will not open properly or not at all. See Managing Tables and Workspaces for more tips and tricks on working with workspaces 28Encom Discover Workshop Manual Workspace AutoSave Discover can automatically save a workspace every few minutes. The saving interval can be set to any number of minutes in the Discover>Configuration>Settings dialog or set to 0 to disable this feature. This workspace is called DISCOVER.WOR and is saved to the Discover configuration folder. The Discover workspace is useful for recovering from user or program errors however unsaved data will not be saved by this function. Map Window Navigation Tools The MapInfo navigation tools allow you to move around the map window and are found on the Main Toolbar. These tools are only available when a mapper is the front-most or active window. If a mapper is not the active window then these tools will be disabled. To Zoom in on a particular area, choose the + magnifying glass. Either click once to zoom around that point or hold down the left-mouse button and drag a rectangle around the area to zoom. Note that if you click once to zoom in, your map will be centred on the point you clicked and the map window will zoom in by a factor of two. To Zoom out, choose the - magnifying glass and click in the mapper. The map window will zoom out by a factor of two. To Pan the view, choose the hand-like grabber tool and drag the map whilst holding down the left-mouse button. The Change View question mark ? magnifying glass allows you to edit the view parameters. You can either change the zoom, scale or centre of the map window with this tool. Map>View Entire Layer or select View Entire Layer from the right-mouse click pop-up menu. Zoom to the extents of selected layer or zoom to extents of all layers which will display the data extents of the largest layer in the map window. Map>Previous View or select View Entire Layer from the right-mouse click pop-up menu. Toggle between previous map window view and current view. Map>Change View or select change View from the right-mouse click pop-up menu. Change the zoom width displayed in the map window, specify a map scale or map window centre X and Y coordinates. View Zoom Width and Map Scale from the Status Bar.Notice that if you pan across the edge of the map, the map autoscrolls. This allows you to move very easily across large distances in the map window. You can turn Autoscroll on and off from the map window pop-up menu. (right-mouse click to display)Tables and Workspaces29 Info and Ruler Tools The Info Tool, located on the Main Toolbar, provides an easy way to view the attributes of a particular spatial object. Click on an object with the info tool and its attributes will be displayed in the Info Tool window. The Info Tool is like a skewer that penetrates through all of the map window layers at a specific point. If a map object is intersected in a layer at that point, the attributes for that object will be displayed in the Info Tool window. If more than one object has been intersected use the arrow keys to move through each entry or List to display all intersected objects. The Info Tool window can be expanded by dragging with the cursor. Edits can be made directly into the Info Tool window. The Ruler Tool, located on the Main Toolbar, enables distances between map objects to be measured. Click on the point you wish to measure from and select a destination point. To add another distance leg, simply click again at the desired location. A Ruler window is displayed that shows the distance between the last two points clicked and also the total distance from the start location. To end a distance measurement, double-click with the left-mouse button or press the ESC button on the keyboard. To change the distance and area units displayed select Map>Options and choose the desired units from the pull-down lists. The Discover>Map Window>Distance and Bearing tool enables the browser entries for a selected table to be viewed continuously as the cursor moves over map objects in the map window. The current cursor location in coordinates from one or more projections is also displayed. Click in the map window and move the cursor to another location to measure the distance and bearing between the two map window locations. 30Encom Discover Workshop Manual Projections Every MapInfo table that is mappable, (i.e. contains map objects) must have a projection that the objects have been created in. This is called the native projection of a table. A projection forms part of a coordinate system that is made up of parameters designed to take objects from the spherical surface of the earth and display them on a flat screen. Different coordinate systems will distort objects in different ways. For example, Equal Area projections show regions with the correct area relationship but the shapes may be distorted particularly near the poles. Conformal projections such as Mercator and Lambert Conformal conic show the shapes of small features accurately, but distort the shapes and areas of large regions. To display the coordinates of a given location in the map window change the bottom left hand corner of the Status Bar to display Cursor Position. Depending