Super Gis

SuperGIS Desktop 3.
0
Professional
TM
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Disclaimer
THE DATA INCLUDED IN THIS WORK IS FROM AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY AND, AS SUCH, SUPERGEO MAKES NO GUARANTEES AS TO THE QUALITY, COMPLETENESS, AND/OR ACCURACY OF THE DATA. EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE ACCURACY OF THE DATA INCLUDED IN THIS WORK, BUT THE INFORMATION IS DYNAMIC IN NATURE AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. SUPERGEO AND THE DATA VENDOR(S) ARE NOT INVITING RELIANCE OF THE DATA. AND ONE SHOULD ALWAYS VERIFY ACTUAL DATA AND NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. SUPERGEO AND THE DATA VENDOR(S) SHAL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUANTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY THEREOF.
2010 SuperGeo Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SuperPad, SuperObjects, SuperGIS, SuperWebGIS, @supergeotek.com and www.supergeotek.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of SuperGeo Technologies Inc. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
Contents
Ch 1
1.1 1.2 1.3
Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0. 1-1

Brief. About SuperGIS Desktop 3.0.. Whats New in SuperGIS Desktop 3.0... 1-2 1-3 1-4
Ch 2
2.1
2.2 2.3 2.4
Overview of SuperGIS Desktop ......... How to Setup SuperGIS Desktop... Automatic Setup.... Manual Setup. Setup by Yourself.. Start SuperGIS Desktop.. Get the License..... Overview of SuperGIS Desktop.. Basic Functions. Quick Tutorial. Exploring your data... Opening a Map File.. Map Browsing.... Labels on the Map. Working with the Map Data.. Layers Properties.. Adding Layers....... Copying Layers. Importing/Exporting Layer Files.. Setting the Symbology Type... Setting the Legend Type.. Changing Layer Order.. Exporting Features... Selecting Features....
2-1
2-2 2-2 2-2 2-5 2-7 2-8 2-10 2-11
Ch 3
3.1
3-1
3-2 3-2 3-4 3-12 3-14 3-14 3-14 3-17 3-18 3-19 3-19 3-21 3-21 3-22
3.2
3.3
3.4
Statistics on Features...... Editing the Map Data.... Creating a New Layer... Editing Vertices.. Working with Attribute Data. Opening Attribute Table... Editing Attribute table... Calculating the Attribute Data. Relating Tables.. Joining Tables....
3-25 3-27 3-27 3-28 3-31 3-31 3-32 3-35 3-36 3-37
Ch 4
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
Setting and Managing Layer..... 4-1

Table of Contents.. Creating a Map.. Adding Layers... Importing and Exporting Layers.. Setting Map.... Setting Map Unit... Setting Display Unit.. Setting Background Color of the Map.... Setting Coordinate System.. Managing Layers.. ... Layer Properties Window. Changing the Name of a Layer... Changing the Name of Symbol Label.... Ordering Layers. Copying Layers... Group Layer... Adding a Group Layer.. Grouping Layers... Adding or Removing Layers from a Group Layer. Adding Group Layer in a Group Layer... Changing the Layer Order in a Group Layer. Changing the Order of Layers and Group Layer.. Setting the Visibility of Group Layer... Setting Visible Scale of Group Layer. 4-2 4-4 4-5 4-10 4-12 4-14 4-15 4-16 4-18 4-21 4-22 4-23 4-24 4-25 4-27 4-28 4-28 4-29 4-30 4-31 4-32 4-34 4-36 4-37
4.6
4.7
II
4.8
Ungrouping Group Layer. Layer Properties... ... Setting the Path for the Layer. Layer File Type.. Setting the Coordinate System of the Layer. Setting the Display of Map Tip.... Setting the Visible Scale of the Layer.... Setting the Reference Scale... Setting Symbology.... Single Symbol... Unique Values.. Unique Values (multi-field).. Graduated Color... Graduate Symbol.. Pie Chart. Bar Chart.... Dot Density. Managing Symbols... Setting Selection Symbol. Setting Fields. Relating and Joining Table.. Labeling.. Expression. Duplication. Conflict Detection.. Setting Visible Scale. Setting Label Placement.. Setting Image Display.. Resample Method. Setting Transparency, Contrast, and Brightness.. Zoom to Raster Resolution.. Setting Image Properties. RGB Color.. Stretched Color. Graduated Color.... Adding Gradient Color Ramp..
4-38 4-39 4-40 4-42 4-43 4-46 4-47 4-51 4-53 4-55 4-58 4-63 4-65 4-68 4-70 4-73 4-76 4-78 4-83 4-85 4-88 4-91 4-92 4-93 4-94 4-95 4-96 4-104 4-105 4-107 4-109 4-110 4-111 4-115 4-117 4-119
III
Adding Step Color Ramp. Histogram... Exporting Image Layer.....
4-121 4-123 4-126
Ch 5
5.1
5.2
Editing.... Editing Features... ... Edit Toolbar.... Introduction to Editing Environment... Start Editing... Adding Features.... Deleting Features.. Moving Features... Copy and Paste Features.... Editing Vertices. Advanced Editing Tools... Move To.. Offset.. Rotate. Split. Divide.. Buffer.. Intersect.. Union.. Merge. Separate Parts.. Clip.. Editing Modes Menu.. Cut Features.. Extend/Trim Features... Mirror Features.. Auto-Complete Polygon... Editing Attributes... Editing Attribute Table.. Add Edit Toolbar.... Edit Attribute Table.... Copy and Paste Attributes...
5-1
5-2 5-2 5-8 5-9 5-16 5-27 5-28 5-30 5-32 5-46 5-46 5-46 5-47 5-48 5-51 5-53 5-54 5-55 5-56 5-58 5-61 5-65 5-65 5-67 5-69 5-70 5-71 5-72 5-72 5-73 5-75
IV
Replace Attributes ... Add Field.... Remove Field. Field Calculator. Editing Attributes... Edit Attributes by Edit Attribute Window...... Edit Attributes by Attribute Table...
5-77 5-81 5-84 5-85 5-92 5-92 5-94
Ch 6
6.1
6.2
6.3
Managing Attributes...... Managing Attribute Table. Opening Attribute Table... Changing the Width of Column... Resizing an Attribute Table..... Rearranging the Columns... Viewing and Querying Attributes ... Sorting Records in a Field... Freezing/Unfreezing Field... Moving to the Specific Records.. Finding Records by Specifying Text or Number... Selecting All Records... Clearing Selection. Switching Selection.. Viewing the Attributes of the Selected Features.. Selecting Features by Selecting Records. Selecting Features by Attributes. Saving SQL Expression... Loading SQL Expression. Statistics of Attributes... Field Statistics... Statistics of Selected Features... Exporting the Attributes.... Setting and Managing Graphics..... Editing and Managing Text.. Adding Text.... Moving the Text Symbol...
6-1
6-3 6-3 6-4 6-5 6-6 6-7 6-7 6-9 6-11 6-12 6-13 6-14 6-15 6-16 6-17 6-18 6-21 6-22 6-23 6-23 6-24 6-25
Ch 7
7.1
7-1
7-2 7-3 7-6
V
7.2
7.3
7.4
Display Text Symbol of Individual Features.. Editing Graphics... Introduction to Graphics... Adding Graphics... Moving Graphics... Deleing Graphics.. Copying Graphics. Resizing Graphics. Properties of Default Graphic Style.... Styles of Graphics. Changing the Color of Graphics. Changing the Line Style of Graphics.. Rotating and Flipping Graphics.. Maintaining the Ratio of Graphics.. Setting the Style of Multiple Graphics.... Grouping Graphics... Ungrouping Graphics... Ordering Graphics. Aligning Graphics.. Distributing Graphics.... Resizing Multiple Graphics.. Converting Features to Graphics... Inserting New Objects..
7-7 7-9 7-9 7-10 7-11 7-11 7-12 7-12 7-13 7-14 7-14 7-15 7-16 7-17 7-18 7-18 7-19 7-20 7-21 7-22 7-23 7-24 7-25
Ch 8
8.1
8.2
Layout and Printing Map..... About Layout view. Opening Layout View... About Layout Tools... Setting Printer Properties.... Setting Map Properties. Choosing Output Items.... Setting Visible Layers and Specifying Extent... Setting Frame Style.. Setting Map Grid... Maintaining Ratio.. Multiple Frames.
8-1
8-2 8-3 8-4 8-5 8-6 8-7 8-8 8-8 8-9 8-11 8-12
VI
8.3 8.4
8.5
8.6 8.7
Exporting Attribute Table.. Editing Text Labels... Setting Scale Bar and North Arrow. Editing Scale Bar.. Editing North Arrow... Editing Legends and Graphic Elements.... Inserting Legend Element... Inserting Graphic Element...... Map Layout.... Changing Layout... Exporting a Map....
8-14 8-16 8-17 8-18 8-20 8-21 8-22 8-24 8-25 8-26 8-27
Ch 9
9.1
9.2
9.3
Querying Maps...... Viewing Maps.... Zoom in/out Pan.. Fixed Zoom in/out. Full Extent.. Previous/Next Extent Measurement. Refresh... Querying Features ... Querying by Clicking. Searching Features . Hyperlinks.. Selecting Features.... Selection Options.. Selecting by Clicking.... Selecting by Attributes.. Selecting by Graphics.. Selecting by Features.. Using Mask.... Analysis Tools....... Adding XY Data..... Creating XY Data..
9-1
9-3 9-3 9-4 9-4 9-5 9-5 9-6 9-9 9-10 9-10 9-15 9-16 9-19 9-22 9-26 9-27 9-28 9-29 9-34
Ch 10
10.1
10-1
10-2 10-3
VII
10.2 10.3
10.4
10.5
Adding XY Data..... Buffering. Buffering. Geoprocessing Tools.... Dissolve.. Merge.. Clip.. Intersect.. Union.. Spatial Join.... Feature Intersection.. Closest Features... Overlapped Features .. Features completely falling in another layer. Grid Maker...
10-5 10-7 10-8 10-12 10-14 10-19 10-22 10-25 10-29 10-32 10-35 10-37 10-39 10-41 10-43
Ch 11
11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6
Customizing SuperGIS Desktop 3.0..... Creating Custom Toolbar. Customizing Menu Customizing Button.. Customizing Scale List. Customizing Area.. Locking Customization. Creating a New Normal Button... Creating a New Tool Button. Creating a New Menu... Changing Icon
OGC Client. GPS. Geodatabase Client.. Graph.. Common Questions..
11-1
11-3 11-4 11-5 11-7 11-8 11-9 11-10 11-11 11-12 11-14 I-1 II-1 III-1 IV-1 V-1
Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5
VIII
1
Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
1.1 Brief 1.2 About SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 1.3 Whats New in SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 is the desktop GIS (Geographic Information System) of SuperGIS 3 series, providing the functions to edit, store, examine, integrate, process, analyze and display the surface positionrelated information. Maps in different types and files in various formats can be processed with SuperGIS Desktop, including vector maps and raster images, etc. A map is composed of layers, and each layer can only contain one sort of feature data. Through the analysis and process of features spatial relationship, the government agencies can refer the data in city planning, public facility management, management of environment and resource and engineering and so on.
Chapter 1 Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
1.1 Brief
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 is the desktop GIS (Geographic Information System) of SuperGIS 3 series, providing the functions to edit, store, examine, integrate, process, analyze and display the surface position-related information. Maps in different types and files in various formats can be processed with SuperGIS Desktop, including vector maps and raster images, etc. A map is composed of layers, and each layer can only contain one sort of feature data. Through the analysis and process of features spatial relationship, the government agencies can refer the data in city planning, public facility management, management of environment and resource and engineering and so on.
Reserved SuperGIS Desktop 2.x functions, SuperGIS Desktop 3 enhances the file editing and display capability, strengthens the efficiency of spatial data processing, and adds the support for Geodatabase. We provide two editions of SuperGIS Desktop 3, standard and professional, to satisfy users with different needs. Standard Edition provides data visualization, query, analysis, and integration capabilities along with the ability to create and edit geographic features or data in a personal geodatabase. Professional Edition not only includes all the functionality of Standard Edition but also contains a set of tools for topology analysis and customization to enhance your GIS capability. Moreover, professional edition supports to read and write data in enterprise Geodatabase.
1-2
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
1.2 About SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Who needs SuperGIS Desktop?
If you are an executive of the company, enterprise's attendants, personnel of government, scholar of the scientific and technologic field of information expert, geographical information specialists, teachers, researcher and developer, or those who use geographic information to solve problems, you can utilize SuperGIS Desktop 3 to help with your analysis and making decisions.
Solve the Problems with SuperGIS Desktop

You can utilize SuperGIS Desktop for market analysis, marketing planning, environmental monitoring, landscaping, project development, the travel journey planning, city construction, business administration or so, any issues about transmission, geography or spatial analysis. Therefore, you will be able to more efficiently and accurately analyze, plan, manage, and represent the research results; also SuperGIS Desktop will be the support for decision-making and solutions.
1-3
1.3 Whats New in SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Map Interaction
The whole new Graph using SuperGIS Chart Object as the core provides 8 types of graphs, including Vertical Bar, Horizontal Bar, Vertical Line, Horizontal Line, Vertical Area, Horizontal Area, Scatter Plot, Pie. The drawing of map, label, bar chart, pie chart can be stopped by clicking anywhere in the window. Shortcut F5 key can refresh the map. Holding shortcut Z key can switch the mouse cursor to Zoom in tool, and releasing Z key can return to mouse tool. Holding shortcut X key can switch the mouse cursor to Zoom out tool, and releasing Z key can return to mouse tool. Holding shortcut C key can switch the mouse cursor to Pan tool, and releasing C key can return to mouse tool. In Identify window, the query results can be sorted and copied. Also, users can remove the filed they do not need to display. In Select by Attributes window, the option Only List Selectable layer is added. New spatial conditions to select features are added, like Share Line Segment, contain and so on. Overview window is enhanced, and users can set the background color and the symbol of the extent you are currently viewing. Magnifier window is improved so that users can set Update While Dragging. The window can update the map while users are panning the map. The settings of Overview window and Magnifier window are saved in the project file. The unit of the measurement results can be displayed as decimal degrees.
Better Map Display Quality

Reference Scale can be set in Layers so that users do not need to set the reference
1-4
scale for each layer respectively. The controls of Visible Scale and Reference Scale are modified; users can choose the frequently-used and current map scale rapidly. When the current map scale is not within the range of Visible Scale of the layer, the layer will be marked with gray check in Map Content window. The whole new Symbology type, Unique Values (multi-fields), can classify the attributes of 3 fields at most. The display of vector layer supports to classify null data in the assigned field. The new settings of Bar Chart enable users to use Leader Line when the charts are too closed on the map. The new settings of Pie Chart enable users to use Leader Line when the charts are too closed on the map. Moreover, the size of the pies can be decided by the values in a field or the sum of fields. The improved Dot Density settings can preview the dot distribution in the sparest and densest area. The classification settings in Graduated Color no longer use precision but use field precision. The classification includes Equal Interval, Quantile, Natural Breaks, and Defined Interval. To set the values in the classification in Graduated Color and Graduated Symbol, you only need to input the maximum in a class. Then, the values in other classes will be adjusted automatically. The classes can be manipulated by multi-select. The graduated symbol for line layer can display the lines with different width to present the lines in different classes. To add value in Unique Values settings, users are allowed to input the value they need. To set the transparency of feature layers, you can set the transparency of fill symbol, line symbol, etc at the same time in Display tab rather than set the symbols respectively. Map Content window supports to display the legends of different height to display the legend size completely. The display of DXF layer accelerates 10%.
1-5
The support of symbol display in MIF, GML, Personal Geodatabase layers is enhanced. No Color is supported in all the menus of color options; more frequently-used colors are added in the menu.
Diversified Map Labels

The vector layer label setting window is enhanced. Moreover, users can set buffer ratio height to clear the other labels within the buffer area. Point label placement is improved. Users can decide to place the label place priority, on the point, at the angle value in an assigned field, and the orientation type. Line label placement is enhanced. Users can decide the orientation, position, and location along the line. Polygon label placement is improved. Users can decide to place the label horizontally (Horizontal) or according to the polygon shape (Straight). Also, users can choose to display the labels within the polygons only. Labels of point features can be offset appropriately as the point size is changed.
Enhanced Layer Management

Group Layer is supported. Users can add sub-group layer without the limitation; thus, large quantities of multiple levels of layers will be managed more easily. The group layer can be exported and imported. Users can create new layers and add layers to each group layer.
Page Layout and Printing

Improved page layout settings support to use the size defined by users so that it is not limited by the page size settings of the printer. The brand new Layout Templates are provides, and users have more options. The display and properties of legend are redesigned; thus, the legend display can be more various and flexible.
1-6
A large number of north arrows are provided. The property page of north arrow is modified. Layout page can be set as Draft Mode so that the map redraw will not be triggered as users are working with the layout view. In Map Element, users are allowed to select features, query, connect to hyperlinks by clicking. Users can assign the background style of map frame. The page coordinate unit on the status bar in layout view can be modified as the unit in Print Setup is modified. The language settings in Scale in Layout are removed. The language setting now is based on the language setting of SuperGIS Desktop. The page scale of layout view is between 10% and 1000%.
Strengthened Data Editing and Processing

The performance of Geoprocessing is improved. Compared with the previous version, the latest version raises the performance 20% to 50%. Attribute table supports Freeze Column function which can help users to compare the data easily. The speed of joining table is significantly improved. The performance of copying large quantities of features is enhanced; the system can copy the attributes to the field with the same name in another layer. Split tool can be used to split a line feature at the position you like. Clip can not only work with the polygon features of the target layer but also the other polygons intersecting the selected polygon. In Merge window, you can click the feature to make the feature blinked. Also, as to line features, the direction of the merged line feature is based on the selected line features. In Edit Vertex window, users are allowed to insert a vertex before/after a vertex. Moreover, the shortcut keys F2, Insert, Left, Right, and Delete are supported. In Edit Vertex window, users can zoom to specific vertex rapidly.
1-7
Grid Maker window is improved.
Improved Raster Support

Users can apply Identify function to query a raster layer, and users can get different information from different image display settings. The whole new histogram enables users to view the distribution of pixel values in different ways and set the line by themselves to exaggerate or ignore some pixel range. In Stretched Color settings, Min, Mid, and Max can be set to be displayed. Raster Layer supports to Zoom to Raster Resolution. Raster Layer supports to export Square Cell. Multiple TIFF image types are supported.
Enhanced Graphics Element

Callout and Rectangle Text are added in Graphics. The position, size, name of all the graphics elements can be set in the window. Users can set the default symbol and style of all the elements. Graphics elements can be rotated right and left. Graphics elements can be distributed as space across and space down. Multiple graphics elements can be set Maintain Ratio and enlarged or shrunk. While dragging the graphics elements to resize the elements, you can hold Shift key to make the width and height of the rectangles the same.
Spatial Reference
Edit Coordinate System window can display the name of coordinate system and projection coordinate system, which can be edited as well. PRIMEM and UNIT are added in geographic coordinate system parameters.
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Increased the interoperability with Geodatabase

The brand new Geodatabase Client support the complete editing functions of vector layer in Personal Geodatabase (mdb), and the layers can be created and edited in mdb. More types of layers can be exported to Personal Geodatabase, like GML and MIF, etc. The reading settings and Symbology display settings of layer from Oracle Spatial and MS SQL Server are improved.
Document and Data Support

The Add Layer window is improved. Users can tell the layer type by the file icons. Add Layer function is improved so that users can add as many files as they can. The system will check the added layers to ensure whether the user has the right to write in the layer. If the layer is read-only, it will be marked in Source tab in Layer Properties. The enhanced OGC Client provides complete standard support and better performance while reading the data from WMS. After the map is exported as a image file, the file will be opened automatically.
Provide Various Applications

Whats This tool button can view the help of the window or toolbar. All of the function manipulation windows support Context Help, allowing users to view the instruction of the controls in the window. The Tool menu adds the links of SuperGIS DataConvertor, SuperGIS DataManager, and SuperGIS DataRectifier. (The tools need to be installed by downloading). In Help, the link of SGDN (SuperGIS Developer Network) is added.
1-9
2
Overview of SuperGIS Desktop
2.1 How to Setup SuperGIS Desktop 2.2 Get the License 2.3 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop 2.4 Basic Functions
This Chapter mainly introduces the installation and licensing of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0. Also, the main interface and basic manipulation will be presented. After users install the software completely, they can follow the chapter and know SuperGIS Desktop more.
Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop
2.1 How to Setup SuperGIS Desktop

To setup SuperGIS Desktop successfully, the software should be installed under Administrator account.
Automatic Setup
1. Start Windows. Put the SuperGIS installation CD to CD-ROM, and the setup program will auto-run to install SuperGIS.
2. Installation starts. Please wait for the system. 3. Click Next button.
2-2
4. Please read the License Agreement and check I accept the terms of the license agreement to confirm. And click Next button.
5. Select the installation type. It is suggested that you click Complete. And click Next button.
2-3
6. Click Install button.
7. SuperGIS Desktop and SuperGIS Engine Runtime starts installing. Please wait for a while.
8. Choose Yes, I want to restart my computer now or No I want to restart my computer later and
Click Finish. As the computer starts, the installation is completed.
2-4
Manual Setup
If the setup program does not run automatically, you could click My Computer on the desktop and click the CD-ROM to click the Autorun.exe program. Then, you can follow the steps described in Automatic Setup.
Setup by Yourself
1. If you are advanced users, you can choose Custom in the process of installing, click Next, make sure the path for installation, and click Next.
2-5
2. Custom provides System Files which is the required option to setup SuperGIS Desktop so that please check the item. Sample Data contains the sample of map data, which is optional. Extensions can be manipulated as SuperGIS Desktop is activated.
If your computer has installed SuperGIS Engine Runtime, the window will show up in the process of installation. Since the SuperGIS Engine Runtime in the installation file is the latest version, it is suggested to click Yes to reinstall it.
Start SuperGIS Desktop
You can click the
shortcut icon on the desktop PC to open the program. Or click Start >
All programs >SuperGeo > SuperGIS Desktop 3 and SuperGIS Desktop 3 starts.
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2.2 Get the License

