NatureMaps Help - 'Find Location' and 'Select' Tabs

• Find Location Tab
• Select Tab

Find Location Tab

There are many options available under to allow the user to zoom to a location.

Tip: this tool is designed to aid the user find a particular location rather than a particular feature, and therefore it will not automatically turn on the layer that you have searched on. If you require the layer to be visible, you will need to use the LAYERS tab to turn on the layer.

• NatureLinks Corridor Region, NPWSA Reserve, NRM Region, Hundred, Local Government Area and Major/Minor Towns - enables the user to zoom to features from these layers. The form display a drop down list of all the names within the particular dataset, and provides a quick way to find a location via a layer attribute.

• Gazetteer Placename - enables the user to search the DTEI Gazetteer for a particular placename, including localities.

• Attribute - enables the user to zoom to a feature of a particular layer that does not have a drop down list defined (as explained above). The user selects the layer and the field to search on, and then enters a particular value or name. Wildcards are not accepted, so the user must enter the whole name. Searches are case insensitive.

• Personal Bookmark - this search enables a user to return to a bookmark of a map extent they visited previously. This is also available via the button on the toolbar.

• UTM Coordinate and Longitude/Latitude Coordinate - the user can zoom to a coordinate. The user enters a coordinate and select a zoom width to define the width of the map extent once the search has been executed. A smaller zoom width defines a larger scale (more zoomed in).
  
  When entering UTM coordinates, which are commonly found on paper maps, ensure you enter the correct zone, and remember to put "S" after the zone to denote Southern Hemisphere. If you are unsure of the correct zone, use the identify tool to identify in the general area (even from the view of the whole State), and it will display the coordinates in UTM coordinates, including the zone.
  
  When entering Longitude/Latitude coordinates, remember to put a minus sign in front of the Latitude coordinate, to denote Southern Hemisphere.

• Scale - zooms the map to a user-defined scale, keeping the same centre point of the map. Please note the scale is only approximate. Tip: A shortcut is to enter a new scale in the bottom left corner of the screen and click .

Select Tab

Features can be selected using the Select tool on the toolbar by making the layer the active select layer, as explained in Getting Started, and dragging a box around or clicking on the features. However, there are also other ways to select features via the options under :

• Return to selected features report - Once a user accesses a different tab or tool, the attribute report of the selected features disappears, so this link allows users to access the attribute report of selected features again. When a user has selected features from more than one layer, this page allows the user to view the attribute reports for the different layers with selected features.

• Select by point, rectangle, polygon - These Selection options will select features from the active select layer set in the "Layers" tab. Select by point will select features where you click, and select by rectangle will select features within the box you draw by clicking and holding the mouse button down whilst "dragging" a box across the map. Select by Polygon will select features within a polygon you draw by clicking points on the map.
  
  Tip: The Select tool will select by rectangle by default, but if you choose Select By Point or Polygon, this then becomes the default selection method and for subsequent selections you can use the Select tool to select by Point or Polygon as a shortcut rather than using the Select tab. To change the Select tool back to selecting by rectangle you need to choose "Select by Rectange" from the Select Tab menu.

• Select using selected features - Select features from a layer that intersect the currently selected features of another layer. For example, select Flora Survey Sites from within a selected NPWSA Reserve. The NPWSA Reserve boundary must be selected first, using any option from the Select tab or the tool on the toolbar.

• Select by buffering selected features - Selects features from the same or different layer within a user-specified distance from the currently selected features. For example, select Flora Survey Sites within 300 metres of a selected NPWSA Reserve.

• Select using query builder - Select features via a SQL query using several fields, or several attributes from one field, within one layer. You cannot query multiple layers at once.
  
  Use the following steps to create a query:
  
  
  1. Select a layer name, eg. Shoreline Classification. The selection can be restricted to within the current extent by using the checkbox under the layer name.
  2. Select a field, eg. Form
  3. Select an operator, eg. =. Note: "CONTAINS" can be used if you are not entering the entire value, eg. CONTAINS beach will select all Forms with the word "beach" in them.
  4. Type in the value you are interested in, eg. beach (flat <5deg), or use the Get Samples button to see the format of the values in that particular field (eg spaces, acronyms, etc), although you are not restricted to those values. If your particular value is not in the samples, click "Clear Samples" and type in the value.
  5. Click "Add to Query" so that the query you have created is added to the Query box.
  6. You can then create the second part of your query using a different field and value, by repeating steps 1-4, eg Substrate = coarse sand. Click "AND", "OR", "NOT", etc before clicking "Add to Query", so that it will select where Form = beach (flat <5deg) AND Substrate = coarse sand.
  7. Once your query is complete, click "Execute" to run the query.
     
     
• Clear selections - Clears the selected features and user markup. If there is more than one selected set and/or user markup, the user will be given the option to only clear particular selections.

Selection Set Summary Page

• When features are selected, the Selection Set summary page is displayed. The user has the option to zoom to the full extent of all selected features, or display the Default Report, which contains the attribute information about the features. Within the Default Report the user can zoom to an individual feature, or return to the Selection Set summary page.

• When a user performs a subsequent query on a layer that already has selected features, the number of features previously selected and just selected are displayed. The user is given options to keep the previous selection (unchanged), add, subtract or subset the features just selected from the previous selection, or create a new selection, which will clear the previous selection.

Tips for selecting features:

• Selected features will display in yellow.

• A selection query will select a maximum of 500 features.