on the projection of the map window coordinates will displayed in degrees or metres. Press S on the keyboard to go into Snap Mode which enables you to actually snap to an object to obtain accurate coordinates. To permanently save a table in another projection, use the File>Save Copy As menu option and select the new projection using the Projection Button. Mapper Projection The default MapInfo projection is Longitude/Latitude which is an equidistant cylindrical projection using longitude/latitude coordinates. A map window will open in the projection of the first table opened into that map window. To view the projection of a map window right-mouse click in the map window and choose Current Mapper Projection from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, choose Discover>Map Window>Current Mapper Projection.The projection of a map window (or a table) can be changed to any of the projections listed in the MAPINFOW.PRJ file. This file can be opened and viewed in any text editor such as WordPad. So long as a projection is listed in this file data can be captured or displayed using this projection.When the projection of a map window is changed all the map objects from each layer in the map window are transformed on-the-fly to display at the correct position in the new projection. This does not affect the native projection of each table. To change the projection of a map window choose Map>Options. Alternatively, set up a Discover>Map Window>Favourite Projections list to save your commonly used projections in a separate projection list (DISCOVER.PRJ). To change the projection of a map window simply choose Discover>Map Window>Favourite Projections and select the desired projection from the pull-down list.Exercise 5Change the Projection of the current map window to Longitude/Latitude (GDA94). If the projection is not there use the Add button and then find it in the lists displayed. Click Apply to change the map window view.Observe the cursor position readings are now in degrees in the status bar. Choose File>Close All to close all currently tables. Tables and Workspaces31 Map Window Options When a map window is the active window there are a number of options that can be modified relating to that map window. Select Map>Options to display the Map Options dialog. Note that many of the options here are the same as those in the Options>Preferences>Map Window dialog. Any changes made to the Map Options dialog will be reflected in the current map window only, if they need to be saved they then require to be part of a workspace. Map Autogrid The Discover Map Autogrid utility displays a dynamic grid in the front map window. The map window grid coordinates are updated automatically whenever the map window is zoomed or panned. Map Autogrid re-displays the new map window coordinates on the fly when the window view dimensions are modified and can be turned on and off as required. The Map Autogrid can be displayed in the current map window projection or in a different projection. Two grids can also be displayed at the same time, e.g. UTM and Lat/Long or UTM and Local coordinates. The Map Autogrid display is best used for viewing a basic grid in the front map window. To create grids for presentation purposes it is recommended that a static map grid is applied to the map window through the Discover Map Grid or Scaled Output utilities. Layer Control33 4Layer Control Layer control is at the heart of MapInfo. It is here that you can change the appearance of all objects in a table, allow objects to be edited or selected, set up labelling parameters and configure advanced features such as zoom layering or hotlinking. Exercise 1 Open the Encom Training\Working\AUSTRALIA.WOR workspace saved from the last exercise. Remember to change the Files of Type: in the Open dialog to Workspace and click on the Workspace Directory button on the left hand side of the dialog. To open the layer control dialog make sure that a map is the active or front window (select blue map window header) and select Map>Layer Control. The Layer Control dialog may also be selected by clicking the Layer Control button on the Main Toolbar or from performing a right-mouse click in a map window and selecting the option from the pop-up menu. When displayed in a map window, any given table can be referred to as a layer in that map. Each mapper has its own layer control settings. The layer control dialog will reflect the settings of the currently active map. 34Encom Discover Workshop Manual Visible, Selectable, Editable and Label Settings Notice the columns of the checkboxes in the layer control dialog. These checkboxes allow the various layer settings to be turned on or off, as described below: Controls whether or not a layer is visible Controls whether or not a layer is editable. Only one layer at a time can be editable Controls whether or not a layer is selectable Automatically generateslabels for a layer To change the settings for a layer make sure the layer is highlighted and click the appropriate checkbox. Layers can be added or removed from a map window by clicking the Add or Remove buttons and selecting the table from the available list. Only tables that have