1. On the lower-left corner of the computer, click Start >Programs >SuperGeo >License Verifier to open SuperGeo License Verifier dialog box.
2. In SuperGeo License Verifier dialog box, choose SuperGIS Desktop and choose Single License.
2-7
3. Click Next. 4. Please choose the item Input serial number to get license file from SuperGeo, and key in the serial number in the edit box.
5. If you have keyed in the serial number, please click Finish. 6. Receiving license file succeeded dialog box shows up.
7. You have got the license successfully. Please click OK. 8. Welcome to use SuperGIS Desktop 3.0.
2-8
2.3 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

After the setup is finished, you can start SuperGIS Desktop 3.0. Please add the layer file to edit and you can move the toolbar or dialog by yourself. Or you can go to Tools menu >Customize to have advanced settings. The following is the basic function and operation introduction.
Main Menu Commonly Used Toolbar Map Window
Table of Contents
Draw Toolbar
The Screen and Map Coordinates Data
Goto Button
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2.4 Basic Functions

Main Menu: Includes File, Edit, View, Tools, Selection, Window and Help. Most of the functions can be found on main menu.
File: saves the file and opens, prints, exports map and closes SuperGIS, etc. Edit: includes the editing, finding of features and bookmaking settings. View: includes the switch between map view and layout view and the SuperGIS interface settings. Tools: uses the SuperGIS analysis tools including charts, add XY data, grid maker, geoprocessing and buffer analysis. Selection: sets the selection tools and selection mode. Window: includes overview window and magnifier window. Help: it is about the online manual and version information.
Commonly Used Toolbar: the toolbar provides the functions of general, browsing query, edit, draw and layout. It also can be customized by yourself through Tools menu>Customize>Toolbar. Or you can set by giving a check through right-clicking mouse on commonly used toolbar.
1. Standard Toolbar:
Add Layer
Map Scale
VBA editor Help
2. Map Toolbar: provides tools for map browsing. For instance, there are Zoom in or out tools for browsing and find tool can query attribute data so users have better understanding about the
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Font Color Refresh Remove Mask Mask Hyperlink Line Measurement i o n Clear Select Select Features Identify Next Extent Previous Extent Full Extent Fixed Zoom out Fixed Zoom in Pan Zoom out Zoom in Fill Color Line Color
4. Graphics Toolbar: it can be used to set the alignment, order, size and rotation of graphics.
Rotate Vertically
Rotate Horizontally Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Make Same Size
Make Same Height
Make Same Width
1. Draw Toolbar: includes graphics and text editing tools.
Find
Space Down
Space Across
Align Bottom
Align Top
Align Vertical Center
Align Right
Align Center
Align Left
Move to Back Move to Front Label Text Graphic Objects Select Graphics
Bring Backward
Bring Forward
Ungroup Group
spatial data.
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5. Edit Toolbar: it can be used to modify and edit elements of the map including editing the features of point, polyline and polygon layers or re-generate a map.
Edit Target
Sketch Tool
Rotate Features
Edit Geography
6. Layout Toolbar: it works to set up the map layout.
7. Image Rectification Toolbar: it is used to rectify the image.
Start Editing Zoom in
Split Tool
Separate Parts
Editing Mode
Select Features
Edit Attributes
Fixed Zoom out
Previous Extent
Fixed Zoom in
Zoom out Georeference Tool
Toggle Draft Mode
Pan
Next Extent
Full Extent
Change Layout
Add GCP
GCP List
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Set Destination Stamp Current Position to tracklog Stop Streaming to Tracklog Add WFS Data Add WMS Data Add GML Data Convert Layers to GML Close GPS Connection Open GPS Connection GPS Settings Start Streaming to Tracklog Zoom to GPS Position Pan to GPS Position
8. OGC Client Toolbar:
9. GPS Toolbar:
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Map Window: it is the area used to edit or cope with the map and layers.
The Screen and Map Coordinates Data:it shows the coordinates of the mouse pointers location and the maps longitude and latitude.
Goto Button: Next to The Screen and Map Coordinates is Goto button
. You can
double-click the Goto button to open Goto dialog box and type the map coordinates to center the specific location. Quick Menu: in SuperGIS right-clicking mouse on Commonly Used Menu, Map Window or The Table of Contents will open the relative quick menu. Table of Contents: lists all of the layers displayed on the map window.
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3
Quick Tutorials
3.1 Exploring Your Data 3.2 Working with Map Data 3.3 Editing the Map Data 3.4 Working with Attribute Data
A map is composed of several layers which record vector data or raster data. When viewing the map, users can set the visibility of each layer and search the features with different tools. Besides knowing the spatial location of features, users can also apply the attribute tables to know the data behind the features. The attribute data not only contain the numeric data, such as area, length, etc but also the text data, like name, classification, and so on. Therefore, you can use the statistics function and sorting function to query the attribute table. Meanwhile, Users are allowed to edit the position and geometry of the features. The chapter mainly introduces the basic functions of SuperGIS Desktop and help users to get familiar with the manipulations. Exploring Data introduces how to navigate the existing map data and how to use the tools to read the map easily. Working with Map Data not only shows the settings of layers but also the selection of features and statistics. Moreover, Editing Map Data also presents the ways to add new layers, edit vertices. At last, Working with Attribute Data provides the manipulation of viewing and editing attribute table. The ways to relate and join tables will be introduces as well. Thus, users can query the features and know the related attributes simultaneously.
Chapter 3 Quick Tutorials
3.1 Exploring Your Data

Firstly, you can follow the instructions in this section to view and manipulate the existing map data.
Opening a Map File

Starting SuperGIS Desktop
Please start SuperGIS Desktop before opening a map file. Firstly, click Start menu, click Programs, click SuperGeo menu, click SuperGIS 3 menu and click SuperGIS Desktop 3 to start the program.
3-2
Opening the Existing File

After SuperGIS Desktop starts, directly click Open and Open dialog box shows up. Select the folder that contains the project file you want to edit and click Open.
If you want to add the existing layer file, directly right-click Layers and select Add Layer to select layers and add it to map window.
3-3
Map Browsing
Showing the Layers
After a project file is opened, all of the layers contained in the project will be overlapped and displayed on the map window, and be listed in Table of Contents in the right panel. You can decide whether to put a check in front of the layer name or not; checked represents the layer will be displayed on the map, while unchecked represents not being displayed on the map.
Identifying Features
Click the Identify tool on the map toolbar and then click the feature you want to query in the map window. The Identify dialog box pops up, showing the data of the clicked feature.
3-4
Finding Features
Click Find tool on the map toolbar, and Find Features dialog box shows up. In Find, key in the keyword you need and select the layer and field from the Layer and Field dropdown lists to search. Press Go to start to search the features, and the results will be shown at the bottom of the dialog box.
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Going to X, Y
Click Goto tool at the lower right corner of the window, the Goto dialog box shows up. In the , the position of the the position of dialog box enter coordinates within the map extent and click Pan to coordinates will center to the map window. In addition, if you select Flash entered coordinates will flash. Meanwhile, clicking Add Marker position of the entered coordinates.
will add a marker on the
To set XY coordinates, you can choose longitude and latitude or the map unit you set. Click Change Unit button , you can choose the unit. If you choose degree minute second, you can directly input the longitude and latitude. Meanwhile, you can leave a space between degree and minute or between minute and second. If you choose map unit, like meters, you can input the coordinates directly. If the coordinate system of your map is projected coordinate system, you still can use longitude and latitude to move. However, please note that the coordinated system of Layers should be the same as the one of the layer.
, and the recent query results will be listed. You can click the Moreover, click Recent Query record to query again or mark the position. The query record will be listed in the format as the same as the unit you choose. The lower left graph is degree, minute, second; the lower right graph is map unit, meters.
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Overview Function
While browsing the map, users may have no idea about the current browsing location after map is zoomed in or out or so. Thus, the Overview Window function can be used to help users to recognize the current browsing position and direction. Firstly click Window on the main menu and select Overview Window. Overview Window shows up on the map window. The Overview Extent on the Overview Window represents the current browsing extent; when browsing extent moves, the Overview Extent changes along. Similarly, if you drag the Overview Extent with mouse, the browsing extent on the map window changes along.
Meanwhile, right-clicking the Overview window and clicking Properties will show the Overview Properties. Here you can set the reference layer to display on Overview window, background color and extent symbol.
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Magnifier Window
If you simply want to query the partial area instead of zooming in the entire map, the Magnifier Window function can be used without influencing the original map extent. Click Window on the main menu and select Magnifier Window. A magnifier window will show up on the map window; you can move the window as you like, and the window will enlarge the area under the window according the ratio you set. Besides, right-click over the Magnifier window and a menu of Snapshot, Update While Dragging and Properties will show up. If Snapshot is selected, the Magnifier windows screen will be frozen and not changed as the window moves. If Snapshot is canceled, the Magnifier window will recover to change screen as it moves. If Update While Dragging is selected, the screen of the window will change as you move the Magnifier window, just like you are using a real magnifier.
In addition, right-click the Magnifier window, select Properties and the Magnifier Properties shows up. The magnification ration can be set by selecting from the dropdown menu or you may type the magnification ration by yourself. Click OK and the setting is finished.
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Spatial Bookmark
Spatial bookmarks are like bookmarks. When you want to see the area saved before, click the spatial bookmark to zoom to the area. It is like Favorites in IE, SuperGIS Desktop will save the predefined extent and when you want to see the same extent, you only need to click the spatial bookmark to display the extent on the map window.
To add bookmarks, firstly pan or zoom the map to the extent you need, click View on the main toolbarSpatial BookmarkNew and Input Bookmark Name window shows up. The default bookmark name is Bookmark 1 or you can name it by yourself. In the example we rename the bookmark as Toucheng Town.
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In addition, through clicking the Identify tool, you can select a feature on the map, and the Identify window will show up. Then, right-click the left panel of the window and select Add To Bookmark and the selected features extent will be set as the bookmark.
Or you use Find tool
and enter the keyword in Find Features window to search the matched
features. The results will be shown in the window; you can right-click any of the results and select Add To Bookmark to set the features extent as the bookmark.
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Click View on the main menu and select Spatial BookmarkManager to show the Bookmark Manager dialog box. In the dialog box all of the bookmarks will be listed and you can select a bookmark then click Remove to remove it. Or click Remove All to remove all of the bookmarks.
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Labels on the Map

When you are browsing the map, the functions of Text, Label or Map Tip can be used to mark the text labels on the map for reading easily.
Adding Text
When you need to add text on the map, please select the Text tool on the Draw toolbar. Firstly, click the Text tool then click over the location where you want to add text, and the
Graphics Properties dialog box shows up. In the Text tab, type the text to show and click Font to decide the font, style, size and color and effects, then select the alignment style. After settings are finished, click OK and the text will be added to the map.
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Showing Labels
If you want to show the labels of features of the specified layer, firstly double-click the layers name in Table of Contents to open the Layer Properties dialog box. Select the last tab, Label, and check Show Labels. Meanwhile, select the field to show label from the dropdown menu of Field. The font, color, background color or the transparency of background can be set. After the settings are finished, click OK and the labels of the layer are displayed on the map.
Showing Map Tip

Open the Layer Properties dialog box of the layer you want to show map tip, select the Display tab and you could set whether to Show Map Tip. The function is set to show the features of the selected layer instead of the entire map. If you check the function, when move mouse pointer is moved to any of the features of the layer, the name of default field will be shown up automatically by system.
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3.2 Working with the Map Data

In this section the management of exporting, importing, selecting and doing statistics to the existing map data will be introduced.
Layers Properties
In Table of Contents double-click Layers and Layers Properties dialog box opens. The name of layers, unit of map, background color and reference scale of map can be set up here. But if the system is in editing status (if you have clicked Start Editing on the Edit toolbar), the Coordinate System tab will be invisible.
Adding Layers
In SuperGIS Desktop, you can add layers in four ways: first, click Add Layer on standard toolbar.
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Or right-click on Layers in Table of Contents, then click Add Layer on the menu.
The Add Layer dialog box will pop up if you use either one of the two ways described above to add layer. Select the folder containing the layer you want to add and click the layers name to add. In the next, click Open and the selected layer will be displayed in the map window. The files in the Open dialog box will be marked with the icons according to the layer type; moreover, multiple layers can be added together at a time.
Or you could right-click on Layers in Table of Contents and click Recent Layer List to show the layer list you have used recently and directly click a layer to add to the map.
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Besides, you can open the layer folder directly and drag the file to the Table of Contents and show layer on the map window.
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Copying Layers
If you need to edit some identical layers in one project, directly copying the source layer can prevent you from repeatedly adding and setting layers. Firstly right-click the layer you want to copy in Table of Contents and the function menu shows up. Click Copy on the function menu to copy the layer. Next right-click Layers in Table of Contents and click Paste Layer on the menu, and the copied layer will be pasted to Layers.
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Importing/Exporting Layer Files

When the map is edited completely, all of the layers can be Exported to *.slr together. Firstly, right-click Layers in Table of Contents and click Export Layer File on the menu and Save As dialog box shows up. You need to choose a folder to save the file and enter the filename to start to export all layers. In the same way, the exported layers can be Imported, instead of Adding Layer to the map and displayed on the map window with the style settings you previously set. To Import layer file firstly right-click Layers in Table of Contents to show the menu and select Import Layer File to open the Open dialog box. Then select the layer file (*.slr) you wan to import and press Open to display the layer file on the map window.
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Setting the Symbology Type

When a layer is added to SuperGIS Desktop, it will be displayed in Single Symbol with random color set by system. Or you can re-classify the layer to display according to the properties. Firstly double-click the layer name you want to classify and the Layer Properties dialog box shows up, choose Symbology tab. Then you can select the suitable type and set up the contents, then press OK to finish settings.
Setting the Legend Type

When you are changing the settings of legends, SuperGIS Desktop will give color to the legend randomly. Of course you could modify the style of legend and color by yourself through double-clicking the symbols to give new colors. Or you can choose to apply the package of gradient colors provided by the system. In respect of modification of symbol style, SuperGIS Desktop allows you to modify the symbol style and the type of point, polyline and polygon at a time.
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Changing Layer Order

In Table of Contents, the layer order refers to the drawing order of layers. In order to present the map meeting your needs, the layers in Table of Contents can be moved by mouse dragging. After the layers are moved, the map window will display according to the adjustment.
Exporting Features
All of the features in layer or the selected features or the features in the view extent can be exported in SuperGIS Desktop. Firstly right-click the layer of the features you want to export in Table of Contents, click ExportFeatures. And the Export Features dialog box shows up, in which you can select the way to export and the folder to save the output layer. Besides the coordinate system of output layer can be specified. After the exporting is finished, system will ask whether you want to add the exported features to layer or not.
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Selecting Features
Various tools and settings are provided to be used to quickly select the needed features in SuperGIS Desktop.
Setting Selection
Click Selection on the main menu and click Options to show the Selection Options dialog box. In the dialog box you can set up the selectable layers (all layers are set selectable by default) and decide the selection mode. Besides the selection tolerance can also be set.
Selecting All Features of a Layer

Right-click a layer in Table of Contents, select Selection and click Select All Features, you will find all of the features on the layer are selected.
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Making the Specified Layer the Only Selectable Layer

When selecting features, users might not be able to select the features correctly due to the features positions too close or so. At the time right-click the layer name of features you want to select, click Selection and click Make This The Only Selectable Layer. As a result, only the features of this layer are selectable.
Selecting by Graphics Object

Users may have different demands about selecting features; therefore SuperGIS Desktop is designed to allow users to select features with graphic object in that way users can draw by themselves the needed extent. Firstly, click SelectionOptions on the main menu and in the Selection Options dialog window set the selectable layer and selection mode.
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Then, click the object tool on the Draw toolbar, edit the needed extent and move to the extent you want to select (keep the object in selectable status). Then click Select By Graphics from the Selection function menu.
The features in the intersection of the point layer which is set selectable and the graphic object will be selected. And the graphic object can be deleted by pressing Delete key.
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Clearing Selection
Two ways are provided in SuperGIS Desktop to clear selections in all types. If you want to clear the selected features of a layer, right-click the layer in Table of Contents, click SelectionClear Selection to cancel the selection of the selected features. If you want to clear all of the selected features on the map, please click SelectionClear Selection on the main menu and all of the selected features in the map window will be canceled selection.
Statistics on Features
Statistics can be applied to all features of a certain layer or only for the selected features.
Statistics on Features of a Layer

After the attribute Table of a certain layer is opened, right-click the heading of a numerical field and click Field Statistics to show the Statistics of All Features dialog box. You can select the layer and field you want to do statistics. The statistics result is displayed below, including feature count, maximum, minimum, sum, mean and standard deviation.
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Statistics of Selected Features

After the features are selected on the map, click SelectionStatistics on the main menu to show the Statistics of Selected Features dialog box and displays the statistics result of the selected features.
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3.3 Editing the Map Data

Besides browsing and managing the current map data, the map data can be easily edited in SuperGIS Desktop. In this section the way to build up new layers and to modify the feature and its position by vertex editing will be introduced.
Creating a New Layer

Firstly right-click Layers in Table of Contents, select New Layer and New Layer dialog box shows up. Here the type of layer and the coordinate system can be set, then click OK to select the folder to store and type the filename. Finally the layer will be added to the map window.
Next, click the Start Editing button on the Edit toolbar, select the layer name that you just add and you can start to digitize new features on the map window. When editing is finished, press End Editing and a query dialog box shows up. Click Yes to save the editing of the layer.
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Editing Vertices
Inserting Vertices
After clicking the Start Editing tool, double-click the feature you want to edit or click the dropdown menu next to Add New Features, and select Modify Features then select the feature you want to edit. Thus, all of the vertices of the selected feature will show up. Next, move the mouse to the border of the feature and right-click the position you want to add a new vertex, then select Insert Vertex and the new vertex will be displayed on the border of the feature.
Completing Editing Vertices

After the vertices are completely edited, end the editing movements to finish feature editing. Directly click over the blank location on the map window or move mouse to the border of the feature and right-click, select Finish Sketch and all of the vertices will disappear.
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Offseting Vertices
Double-click the feature you want to edit and right-click over the vertex you want to offset, and select Offset Vertex. When Offset Vertex X, Y dialog box appears, enter the XY offset in the dialog box and click OK to offset the vertex to new location.
Moving Vertices by Keying in Coordinates

Double-click the feature you want to edit and right-click over the vertex you want to move and select Move Vertex To. When Move Vertex to X, Y dialog box shows up, enter the XY coordinates in the dialog box and click OK to move the vertex to the set XY coordinates.
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Viewing the Vertex Properties

Users can view all of the vertices in SuperGIS Desktop and edit the coordinate location of the related vertices in Edit Vertex dialog box. Firstly click Start Editing on the Edit toolbar and click the dropdown menu beside Add New Features button, select Modify Features. Next, right-click the vertex you want to move and select Vertex Properties to show the Edit Vertex dialog box. The selected vertex will be presented in editable status in the Edit Vertex dialog box and you can directly type the coordinates to move the vertex. Meanwhile, you can choose the vertex you want to edit by pressing upward or downward key on the keyboard, and the selected vertex will be shown in white dot. When the editing completes, press Finish Sketch to complete the vertex editing. If you want to cancel the vertex editing, directly click X at the upper right corner of the Edit Vertex dialog box to close.
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3.4 Working with Attribute Data

A digital map can not only display the features but also allow users to browse and edit the related attribute data in attribute Table. In the section the way to open attribute Table, to edit in attribute Table and to calculate attribute data will be introduced.
Opening Attribute Table

All of the feature layers have the attribute tables recording the feature data. Through opening the Table, users can understand the data contained in each feature. Firstly, right-click the layer name you want to open its attribute Table in Table of Contents and select Open Table on the menu to show the attribute Table.
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Editing Attribute Table

Adding Fields to Table
After the attribute Table opens, click Option in the dialog box and select Add Field to display Add Field dialog box.
In Name, enter the field name, which cannot be set identical to the existing fields. On the dropdown menu of Type, select the type you need. The field type will no longer be able to be modified after the type is set. Besides, Length stands for the length of field, and Precision refers to the precision of decimals when the field represents numeric data. After the field is set up, click OK and the new field is added to the attribute Table.
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The data in attribute Table can only be editable in editing status; as a result the Edit toolbar should be opened first. Please right-click the toolbars to open a menu and select Edit to show Edit toolbar.
On the Edit toolbar, click the Start Editing button and enter in editing status. Now you can select the data you want to edit by directly clicking it on the attribute Table and modify the attribute data.
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Removing Fields from Table