been opened will be on the list of available tables. To manually change the order of the layers in a map window simply highlight the layer to be moved and use the Up and Down buttons in the Reorder control. Alternatively, hold the left mouse button down and drag the layer to the appropriate level. Insert Style define a table-based style that can be used to add new features to an editable layer. The style information is saved as metadata in the table record. Depending upon the layer, more than one style button may display. Display change the appearance of data in a map window, view a layer within zoom constraints, show object centroids, line direction or nodes. Label Controls how labels are displayed in a layer. Thematic Available only when the selected layer is a thematic map.Alters the display settings of a thematically mapped layer.(See Thematic Mapping for more information) Hotlink -Link external documents to map objects Exercise 2Open the Layer Control dialog for the open map window. Move the AUSRAIL table below the AUSTRALIA table. Click OK to observe the changes to the map window. Layer Control35 Style OverrideThe way in which map objects in a layer are displayed in a map window can be changed using the Style Override function. Changes made using Style Override do not permanently change the appearance of a map object, they only override the default style in the current map window. Style Override is accessed using the Display button in the Layer Control dialog. Style Override can be used on point, line, polygon and text objects. Exercise 3Select the AUSTCAPS layer and click Display. Check the Style Override box and press the point button to display the Symbol Style dialog. Change the symbol and colour to an appropriate one. Click OK in the Layer Control dialog to observe the changes to the map window. Repeat for the AUSRAIL, AUSMAJRV, AUSMAJRD, AUSHIWAY and AUSTRALIA layers. Style Overrides are only retained if a workspace is saved. Zoom Layering When navigating around a map window that contains large detailed layers it may take some time to redraw each time the map window view is modified. To save re-draw time it may be useful to turn off the visibility of particular layers when the map window is zoomed in or out. This is referred to as Zoom Layering which can be turned on or off by highlighting a layer in the Layer Control and then selecting Display. Very detailed layers such as aerial photographs or satellite imagery may only want to be displayed when the map window is at low zoom levels and turned off the rest of the time.Exercise 4Select the AUSTRALIA layer and click Display. Check the Display within Zoom Range box and enter a minimum and maximum zoom range to display the layer such as 2000 and 100000.Click OK in the Layer Control dialog and use the navigation tools to change the map window zoom and observe how the zoom controlled layer behaves. When the layer is outside of the specified zoom range open the Layer Control note that there is a Pink tick in the Visibility box to denote that the layer is present in the map window but is not currently displayed as the map window view is outside the zoom layering limits. 36Encom Discover Workshop Manual Auto-Labels When the Auto-Generate labels option is selected for a layer all map objects in that layer are labelled with either the data value in the first field of the table or another specified column or expression. Label font type, size and colour can all be modified and label lines can be used to link a label with the associated map object. The position of the label is relative to the centroid of the map object and can be offset. For linear map objects the label can be rotated so it is in alignment with the map object. Exercise 5MapInfo Auto-Labels and Custom Labels 1.Highlight the AUSTCAPS table in the Layer Control dialog. Click the Auto-Label box and click on the Label button.Select Place_Name from the Label with pull-down list.Layer Control37 Examine the rest of the label options. Display within range is similar to the Zoom Layering function in that labels can be set to only display between specified zoom levels. This option is useful for detailed datasets. The Allow Duplicate Text option is selected by default. To view all labels regardless of whether they overprint in the map window check the Allow Overlapping Text option. Label Partial Objects will create labels for polylines that are only partially visible in the map window. 2.Click on the Styles button and choose an appropriate font, size and colour for the Auto-Labels. 3.Select a Label Line type. Label lines connect a label to the map object. Types available include None, Simple or Arrow. 4.Select a position or Anchor Point for the Auto-Label. The blue diamonds represent the centroid of the map object and the red rectangle the position of the label relative to this centroid. Change the label offset to 5 points. Click OK twice to display labels in the map window. To remove labels from the map window uncheck the Auto-Labels box in the Layer Control dialog. 