To remove a field form the attribute Table should be worked in non-editing status. In editing status, the fields will be unable to be removed. After an attribute Table is opened, right-click the heading of the attribute field you want to remove and select Remove Field on the menu. A query dialog box shows up and query if you are sure to remove the selected field, press Yes to remove the field.
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Calculating the Attribute Data

The Field Calculator function of the attribute Table can be used to calculate the numeric fields and to record the results in the attribute Table. Take the below attribute Table for example. If you want to calculate area field, firstly click Start Editing on the toolbar to enter editing status and then right-click over the heading of length and click Field Calculator to show the Calculator dialog box.
In Calculator dialog box you may directly enter the needed operation or edit the operation by selecting from the Field and Function by clicking. After the editing is finished, click OK to display the result in the field.
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Relating Tables
Relating tables is to relate the fields of the same properties from two layers and make a relation on properties of the corresponding fields. After the Tables are related, whenever inquiring features in one of the two layers, the system will tell you not only the data of the feature recorded in the belonging layer but also the data of the feature recorded in the other one. The information will be revealed in the Identify dialog box.
Lets take Zhongshan file for example to explain how to set up the Relate function, POI layer and Park layer both have the attribute properties of School in features. Next, you could right-click the POI layer name in Table of Contents and then click Properties and enter the Relate and Join tab. In Relate, click Add and the Relate dialog box shows up. In Source Field select a field, and select the layer you want to relate in Table and select the field. In Name you could enter a name or remain the default value. If the layer you want to relate is not listed in Table of Relate Target, click Open File to choose the data you need by yourself. After settings are finished, click OK.
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Go back to the map window, select the Identify button on the map toolbar and select a feature on the POI layer, which you just set as the Source Field. You will see in the left panel the level under POI is the feature you just selected; in this example, the selected feature is School. And you will find one more level, the layer you just selected as the Relate Target, Park layer, under this feature. The level under Park layer contains all its features of attribute properties as school.
Joining Tables
Joining Tables is to join the tables of two layers by a specified attribute field (this field needs to have the same properties, but the heading and order of the field could be different) as the connection field to join the two tables. The system will join the target table to the table of source layer based on this specified field. The way to join the two tables is to form a new attribute table by connecting the properties of target table to the array of the properties of specified field of the source table through the specified field.
The settings of Join can also be set in the Relate and Join tab in Layer Properties dialog box. Firstly click the Add button in Join and specify a field in Source Field in Join dialog box as the
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connection field to join the two tables. Select the table you want to join in Table of Join Target, if the table you want to add is not listed in Table, click Open File and the Open dialog box
shows up. In the next, select the file you need, the file could be feature layer, *.dbf file or *.xls file. Then select the field with the same attribute properties as the source field in Field of Join Target, click OK when settings are finished.
Open the attribute table of the layer having the source filed and you will see some extra fields besides the original fields added in the table. Each fields name will be modified to the format of layer name (or filename).original field name. Take the figure below as an illustration, this table is the result of joining attribute tables of POI layer and school layer. The table displays the current corresponding data from school layer. <NULL> in the table represents no data, but it does not refers a blank record; while the blank grid represents a blank record instead of no data.
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4
Setting and Managing Layers
4.1 Table of Contents 4.2 Creating a Map 4.3 Adding Layers 4.4 Importing and Exporting Layers 4.5 Setting Map 4.6 Managing Map 4.7 Group Layer 4.8 Layer Properties
A complete map is composed of layers. Each layer can contain a type of features. Therefore, when we are creating a map, we are manipulating each layer and setting, editing, managing the layers. in this chapter, we will introduce the functions step by step and facilitate users to create a map, set the properties of the layers and complete a map. what should be noted is that about the ways to set the whole map, please refer to Setting Map. The settings of layers are introduces in Layer Properties.
Chapter 4 Setting and Managing Layer
4.1 Table of Contents

As SuperGIS Desktop is started, the table of contents will be placed on the ride side of the window by default. The top of the window shows Layers.
All of the layers in the map window are listed in the table of contents. If you add a new layer on the map, the list in the table of contents will be changed as well. Therefore, the table of contents shows the names of the layers, the symbols, and the order of layers. The top layer in the table of contents is the top layer in the map window.
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Besides on the right side of the map window, table of contents can be dragged to the new place you need, the left side or even the middle of the map window. Moreover, the + and - in front of Layers can be clicked to close or expand the layers.
Similarly, the + and in front of each layer can also be clicked to expand or close the layers legends.
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4.2 Creating a Map

No matter which type of map you want to create, the first step is to click New. To create a new map, you can click File menu and choose New. Then, a new blank map is created.
The second way is to click Open button on Standard toolbar.
As a new map is created, you can add layers to the map to edit your map. When you complete a map, you need to save the file. The file is a Project. Therefore, if the manual mentions Open a Project, it means to open a file.
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4.3 Adding Layers

The second step to create a map is to add the layers you need. Besides the GEO file defined by SuperGIS Desktop, Shapefile, MIF and CAD files are also supported. The supported image files include SID, ECW, BMP, JPG, Tiff, GIF, PNG and so on. There are different manipulations to set the layers of different formats. How to add layers is going to be introduced; the detailed settings will be presented in the following section.
In SuperGIS Desktop, there are 4 ways to add layers. First, click Add Layer button on Standard toolbar.
Or you can right-click Layers in the table of contents and click Add Layer.
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In the two ways mentioned above, Add Layer window will show up. Choose the folder the layer saved in and click Open. The selected layer will be added in the map window. The files in Add Layer window are listed with the icons presenting its geometry; you can add multiple layers at the same time.
You also can right-click Layers in the table of contents and click Recent Layer List, and the file list appears. You can choose a layer and add the layer directly.
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In addition, you can open a folder and drag the layer you need to the table of contents. The layer will be displayed in the map window directly.
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Add Layer tool enables you to add the layer you want to display. If the layer you add is vector layer, SuperGIS Desktop will randomly define the symbol type and color for the layer. If you would like to modify the setting, you can modify them in Layer Properties. Once the file is saved, the settings will be saved, too. Therefore, next time you open the file, the layer will be displayed based on your settings.
Besides vector layers, there are also image layers (i.e. raster layers). SuperGIS Desktop supports several raster formats, such as SID, ECW, BMP, JPG, Tiff, GIF, PNG, etc.
The way to add image layer is the same as the way described above. Click Add Layer button on Standard toolbar, and Add Layer window shows up. Choose the image file you need and click OK. The image layer will be displayed in the map window.
Take the image file for example. You can add vector layer and image layer into the map at the same time. The map window will display like the following graph.
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Furthermore, besides the vector and raster formats, SuperGIS Desktop also supports the display of CAD format. The way to add CAD format is the same as the way mentioned previously. However, what should be noted is that CAD file format is special so that the CAD file can be only viewed and overlaid in SuperGIS Desktop. The legends cannot be modified, and the attributes cannot be identified. Additionally, CAD format contains points, polylines, polygons, and annotations, so the table of contents also lists the 4 types of features. You can tick the layer you want to display and remove the tick of the layer you do not need. The map window will display the map according to your settings.
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4.4 Importing and Exporting Layers

When you are editing a map, you might edit multiple layers at a time. Therefore, after you finish editing, you can Export all the layers as a *.slr file. Firstly, right-click Layers in the table of contents and click Export Layer File. Then, Save As window shows up. Choose the folder you want to save the file in, enter the file name, and click Save. Then, all the layers are exported.
During the process of editing map, you might need some layers which are edited already. You can import the layers into the current project. To import layers means to import the edited and exported layers instead of adding and to display the layers in the map window. The imported layers will be displayed as the settings you saved. To import the layers, firstly right-click Layers in the table of contents, click Import Layer File, and choose the layer file (*.slr) you want to import. Click Open, and the layers will be displayed in the map window.
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The file type to import or export is *.slrSuperGIS Layer File which records the path, settings of the layers. slr file records the display settings of the layers so that the exported slr file can be displayed as the settings recorded in the file. When exporting files, you can choose to export one or all the layers. Moreover, although Add Layers and Import Layers both can display the layers in the map window, Import Layers can display the layer as the edited styles. However, the layer added by Add layer might be displayed in different styles when you add the layer since SuperGIS Desktop does not record the previous settings.
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4.5 Setting Map

Users are allowed to set the basic settings of the layers in Table of Contents, including the name of Layers, map comment, map unit, distance unit, map background color, layer legend, etc. That is to say, the settings in Layers Properties are used to define the display of the map rather than a single layer. There are 2 ways to open Layers Properties window:
Fist, double-click Layers in the table of contents. Or right-click Layers and click Properties.
Second, right-click on the map window, and click Properties. This way can be only used when you are not editing the layers.
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You can open Layers Properties window by the 2 ways mentioned above. However, the tabs might be different due to the status of editing.
While you are not editing layers, you can see General and Coordinate System tabs.
While you are editing, you can see General tab only because the coordinate system cannot be modified at the status of editing.
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Setting Map Unit

SuperGIS Desktop provides the map units, including millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, miles, feet, yards, inches, etc. The settings of map unit influence the accuracy of measure results. Therefore, the settings of map unit should be based on the coordinate system of the layers you add. If the layer you add is not defined with coordinate system, you need to set the map unit. If the layer you add has been defined with coordinate system and map unit, the unit of the Layers cannot be changed.
To set the map unit, firstly double-click Layers in the table of contents. Then, Layers Properties window appears.
Choose Map unit, and click OK, and the setting of map unit is finished.
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Setting Display Unit

Display Unit refers to the unit and on the lower-right corner of the map window.
To set the Display Unit, firstly right-click Layers in the table of contents and choose Properties. In General tab, choose the display unit you need and click OK. Then, the setting of display unit is finished.
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Setting Background Color of the Map

While you are editing the map in SuperGIS Desktop, the default background color of the map is white. You can change the background color to meet your need. To set the color is to open Layers Properties window and click Background button.
In Symbol Selector window, you can choose the color you need and choose the symbols in the left column. Click OK and the background color of the map is changed.
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In Symbol Selector window, you can choose the symbols for fill. The previous example is Solid, so the color is the Foreground color and the Background color is white. However, if you choose Vertical for fill, the Foreground color is the color of the strips and the Background color is the color of the map. As the settings are finished, click OK to complete the settings.
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Setting Coordinate System

In a project, the Coordinate System in Layers Properties window records the projects coordinate system, projection, etc. Users are allowed to use Select, New, Edit functions to modify or edit the coordinate system. Firstly, you can click Select, and Select Coordinate System window shows up. Choose the coordinate system you need. Or you can click Browse to search a suitable coordinate system the folders.
Setting Coordinate System for the Layers is to make the layers of different coordinate systems overlaid correctly. If the coordinate system is not set, the layers cannot be overlaid automatically. However, if none of the layers are defined with coordinate systems, the coordinate system of the Layers will be meaningless.
The coordinate system of a new map is defined as Unknown, and a layer with coordinate system is added, the coordinate system of the Layers will be defined as the same the layer directly.
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If you are in the status of editing, Layers Properties window will not display Coordinate System tab and only display General tab.
Moreover, you can click Create in Coordinate System tab to create your own coordinate system, including the name and contents.
Besides the name, the window also contains Datum, and Projection. Datum is a mode of measuring the earth, including Horizontal Datum to measure longitude and latitude and Vertical Datum to measure elevation. The Name dropdown list provides a number of modes. Furthermore, Spheroid is used to display the three dimensional shape of the earth obtained by rotating an ellipse about its minor axis by 360 degrees. Users can choose a spheroid coordinate system in the Spheroid Name dropdown list. Meanwhile, you can set the length of Semimajor Axis and Inverse Flattening. Semimajor Axis is the half length of the major axis of the ellipse. Inverse Flattening is the inverse flattening of the ellipse. As to the projection, users can choose whether to use Projection coordinate system. Projection uses the flat two dimensional surface to
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describe the three dimensional surface of the earth. Generally, Projection applies mathematical model to transfer the features on the surface to the positions on the flat surface. Since the earth is three dimensional, it is necessary to apply some methods to describe the map on a two dimensional surface. Therefore, after ticking Projection, you can choose the projection coordinate system in Name dropdown list.
Compared with Create, the window, Coordinate System, appearing after Edit is clicked enables users to edit or modify the current coordinate system instead of creating a new coordinate system.
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4.6 Managing Layers

This section mainly presents how to set and edit each layer and how to manage the layers. Therefore, the functions you need include the functions in Layer Properties window. You can reorder the layers by dragging and rename the layers by double-clicking.
There are two ways to open the Layer Properties window: First, in the table of contents, double-click the layer you want to edit. Layer Properties window shows up.
Second, in the table of contents, right-click the layer you want to edit and choose Properties.
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Layer Properties Window

There are many tabs in the Layer Properties window, each of which can be used to set different properties of the layer. Take vector layer (e.g. Shp and geo) for example. The names and the functions of the tabs in Layer Properties window are: Source: users can set layer name and its path, and add comments. Display: users can set the display of layer displaying, including Visible Scale, Reference Scale, showing Map Tip or not, and Transparency. Symbology: it means the classification of data in layer. Users can set symbol type, symbol label, and symbol color. Selection: users can set whether the layer is selectable or not and selection symbol. Table: it shows how the fields and hyperlinks are set. Relate and Joint: it sets how the attribute table is related or joined with other attribute table. Label: it sets the display of the labels, such as whether to show labels or not, which field to be text label, setting font and color of text symbol.
If you are in the status of editing, the Coordinate System tab will not appear; there will be only 7 tabs in the window.
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Changing the Name of a Layer

The table of contents lists all the names of the layers. If you need to modify the layer name, there are two ways: First, click the layer you want to edit in the table of contents and click the name. The text box appears and you can input the name you need.
Second, in the table of contents, double-click the layer you want to edit. Layer Properties window shows up. In Source tab, enter the name you need in Name and click OK to finish editing,
As a layer is added, SuperGIS Desktop will use the file name as the layer name in the table of contents. As a result, if the name you want to display is different from the file name, you can change the layer name in the table of contents. However, the change will not change the file name.
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Changing the Name of Symbol Label

As you classify the data in the layer properties window, the system will regard the values as the symbol label. If you would like to modify the description, you can change the name in the table of contents. The change does not influence the data in the attribute table but only changes the label. There are two ways to change the name of symbol label: First, in the table of contents, double-click the name of symbol label. The text box shows up, and you can edit the name.
Second, double-click the layer in the table of contents and the Layer Properties window appears. Click Symbology tab, double-click the symbol label and enter the name you need. The name of symbol label is finished.
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Ordering Layers
The list of layers in the table of contents is the order of the layers overlaid in the map window. The first layer is the top layer in the map window. If you add several layers at the same time, the system will automatically place the layers in the order of point, polyline, and polygon. Then, when adding a new layer, it will add the layer above all the layers. To overlay layers, you can place the layers according to the display result you need. First of all, you can click the layer you want to move in the table of contents and drag the layer to the place you want it to display. When the layer is moved completely, the map window changes the display at once.
Move the layer area which is at the bottom of the map.
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The layer area is moved to the top of the map, and the display of the map is changed.
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Copying Layers
Copying a layer is to copy the layer completely, including the symbol settings, types, classification, and the path of the layer. When you need to edit the same layers in a project, you can copy the layer rather than set the layers for several times. Firstly, select the layer you want to copy, right-click the layer, and choose Copy. The layer is copied. Then, right-click Layers and choose Paste. The copied layer is pasted into Layers.
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4.7 Group Layer

Group layer refers to the group composed of the layers assigned by users themselves, with which it is more convenient to edit and manage the map. If you need to manage multiple layers as a layer, you can group the layers and create a group layer. For example, you have a river layer and an irrigation canal layer, and you can group the two layers and name it Hydrology. A group layer in the table of contents acts like other layers. However, bedsides the name of the group name, it also displays the layers in the group. Users are allowed to set the properties of each layer in the group, such as visible scale, and so on. Also, you can set the visible scale of the group layer and adjust the order of the layers. If the visible scale of the group layer conflicts with the layers in the group, the system will regard as the setting of the group layer as the priority. In the following section, the ways to set and manipulate group layers will be introduced.
Adding a Group Layer

In the table of contents, right-click Layers and choose New Group Layer. A new group layer is added. However, there is no layer in the group now, so there is no data in the table of contents and in the map window.
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Grouping Layers
With the function, Group, you can group the layers and create a group layer to manage the layers easily. You only need to select the layers you need, right-click the layer names, and choose Group. Then, the new group layer is added and placed as the top layer in the table of contents.
You also can group multiple group layers and create a bigger group.
The layers belonging to different tiers can neither be selected at the same time nor grouped. For example, there is a layer in Group Layer A and there is another layer in Group Layer B. These two layers cannot be grouped.
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Adding or Removing Layers from a Group Layer

You can add layers in to a created group layer to manage the layers more conveniently. Firstly, right-click Group Layer, choose Add Layer, browse and open the layer(s) in Add Layer window, and click Open. The layers are added into the group and displayed on the map.
If you would like to remove the layer(s) from a group layer, you can right-click the layer and choose Remove. The layer will be removed from the group layer directly.
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Adding Group Layer in a Group Layer

You can add a group layer in an existing group layer in the map and create a multi-layer group layer. Firstly, right-click the existing group layer, choose New Group Layer, and a new group layer is added into the group layer.
As the new group is created, you can add layers in the way described before. Like the following graph, the map is composed of two group layers, but the new group layer belongs to the original group layer. Therefore, in this way, you can add sub-group layers as many as you can.
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Changing the Layer Order in a Group Layer

If you add multiple layers in a group layer at once, the system can automatically place the layers in the order of point, polyline, and polygon to prevent the layers from being overlapped by other layers. However, if you add layers later, the layer will be added at the top, which might cover the features of the lower layers. Therefore, you may need to change the layer order in the group layer to display the features clearly and completely.
Right-click the group layer whose layers you would like to order and click Properties. Group Layer Properties window appears. Choose Group tab, and you can select the layer and click the upward and downward buttons to adjust the order. Click OK to complete the settings. The map window and the table of contents will be updated.
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Moreover, you can adjust the layer order by dragging in the table of contents. Take the map for example. If you want to display the point layer completely, you can drag the point layer in the table of contents to the place above the polygon layer.
As the layer order is adjusted, the drawing order of the layers in the map window is updated as well. The point layer is displayed above the polygon layer.
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Changing the Order of Layers and Group Layer

If the table of contents contains layers and group layers, users can order the layers by dragging. Generally speaking, users had better to move the group layer to adjust the order.
Take the map for example. Since the group layer is at the bottom and cannot be displayed completely. Therefore, we have to move the group layer to the top to display the map clearly.
However, if you move the layer to the position below the group layer, the system will add the layer to the group layer.
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As a result, we need to move the group layer to the top layer, and the map will be displayed as the style we expected.
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Setting Visibility of Group Layer

Generally speaking, you can tick the box before the layer name to make the layer display. If you remove the tick before the layer name, it means the layer is not displayed. Similarly, if you tick the box before a group layer, it means the layers in the group layer will be displayed. If the tick is removed, the group layer will not be displayed.
In addition, you also can decide whether to display the layer in a group layer. If the group layer is ticked but the layer is not ticked, the layer will not be displayed.
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Setting Visible Scale of Group Layer

To set the visible scale of group layer, you can right-click the group layer, click Visible Scale, and set the current scale as the minimum visible scale or maximum visible scale. Meanwhile, you can choose Properties on the right-click menu to set the settings in Display tab.
Also, you are allowed to set the display setting of each layer. The way is the same as other layers; right-click the layer name, choose Visible Scale or Properties to set in Display tab.
If the setting of the group layer conflicts with the layer in the group layer, the settings of group layer overrides the layer in the group layer.
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Ungrouping Group Layer

If you want to ungroup a group layer to make the layers be individual layers, you can right-click the group layer and choose Ungroup.
Then, the group layer is ungrouped. The layers will be listed according the previous order in the table of contents. The display of the map window remains the same.
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4.8 Layer Properties

In section 4.6, Managing Layer, mainly introduces the setting of the table of contents while this section presents the detailed settings of each individual layer in the order of the tabs in Layer Properties window. What is going to be introduced first is to set the path of the layer to solve the problem of file lost caused by the change of the file saving position. You can refer to the Tools menu > Options > Use relative path name to store layer files. Then, we will present the ways to set the coordinate system of the layer to avoid setting the coordinate system layer by layer. Also, users are allowed to set the maximum and minimum scale and reference scale of layer display to view and display the map more easily. The methods to set layer symbol and selection symbol will be introduced in the section in details. The fields in the attribute table will be presented in Setting Fields and Relating and Joining Table. At last, how to set the layer label will be introduced in the section of Labeling.
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Setting the Path for the Layer

When saving a project, SuperGIS Desktop saves the related settings of the project, such as the path of the layer. Therefore, as you open the project and the layer has been removed from the original path, the layer will not be displayed. In the table of contents, the mark in front of the layer name will be that means the layer is lost. However, you can rewrite the path in Layer
Properties window to solve the problem.
Firstly, in the table of contents, right-click the layer which is lost and choose Properties. Then, Layer Properties window shows up.
Click Source, and Setting Path window appears. Choose the file you need and click Open.
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Back to the Layer Properties window, click OK to make sure the Path. And the path setting is completed. The map with a lost layer(the map below):
As the path setting is finished, the map and the mark in table of contents will be displayed correctly.
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If the layer lost is caused by the layers moved in a project (the layers are moved to the same folder), you can modify the path of one of the layer. Then, the system will be able to find the other lost layers in the same path. If the layers are found, the paths will be modified automatically.
Layer File Type

After you add layers, you can open layer properties window and view the layer type in Source tab. If the layer is read only, it will be marked in Type. The read only file can be displayed in SuperGIS Desktop but cannot be edited.
SuperGIS Desktop should be installed under Administrator account, but other users of the computer still can use SuperGIS Desktop. However, the layer or project created by Administrator can be viewed by other users but cannot be edited. This kind of layer will be displayed as Read Only as well.
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Setting the Coordinate System of the Layer

*.prj file is a file recording the coordinate data. The file records the geographic coordinate system or the projection coordinate system. If the file records geographic coordinate system, the file may contain the name of the coordinate system, Datum, Spheroid, Datum Parameters, unit, etc. If the file records projection, besides the items mentioned above, the file also records the projection and parameters. When users want to change the coordinate system of a layer but do not want to set the parameters respectively, users can change the coordinate system by the ways presented in the section. Firstly, double-click the layer in the table of contents, and the Layer Properties window appears. Click Coordinate tab, and you can edit or modify the coordinate system.
Click Select, and you can choose the coordinate system you need in Select Coordinate System window. Or you can click Browse to select the coordinate file and click OK. Then, the setting is finished.
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Also, you can click New to create a new coordinate system.
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Or click Edit button to edit the current coordinate system of the layer.
If you are in the status of editing, Coordinate System tab will not be appeared in the Layer Properties window.
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Setting the Display of Map Tip

In the Display tab in the Layer properties window, you can choose whether to tick Display Map Tip. This function is used to set the map tip of the layer rather than the whole map.
If the function is ticked, move the mouse cursor over the feature of the layer, and the system shows the data in the Primary Field, like the map below:
If the function is not ticked, move the mouse cursor over the features of the layer, and the system will not show any tip of the layer, like the map below:
No matter what type of mouse cursor you are using, you can use the map tip function. The tip will be displayed according to the field you set.
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Setting the Visible Scale of the Layer

The layer can not only be displayed at any scale but also at certain scale only. Therefore, even though the map is small, SuperGIS Desktop can prevent the case that the features are too small to be displayed clearly, or the map scale is too big for users to read the whole map or the other features might be ignored due to the big map scale. So, users are allowed to set the visible scale of each layer respectively. In table of contents, double-click the layer you want to set. Then, Layer Properties window shows up, and in Display tab Show Layer at scales is chosen by default. However, you also can choose Dont show layer when zoomed and choose Out beyond and In beyond in the two dropdown lists. The lists contain the common scales, none, and current scale. None means no setting; Current Scale stands for the current scale in the map window.
Take the point layer setting for example. The minimum scale is 1250000, and the maximum scale is 110000.
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To set Dont show layer when zoomed, you can only set one of the conditions If the scale is between 110000 and 1250000, the layer can be displayed completely.
If the scale is smaller than 1250000, the layer is not visible.
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If the scale is larger than 110000, the layer is invisible, either.
In addition to the way describe above, you can also right-click the layer in the table of contents, choose Visible Scale and set minimum/maximum scale here. The system will set the minimum/maximum scale according to the current scale of the map.
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Moreover, after you set the minimum/maximum scale of a layer, the mark in front of the layer will become when the map scale is beyond the visible scale. As the grey check is displayed, you
still can uncheck the layer and make it invisible.
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Setting the Reference Scale

The reference scale might affect the display of features when the map is zoomed in/out. If you have set the reference scale, the features will be bigger when the map is zoomed in; the features be smaller as the map zoomed out. Right-click Layers in the table of contents, choose Reference Scale in the menu, the system will set the reference scale based on the current scale of the map. If you want to clear the reference scale, you can also apply the menu and choose Clear Reference Scale.
After you set the reference scale, the features of different types of layers might be influenced in different ways. In the polygon layers, the boundaries of the polygon features will be wider or thinner as the map is zoomed in/out. The width of the line features will be influenced by map scale. The size and the width of boundary of the point features will be affected by the map scale as well. Take the map for example. If the reference scale is not set, the lines are not influenced when the map is zoomed in.
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If the reference scale is set, the lines become thinker or thinner when the map is zoomed in/out.
Besides the methods above, you can open Layers Properties window to set the reference scale.
The map scale will not appear
when your map is not defined with map unit.
So, the settings related to scale, such as Dont show layer when zoomed and reference scale will be disabled if there is no map unit.
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Setting Symbology
The common vector layer types include point, polyline, polygon, and multipoint. The feature symbols in different types of layers can displayed more various and clearly by classification to present the information of the map. To set layer symbology, you can right-click the layer, choose Properties to open Layer Properties window. In Symbology tab, you can choose the symbol type you need according to the type of the layer.
The types of the layer symbol include the following types: 1. Single Symbol: regards all the attributes of the layer as a classification and displays the data with a single symbol. 2. Graduated Color: classifies the quantitative data and displays the attributes with graduated colors to present the quantitative data.
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3.
Graduated Symbol: classifies the quantitative data and displays the attributes with different sizes of the points.
4. 5.
Unique Values: displays the different attributes with different symbols and colors. Unique Values (multi-fields): displays the attribute combinations of multiple fields with different symbols and colors.
6.
Pie Chart: to display multiple numeric fields of a layer with pie charts. Users can know the percentage of the attribute value of each feature and compare the pie charts.
7.
Dot Density: displays the quantitative values of the features with the distribution of dots. You can know the quantities by reading the distribution of the dots. The symbol can only be applied to polygon layer.
8.
Bar Chart: displays the multiple numeric fields of a layer with bar charts. Users can read the data of different fields at the same time and also can compare the bar charts.
SuperGIS Desktop provides different symbol settings for different types of layers: 1. Point layer: point size, rotation, offset, fill color and style, outline, etc. Users are allowed to import their own symbol icons. 2. 3. Polyline layer: line styles, color, width, transparency, whether to use anti-alias or round pen. Polygon layer: fill styles, color, and outline styles.
In this section, the 8 types of symbols will be introduced and the ways to set will be presented in details as well.
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Single Symbol
Drawing the map with the single symbol, you can see clearly how the features spread on the layer. The image below shows an example of how institutions are distributed on your map and the distance to each other.
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You can set the symbol style, color, fill, and even outline in Symbology tab in Layer Properties window. Firstly, choose Single Symbol in the dropdown list and click Symbol button. Then, Symbol Selector window appears.
In Symbol Selector window, you can set the symbol style, size, rotation, X, Y offset(click the arrows or enter the number directly). Meanwhile, you can set the fill style of the symbol by clicking Fill.
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Moreover, there are several options for the outline styles. You can set the color, width, transparency, and choose whether to user anti-alias or round pen.
Click OK and close all of the window. The single Symbol layer setting is completed.
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Unique Values
The method is to classify attributes of a specific filed (including text field and numeric field). Each category is assigned with different color and style of symbol. You can utilize Unique Values to present your map when:
1. When the characters of the features are similar, and you want to see how the features are
distributed.
2. The attributes of the features are different but the relationship between each other is
meaningful.
3. Or to contrast the categories is also suitable for the unique value map.
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To set Unique Values, in Symbology tab in Layer Properties window choose Unique Values in the Type dropdown list. Unique Values window appears. Then, click Value Field to choose the field you want to classify. So, you can click Add All Values to add all the values of the field into the window. Or you can click Add Value, and Add Value window shows up. It lists the values which have not been added into classification. You can select a value and click OK to add the selected value. Moreover, you are also allowed to enter the value at the bottom of the window. Therefore, the system will be able to classify the value when you add the new values. If you would like to clear all the added values, you can click Remove All and the values will be removed. Then, you can click Color dropdown list to choose the color of the unique symbols.
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As the colors of the symbols are set completely, you can double-click the symbol whose color you want to edit and edit the symbol in Symbol Selector window. If you want to edit all the symbols, you can click to open Symbol Selector window to change the fill style, outlines,
etc. However, in addition to Solid, you can choose other styles so that it would be necessary to set the foreground color and background color. Like the two graphs below, if you choose Backward Diagonal, the diagonals are not affected by the foreground color, but the background color is.
Moreover, to reorder the values, you can select a value and click
and
to adjust the
order of the values. If you want to remove a value from the list, you can select the value and click to remove the value.
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The column Label next to Value is displayed in the table of contents, too. So, you are allowed to double-click the label in the Layer Properties window to edit it. Or you can double-click the text in the table of contents to edit the text. Additionally, the Count beside Label refers to the count of the features of the symbol. If you tick Show Others, the map window and the table of contents will show the classification of Others. If the item is not ticked, the classification will not be displayed in the map window or the table of contents. As all the settings are finished, click OK and the unique value map is completed.
The symbol colors, styles which are set completely can be saved by clicking the Save button on the upper-right corner of the tab; the settings will be saved as*.sglSuperGIS Legend Files format in the assigned folder. The default filename is Legend. Next time when you need to use the same classification, you can directly click Load button on the upper-right corner of the tab to load the file instead of setting the symbols again.
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If you click Add All Values and there are more than 500 records of the classification, the system will show the warning message automatically to ask whether you want to add all of the values. If you click NO, the system will add the first 500 records of the field only.
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Unique Values (multi-fields)

Unique Values provided by SuperGIS Desktop 3 can not only classify a single field but also multiple fields (3 fields at most). Consequently, readers can recognize the features more rapidly and the features will be more recognizable as well.
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To set unique values (multi-fields), firstly choose Symbology tab in Layer Properties window and choose Unique Values (multi-fields) in the Type dropdown list. Then, the unique values (multi-fields) settings show up. You can set 3 fields for classification at most. After choosing the fields, you can click Add All Values or Add Value to add the value by clicking. Then, click OK to add the value. Also, you can enter the value at the bottom of the window and click Add to add it. Therefore, the system will be able to classify the value when you add the new values.
If you click Add All Values and there are more than 500 records of the classification, the system will show the warning message automatically to ask whether you want to add all of the values. If you click NO, the system will add the first 500 records of the field only.
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Graduated Color
When you need to display the map quantitatively, you need to choose graduated color or graduated symbol to classify your map. The former uses different polygon symbols to present different attributes, and it is called Graduated Color map. Graduated Color is to use a series of colors to stand for the values in different ranges. Generally, the attributes are categorized by ranges, such as 0-5, 6-10, or from the lowest to the highest. Therefore, the classification method is only suitable for numeric field. The following map is the geology classification map of Northeast Coast of Taiwan. Each color presents a range of layer count. The deeper the color is, the more the layers are. Each range contains 10 layers and is presented with a color.
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To set the graduated color, choose graduated color in the dropdown list in Layer Properties window; then, graduated color settings appear. You can choose the field for classification and decide whether to use Normalization dropdown list. You can choose the filed for Normalization with which you can normalize the values in Value Field; the results will be classified. The item is optional (the default is none). For example, if you want to calculate the population density, you can choose population in Value Field and choose area in Normalization. As a result, the system will divide the population by area, and you will get the population density. The results will be classified. Moreover, you can decide the classification classes in the Classes dropdown list (you can enter the value directly as well). In Color dropdown list, choose the gradient colors you need. The range of the classification can be modified; users are allowed to double-click the range column and enter the value to modify the maximum of the range. Take the first row of the table for example. The original range is 21~31; if the range is modified as 21~35, the second row will be 36~41. So, the problem caused by range modification can be prevented. The Label column next to Range can be modified in the same way, but the modification only affects the display in the table of contents rather than the range of classification.
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Click the Classify button next to Class, and Classification window shows up. There are four methods for classification, Equal Interval, Quantile, Natural Breaks, and Defined Interval. Equal Interval is to subtract the minimum from maximum so the result will be the scope of the classification. According to the count, the scope is divided to equal interval. It is probably best applied to rainfall, temperature, air pollution, etc. Quantile is to divide the range of possible values into unequal-sized intervals so that the number of values is the same in each class. Natural Breaks is to sort the all values and then count the interval of each other. According to the count of classification, choose the max interval first and classify the all values. Defined Interval lets users define the interval by themselves. So, Defined Interval is chosen, and users need to enter the interval.
As all the settings are finished, you can click OK to complete the graduated color settings. The ways to manipulate the other buttons in the tab can be refereed to the introduction to Unique Values.
After the classification is decided, the system will classify the data based on the settings. The classification is based on the range of maximum and minimum. In addition, Value Field only lists the numeric fields in the attribute table. The fields which are not numeric will not be listed in Value Fields.
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Graduated Symbol
When you need to quantify the attributes of the map, you can use the graduated color or graduated symbol to classify your map. The latter represents the different quantities by varying the symbol size; thats what we call the graduated symbol map. Graduated symbol uses a series of symbols to present the numbers in different ranges. Generally, the attribute values are classified to ranges or intervals, like 0-5, 6-10, or from the lowest to the highest. For instance, the map bellow shows the area size of parks in Taipei with the dots of different sizes. Each interval is 10,000 m2 and presented with a symbol of the specific size.
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To set graduated symbols, choose Graduated symbol in Symbol dropdown list in Layer Properties window. Then, choose a field for Value field. In Normalization, you can choose whether you need to divide the value field by any field. If no, you do not have to choose the normalization field (the default is none). Then, click the Classes dropdown list and choose the classes you need (you can directly enter the value).
The color, style of the graduated symbols can be modified respectively. If you want to modify all of the symbols, you can click to modify them. In addition, at the bottom of the window,
users can input the symbol size by themselves (the default is from 5 to 20) and the system will set the symbol size according to the settings. As all the settings are finished, click OK to finish graduated symbol setting. As to the manipulation of other symbols, please refer to Unique Symbol and Graduated Color.
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Pie Chart
Pie chart allows the several attributes to show in one chart at the same time. Through the pie chart, you can easily view the relationship of different attributes and clearly recognize the proportion of the attributes in the feature. Take the map for example. The pie charts show the percentage of votes of the main parties in an election in Taiwan.
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To set the pie charts, choose Pie Chart in Type dropdown list in Layer Properties window. In Field Selection, select the fields you want to show in pie charts and click be added to the right column. . The selected fields will
As to the settings of pie chart, you can click Properties button to open Pie Chart Properties window. You can use the Tilt trackbar to adjust the angle of the Y axis of pie chart. The thickness of the pie chart can be adjusted by Thickness trackbar. You can choose Geographic or Arithmetic for the orientation of the pie chart. To set the size of pie chart, you can choose Fixed size, Vary size by the sum of field values, or Vary a size by a Field. Fixed size means the size of the pie chart is fixed no matter what the volume it presents. If you choose Vary size by the sum of field values, the size of the pie chart is decided by the sum of the values of the assigned fields. Meanwhile, you can assign the maximum of the size. If you choose Vary a size by a Field, the
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size of pie chart is varied by the value of the assigned field. As all the settings are finished, click OK.
If you have chosen No overlapped charts in Symbology tab and ticked Leader Line, the Leader line will be used to indicate the pie charts when the pie charts are too closed to display.
In selecting fields for pie charts, you can use the button to remove the field, you can click the button
to add all the fields; If you want to remove all the fields.
. Or you can click
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Bar Chart
Bar charts can represent the values in different fields of the features of a layer and help users contrast the attributes in different fields. The map below indicates the gender proportion of the cities in northern Taiwan.
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To set bar chart, choose Bar Chart in the Type dropdown list in Layer Properties window. Then, , and the selected fields will be added select the fields in Field Selection and click the button to the right column. In Color dropdown list, choose the colors for the fields. Also, you can click Properties to open Bar Chart Properties window.
In Bar Chart Properties window, you can decide the style, orientation, size, etc of the bar chart. 3D thickness trackbar can be used to set the thickness of the Z axis; you can decide whether to display XY axes by ticking Visible in Axis. If you want to edit the style of the axis, you can click Style to modify the axis. Furthermore, in Orientation, you can choose to present the bar chart as columns or bars. In Size, you can adjust the width, gap, and the maximum height. All of the settings of the bar chart can be previewed at the upper-right corner of the window.
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Moreover, if you have ticked No Overlapped Charts in Symbology tab in Layer Properties window and ticked Leader Line in Bar Chart Properties window, the leader line will appear to indicate the bar charts when the features are too close to display.
Bar charts represent the values in different fields of the features of a layer. You can recognize the values in different field and also compare the values of different features. Normalization dropdown list is for users to choose the field by which they want the value field divide. The results will be classified.
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Dot Density
The dot density represents the amount of an attribute within an area. Each dot represents a specified number of features and is displayed with the same symbol. As the map bellow, you can know how the butterflies are distributed in the map and see where there are few butterflies living or where the habitat of butterflies is.
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To set Dot Density, choose Dot Density in the Type dropdown list, select the field you want to to add the field to the right column. In Color dropdown list, you can choose map and click the color of the symbols. As to the settings of the symbol style, you can click the legends in Symbol column or the button to open Symbol Selector window. Then you can set the
symbol style, size, color, etc. If you want to change the background color, fill, etc, you need to click Background button to set. Moreover, the dot size can be set by dragging the trackbar or by inputting the value directly. Also, Dot Density trackbar can be used to adjust how many attributes each dot represents. You can input the value for Dot Value to adjust the dot density as well. While you are adjusting the values, Min and Max shows the highest concentration area and the lease concentration one on the map for you to preview. As all the settings are finished, click OK and the dot density map is created.
While creating a dot density map, you can click column or click fields.
to move all the fields to the right to remove all the
to remove the selected column. Also, you can click
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Managing Symbols
The previous section introduces each type of Symbology and the ways to set the Symbology. In this section, we are going to introduce the detailed settings of legends, such as symbols, transparency, etc.
Setting Legends
While setting legends, you can set the style, fill, outline of the legends respectively. Firstly, you can right-click the layer whose legends you want to edit and choose Properties. Then, Layer Properties window appears. Then, click the symbol you want to edit and the Symbol Selector window shows up. Or you can double-click the legend in the table of contents to open the Symbol Selector window. Take the unique symbol for example. The Symbol Selector window provides numerous icons, and you are allowed to choose the icon you need and edit the size, rotation, offset, etc.
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Meanwhile, you can click Fill button to choose the style and click the Foreground Color dropdown list to choose the color. The foreground transparency can be adjusted as well. Similarly, the background color and transparency can be adjusted, too.
To set the style of the outline, you can choose the color, foreground color, width, transparency, etc.
The methods to modify legends can be not only applied to unique symbols but also other
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Symbology, such as graduated color, graduated symbol, and so on. The effects of using Anti-alias and round pen are presented as the table:
Anti-alias Round pen without round pen
without Anti-alias
Used with anti-alias, the lines on the map will be smother. Round pen can make the ends of the lines round.
The symbol size, rotation, transparency, etc can be adjusted by clicking the upward and downward buttons or inputting the values. Moreover, if you have your own icons, you can click Pattern button to import the icons to make the map unique. In Open Icon window, you can preview the selected icon at the upper-right corner of the window.
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Setting Transparency
When a polygon layer is above a polyline layer and a point layer, the polylien layer and the point layer will not be able to be displayed in the map window. However, through the setting of transparency, the layers below the polygon layers can be displayed. Firstly, you need to right-click the layer name in the table of contents and choose Properties to open the Layer Properties window. Then, in Symbology tab, click Symbol button to open Symbol Selector window. And you can the buttons or input the value to adjust the transparency. Click OK, and the transparency settings are finished.
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As the transparency setting is completed, the map displays like it:
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Setting Selection Symbol

Selection tab in Layer Properties window enables users to set the symbol used when selecting features. Also, users can set whether the features of the layer can be selected or not. Click Set Selection Symbol button, and Symbol Selector window appears. Choose the color and style you need and click OK to finish the settings.
The default symbol is Transparent and foreground color is yellow. So, when users are selecting features, the selected features will be framed with yellow.
If you choose Horizontal for fill, foreground color red, and background color blue, and the selected feature will be like the graph below:
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The background color can be applied to some specific polygon symbols with lines or dots; the background color will be useless when using solid or transparent.
In addition, if Selectable is ticked, all the features of the layer can be selected. If Selectable is not ticked, none of the features of the layer can be selected. Take the map for instance. If the polygon layer is set unselectable, none of the polygon features in the map can be selected.
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Setting Fields
Field tab in Layer Properties window lists the details of the fields, including name, type, length, precision, etc. In the tab, users can set Primary Field and Hyperlink Field. Primary Field is the field whose data will be displayed in the left column in Edit Attribute window. The default primary field is assigned by the system; the field name containing name will be the priority. Take the graph for example. The primary field is TOWNNAME so that the data displayed in the left column of the window is the attribute in TOWNNAME field.
The Hyperlink field dropdown list shows the name of the fields. You can choose a field which records the websites or paths of files. A feature can correspond to more than one hyperlink. To set the hyperlink, firstly open the attribute table, enter the hyperlink in the cell or right click the FID field of the feature you want to add hyperlink to and choose Add Hyperlink. Then Add Hyperlink window appears. In the window, users can choose URL or File. If you choose the former, you can input the website address directly; if you choose the latter, you can click to
browse and select the file you want to launch. Therefore, you can add the hyperlinks in the same
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field, and it will be easier to set the hyperlink field.
As the setting of hyperlink is finished, you can use Hyperlink tool
to click the feature which
has been defined with hyperlink. If the feature only corresponds to a hyperlink, the hyperlink will be launched automatically. If the feature corresponds to more than one hyperlink, the Hyperlink window will show up for users to choose the hyperlink they need. Take the map for example: in Field tab in Layer Properties window, set the Hyperlink Field, and choose URL.
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Then, click the feature which has been defined with hyperlinks with the hyperlink tool
, the
hyperlink window shows up. You can click the website address and click Link to and the website will be launched.
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Relating and Joining Table