5.Once the labels have been created it is possible to edit them individually (or make a selection) and either double-click on the label to display the Label Style dialog or use the Text Style button from the Drawing Toolbar to modify the Auto-Label. Move or modify a few text labels and turn Auto-Labels on/off. 38Encom Discover Workshop Manual Once an Auto-Label has been modified or moved from its original location it becomes what is known as a Custom Label. When Auto-Labels are turned on or off from the Layer Control the custom label remains in the window. To re-display custom labels in the future a workspace must be saved.6.Upon completion of this exercise remove all custom labels using the Map>Clear Custom Labels menu option. Note To add individual labels use the Label tool on the Main Toolbar. Any labels created using this tool are custom labels. To save Auto-Labels as Text Labels in a permanent MapInfo table load the Labeler Tool in the MapInfo Tool Manager. Auto-Labels can be saved into either the Cosmetic Layer or a new table and will only save the labels in the current map window view. Exercise 6Use the MapInfo Auto-Label function to create labels using Expressions. You can construct the text label from an expression using the Expression Builder syntax required for the MapInfo Select, SQL Select and Update commands. Expressions can be used to label a map object with data from two or more columns, display data on separate lines, add qualifying data for a label value or even display information stored for a map object such as Area.1.Select the AUSTRALIA layer in the MapInfo Layer Control and click on the Label button. 2.Choose Expression from the Label with pull-down list. The Expression Builder dialog is displayed. Build your expression by directly writing the syntax or picking the columns, operators and functions required from the pull-down lists. 3.To display labels with data from more than one column select the columns and separate using the + from the Operator pull-down list. Enter the following syntax: STATE + TOTPOPCUR Click the Verify button. MapInfo will notify you if you have entered an invalid syntax. Click OK and make sure you have checked the Auto-Label box in the Layer Control next to the AUSTRALIA layer. Click OK to view the labels in the map window. Layer Control39 4.To add spaces between the individual labels these will need to be entered in the Expression. Go back into the labelling dialog and choose Expression again. Enter a number of blank spaces enclosed in to insert spaces. STATE + + TOTPOPCUR Click OK twice to view the labels in the map window. 5.To view each label entry on a separate line we need to insert another function Chr$(13) where we want the new line to start. Go back into the labelling dialog and choose Expression again. Insert the Chr$(13) from the Functions pull-down list as follows: STATE + Chr$(13) + TOTPOPCUR Click OK twice to view the labels in the map window. 6.Finally, we can add qualifying text to the labels so we know what each value refers to. Go back into the labelling dialog and choose Expression again. Enter the following qualifying text: State: + STATE + Chr$(13) + Pop: + TOTPOPCUR Click OK twice to view the labels in the map window. 7.Go back into the labelling dialog and choose Expression again. This time we are going to use the Area function to display the Area for each State on a third label line. The Area function is located in the Functions pull-down list: State: + STATE + Chr$(13)+Pop: + TOTPOPCUR + Chr$(13) + Area: + SphericalArea(obj, "sq km") + Sq kms Alternatively to get km2, you can use the keystroke Alt+0178 8.Upon completion save the workspace to retain the labels. The Cosmetic Layer Every map window has a layer known as the cosmetic layer. The cosmetic layer is like a sheet of transparent film overlayed on a paper map. You can draw objects and annotations on the transparent film without altering the map itself and you can discard it at any time. The cosmetic layer, which is always the top-most layer in the layer control dialog, serves a similar function. You can draw and annotate without editing any of the data in the underlying layers. Anything that is drawn onto the cosmetic layer is temporary and must be saved either to a permanent table or in a workspace to be retained.40Encom Discover Workshop Manual Discover Enhanced Layer Control (ELC) Discover provides you with a flexible and powerful way of working with Map Windows and layers. The Enhanced Layer Control (ELC) allows you to manage multiple Map Windows from a single control. Multiple layers can be selected and operated on simultaneously.Layers can be organized in natural groupings that can be independent of their display order and aliases can be used to provide a more natural and consistent naming of data. The ELC also provides complete control over the standard layer attributes such as selectability, editability, visibility and label display. ELC controlling 3 open Map Windows and their associated layers. The standard MapInfo Previous View function has been enhanced to allow multiple previous views of Map Windows. As you pan and zoom a Map Window, the ELC records its limits. If you click on the Previous View button at the bottom of the ELC the current Map Window is redrawn with its previous limits. Every time you click this