The Relate and Join tab in Layer Properties window enables users to relate or join the attribute table with other attribute table. Relating tables is to relate the common attributes of the two layers and make the relationship. So when you identify features of one of the layers, the identify window will not only show the data of the feature recorded in the layer but also the data of the feature recorded in the other layer. Moreover, Joining tables is to join two layers tables based on a specified attribute field (the fields properties must be the same, while the field name and the order of attributes are not necessary the same). The system joins the target table to the source table according to the specified field. The target attribute table will be joined to the source table according to the assigned fields, which will create a new attribute table. Joining table can be also applied to feature identification. While users are identifying features, the corresponding attributes will also be displayed in the identify window. Furthermore, the joined attribute table can be exported as well. First of all, to set Relate, both of the two layers, POI and School, contain the features whose attribute is school, so you can right-click POI layer in the table of contents and choose Properties. In Relate and Join tab in Layer Properties window, click Add in Relate. Relate window shows up. Choose a field in Source Field and choose a table and its field in Relate Target. You can enter a name in Name or maintain the default name. If the layer you need is not in the Table list in Relate Target, you can click Open to choose the file you need (SuperGIS Desktop 3
supports Excel table as the relate target). Then, click OK to finish the settings.
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Back to the map window, select the Identify tool on Tools toolbar and click a feature of the source layer. Since we have related the source layer whose attribute table contains school, click a school in POI layer and the Identify window appears. In the left column of the window, you can see the feature listed below POI. In this sample, we click school. There is a class below the feature; the class is the layer you choose as the relate target, school layer. The class below school shows the features of schools.
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The settings of Join can be set in the tab as well. Firstly, choose a field in Source Field and assign the field as the join field. In Join Target, choose the target you want to join. If the layer you need is not in the Table list in Join Target, you can click Open to choose the file you need.
The file you choose can be vector file, *.dbf file or *.xls file. Then, choose a field which has the common attributes with source field in Field. Then, Click OK to finish the settings.
Open the attribute table of Source Layer, and you can find besides the fields of the source layer there are some new fields. In order to distinguish which layer the fields belong to, each field name will become layer name (or filename).field name. Take the table for example. The attribute table is the result of joining poi layer and school layer. The current attribute table shows the corresponding data. <NULL> means no data but not blank. The black cell means the record is black but not no data.
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Labeling
The last tab, Label, in Layer Properties window allows users to set the display of labels and the styles of labels. First of all, if you want to label the features on the map, please tick Show Label. In Text Label dropdown list, you can choose the field whose attribute value you want to display. Field dropdown list contains all of the field name and expression. Therefore, the label can not only be the values in the attribute table but also the results of expression. The field dropdown list defaults to the field whose name containing name.
In addition, you can set the font, color, and even transparency of labels in the tab. Moreover, the tab also allows users to set the label duplication and conflict detection. Considering the readability of labels, you can click Visible scale button to set the visible scale of labels. Furthermore, according to the type of layers, users can set the placement of label in different ways. The methods to label features of different types will be introduced in the following section.
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Expression
The contents of the labels can not only assigned by the field in Text Label dropdown list but also by expression. And the results of the expression will be the contents of the labels. Click Expression button, and Label Expression window shows up. You can input the expression or use the field name in Fields, operation buttons, and values to set the labels. Take the map for example, the expression is [length] *2. Click OK and the features are labeled as the results of the expression.
Besides the numeric data, text strings can be used in expression as well. In the following map, the expression is [CNTRY_NAME] + [SOVEREIGN]. The contents of the labels will be combined with the two fields.
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As you are setting the expression, you can click the buttons at the bottom of the window. Clicking Clear can clear the expression you have input. Clicking Load can load and use the saved expression. If you want to save the expression in the assigned folder, you can click Save button. And you will be able to use the expression by Loading. Also, users can click Verify button to preview the results of expression, like the window below.
Duplication There might be some labels with the same contents on a layer or features combined with multipart features. To display the map clearly, you can make the label display according to your needs. You can choose the way to display labels in Duplicate Labels.
Remove duplicate labels There might be some features with the same labels on a layer or within some area. In order to improve the readability of map and have enough space for other labels, you can set Remove Duplicate Labels. As a result, only one of the duplicated labels will be displayed. The system will display the label recorded firstly in the attribute table,
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Place one label per feature If your map contains multipart feature, you can choose Place One Label Per Feature. So, only one label will be displayed on the multipart feature. For point multipart features, the first drawing point will be labeled. For polyline multipart features, the longest one will be labeled. For polygon multipart features, the biggest one will be labeled.
Place one label per feature part To display all the label of each part of the multipart features, you can choose Place One Label Per Feature Part. Then, all parts of the features will be labels.
Conflict Detection
The labels on the map might be overlapped since they are too closed. You can set No Overlapped Labels and Buffer Ratio of Label Height in Conflict Detection to prevent the labels from being overlapped.
Take the lower-left map for instance. The labels are so closed that some of the labels are overlapped. So, you can tick No overlapped labels, and the system will automatically adjust the display of labels and hide some of the labels.
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As No overlapped labels is ticked, you can also set Buffer ratio of label height which is set by the label height. So, each label will be buffered with the ratio and the labels will not be overlapped. The lower-left map shows the labels as the original display; the lower-right map is the result of buffer ratio of label height 0.5.
Setting Visible Scale

After the Text Label Field is set completely, you can click Visible Scale button to set the visible scale of the labels.
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If you choose Same as layers visible scale, the display of labels will be the same as the visible scale of the layer. If the layer is defined with reference scale or visible scale, the display of labels will be changed according to the layer.
However, Dont show label when zoomed is ticked, the size of the labels will not changed and only displayed at the specific scale. Take the map for example. The display of the label of the layer is set that dont show the label when zoomed in beyond 1:100,000,000. The left map is at the scale of 1:117,074,879 so that the labels are displayed. The right map is at the scale of 87,761,157 so that the labels are not displayed.
You do not have to set the labels first but label the features on the map first. You can zoom in/out the map to check the suitable scales of label display and then set the visible scale of labels.
Setting Label Placement As to the setting of label placement, users can set the placement, angle, display priority of the labels, etc according to the style, shape, characteristic of the features. You only need to click Placement button, and the system will open the setting window based on the type of features.
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Point features Firstly, for point features, you can lick Placement button and choose Place label horizontally around the point, Place label on top of the point, Place label at the angle specified by a field or Place label at specified angles.
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If Place label horizontally around the point is chosen, you can set the priority of the display position by clicking. 1 means the first priority position for labeling, 2 is the second, 3 is the last position for labeling. 0 means the position is never used. In the blocks, you can click to make the digit bigger and right-click to make the digit smaller. The number should be between 0 and 3. The labels on the right map are displayed based on the left settings. Clicking Default can make the priority settings reset.
If Place label on top of the point is chosen, the label will be placed on the point feature.
If you choose Place label at an angle specified by a field, you can click the dropdown list and choose the field recording the angles. Click OK, and the labels will be placed according to the angles on the map.
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If Place label at specified angles is chosen, you can click Angle button and input the angles you need in Point Placement Angles window. As the new angle is input, click Add and click the arrow buttons on the right side to adjust the order of the angles. If the labels are overlapped at the first angle, the system will automatically place the label at the second angle, and so on. Furthermore, you can choose the orientation, Geographic or Arithmetic in Point Placement window.
Line features The line features on the map may stand for street, subway line, river, and even contour. Line features with different meanings need labeling in different ways. In SuperGIS Desktop3, you can label lines in various orientations and on several positions. To label street names, for example, you may want the labels paralleled to the line features. To label subway station, you might need to place the label perpendicular to the line features. Therefore, you can click Placement button in Layer Properties window to open Line Placement window to set the orientation and position of the labels.
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The orientations of the line labels include: Horizontal: place the label horizontal to the line features. Parallel: place the label parallel to the line features. Perpendicular: place the label perpendicular to the line features.
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The orientation of the label can be used with the positions, above the line, on the line, and below the line. What should be noted is that Horizontal cannot be used with other positions. Horizontal
above the line
Parallel
Perpendicular
on the line
below the line
Moreover, in setting location along the line, if you choose At Best, the system will automatically find the best position for the label. If you choose At Start, the label will be placed at the start vertex. if At End is chosen, the label will be placed at the end vertex of the feature. At Best At Start At End
Polygon feature To label polygon features, you can choose Horizontal or Straight. Meanwhile, you can choose whether to use Only show label completely inside polygon.
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If Horizontal is chosen, the label will be placed horizontally on the feature.
If Straight is chosen, the label will be placed according to the shape of the polygon.
Additionally, no matter you choose Horizontal or Straight, Only show label completely inside polygon can be used.
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Besides ticking Show Labels in Label tab of Layer Properties window, you can also right-click the layer name and choose Label Features. The system will label the features of the layer.
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Setting Image Display

In GIS, layers can be divided into two types vector layer and raster layer. In the previous sections, we mainly introduce the ways to display and manage the vector layers, such as point, line, and polygon features. As to the settings of the raster layer, we will introduce the manipulation in the section. Since the raster layer might be single band data or multiple bands data, you can adjust the display of the layer by changing the display type and display band. The Layer Properties window of raster layer is a little different from the vector layer, only containing source, coordinate system, display, and image tabs. Since Source and Coordinate System tabs are the same as the vector layer, the manipulation will not be introduced in this section. This section only presents the settings of Display tab; the next section will introduce the image tab.
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Firstly, if you want to set a raster layer, please right-click the raster layer in the table of contents and choose Properties. In Layer Properties window, choose Display tab in which you can decide whether to tick Show Map Tip.
Meanwhile, users are allowed to set the visible scale of raster layer as well. Since a raster layer might be overlaid with other layers, you can choose to display the layer at all scales or only at a specific range of scales. As a result, it can avoid the raster layers from displaying unclearly caused by the map scale.
Resample Method
When the raster layer is overlaid in a different coordinate system or different resolution, the raster layer needs to be resampled. It might need a pixel of the rater data to replace a group of pixels or need a group of pixels to replace a pixel. Therefore, the resampled image might be rougher than the original image.
In Display tab of Layer Properties window, there are 3 resample methods provided, such as Nearest Neighbor Resampling, Bilinear Interpolation, and Cubic Convolution. Nearest Neighbor: In the process of resampling, the resampled image might correspond to the
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non-integer when the output image corresponds to the input image. In order to calculate the values of the cells, the value will be calculated from the nearest neighbor cells of the input image. Therefore, the method does not change the value of the cells of the input layer; meanwhile, it is the fastest way to resample and often used for categorical data and thematic data Bilinear Interpolation: it is a resample method to use four nearest cells to calculate a new value. Since the value is the weighted average of four nearest cells, the image process with the method will be smoother then with Nearest Neighbor. Cubic Convolution: Similar to Bilinear Interpolation, Cubic Convolution uses the weighted average of nearest 16 cells to calculate a new value. As a result, the output image is calculated by more cells and the image processed with Cubic Convolution is clearer than with Bilinear Interpolation. The latter two methods are often used for continuous data, like height, slope, and so on. Consequently, you can choose the resample method suitable for you in Resample Method dropdown list and click OK. The resampled image will be displayed in the map window. The following pictures are the samples processed with different resample methods.
Input image
Nearest Neighbor
Bilinear Interpolation
Cubic Convolution
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Setting Transparency, Contrast, and Brightness

If the image is too dark or too bright, the display effect might be affected. Or you would like to display the image with other layers, you can adjust Transparency, Contrast, and Brightness to set the display effect. The way to adjust the settings is to right-click the layer which needs adjusting and click Properties to open Layer Properties window. Choose Display tab, and you can enter the value or drag the trackbar to adjust the settings. When the settings are completed, click OK to close the Layer Properties window. And the result will be displayed in the map window.
Take the map for instance. The map contains several layers, including raster layer and vector layers. You can adjust the transparency of the raster layer and make the layers below the image be displayed at the same time. In the left map, the image is set as 0 % transparency so that the layers below the image are covered. The right map contains the layer with 30 % transparency, so you can see the orange and blue features with the image. If there is no layer below the image, adjusting the transparency of the image can reveal the map background color.
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To set the Contrast of the image can adjust the range of gray scale. Graph 1 is the original image. Graph 2 is the image with 30% contrast. Graph 3 is the image with -30% contrast.
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
Furthermore, you can set the brightness of the image. Graph 4 is the original image. Graph 5 is the image with 40% brightness. Graph 6 is the image with -40% brightness.
Graph 4
Graph 5
Graph 6
Transparency, Contrast, and Brightness can be used simultaneously to adjust the image to the best display style.
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Zoom to Raster Resolution

To display a raster layer in SuperGIS Desktop 3, you can choose Zoom To Raster Resolution. Right-click the raster layer in the table of contents and choose Zoom To Raster Resolution. Then, the system will display the raster layer at 1:1 resolution.
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Setting Image Properties

The display of image is decided by the data contained in the image and you own needs. Different types of images can be displayed in different ways. For multi-band images, you can choose RGB Color or Stretched Color. Single-band image can be displayed with Stretched Color, Graduated Color, and Unique Value. No matter which display type you choose, the images should be stretched, rendered, etc. Thus, the related settings will be presented in the section. Firstly, open the image layers Layer Properties window and choose Image tab in which you can set display type, band, stretch, add new color ramp, view histogram, etc. What is going to be introduced first is RGB color in Display Type.
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RGB Color
If your image is multiband, you can choose to display with RGB Color. Please choose RGB Color in Display Type in Image tab.
After RGB Color is chosen, in Bands, you can tick the band, red, green, and blue to decide whether to display. Meanwhile, you can set red, green, blue to be displayed in which band. Below Bands, there is a Stretch Type dropdown list, including none, minimum-maximum, histogram equalized, standard deviation, and custom.
None: If you cannot make the image stretched, you can set the maximum and minimum to decide the range of stretch. The range of pixel of an 8-bit image file is between 0~255, and that of 16-bit one is between 0~65535. Minimum-maximum: The system will stretch the color of the original layer via interpolation to the range you set. Histogram Equalized: Its an image contrast enforcement technology by hiding the subtle part of an image to the light and dark ends of the spectrum. It can strengthen the contrastive effect.
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Standard Deviation: The system calculates the standard deviation of the pixel value of each band automatically. If you set 1 on n, the system will add and subtract one standard deviation to the average as the range of the stretched color. If the number of standard deviation you set causes the stretched range over the range of the original pixel, the system will still do stretch according to the original range. Because the system sets the range of stretched color by adding and subtracting n standard deviation. The smaller n is, the smaller the stretched range and the greater color contrast then obtained. If n is bigger, the result will be the contrary. Custom: You can adjust or add breakpoints to set the range of stretch.
Moreover, the Image tab also provides Inverse Color and Display RGB functions.
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If Inverse Color is ticked, the image will be displayed as the inverse colors, like the image below: Original image Image with inverse color
If Display RGB is ticked, you can define a cell of specific values as No Color or a specific color. As a result, the system will automatically replace the cells of the specific values with No Color or the assigned color. It would be easier for users to edit and view the image. No Color means the cell is transparent so that the color of the lower layer or the map background color will be revealed. Take the lower-left image. We set the cell R:176 G:194 B:199 as dark blue, and the image will be like the lower-right image.
Moreover, if Display RGB is chosen, you are also allowed to set Display NoData as No Color of a specific color. No Color means the cell is transparent so that the color of the lower layer or the map background color will be revealed. In the lower-left map, the map background color is blue so that the NoData cell will be displayed as blue. If you set Display NoData as red, the map will be like the lower-right image.
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When the image layer is added in SuperGIS Desktop for the first time, a HST file recording the image data will be created. As the HST file exists, the stretch method is Standard Deviation, n=2 by default after the image layer is added in SuperGIS Desktop.
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Stretched Color
Stretched Color can be applied to multiband images and single-band images. In terms of multiband image, choose Stretched Color as the Display Color in Image tab first, and define the bands you would like to display. Then, choose a stretch type from none, minimum-maximum, histogram equalized, standard deviation, and custom.
If you choose Minimum-maximum, you may need to enter the values for minimum and maximum. The label of maximum and minimum will be changed according to the values you set.
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If you choose Standard Deviation, please set the number of standard deviation in n. For example, you enter 1 and the system defines the range of the stretched color by adding and subtracting 1 standard deviation to the average (the default n is 2). Then ,you can click Histogram button to see the distribution of the colors. If you choose Custom as the stretch type, the Histogram window will show up automatically. In the histogram, you can add or drag the breakpoint to set the distribution of the colors.
After the color stretch settings are finished, the image should be colorized. Choose the color in Color dropdown list to decide the colors displayed on the map. If Inverse Color is chosen, the image will be displayed as the inverse colors. If Display pixel value as is chosen, you can enter the values to assign the color to be displayed as No Color or an assigned color. Meanwhile, you can set Display NoData as NoColor or an assigned color. As the settings are completed, click OK to close the window.
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Graduated Color
Graduated Color can be applied to single-band image and can display the image as different colors based on the classes you set. This method is often used to display the image with the continuous data, such as slope, distance, and so on. Different from RGB Color and Stretched Color, Graduated Color does not stretch the colors but can classify and colorize the colors directly. Take the map for example. The colors are between -8 and1735; you can set the color and classes after you choose Image tab and Graduated Color. Thus, the system will automatically classify the colors.
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As the image is classified, the map is displayed as below.
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Adding Gradient Color Ramps

Gradient Color Ramps are used quite often no matter you are working with the features in vector layers or raster layers. If the gradient color ramps built-in SuperGIS Desktop 3 cannot meet your needs, you can add the gradient color ramps by yourself to make your project displayed in a unique way. The method to add a gradient color ramp can be applied to raster layers and vector layers so that we take a raster layer for example. Firstly right-click the raster layer in table of contents and choose Properties. In Layer Properties, choose Image tab and right-click the color ramp. Then, choose New Gradient Color Ramp on the menu.
No matter in Symbology tab of vector layer or in Image tab of raster layer, as long as there is a Color item, you can follow the steps described in the section to add New Gradient Color Ramp.
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As the New Gradient Color Ramp window is open, you can click
to display Color window. In
this window, you can choose the color from Basic Colors or chose Custom Colors to choose the color you need. As you choose a color, the chosen color will be added to New Gradient Color Ramp window.
Repeat the steps described above, the color ramp will be added to the window by interpolation. Also, you can click and to adjust the order of the colors; or you can click to
remove the color. If you have finished the setting, click OK to close New Gradient Color Ramp window.
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As a result, you can see the new gradient color ramp in the Color dropdown list. The new gradient color ramp will not only appear in the dropdown list but also in other dropdown lists in other layers.
If you added a new gradient color ramp in a project and open the project in another computer, SuperGIS Desktop in the computer will apply the new gradient color ramp to the system. Therefore, even your project opened in another computer, the map can be displayed as the original settings.
Adding Step Color Ramps

Besides adding gradient color ramps, you also can add step color ramps. Like adding gradient color ramps, right-click the raster layer in table of contents and choose Properties. In Layer Properties, choose Image tab and right-click the color ramp. Then, choose New Step Color Ramp on the menu.
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New Step Color Ramp window appears. In this window, there is a HSB palette. You can drag start value and end value to define the range of the colors. The systems principle of choosing colors is to choose the color from the start value to the end value counterclockwise and randomly. To set Hue, you can adjust the range of palette by dragging or adjusting in Start and End. Similarly, you can set the start and end values in Saturation and Brightness.
Every time you modify a value in the previous steps, the system will change the step color ramp again. The colors in the color ramp are decided by the ranges of hue, saturation, and brightness. If you are not satisfied with the color ramp, you can click Reset and the system will choose the colors again randomly but based on the values you set. You can click the button repeatedly until the generated color ramp satisfies you. As the new step color ramp is created, click OK to close Add Step Color Ramp window. Then, you can see the new step color ramp in Color dropdown list. The new step color ramp will not only appear in the tab but also other dropdown lists of other layers.
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Histogram
Click Histogram button in Image tab in Layer Properties window, and the Histogram window appears. The window shows the related data of cells of the raster layer. No matter you choose RGB Color and Stretched color as the display type of the raster layer, the Histogram window can be opened when minimum-maximum, standard deviation, and custom are selected as stretch method. The lower-left graph is a histogram of multi-band image; the lower-right graph is the histogram of single-band image. For multi-band images, the histogram window contains 3 tabs to present each band, while the histogram of single-band image displays the distribution of the color of the image. Statistics field on the right side records the data of the cells of the band, such as min, max, average, standard deviation. Meanwhile, you can move the mouse cursor around the histogram to check the value and the count of the value in Input and Output in Information field. The X axis refers to the color of the input image, so the range is from 0 to 255. The Y axis is the color of the output image, so the range is also from 0 to 255.
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in Histogram window to add breakpoints to adjust the distribution Additionally, you can click of colors of the image. The grey part in the histogram is the value distribution of the input image, while the output image is displayed in other colors (like dark red, green, blue). In the following graph, due to the histogram of single-band image, the distribution of the output image is displayed as dark red. Meanwhile, you can move the mouse cursor around the histogram to check the count of the cells in the input image and the count of the value which is changed by the settings of the output image. In the lower-left graph, the current cursor poison shows that the color 190 in input image posses 0 cell but possess 831 cells in output image. If you would like to know the new value generated by adjusting the line, you can move the mouse cursor to the X coordinate of the value in the input image and move the cursor to the line, the Y coordinate in lower-right corner of the window indicates the new value generated by adjusting the line. Take the lower-right graph for example. The original color is 158, but the new value generated by adjusting the line becomes 236. If you want to reset the image, you can click breakpoints on the line will be removed. And the image will be reset as well. , the
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Moreover, you can click to view the total count of cells in the range you drag. In this sample, the dragged area is between 60 and 106; within the range, there are 58634 cells in total.
Histograms enable users not only to view the count of some color in input and output image(like the lower left window) but also click lower-right graph). to view the cumulative data of the colors (like the
You can click OK to finish setting or viewing and close the histogram window. Back to Layer Properties window, you can click OK and finish all the settings.
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Exporting Image Layer