button the Map Window is redrawn with the appropriate limits. If you have resized your window then Zoom Previous does not change its size back to what it was previously but centres the previous zoom and redisplays at the previous scale. When you first load Discover, the ELC is displayed in a floating window that you can position and resize as required. If you want to remove it, click on the X in the top right hand corner of the window. To restore it, select the ELC button from the Discover toolbar. As an alternative, double clicking the left mouse button in the ELC header bar will roll-up the window. Double clicking again un-rolls the window. There are also minimise and restore buttons on the title bar which allow you to minimise the Layer Control41 window to any position on the screen and then restore it back to the original position. If you want to disable the ELC altogether then go to the Discover>Configuration menu option and set the Use Enhanced Layer Control to Off. Note that the ELC displays information as a three-level hierarchy. The top level describes the map windows, the second level shows groups of layers and the third level describes the layers contained within these groups.If you have open Browsers, Layout Windows etc. they are also displayed and can be controlled by the ELC. In a similar fashion to Windows Explorer, you can expand or contract the tree by clicking on the + or sign to the left of each Map Window. This has no effect on your data it is just for your convenience. ELC Options You can control the general characteristics of the ELC. For example, you can indicate whether you want the ELC to appear automatically whenever Discover is activated. You can also indicate whether you want the ELC to display layer information for all open Map Windows or just the current Map Window. These general characteristics can be set either by clicking on the Options button at the bottom of the ELC or by selecting the Options item on the pop-up that appears when you right click on a Map Window name or layer name in the ELC. When you do this, the following dialog is displayed: Enhanced Layer Control options dialog Apply changes immediately If this box is checked, then each time you check/uncheck the visibility box for a layer, move a layer or change its display characteristics, the corresponding Map Window is redrawn. If the box is unchecked, you can defer the redrawing of the Map Window until all changes have been made. This second mode of operation is convenient if you are making a number of changes at once. When you have made your changes, click on the Apply Changes button and your Map Window and ELC are updated reflecting all changes that you have made. Show all windows in workspace If checked, all open Map Windows are displayed in the ELC. If unchecked, the ELC only displays the active window. 42Encom Discover Workshop Manual Use layer name aliases If checked, the ELC displays layer name aliases (if they exist). If unchecked, the actual .TAB file names are displayed. NoteThe Use Layer name aliases option will only work in the ELC and some of the Discover dialogs. All MapInfo dialogs will still show the name of the original table (.Tab file) even when an alias name has been set. Allow layer logical grouping If checked, the ELC tree can be displayed in Grouped view. Open branches for all windows If checked the ELC displays all layers and themes (or groups and layers in Grouped view) for all open Map Windows. If unchecked, only the current Map Window appears expanded. Open when Discover starts - Open the ELC on startup. Layer Controls The ELC provides a set of visual controls for controlling layers. The visibility of each layer is controlled by the check box to the left of each layer name. Check a box by clicking in it and the layer is displayed, uncheck it and the layer disappears. NoteYou can display or hide all layers (other than the Cosmetic layer) for a Map Window by checking/unchecking the visibility box on the Map Window title in the ELC. The visibility boxes for Cosmetic layers and Legend Windows are always checked you cannot uncheck them. Editability, selectability and auto-labels are controlled by clicking on the appropriate icons to the right of the layer name (these have the same appearance and the same functions as the equivalent controls in the standard MapInfo layer control). The icon on the far right of each layer allows you to zoom to the data extents of the particular layer. If you click on the cosmetic layer control (labelled All), it zooms to the extents of all layers. With the ELC, you can change the order of layers by dragging and dropping. Select a layer by clicking on it and then while holding down your mouse button, move to the place where you want to drop it and release the mouse button. You can even move layers between Map Windows using this method. You can select multiple layers by using your mouse cursor in conjunction with the CTRL and SHIFT keys. Layer Control43 Layer Properties If you select a layer by clicking with the right mouse button, a pop-up menu appears that provides all the layer controls that are available from the standard MapInfo layer control: Pop-up menu from a layer selection and right mouse click The ELC is aware of the contents of the layers and consequently, the options on the pop-up menu are determined by the layer type. For example, a layer containing vectors or points has a menu as shown above but a layer containing a grid image would not have the Grid option but instead a Grid Filter option. The available options on the layer menus are: Select All Select all objects in a layer Unselect All Unselect all items in a layer Add Layer Add an open table to the current Map Window Remove Layer Remove one or more layers from the current Map Window Create Stacked Profile Initiate the Stacked Profile Tool (refer to Creating a Stacked Profile)Create Grid Initiate the Gridding Tool (refer to Creating a Grid Surface)Open Table Open MapInfo table. Equivalent to the File>Open Table menu item. Close Table Close a MapInfo table. Equivalent to the File>Close Table menu item. Display Change a layers line, pattern or symbol style. Add Group Create a layer group. Refer to Creating Groups in the Discover Reference documentation for additional information. Modify Theme Modify a thematic layer. Unlike MapInfo, the Discover ELC displays thematic layers underneath the parent layer. 44Encom Discover Workshop Manual Modify Hotlinks This allows you to control layer and object Hotlinks. For details refer to your MapInfo documentation. Modify Labels Modify label appearance and style. Show Table Projection Display native projection parameters of the table. Show file path Shows the full file path to the selected .TAB file. Reset Alias Name Remove alias name metadata from layer .TAB file and display original layer name. Reset Group Remove group metadata from layer .TAB file Add to Favourites Adds a table to the ELC Favourites list.The ELC Favourites list is a list of user defined tables and is stored separately to the Discover>Table Utilities>Favourite Tables list. Options - Options of the Enhanced Layer Control (refer to ELC Options) Exercise 7Open the ISA.wor workspace from the Encom Training\Mt Isa folder. Using the File>Open option on the ELC Layer pop-up menu open the following three tables: ISA_FAULTS table from the Encom Training\Mt Isa\Structure folder ISA_GEOLOGY table from the Encom Training\Mt Isa\Geology folder QLD_EX table from the Encom Training\Mt Isa\Tenements folder Using any of the Layer Control tools and methods discussed previously display three map windows as follows: 1.Map window containing the roads, drainage, towns, geological province and Australian state boundaries. 2.Map window containing faults and geology. 3.Map window containing tenements Aliases and Groups The ELC allows individual layers to appear with alternate titles (aliases). These are useful if you want to abbreviate the filename (MapInfo uses this as the default layer name) or want to use something more descriptive. To define an alias for a layer, double click on the layer name in the ELC and type the new alias name. Aliases are stored as metadata in .TAB files. You can also organise layers into logical groupings that reflect a natural order more suited to your application. For example, you may wish to group layers called Veins, Dykes, and RockTypes under a group called Geology. If you create a group you can show/hide all layers within the group with a single mouse click. You can also move a group of layers in the ELC rather than having to move each layer individually. Exercise 8Make sure the Use Layer name aliases box is checked in the Layer Control Options dialog. Create alias layer names by double-clicking on a layer name and entering a more appropriate title for each map layer. Layer Control45 Map Controls The ELC allows you to control the Map Window name and zoom scale. Right click on the Map Window in the ELC to activate the pop-up menu then select Window Properties. The pop-up menu items available from the Map Window level of the ELC The available options on the Map Window menus are: Add Layer Add an open table to the current Map Window Window Properties Update the Map Window title, location, size and status (maximised, minimised etc.). Open Table Open MapInfo tables. Equivalent to the File>Open Table menu item Close Layer Use Close Layer to close a Browser Window Map Linking allows the preservation of scale or extent of layers between linked map windows Match window Sizes alter the size of all linked map windows to the same dimensions Options - Options of the Enhanced Layer Control (refer to ELC Options). Window Properties From the Window Properties item of the Map Window pop-up menu you can update the Map Window title, its location and its status (maximised, minimised etc.) 46Encom Discover Workshop Manual Window Properties dialog Setting specific positions and sizes can be useful if you need to setup a workspace that someone else is going to use. Window height and width are also useful parameters to define for consistency in setting up map layouts. Sometimes when a workspace is moved between computers that have screens of differing resolutions, you might find problems in accessing minimized windows (which are positioned off screen on one resolution or the other). By selecting a Map Window in the ELC