In table of contents, you can right-click the name of image layer to export the image layer. You can choose to export to either Raster (lan) or Layer File (slr).
If you choose Raster, the Export Raster window shows up. You can specify the extent for exporting, the current view, the layer or the extent specified by yourself. Moreover, you can choose whether to Use Display Setting to export the image layer. Meanwhile, you can set the cell size, Raster Size, etc. As the settings are finished, please click OK to export the image layer.
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If you choose to export the image layer to Layer File, Save As window appears. The system will export the image layer according to the current setting to slr file and save the file in the specified folder.
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5
Editing
5.1 Editing Features 5.2 Editing Attributes
As users create a new map or make changes to the features on the map, users need to use the editing tools. SuperGIS Desktop 3 can facilitate users to easily add, move, copy, paste, delete features and even to edit vertices and attributes. The main goal of the chapter is to introduce how to edit the features and attributes on the map with SuperGIS Desktop 3, and the manipulation of editing functions are introduced as well. The chapter can be divided into two parts, Editing Features and Editing Attributes. In Editing Features, the buttons on Edit toolbar and the functions in the drop-down lists will be introduced; the effects resulted from each editing tool cooperating with editing modes are going to be presented, too. Moreover, this chapter will also introduce how to edit the vertices of the features. Also, the ways to edit attribute table and attributes of each feature will be presented in Editing Attributes.
Chapter 5 Editing
5.1 Editing features

This section will mainly focus on editing features, including points, polylines, and polygons. First, the buttons and drop-down lists on Edit toolbar will be introduced; then, the functions and settings users need to apply in editing will be presented. Meanwhile, we will instruct the techniques for adding point, polyline, polygon features with editing tools. In addition, some functions users need frequently, such as delete, move, copy, and paste, etc will be introduced in this section, too. Editing vertices and adding new features with existing features are going to be described in the section as well.
Edit Toolbar
Start Editing Edit Target Edit Geography Editing Modes Select Features Separate Parts
Editing Tools
Split Tool
Edit Attributes Rotate
The way to open Edit Toolbar is to click Tools menu and Customize. Then, tick Edit in Toolbars tab in Customize window and click OK. Or, you can right-click a toolbar on the map window and tick Edit. Then, Edit Toolbar is added.
Start Editing
Start Editing is the leftmost button on the Edit Toolbar. Before users start to edit the
features on the map, users have to click Start Editing. After clicking Start Editing, you can select features and edit the selected features with the buttons on Standard Toolbar, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Erase . If you would like to stop or save the editing, you can click the
drop-down arrow next to Starting Editing and click End Editing or Save Edits. When you are
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using Copy and Paste, please pay attention that the new feature will exactly cover the original one. Therefore, you need to move the new feature with mouse to the desired location. Moreover, the other tools, like Move to, Offset, Rotate, etc will be introduced in detail in Advanced editing tool; Snapping will be introduced in Start Edit.
Edit Target
Since a map is composed of several layers, and features with different geometry types belong to different Target layers, you may need to check the type of the target layer in Edit
. Some tools must be applied in specified layers, such as
Adding Features. Thus, you can only add the feature whose geometry type is the same as the layer in Edit Target. For example, if the layer in Edit Target is a point layer, you can only add point features in the point layer rather than polyline features or polygon features. The editing results will be saved in the target layer. However, some tools can be used without geometry limitations. In this case, you can select and edit a feature on the map, and the result will be saved in the original layer. If the tool you are using cannot be implemented in the target layer, the warning window The features cannot be copied to the target layer with wrong geometry type will be displayed.
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The tools which must be implemented in specified layer and the tools which can be implemented in any layer are listed as below:
The tools must be implemented in specified layer Adding features Auto-complete polygon Buffer Intersect Clip Union Snapping Paste
The tools can be implemented in any layers, but the editing results will be saved in the original layer Editing features Cute features Extend/trim features Select features by polyline/polygon Separate parts Edit attributes Edit vertex Offset/Move to Rotate Split Divide Mirror features Rotate features Split tool
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Select Features Tool

After clicking Start Editing, Select Features tool will be selected automatically. Then,
you can click the feature you would like to edit and make changes to it. If you select Add New Features or other editing modes, you still can use Select Features tool to select and edit features at the same time.
Editing Tools
When you need to edit features, you can select Editing Tools on Edit toolbar, click the
drop-down arrow, and select the tool you need. The editing tools provided by SuperGIS Desktop 3 include Sketch Tool , Midpoint Tool , Nearest Distance Tool , Rectangle Tool ,
Circle Tool
, each of which may be applied to different geometry types and functions. The
editing tools cooperating with various editing modes, such as adding new features, cut features, etc, can produce different effects. Thus, this chapter is going to introduce the methods to utilize the editing tools with editing modes in detail.
The basic manipulation of editing tool is introduced briefly in this section. The method to use Sketch Tool is to click on the map window, move the mouse to sketch, and double-click to finish sketch (or right-click and click Finish Sketch to complete the current action). Besides, Midpoint Tool can facilitate users to create a point at the middle of a line segment; you can click to set the first point of the line segment and click again to set the other point, and then the midpoint is added. If you would like to use Midpoint Tool to create a line or polygon, you can repeat the actions described above and double-click the last vertex or right-click and click Finish Sketch on the menu to finish the sketch. Moreover, when you want to edit a nearest distance between a vertex and a line segment, you can apply Midpoint Tool. When you utilize Midpoint Tool to sketch line features, the first vertex is the midpoint of the line segment you sketch. Then, you can sketch
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another line segment, and the next vertex will be the point of vertical intersection of the last vertex and the line segment. And you can repeat the movement until the line feature is finished. The way to end the sketch is the same as other editing tools. Rectangle Tool and Circle Tool are similar; the difference is the shape created. You can select Rectangle Tool or Circle Tool, click on the map window, drag a rectangle or a circle, and click again to finish the sketch.
Editing Modes
Several editing modes are provided in SuperGIS Desktop 3 for users to choose as necessary. Editing modes include Add New Features , Modify Features , Cut Features ,
Extend/Trim Features
, Mirror Features
, Auto-Complete Polygon
, Select Features by
Polyline
, and Select Features by Polygon
. Add Features can add point, polyline, or
polygon features according to the editing tools and the layer you choose. Modify Features is able to edit the vertices of features with the editing tool users select; Cut Features can cut polyline features and polygon features. Moreover, Extend/Trim Features can only change the length of polyline features, so it has no effect on point features or polygon features. Meanwhile, Extend/Trim Features changes the length of features in different ways by using various editing tools. Mirror Features can create a mirror image of selected feature(s) on the other side of the line you create; the tool can be applied to create streetlights or buildings on the roadside. All you need to do is create or select feature(s) and sketch a line segment with Mirror Features, and the new feature(s) will be added. Furthermore, there must be lots of common boundaries of polygons when you sketch street blocks, territories, districts, etc. You can use Auto-Complete Polygon tool to avoid that the polygons do not share the boundaries with other existing polygons. In addition, Select Features by Polyline tool can select the features intersecting the line segment you construct; Select Features by Polygons tool can select the features intersecting the polygons you construct. Users can use the two modes with each editing tool to select features.
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Since the effects produced by each editing mode and editing tool are complicated, the manipulations and effects will be introduced in detail in the next section.
Other Tools
In addition to the editing tools discussed above, the Edit Toolbar contains other tools else, such as Split Tool , Separate Parts , Rotate , Edit Attributes , Edit Geography .
Split Tool can split a polyline feature into two parts. Split Tool can be used only when one polyline feature is selected; the tool does not work as more than one polyline features selected. Separate Parts can be used to separate multipart features, including points, polylines, and polygons. Another tool Rotate can rotate features; you can select a feature and Rotate tool, then move the mouse cursor over the selected feature, click and drag the feature to the desired orientation. Then, the orientation of the feature is changed. Besides, if you would like to edit the attributes of some feature, you can select a feature and click Edit Attributes to display Edit Attribute window. You can click the values and enter the values in the window directly and click the upper-right of the window to finish editing. When you have selected some feature, you can click Edit Geography tool to display Edit Vertex window in which all the coordinates of the vertices are recorded. If you click some record in the window, the vertex will be displayed as white on the map window. Moreover, you can double-click the coordinate column in the window and enter editing status, and you can enter the values directly. After finishing editing, click Finish Sketch on the lower-right corner of the window.
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Introduction to Editing Environment

The editing environment provided by SuperGIS Desktop 3 applies cache to temporarily duplicate the data rather than save the data into original files. Therefore, the process can avoid data disappearing caused by computer crash or running out of battery. Only if you click Save Edits in the drop-down list of the Start Editing, all the edits will be saved into the original files. Additionally, the file formats supported in SuperGIS Desktop 3 include GEO File and Shape File; if other formats, such as dgn and mif are added in, this map can be displayed but not editable. However, if you add read-only GEO File or Shape File, the editing functions still cannot be used; read-only layers are not listed in Edit Target, either. Due to GEO File and Shape File supported, when users add new layers, there are 7 types of layers provided to add new layers. Users can choose the suitable layer type and coordinate system.
As the coordinate system is set for New Layer, the system will create a corresponding prj file for this layer.
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Start Editing
Before starting editing, users can select features and view the attributes in the map window but cannot modify or edit features. Thus, when you need to add, modify, or edit features, please open Edit Toolbar and click Start Editing tool editing environment and start to edit features. on the Edit Toolbar. Then, you can enter the
In the editing environment, features can be selected in numerous ways, which will be introduced in this section. Besides, Snapping can facilitate users to connect to the vertex precisely while sketching; how to set Snapping will be presented in this section as well.
Selecting Features
Select a single feature
If you need to edit a single feature, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, you can click a feature on the map, like the selected feature will be displayed with selection
symbol
Select multiple features

When you need to select more than one feature at the same time, please click SelectionSelection ModeAppend Selection. Or you can hold Shift button on the keyboard
and click other features to select multiple features. The features you need
will be
displayed like
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Select Features by Polyline

The principle of Select Features by Polyline tool is to select all of the features intersecting the line segment you sketch, except point features. Take the map for example; a line segment is sketched in order to select all the features intersecting the line (Graph 1). After users right-click and click Finish Sketch or double click to finish the sketch, the features intersecting the line are selected (Graph 2), but the point feature is not selected. Similarly, if you use Rectangle tool or Circle tool with Select Features by Polyline tool to select features, the features intersecting the boundary of rectangle or circle will be selected, except point features. Graph 1 Graph 2
Select Features by Polygon

When you would like to select all the features in a certain area, you can use Select Features by Polygon tool with various Editing Tools to create a polygon and select the features by the polygon. You can choose suitable editing tools, such as Sketch Tool, Midpoint Tool, and Nearest Distance Tool, to sketch polygons (Graph 3). After you finish sketching (right-click and click Finish Sketch or double-click to finish the sketch), the features intersecting the polygon will be selected (Graph 4). Similarly, you can use Rectangle Tool or Circle Tool to create a rectangle or a circle to select features, and the features intersecting the rectangle or the circle will be selected. Graph 3 Graph 4
Finish Sketch can be used in selecting features and adding features to end the current sketch.
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Zoom to Selected Features

If you would like to zoom in the selected feature and zoom to the full extent of the map, you can select Select Features Tool and right-click the map, click Zoom to Selected Features. Then, the selected features will be zoomed in and to the full extent of the map. Moreover, you can right-click the layer the selected features belong to in Map Content Window, point to Selection and click Zoom to Selected Features. If the features you select include multiple types of features and you only want to zoom in some certain type of features, you can right-click the layers this type of features belong to in Map Content Window, point to Selection and click Zoom to Selected Features. Then, the features belonging to the certain type will be zoomed in and to the full extent of the screen.
Pan to Selected Features

After selecting features, if you want to move the selected features to the center of the map window, you can click Select Features tool, right-click on the map window, and click Pan to Selected Features. Then, the selected feature(s) will be displayed at the center of the screen with the same scale. Besides, you can also right-click the layer the selected features belong to in Map Content Window, point to Selection, and click Pan to Selected Features. If the features you select include multiple types of features and you only want to pan some type of features, you can right-click the layers this type of features belong to in Map Content Window, point to Selection and click Pan to Selected Features. Then, the features belonging to the certain type will be
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displayed at the centre of the screen.
Statistics
When reading a map, you may need statistics of the values of features. You can select the features you want to gather statistics from, click Selection menu, and click Statistics. Then, Statistics of Selected Features window is displayed. This window shows the layers the selected features belong to, attribute field, statistic results; you can choose the layer and field you need to gather statistics, and the statistics can be updated immediately. During the process of gathering statistics, if you add more selected features, the statistics will be updated as well. However, if the field is not numeric, the data cannot be calculated.
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Clear Selection
If you would like to clear selections, there are four methods to do so. First, you can click Selection menu and click Clear Selection. Or you can right-click the map window and click Clear Selection. Also, you can click Clear Selection button on the Tools toolbar to clear the
selections. Method four is to click the blank area on map window. However, if you want to clear part of the selection, please refer to Clear Part of the Selection.
Clear Part of the Selection

If you want to clear part of the selection, please click Selection menu, point to Selection Mode, and click Remove from Current Selection. Then, you can click the selection(s) you would like to clear or drag a rectangle to cancel the selections intersecting the rectangle. If you would like to return to the general way to clear selection, please click Selection menu, point to Selection mode, and cancel the tick before Remove from Current Selection.
Snapping
Snap can facilitate users to precisely connect to an existing feature. For example, when you need to add a new subway route from a subway station, you need to make sure that the route and the station are accurately connected. Snap can help you to complete the task easily.
First of all, you can click the drop-down arrow next to Start Editing on Edit toolbar and then click Snap Setting. Then, Snap Setting window displays. In the window, you can set snap elements and the tolerance. Snapping Tolerance is a specified distance which will be the radius of the mouse cursor when the snapping is set. While the mouse cursor is moving in the map window, snap elements within the radius will be snapped by the mouse cursor automatically. In other words, when you are adding new features and the distance between the mouse cursor and the
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existing feature is the snap tolerance, the system will automatically match the feature and the mouse cursor. In Snapping Setting window, you can key in the tolerance and choose the unit as pixels or map units.
Snap elements means the part of the feature you would like to snap; you can choose vertex, edge, midpoint, and endpoint as snap elements. For example, in order to make the new subway route connect to the vertex of the station, users need to tick Vertex of the layer of the station. As a result, when users sketch a line segment and the vertex of the station is within the tolerance, the mouse cursor will be automatically snapped to the vertex. Since an edge is composed of multiple vertices, ticking Edge as the snapping element means that Vertex, Midpoint, and Endpoint are included in the snapping elements; ticking Vertex means Midpoint and Endpoint are included.
Vertex: snapping to vertices of each features of the layer Edge: snapping to edged of each features of the layer Midpoint: snapping to the middle point between two points on a edge Endpoint: snapping to the first point and the last point of a line segment
Snapping can be used with various editing tools to help you add, edit, or even cut features accurately.
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Undo and Redo

In the process of editing, if you are not satisfied with the current editing, you can click Undo button or press Ctrl+Z on the keyboard to cancel the last action. Similarly, if you would like
to continue the last command, you can click Redo continue the previous undone action.
or press Ctrl+Y on the keyboard to
Undo and Redo functions can only implement the active action which has not been saved into the layers; once the editing is saved into the layers, Undo and Redo will be hidden like the status of beginning.
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Adding Features
Adding Features means to add new features in the existing or blank layers. New features can be points, polylines, or polygons. However, features can be only added into the same geometry layers. Point features can be only added in point layer, and line features can be only added in line layers. The features in polygon layers definitely are polygon features.
In this section, the methods to add features will be introduced by the categories of editing tools. Meanwhile, how to add point, line, polygon multipart features are going to be presented as well.
Before starting editing features, users must enter the editing environment first. Then, click Start Editing, choose the target layer in Edit Target, click Add Features, and choose the editing tools.
Sketch Tool
Sketch Tool can be used to add point, polyline, and polygon features. When you need to add point features, choose the point layer in Edit Target, and click the location you would like to add the point feature in the map window. Then, the point feature is added.
To add a polyline feature, you need to choose the polyline layer you would like to edit in Edit Target. Then, click the map window to create the first vertex, drag a line segment, and click again to create the second vertex. You can repeat the actions until a polyline feature is completed. To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click and click Finish Sketch.
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To add polygon features, you need to choose the polygon layer in Edit Target and select Sketch Tool. Then, in the Map Window, you can click to create the first vertex, drag to the location for the second vertex and click. You can repeat the actions until the polygon feature is completed. To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click and click Finish Sketch.
During the process of sketching a polyline or polygon feature, the right-click menu might be different; it depends on whether the mouse cursor is on a vertex or not. If your mouse cursor is not on a vertex, the right-click menu will be Graph 1; if the mouse cursor is on a vertex, the right-click menu will be Graph 2.
Graph 1
Graph 2
These functions on the two menus are advanced, so the functions will be introduced in detail in Editing Vertices.
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Midpoint Tool
Midpoint Tool is used to create a midpoint between two points. If you would like to add a mailbox in the middle of the pavement or add a manhole in the middle of a crossroad, you can apply Midpoint Tool to create the new point feature. Besides, if you would like to add a midline between two street blocks which are also paralyzed with the blocks, you can use Midpoint Tool to create polyline features. Meanwhile, you can use Midpoint Tool to create polygon features. Before using Midpoint Tool to create point features, please enter Start Editing and choose the layer you want to edit in Edit Target. Then, you can select Add New Features and Midpoint, drag a line segment with the Sketch tool , and click. Consequently, the
midpoint of the line segment is created automatically
To sketch polyline features with Midpoint Tool, users need to enter Start Editing first, choose the target layer, and select Add New Features and Midpoint Tool. Then, click to create the first point, drag, and click again to create the second point. The midpoint is created between these two points. You can repeat the actions described above; every time a new midpoint is created, it will be automatically connected to the previous point (displayed as a red point). To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click to click Finish Sketch.
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The method to sketch a polygon feature with Midpoint Tool is similar to the method to sketch point feature and polyline feature. First of all, enter Start Editing and select Add New Feature and Midpoint Tool. Then, like the way to sketch polyline features, you need to sketch the first line segment to create the first vertex, and then sketch the second line segment. As the second line segment is completed, a vertical line will be created to connect the first vertex with the second line segment. Then, you can repeat the actions until the polygon feature is completed. To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click to click Finish Sketch. The sequence of sketching a polygon with Midpoint Tool is presented as below:
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
Graph 4
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Nearest Distance Tool

Nearest Distance Tool is to sketch a vertical line connecting a vertex and a specified line segment. This tool can create polyline features and polygon features, but not point features. When you are utilizing Nearest Distance Tool to sketch features, the first vertex is the midpoint of the line segment you create. Then, the next vertex you sketch is the foot of the perpendicular from the last vertex to the line you just drag. Then, you can repeat the actions until the polyline/polygon feature is completed.
When using Nearest Distance Tool to create polyline features, you need to select Start Editing, target layer, and click Add New Features and Nearest Distance Tool. Then, in the Map Window, you can create a new line segment which can create a foot of the perpendicular with the last vertex. As a result, the system will connect the last vertex with the foot of the perpendicular automatically. You can repeat the actions until the polyline feature is finished. To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click and click Finish Sketch.
Nearest Distance Tool can be used to create polygon features as well. Firstly, select Start Editing, choose the target layer, and select Add New Features and Nearest Distance Tool. The method to create polygon features is similar to create polyline features. Sketch the first line segment to create the first vertex, and sketch the second line segment. Afterward, the system will create a line segment connecting the last vertex and the foot of the perpendicular of the second line segment. This line segment is the first line of the polygon feature. Then, you can create the third line segment, and the previous vertex (red point) will be connected to the third line segment.
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You can keep sketching lines until the polygon feature is completed. To finish the sketch, you can double-click or right-click and click Finish Sketch.
While using Nearest Distance Tool, you need to pay attention that whether the line segment can produce the foot of the perpendicular with the last vertex or not. If not, the tool is not able to create any line segments, like the graph below.
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Rectangle Tool
Rectangle Tool can help you sketch a rectangle by dragging the mouse. This tool can be only used to add polyline features and polygon features. When you utilize Rectangle Tool to add new features in polyline layers, the rectangle which is composed of a closed line still belongs to polyline features, rather than polygon features.
When applying Rectangle Tool to add polyline features, you need to select Start Editing, target layer, Add New Features tool, and Rectangle tool. Then, you can click on Map Window, drag a rectangle, and click again to finish sketching a rectangle.
To add polygon features with Rectangle Tool is like to add polyline features. Firstly, select Start Editing, choose the target layer, and click Add New Features and Rectangle Tool. Then you can click on Map Window, drag a rectangle, and click again to finish sketching.
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Circle Tool
Circle Tool is used to add polyline features and polygon features. When you are adding a new feature in polyline layers, the new feature composed of a closed line segment is a polyline feature, instead of a polygon feature. No matter a polyline feature or a polygon feature is sketched by Circle Tool, these features are composed of 360 vertices, 1 one vertex.
Before starting to create a circle polyline feature, you need to select Start Editing, choose the target layer, and click Add New Features and Circle Tool. Then, you can click on Map Window to set the center of the circle, drag a circle, and click again to finish the sketch.
You can also add polygon features with Circle Tool. First of all, select Start Editing, choose the target layer, and click Add New Features and Circle Tool. Then, you can click on Map window to set the center of the circle, drag a circle, and click again to finish the sketch.
The methods to add new features described above are to add a single feature. That is to say, one set of attributes indicates a feature. However, in editing features, users may need a set of attributes containing multiple features. Therefore, the methods to create multipoints, multipart features (polylines or polygons) are going to be introduced in the following section.
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Adding Multipoint Features

Multipoint feature means multiple points contained in a set of attributes. The method to add multipoint features is to right-click Layers in Map Content Window, and click New Layer in the menu. As New Layer window is open, choose the layer type, click Shapefile-Multipoint, and click Edit in Source Coordinate System. (The method to create a new coordinate system please refer to 4.5). As the coordinate system is set completely, click OK in New Layer window, choose the path and name of the new layer, click Save, and continue the following actions.
Firstly, click Start Editing and choose the target layer (the name of the multipoint layer is Multi). Secondly, click Sketch and Add New Features. Then, you can click multiple point features and double-click the last point feature to finish Sketch (or right-click the last point feature and click Finish Sketch).
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Adding Multipart featuresPolyline

Generally speaking, a set of attributes contains a feature. However, if you would like to add multiple features referring to a set of attributes, you can use the following methods to edit. Firstly, click Start Editing, choose target layer, and click Add New Layers and Sketch tool. The first method is to create the first polyline feature. At the last vertex, right-click and click Finish Part in the menu. Then, you can repeat the actions described above until the multipart polyline features are finished. To finish the editing, you can right-click and click Finish Sketch. The Multipart features are completed.
The other method is to sketch the polyline features in Map window with the keyboard; every time a feature is finished, press Shift on the keyboard and double-click. Repeat the actions until the multipart polyline features are completed. Then, right-click and click Finish Sketch to complete the multipart features.
The methods to add multipart features can be applied with Sketch tool, Midpoint tool, and Nearest Distance tool but cannot be used with Rectangle tool and Circle tool.
Adding Multipart features--polygon

If you would like to add multipart features referring to the same set of attributes, please select Start Editing and target layer and click Add New Features and Sketch tool. Then, you can sketch the first polygon in Map Window, right-click the last vertex, and click Finish Part. Then, you can sketch another polygon. Repeat the actions until all the polygons are finished. Afterward,
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right-click the last vertex, click Finish Sketch. Multipart features are completed.
Similarly, you can use the method described above to create hollow polygons, like the graphs below.
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Deleting Features
In the process of editing features, users may need to delete the features on the map. No matter what geometry type of the feature is, there are 3 methods to delete the features. First, you can select Start Editing and Select Features tool, and select the feature(s) you would like to delete. Then click Delete button on the toolbar, and the selected feature(s) will be deleted. Besides,
you can right-click the selected features, and click Delete
. The
selected feature(s) will be deleted. The other method to delete the features is to press Delete on the keyboard, and the selected feature(s) can be deleted as well.
In the process of deleting features, if you are not satisfied with the previous action, you can click Undo button to undo the command; if you want to re-add the feature you just delete, you
can click Redo button
to redo the action.
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Moving Features
There are two methods for users to move features on the mapby dragging and offset features.
Move features by dragging

When you need to move features, please click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click the feature you would like to move and drag it to the desired location. The feature is moved.
If you need to move multiple features at the same time, please select multiple features simultaneously (please refer to the methods to select multiple features in 5-9). Then, drag the selected features to the desired location. The features are moved.
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Offset features
In addition to moving feature(s) by dragging, users also can offset the features to move them to the desired location more precisely. Firstly, select Start Editing and Select Features tool, and select the feature you need to move on the map. Then, click Offset in Start Editing drop-down list. In the Offset Feature(s) window, type the coordinates and click OK. Also, you can offset more than one feature. Thus, you can select multiple features at the same time, follow the actions described above, and type the coordinates; then, the features can be moved simultaneously.
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Copy and Paste Features

In editing features, you can implement Copy and Paste functions. Because the features can be only saved in the layer with the same geometry type, the type of the target layer should be checked. In the following, how to manipulate Copy, Cut, and Paste is going to be introduced.
If you need to copy an existing feature, there are two methods to do so. Firstly, click Start Editing, choose the appropriate target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, you can select the features you would like to copy, and click Copy button on toolbar. Or you can right-click the
selected feature and click Copy
. Then, you can select Paste
or right-click the map and click Paste
. The new feature will be
pasted on the original feature, so you need to click and drag the new feature to the desired location. As the feature is copied, the attributes are copied to the new features as well.
The second method to copy features is to click the feature you would like to copy, press Ctrl on the keyboard, and drag it to the desired location. Then, the feature is copied and pasted.
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The method to cut and paste features is similar to the method to copy. Select Start Editing, choose target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, select the feature you want to cut, and click Cut button on the toolbar. Or you can right-click the map and click
Cut
. After the feature is cut, you can click the paste button
on the toolbar or right-click the map and click Paste
. Then, the
new feature is pasted on the original feature; you can use mouse to drag the feature to the desired location.
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
Graph 4
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Editing Vertices
Each feature on the map is composed of vertices; a point feature is a vertex, a polyline feature contains at least two vertices, and a polygon feature contains three or more than three vertices. If you need to modify the shape of the feature in SuperGIS Desktop 3, you can add and delete vertices and even modify the coordinates of the vertices. In sketching polyline and polygon features, whether the mouse cursor is on a vertex would influence the contents of the right-click menu. That is to say, the position of mouse cursor would affect the possible commands to edit vertices. In this section, what is going to be introduced are the contents of the right-click menu, the methods to add, delete, move the vertices and how to view and modify the coordinates of the vertices.
Introduction to right-click menu

In sketching polyline and polygon features, whether the mouse cursor is on a vertex or not will make the right-click menu different. In other words, the contents of the right-click menu depend on the position of the mouse cursor. Therefore, the commands in the menus will be introduced respectively.
Mouse cursor NOT on a Vertex Stream Mode: After clicking the command, you can hold the mouse left button and drag a line segment with multiple vertices, rather than sketch point features repeatedly.
Move To: You can enter the x, y coordinates in the Move Vertex to X,Y window. Click OK, and the system will create a vertex on the new coordinates. The default value in the window is the coordinates of the last right-click.
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Offset X, Y: According to the X,Y coordinates you enter in the window, the system will create a new vertex on the relative location. The default x,y values are the relative coordinates between the last right-click and the last vertex.
Length: The distance you enter in the window is the fixed distance between the mouse cursor and the last vertex. The last vertex can be seen as the center of the circle, and the Input Distance is the radius. Then, you can create a new vertex on the circumference. The unit of the distance is map unit. The default value of the distance is the length between the last vertex and the last right-click.
Direction: The angle you enter in the window indicates the direction the new vertex can be added. The system will regard the last vertex as the datum point and see the angle you set as the direction to drag the line segment. With the setting, you can only adjust the length, but not the direction. The default angle is the angle between the last vertex and the last right-click.
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In the direction setting, the last vertex is the datum point; 0 degree is north to the last vertex. Positive values are clockwise, so 90 degree is east to the last vertex and 180 degree is south to the last vertex. As the angle is set, the mouse can be only moved by the direction of the angle or the supplementary angle. Then, users can modify the length only but cannot change the direction.
Deflection: The last line segment is the datum of the deflection angle which determines the direction you can sketch. Then, you can change the length only. The default value in Input Deflection Angle is the angle between the last right-click and the last line segment.
Length/Direction: In the window, you can enter the length and the angle, and a new vertex will be created based on you setting. The method to set the length and the direction is the same as the methods described above. The default value is the length and the angle between the last vertex and the last right-click.
Parallel: Click to create the first vertex of the polyline feature, and then move the mouse cursor over the line segment the polyline feature needs to paralyze. Then, right-click it and click Parallel. The paralyzed line segment will blink. Afterward, you can sketch a line paralyzing the line
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segment.
Perpendicular: The operation of the function is similar to Parallel.
Flip: Click the function, and the direction of the sketch will be reversed. Then you can continue sketch from the first vertex. Thus, this tool can be applied to adjust the direction of the polyline features.
Remove Last Vertex: Click the command, and the last vertex is removed.
Remove Part: Click the command, the part you are sketching is removed.
Remove Sketch: This command is to remove the feature you are sketching. The functions of Remove Part and Remove Sketch are the same as you are sketching a single feature.
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Finish Part: Click the function, the current part can be finished. And you can continue to sketch another part of the feature. Sketching with the tool, you can multiple parts belonging to one feature.
Finish Sketch: Click the command to finish sketch.
While you are using the functions on the right-click menu, the status bar on the lower left corner of the window indicates the length and the direction you are sketching.
Mouse cursor on a Vertex Delete Vertex: To delete the vertex.
Offset Vertex: According to the value you enter, the system will offset the vertex. For example, the coordinates of the original vertex are (X1,Y1), and the values you enter are (dx,dy). Then the new coordinates are (X1+ dx, Y1+ dy).
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Move Vertex To: The vertex will be moved to the coordinates you set.
Flip: Click the function, and the direction of the sketch will be reversed. Then you can continue sketch from the first vertex. Thus, this tool can be applied to adjust the direction of the polyline features.
Delete Sketch: This command is to remove the feature you are sketching Finish Part: Click the function, the current part can be finished. And you can continue to sketch another part of the feature. With the tool, you can sketch multiple parts belonging to one feature.
Finish Sketch: Click the command to finish sketch.
Vertex Properties: Click the function, and Edit Vertex window is open. You can see the coordinates of the vertices and modify them directly. Click Finish Sketch to complete the editing.
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Adding/Deleting Vertices
Modifying a feature means editing or reshaping an existing feature rather than adding a new feature. Therefore, the vertices of a feature might be changed. The operation of adding or deleting vertices of the existing features will be introduced.
Adding Vertices
To add vertices, you can apply the command in the right-click menu or Edit Vertex window. Firstly, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click the drop-down arrow next to the Add New Feature tool and click Modify Features. Click the feature you would like to modify; all the vertices of the feature will display. Then, you can move the mouse cursor over the edge and right-click. The menu is open; click Insert Vertex. A new vertex is added.
To finish editing vertices, you can click Finish Sketch or click the blank in Map Window. As all the vertices of the feature are not displayed, the editing is finished. After clicking Start Editing, you can double-click a feature to start edit the vertices of the feature.
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Additionally, you can also insert a vertex before or after a specified vertex by Edit Vertex window. First of all, select the feature you would like to insert vertices, and click Edit Geography button . Edit Vertex window is open. In this window, you can select the vertex, and the in Map Window. Then, you can figure out the
selected vertex will be shown as a white point
sequence and direction of the sketch. So, you can check the vertex which is before or after the location you want to add a vertex. Afterward, right-click the vertex and click Insert Before or Insert After, and a new vertex is added. Take the feature for instance. If you would like to insert a vertex between Vertex 1 and Vertex 2, right-click Vertex 1 and click Insert After.
As the new vertex is added in Map Window, the coordinates of the new vertex is added in Edit Vertex window.
Insert Before is unavailable in the right-click menu of the first vertex; Insert After cannot be used in the right-click menu of the last vertex.
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Deleting Vertex
Firstly, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click the drop-down arrow next to the Add New Feature tool and click Modify Features. Click the feature you would like to modify; all the vertices of the feature will be displayed. Then, right-click the vertex you want to delete, click Delete Vertex on the popup menu. The vertex will be deleted.
Delete multiple vertices

Firstly, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click the drop-down arrow next to the Add New Feature tool and click Modify Features. Click the feature you would like to modify; all the vertices of the feature will be displayed. Then, right-click a vertex of the feature and click Vertex Properties. Edit Vertex window displays.
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You can select the vertices in Edit Vertex window; the selected vertices will be shown as white points in Map Window. While selecting the vertices, you can press Ctrl key to select multiple vertices or press Shift key to select all the vertices within the range. Also, you can press Delete key to delete all the selected vertices. After editing, click Finish Sketch to save the changes. If you would like to cancel the changes, you can close the window directly or click Undo button .
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Moving Vertices
There are two methods to move verticesby dragging, and inputting values.
Moving Vertices by Dragging

First of all, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click Add New Features drop-down list to click Modify Features. Afterward, you can select the feature you want to edit, and all the vertices of the feature will be displayed. You can move the mouse cursor to the vertex you would like to move. As the mouse cursor becomes , you can click the vertex and drag it to the desired
location. To finish the sketch, right-click the vertex and click Finish Sketch or click the blank in Map Window.
Moving Vertices by Inputting Values

Besides dragging, you can precisely change the location of vertices with Offset Vertex and Move Vertex To. First of all, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, click Add New Features drop-down list to click Modify Features. Afterward, you can select the feature you want to edit, and all the vertices of the feature will be displayed. You can move the mouse cursor to the vertex you would like to move, right-click it, and click Offset Vertex. Then, you can enter the values into the window; the vertex will be moved to the relative location based on the values.
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Additionally, you can also click Move Vertex To in the right-click menu. Input the X,Y coordinates you want to move the vertex to. Then, the vertex will be moved to the new location.
All of the vertex modifying functions described above and Modify Features tool
in Editing Modes menu can be only implemented when only a single feature is selected. If multiple features are selected at the same time, the selected features will be only displayed with selection symbol; however, the vertices of the features will not be displayed. Therefore, as users select multiple features simultaneously, vertices can not be modified.
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Vertex Properties
In editing environment, users can select features to check the vertex properties and modify the coordinates to move the vertices.
First of all, please click Start Editing and Select Features tool and click the drop-down arrow next to Add New Features to select Modify Features. Then, you can select the features whose features you would like to edit, and the vertices of the selected features will be displayed. Right-click the vertex you would like to edit and click Vertex Properties. Afterwards, in map window, the selected vertex is displayed as white point (general vertices are green points ;
end point is red point ). Also, you can double-click the coordinates and directly modify the value of the coordinates. After checking the vertex properties and modifying the coordinates, you can click Finish Sketch to finish the editing. To modify the value of coordinates, besides using mouse, you can select the vertex with up and down button on keyboard after clicking a vertex. After selecting a vertex, press right arrow key on keyboard to edit Y coordinate and press left arrow key on keyboard to edit X coordinate (you can also use F2 button or Insert button to edit the coordinates of the vertices).
If you need to modify the vertices of multipart features, please also click Start Editing and Select Features tool and click Modify Features in the drop-down list beside Add New Features. Then, click the feature you would like to edit, and all the vertices of the features will be displayed. You
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can right-click the vertex you want to edit, and click Vertex Properties. Afterwards, the Edit Vertex window displays and includes two columns, Part and Vertex. Part column lists the number of the multipart features; you can select the number of polyline or polygon and the vertices of the porlyline or polygon will be listed in Vertex column. Similarly, you can double-click the X or Y coordinate to modify the value. After modifying, click Finish Sketch to move the vertex by the modified value. As the number in the Part column is clicked, the corresponding feature will be framed with bold line. Thus, you can clearly recognize the feature corresponding to the number. Additionally, right-click the number in Part column, a drop-down list is displayed. You can click Zoom To and this part of the feature will be zoomed in and displayed at the center of the map window; if you click Delete, and this part will be removed.
In Vertex column, right click the vertex and click Zoom To in the menu, the selected vertex will be displayed in the center of the map window with the same scale.
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Advanced editing tools

In addition to the methods to edit features described in the previous sections, you can also apply the functions in Start Editing menu and Editing modes menu to modify the features. With the functions, you can modify the position, shape, direction, and even attributes of the selected features. This section is going to introduce the functions in the menus in order.
Advanced editing tools

Move To
Move To function in Start Editing menu facilitates users to move the selected point feature to a new location by specifying X, Y coordinates. First of all, enter the editing environment and click Select Features tool to select the point feature you would like to move. Then, click Move To function in Start Editing drop-down list, and Move Point to X, Y window is displayed. Type the coordinates of the new location in the window, click OK. Then, the point feature is moved to the new location.
This function can only be applied to point features rather than polyline or polygon features.
Offset
Offset tool can move the selected feature to the relative location by specifying X, Y values. No matter what geometric types of features are selected, the system can move the features to the relative location. Similar to Move To tool, firstly enter the editing environment and click Select Features tool and select the feature you want to move. Then, click Offset in Start Editing menu,
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and Offset Feature(s) window is displayed. Type the value you would like to move and click OK; the point feature will be moved to the new location.
Rotate
There are two rotate tools for users to rotate the selected features. One is Rotate Features on Edit toolbar; the other is Rotate in Start Editing menu. For the first tool, in editing
environment, users can click Select Features tool and select the feature. Then, click Rotate Features tool and the mouse cursor will become the rotate legend. Click the selected feature and drag the mouse cursor to rotate it to the desired orientation.
Also you can use Rotate function in Start Editing menu to rotate the feature. In editing environment, click Select Features tool and select the feature you would like to rotate. Then, click Rotate in Start Editing menu, and Rotate Features window appears in which you need to set the angle and the axis. There are two options for axis, By Feature Extent and By Total Extent between which the difference only occurs while you select more than two features to rotate simultaneously. Choosing By Feature Extent means to rotate the features on the axis of each feature; however, choosing By Total Extent means to rotate the features on the axis of the entire
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extent. Take the graphs for example:
To rotate the features with 45 degrees by feature extent:
To rotate the features with 45 degrees by total extent:
While Rotate Features tool display the angle you are rotating.
is being used, the lower-left corner of the window will
Split
SuperGIS Desktop 3 provides two split tools for splitting line features. One is Split in Start Editing menu, and the other is Split Tool
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on Edit toolbar. Firstly, in editing environment, you can
select the target layer and Select Features tool. Then, select the line feature you would like to split in the map window and click Split in Start Editing menu, and Split Line Feature window appears. The system will automatically indicate the length of the selected line feature, and you should decide to split by inputting the value of length or percentage. You also can choose to split the line feature From Start Point or From End Point. Then, click OK to complete the split.
After splitting, the attributes of the original line feature will be deleted, but the attributes of the two new line features will be added. The attributes of the two new line features copy the attributes of the original line features. Split Tool can split a line feature into two parts and alter the attribute data. First of all, click
Start Editing to enter editing environment. Then, click Select Features tool and select the line feature desired to be split. Click Split Tool and the mouse cursor will become . You can move
the mouse cursor to the location where you want the line feature to be split and click, and the line features is split.
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Besides to click the location on the line feature directly, you can also click somewhere outside the line feature, and the system will automatically set the foot of the perpendicular from the location you click to the selected line as the location to split the line. Thus, in this way, what should be noted is that this tool only works when the foot of the perpendicular can be produced form the location you click to the selected line.
If the foot of the perpendicular cannot be produced from the location you click to the selected line, the warning window appears.
Furthermore, Split Tool can be utilized with snapping. Complete the snapping setting first; then, as the mouse cursor is moving within the tolerance distance, the mouse cursor will be snapped to the line feature. Thus, you can split the line feature precisely. No matter how you split a line feature, the attributes of the original feature will be removed as the feature is split, and the attributes of the new features are added. Both of the split tools introduced above can only work when a single line feature is selected. If multiple line features are selected simultaneously, neither Split Tool nor Split can be used.
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Divide
Divide tool can be only applied to line features, but the target layer can be the line layer the selected line belongs to or other line layers and point layers. However, the divided line layer will be saved in the target layer. To use Divide tool, firstly click Start Editing, select the target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, select the line feature in the map window you would like to split and click Divide in Start Editing menu; Divide Line Feature window appears. The system automatically indicates the length of the selected feature, and users need to choose to Divide into parts or Divide by length. Type the value and click OK, and the selected line feature is divided.
Take the line feature for example. The line feature is divided into 3 parts and saved in a line layer.
Take the same line feature for example. The line feature is divided into 3 parts and stored in a point layer, and the divided points are displayed in the point layer.
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After the line feature is divided, the original line feature is still on the map, and the divided lines are added on the original feature. Therefore, users need to drag the new features to move them. Meanwhile, the attributes of the original feature will not be changed but copied to the attributes of the new features. However, if you choose a point layer as the target layer, the attributes of the new point features are recorded in the attribute table of the point layer but will not copy the attributes of the original line feature.
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Buffer
Buffer is an area surrounding a point, polyline, or polygon feature at a specific distance. Therefore, buffered features include points, polylines, and polygons. Buffering is often used for nearby analysis. For example, you can apply Buffer to find a river basin which is near the forester within 100 inches. Users can apply Buffer to point, polyline, and polygon features, which can be stored in either polyline layers or polygon layers. Choosing different target layer to store the buffered features would cause different buffering effects, like the table below: Target Layer Feature Type point polygon polyline
polygon
polyline
To create Buffered features, please enter the editing environment, select the target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, in the map window, select the feature you would like to buffer, and click Buffer in Start Editing menu. Type the distance in Input Distance window and click OK. Then, a new buffered feature is added.
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As buffered features are created, the attributes of the original feature will not be changed. The new attributes will be stored in the attribute table of the target layer. For example, if you crate a buffered point feature in a polygon layer, the attributes of the point feature will not be changed but the attributes of the new polygon feature will be stored in the polygon layer.
Intersect
Intersect function in Start Editing menu can create a new feature which is the overlapped area of two or more than two features. To use Intersect, firstly click Start Editing, select the target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, in the map window, select the features whose intersection you would like to create a feature from and click Intersect in Start Editing menu. Thus, a new feature of the common area is created. As the intersection is finished, the attributes of the original features are not changed; the attributes of the new feature will be added in the attribute table, but the contents of the new attributes will not copy the original features.
As the Intersect function is finished, the new feature will cover the original feature. You need to move the feature to the desired location by mouse.
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Union
The union function can create a new feature which is the union area of two or more than two features. First of all, click Start Editing, select the target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, click the features you would like to combine to a new feature and click Union in Start Editing menu. Thus, a new feature of the combined area is created.
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
As the new feature is created, the new feature will cover the original feature. You need to move the feature to the desired location by mouse. Besides, the attributes of the new feature will be added in the attribute table but not copy the original features, so the attribute value is blank.
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Merge
Merge function is to create a new feature which is composed of two or more than two overlapped features. This function is similar to Intersect, but Merge is not only to combine the selected features but also to combine the attributes of the selected features to be one record. Here is an example:
If you would like to merge these two features, click Merge function and select the feature you want the new feature belong to.
As the selected feature is clicked, the feature will blink. The attributes of the feature you choose will be the base of the attributes of the new feature. The sample here is to select Senior High School.
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After the features are merged, you can indentify the new feature, whose attributes are covered by Senior High School.
Merge function can be used to merge line features as well. Since the line features are involved with direction, the direction of the merged line feature will be the same as the line feature you choose. Here is the example:
The endpoints of the two line features are connected. One is rightward line feature, and the other is leftward line feature.
If you want to merge the two line features, please choose the feature whose direction will be the direction of the new feature. The example here is to choose the rightward line feature.
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The endpoint of the merged line feature is moved to the right end, so the line feature is a rightward line.
To merge line features, you need to take direction into consideration because the direction of the road makes the road one way road or two way road.
Separate Parts
Separate Parts tool polygons. can be used to separate multipart features composed of polylines or
If you would like to implement this function, please click Start Editing and select the target layer. Then, select the multipart features on the map and click Separate Parts tool. The multipart feature is separated. Afterwards, when you are selecting features, you can select the features individually. Take the map for example:
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This multipart feature is composed of multiple polygon features.
After clicking Separate Parts tool, you can select the features individually.
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In terms of attributes, the multipart feature is recorded in one set of the attributes.
However, after clicking Separate Parts tool, Keelung City will become several sets of attributes corresponding to the areas.
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Clip
Clip in Start Editing menu can be used to clip the polygon feature that intersects two or more than two polygon features. Firstly, click Start Editing, select the target layer, and click Select Features tool. Then, select the polygon feature you want to clip and click Clip in Start Editing menu. Clip window appears. You can type in the buffer value and choose to discard the area that intersects or preserve the area that intersects. Take the features for example: If you would like to clip the two intersecting features, click Clip and type 0 for Buffer. Then click Discard the area that intersects and click OK.
The new feature will be like this, and the intersecting area will be removed.
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Also, you can type 0 for Buffer and choose Preserve the area that intersects as the option.
The new feature will be like this; the area not intersecting will be removed, and the intersecting area will be left.
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Besides, you can clip the feature with Buffer. For instance, type in 10 for buffer and choose Discard the area that intersects as the option.
The new feature will be like this.
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You can type in 10 for Buffer and click Preserve the area that intersects.
The new feature will be like this.
The clipping operations introduced above can modify the shape of the feature but not the attributes. In other words, the attributes of the original feature will not be changed. However, if the feature covering the other feature does not intersect, Preserve the area that intersects will remove the feature. The attributes of the feature will be removed as well.
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Editing Modes Menu