and then selecting Window Properties from the Map Control menu you can maximise the window and thereby regain control of it. Exercise 9Assign each of the three open map windows an appropriate title using the Window Properties dialog. Standard Views Discover>Map Window>Standard Views Select a pre-set geographic view for a map window from a list. Save new views to this list. Discover allows you to store any number of Standard Views in a list. You can quickly zoom to one of your stored views by selecting that view from the list. Exercise 10Zoom and Pan each of the three map windows and then save each one as a standard view. Select the Add button in the Standard View dialog to add a new view. Name the views: Isa Regional Geology, Queensland Tenements and Isa Location Map This is a very useful tool to keep track of various projects or to return to a map view after zooming or panning. To display a standard view simply select the correct view from the list and click on the Restore View or Restore View and Size buttons. Map Linking Discover>Map Window>Map LinkingMap Linking provides the ability to "geographically link" mapper windows so that any pan or zoom update applied to one mapper is automatically applied to all other map windows included in the linked group.Layer Control47 Map Linking dialog to select and enable mapper windows The Map Linking dialog lists all currently open mappers and the projection of each. Use checkboxes next to Map names to select/unselect mappers. Select All and Unselect All buttons are also provided.Two mapper linking methods are available: Fixed extents - The windows are synchronised so that the window centre point and the X axis extents are always visible in the map window regardless of either the map scale or the window dimensions. Fixed scale - Following a pan or zoom, the new map centre and scale are applied to the other linked mappers. Thus, each linked mapper window has the same centre coordinate and scale but the amount of data shown in each depends on the individual window dimensions. Individual mappers can also be linked via the Link this map option on the pop-up menu from a right mouse click in a mapper. A tick next to this menu item indicates that the mapper is linked. Selecting the option toggles the linkage. Exercise 11Arrange the three map windows so they are not overlapping. Select Map Window>Map Linking, click the Select All button and choose Fixed Extents as the Linking Method. Observe changes to the map windows as you zoom and pan. Select Map Linking from the map window right-mouse click pop-up menu. Change the Linking Method to Fixed Scale. Observe the changes to the map windows. Interactive Cursor Positioning Interactive Cursor Positioning creates an interactive cursor that automatically connects geographic locations in separate mapper windows by placing a symbol at the position you click. An option is also provided to automatically pan any map windows to show the geographic location of the identified position if it is not visible in the map window. Cursor positioning is a useful function when you wish to use a map window as a locator and review data at different scales in additional windows. An example of two windows with the location symbol placed at the same geographic position but with different scales and information content is shown below. 48Encom Discover Workshop Manual Exercise 12Select Map Window>Cursor Position menu and choose Select Mappers from this menu. Click on the Select All button and check the Pan mapper to show cursor position box. Select Cursor Position On or the Cursor toolbar and click in a map window. Observe how the other map windows are panned to display the same location. At the end of the session select Cursor Position Off. Save the currently open tables as a workspace named ISA_PROJECT in the Encom Training\Working folder. Close all currently open tables at the end of this session. Opening and Importing Files49 5Opening and Importing Files Opening Files Using MapInfo MapInfo supports a wide variety of different file formats in either a read-only or a read and write basis. A number of common file formats can be accessed by using the MapInfo File>Open command: Text ASCII (.TXT) Comma Delimited ASCII(.CSV) MS Excel (.XLS) MS Access (.MDB) dBASE (.DBF) Raster Image (e.g. BMP, .JPG, .TIF, .GIF, .PNG, .PCX, .ECW, .TGA, .SID, .WMF, .PSD, etc.)ESRI Shape (.SHP)Grid (.GRD, .DEM, .MIG, GRC, DT0, etc)Text and Excel and Comma Delimited files are read-only and although MapInfo will allow you to create points from coordinate data in these files you cannot edit or change the table structure. The file will need to be saved into native MapInfo format using the File>Save Copy As command. The above procedure can be bypassed by checking the Create copy in MapInfo format for read/write. This will automatically create a native MapInfo format file that will no longer have links to the Text, Excel and Comma Delimited file formats. In the next few exercises we will open a number of different data formats into MapInfo. Excel Spreadsheet Exercise 1Open an Excel spreadsheet containing mineral deposits of Australia and display points in a map window 1.Open the AUSTRALIA.