This section mainly introduces the functions in Editing Modes menu, like Cut Features, Extend/trim Features, Mirror Features, and Auto-complete Polygon. Since the other functions in this menu, such as Add New Features, Modify Features, Select Features by Polyline, and Select Features by Polygon are introduced in Selecting Features section and Adding features section, these functions will not be introduced in this section.
Cut Features
Cut Features tool can be used to cut polyline features and polygon features. You can cut the features with various editing tools. In utilizing Cut Features tool, the target layer can be any layer. However, the cut results will be stored in the original layer. To use Cut Features tool, firstly click Start Editing and click Select Features tool to select the feature you would like to cut. Then, click Cut Features tool and choose an editing tool to drag a line or polygon to cut the feature.
With Sketch Tool
With Stream mode of Sketch tool
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With Rectangle Tool
With Circle Tool
After the feature is cut, the attributes of the feature will be removed, and the attributes of the new features will be added. If the feature is divided into two features, two sets of attributes will be added.
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Extend/ Trim Features

This tool can be applied to adjust the length of a polyline feature which might be shorter or longer than the length you need. For example, if a road feature on the map overlaps the river, you can apply Extend/ Trim Features tool to modify the polyline feature.
Extend Features To extend a feature, click Start Editing, click Select Features tool, and select the feature you would like to modify. Then, click Extend/Trim Features tool and select the editing tool you need. Sketch a line beside the selected polyline feature, and the polyline feature will be extended. With Extend/Trim Features tool, the selected polyline feature can be extended straightly only, so you need to sketch a line where the selected line can be extended to in order to extend a polyline feature successfully. As the line is sketched, you can double-click or right click to finish sketch.
With Sketch Tool
Trim Features If the polyline feature is longer, you can use Extend/Trim Features tool to trim the line. Firstly, click Start Editing, click Select Features tool, and select the line feature you would like to trim. Then, click Extend/Trim Features tool and select an editing tool. On the map, sketch a line, which
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should intersect the selected line. Then, you can double click or right click to finish the sketch. Consequently, the system will trim the line segment which is on the right side of the sketch and display the results on the map window. With Sketch Tool
If you use Sketch tool to sketch several vertices continuously, a multipart feature can be produced. The principle of trimming feature is to trim the line segment which is on the right side of each vertex of the sketch.
This function can be not only used with Sketch tool but also Midpoint tool, Nearest-Distance tool, Rectangle tool, and Circle Tool. With Rectangle tool, and Circle Tool, the first intersection will be the end of the extension; to trim the feature, the area covered by rectangle or circle will be trimmed. Extend/Trim Features tool can modify the length of the polyline feature but not the attributes. Thus, the attributes of the polyline feature are not changed.
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Mirror Features
This function can be used to add the mirror feature which is exactly on the opposite side of the selected feature, such as the street light and buildings on the street. You can create a new feature and then use Mirror Features tool to create the other feature on the opposite side. To create the mirror feature, firstly click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, select the feature on the map you would like to create the mirror feature from and click the dropdown menu to click Mirror Features. Select Sketch Tool, Midpoint Tool, or Nearest Distance Tool to sketch a line next to the selected feature and double click. Then, this sketch will be like a mirror, and the new feature will be created on the opposite side of the selected feature.
The attributes of the new features created by Mirror Features tool copy the attributes of the original feature; the attributes of the original feature remain the same.
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Auto-Complete Polygon
When you sketch blocks, territories, or districts, there must be some boundaries connecting with the polygons. So, you can use Auto-Complete Polygon tool to reduce the cost of sketching boundaries. First of all, click Start Editing and select the target layer. Click Sketch tool and Auto-Complete Polygon tool. Then, sketch the start point in the polygon which has the same boundary with the new polygon and sketch the following vertices. As you are sketching the last vertex, you should sketch the end point in the polygon connecting to the new polygon. Eventually, you can double click or right-click to click Finish Sketch to finish the sketching. Besides utilizing Sketch Tool with Auto-Complete Polygon, you can apply Midpoint tool, Nearest Distance tool, Rectangle tool, or Circle tool to sketch polygons. With Sketch tool
With Rectangle tool
With Circle tool
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5.2 Editing Attributes

Attributes are the information of each feature, which might be text, numeric or hyperlink, etc; users can know the features more by checking the attributes. Moreover, with the tools provided by SuperGIS Desktop 3, users can query and calculate statistics of the attributes and even the spatial data. Meanwhile, SuperGIS Desktop 3 significantly accelerates the speed of opening attribute table; more than ten thousand sets of attributes can be loaded successfully as soon as the attribute table opens. This section mainly introduces editing attributes, like editing attributes table and editing attributes. An attribute table is the table of each layer containing the information of all the features on the layer. The functions, such as How to add, remove fields and how to cut and paste the data in the field will be introduced in this section. From the aspect of attributes, users can edit the attributes of each feature; users can edit the attributes by Edit Attribute window or in attribute table.
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An attribute table contains the information of all the features on the same layer. You can right-click the name of the layer in the map contents window and click Open Table to view all of the attributes of this layers. If you would like to modify the attribute table, please click Start Editing. Attribute table can be only edited on the status of editing.
Add edit toolbar

Before editing the attribute table, users need to add Edit toolbar and click Start Editing. First, you can click Tools menu and click Customize. As Customize window appears, please tick Edit and click OK.
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Besides, you can right-click the place for toolbars and click Edit in the menu. Thus, Edit toolbar displays.
As Edit toolbar appears, click the leftmost tool Start Editing. Then, you can edit attributes.
Edit attribute table

The attribute table of each layer records all the attributes of each feature on the layer. On the status of editing, you can edit the attribute table and type in texts or values in the fields. Before starting editing, you should add Edit toolbar and click Start Editing. As the attribute table appears, the title of the table will display (Editing). Then, you can click each field to edit the data. As the attribute editing is finished, you can click Save Edits in the Start Editing dropdown menu; therefore, the edits will be saved. In the process of editing, besides using mouse to click the cell, you can use the arrow keys or Tab key to move the focus cell.
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Here, we take school layer of Zhongshan sample data for example.
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You can modify the contents of the existing attribute fields, but you can only type number in numeric field. The settings of the existing field, like the type and length cannot be modified. In addition, if you want to add a new field, you need to click End Editing first. As the new field is added, you can click Start Editing again to edit the attributes. In the process of editing, you can use undo tool to reverse the last command. After the edits are saved, the editing record
will be removed and you cannot undo the last command.
Copy and paste attributes

On the status of editing, you can directly copy and paste the data in the attribute table. First of all, click Start Editing and open the attribute table. Then, select the data you would like to copy and right-click the selected data to click Copy. Click the cell where you want to paste the data and right-click the cell to click Paste. Thus, the data is pasted in the cell. Besides Copy, you can also use Cut to edit the data.
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To copy and paste the data, you can also utilize hot keys. Press Ctrl+C to copy the data and press Ctrl+V to paste the data.
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Replace attributes
In editing attributes, you can find some numeric or text in the specified field and replace the data with the new numeric or text. Firstly, click Start Editing and open attribute table. Secondly, click Option to click Find and Replace. Then, Find and Replace window appears. Here, we take school layer in Zhongshan sample data for instance. You can type primary school as the text you want to find, choose ITEM_NAME 1 as the target field, and type elementary school as the replacement. Meanwhile, you can choose whether to tick Match whole word only or Match case and specify the search directionUp or Down. As the search conditions are set completely, click Find Next and the data matching the conditions, primary school, will be found. If you click Replace, the found item will be replaced with elementary school. To click Replace All can replace all the found items.
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If you are not on the status of editing, you can only use Find and cannot change the attributes. The replace function is disabled, and Find and Replace window displays like this:
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How to use Match whole word only and Match case is introduced in the following: If you tick Match whole word only, the system can only find the text that is exactly the same as the text you type. The case of the letters does not affect the search.
If Match case is ticked, the system can find the text containing the text you type but might not be exactly the same.
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Therefore, if Match whole word only and Match case are both ticked, the system can only find the text that is exactly the same as the text you type, including spelling and case.
In Find and Replace window, users can upward or downward search the data matching the constraints from the current focus cell. If you have not clicked any cell, the system regards the first cell or the first cell of the first field as the focus cell. When the system has found the last data matching the constraints on the top or the bottom of the field, you click Find Next and the warning window Search has completed will appear.
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Add field
To add a new field, you should be on the status of non-editing. In other words, before opening the attribute table, you need to click the dropdown arrow next to Start Editing to click End Editing. Then, open the attribute table and click Option to click Add Field. Add field window is open.
As Add Field window appears, users need to type the name of the field in Name and choose the type of the field from the dropdown menu. (Once the field type is set, you cannot change it anymore.) Length is the length of the field; precision is the number of the digits that you can store in the numeric field. The field types provided in SuperGIS Desktop 3 include Text, Short, Long, Float, Double, Date, and Logical. According to the type of the field users choose, there are different default values for length and precision which are listed in the following table:
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Options Type Text Short Long Float Double Date Logical
Length
Precision
50 4 9 13 19 X X
X X X 11 11 X X
X means the option is unavailable for the type of field Text: text field. Short: integer field, containing 4 digits at most. Long: long integer field, containing 9 digits at most. Float: single-precision field, containing 13 digits at most. Double: double-precision field, containing 19 digits at most. Date: date field, containing 8 digits at most. Logical: logical field, containing 1 digit only.
Here, we add a text field and name it note. Without changing the default value, the length of the field is 50 and the precision is unavailable. Then click OK.
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The new field note is added in the attribute table.
If you type text in a numeric field, the system will not accept it. Therefore, a warning message will appear to remind you to type the correct type of data.
When adding a new field, you cannot use the name which exists already. If the name you type has existed, a warning message will appear to remind that the name exists already.
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Chapter 5 Editing
Remove Field
To remove a field in an attribute table, the attribute table should not be on the status of editing. Before opening an attribute table, please click the dropdown arrow to click End Editing. Then, open the attribute table, right-click the field you want to remove, and click Remove Field. A warning message will appear, and you can click OK to remove the field.
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Field Calculator
The calculator in SuperGIS Desktop 3 can save the calculation results into a filed in the attribute table after logical operations. While using the calculator, you can not only add the existing field into calculation expression but type in a value to the expression. Before calculating, please click Start Editing and open the attribute table of the layer you would like to calculate. As the attribute table opens, you can right-click the field heading and click Field Calculator. Then the Calculator window appears.
If you use Field Calculator function on the status of non-editing, the data will be saved into the file directly and cannot be modified. Thus, the warning message will appear to remind your status of editing.
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Calculator window displays the name of the field at the top, all the fields of the attribute table on the left, several types of functions in the center, and operators on the right. The types of functions include numeric, string, time, and shape. The types and the definitions of the functions are introduced in the following function definition table.
To build a calculation function, you can double-click the name of the field and click the functions you need (as any of the function is clicked, the definition of the function will be displayed on the lower-left corner of the window). The fields and the functions you click will be displayed in the text area on the top of the window, and you also can type in the values to build the calculation expression in the text area. Then, click OK and the calculation results of the field will be displayed. You also can apply the operators to save the calculation expressions in the specified folders, and you can load the expression to calculate some day.
If you only want to calculate some features, you can select the features on the map or select some records in the attribute table. Then, open the Calculator window, and Calculate selected records only will be available for you to choose whether to tick the
function. If you tick the function, the system will only calculate the selected records only. If you do not tick the function, the system will calculate all of the records. If you do not select any feature,
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the function will be disabled
Here we take River layer of Yilan sample data for example. Open the attribute table, multiply LENGTH field by 2, and store the results in LENGTH field.
The calculation results will be stored in the specified field.
The data in numeric field can be saved in text field; if the data in text field are numbers, the data can be saved in numeric field. However, texts cannot be saved in numeric field.
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Function Definition Table

Numeric ABS(number): Returns absolutely value of its parameter. ATAN(number): Returns the arctangent of its parameter in the range -pi/2 to pi/2 radians. CEILING (number): Returns the smallest integer that is not less than the argument. COS (number): Returns the cosine and its parameter. EXP(number): Returns exponential value of the parameter. FLOOR(number): Returns the floating-point value representing the largest integer that is not less than or equal to the parameter. INT(number): Evaluates a numeric expression and returns integer portion of the expression. LOG(number): Returns the logarithms of the parameter. LOG10(number): Returns the base 10 logarithms of the parameter. MOD(number): Divides one numeric expression by another numeric expression and returns the remainder. PI(): Returns the value Pi. ROUND(number, num, digits): Returns a supplied numeric expression rounded to the nearest integer. SIGN(number): Returns an integer indicating the sign of a number. Greater than zero 1, Equal to zero 0, Less than zero -1. SIN(number): Returns the since of its parameter. SQRT(number): Returns the square-root of the parameter. TAN(number): Returns the tangent of its parameter. String ALLTRIM(text): Removes the leading and trailing blanks from the specified character expression and returns the trimmed expression as a character string. ANSITOOEM(text): Converts all the characters from the ANSI character set to OEM character set. ASC(text): Returns the ANSI value for the leftmost character in a character expression.
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AT(find_text, within_text,[occurence]): Returns the beginning numeric position of the first occurrence of a character expression or memo field, counting from the leftmost character. ATC(find_text, within_text,[occurence]): Returns the beginning numeric position of the first occurrence of a character expression or memo field, without regard for the case of these two expressions. CHR(number): Returns the character associated with the specified numeric ANSI code. CHRTRAN(find_text, within_text,new_text): Replaces each character in a character that matches character in a second character expression with the corresponding character in a third character expression. CTOT(text): Returns a Date Time value from a character expression. ISALPHA(text): Determines whether the leftmost character in a character expression is alphabet. ISDIGT(text): Determines whether the leftmost character in a character expression is digit (0 through 9). ISLOWER(text): Determines whether the leftmost character in a character expression is lowercase alphabet character. ISUPPER(text): Determines whether the leftmost character in a character expression is uppercase alphabet character. LEFT(text,num_chars): Returns a specified number of characters from character expression, starting with the leftmost character. LEN(text): Returns the number of characters in a character expression. LOWER(text): This method converts the string to a lower-case string. LTRIM(text): This method trims leading white-space characters from the string. OCCURS(find_text,within_text): Returns the number of times a character expression occurs within another character expression. OEMTOANSI(text): converts all the characters from the OEM character set to the ANSI set. PADC(text,result_size,[pad_char]): Returns a string from an expression, padded with spaces or characters to a specified length on the left or right sides, or both. PADL(text result_size,[pad_char]): Returns a string from an expression, padded with spaces or characters to a specified length on the left or right sides, or both.
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PADR(text result_size,[pad_char]): Returns a string from an expression, padded with spaces or characters to a specified length on the left or right sides, or both. REPLICATE(text, times): Returns a character string that contains a specified character expression repeated a specified number of times. RIGHT(text,num_chars): Returns the specified number of rightmost characters from a character string. RTRIM(text,num_chars): This method trims trailing white-space characters from the string. SPACE(num_space): Returns a character string composed of a specified number of spaces. STR(number,[length],[decimal]): Returns the character equivalent of a specified numeric expression. STRTRAN(within_text,find_text,[new_text],[start_occur],[num_occur]): Searches a character expression or memo field for occurrences of a second character expression or memo field and then replaces each occurrence with a third character expression or memo field. You can specify where the replacement begins and how many replacements are made. STUFF(text,start_num,num_chars,new_text): Returns a character string crated by replacing a specified number of characters in a character expression with another character expression. SUBSTR(text,star_num,[num_chars]): Returns a character string from the given character expression or memo field. UPPER(text): This method converts the string to a upper-case string. VAL(text): Returns a numeric value from a character expression composed of numbers. Time CDOW(serial_number): Returns the day of the week from a given Date or DateTime expression. CMONTH(serial_number): Returns the name of the month from a given date or DateTime expression. DATE([year],[month],[day]): Returns the current system date, which is controlled by the operating system, or creates a year 2000-compliant Date value. DATETIME([year],[month],[day],[hour],[minute],[second]): Returns the current date and time as a DateTime value, or creates a year 2000-compliant DateTime value.
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DAY(serial_number): Returns the numeric day of the month for a given Date or DateTime expression. DMY(serial_number): Returns a character expression in day-month-year format (for example, 31 May 1998) from a Date or DateTime expression. The month name isn't abbreviated. DTOC(serial_number,[1]) : Returns a Character-type date from a Date or DateTime expression. DTOS(serial_number): Returns a character-string date in a yyyymmdd format from a specified Date or DateTime expression GOMONTH(serial_number,num_month): Returns the date that is a specified number of months before or after a given Date or DateTime expression. HOUR(serial_number): Returns the hour portion from a DateTime expression. MDY(serial_number): Returns the specified date or datetime expression in month-day-year format with the name of the month spelled out. MINUTE(serial_number): Returns the minute portion from a DateTime expression. MONTH(serial_number): Returns the number of the month for a given Date or DateTime expression. SEC(serial_number): Returns the seconds portion from a DateTime expression. SECONDS(serial_number): Returns the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight. TIME():Returns the current system time in 24-hour, eight-character string (hh:mm:ss) format. YEAR(serial_number): Returns the year from the specified date or datetime expression. Shape AREA(): Returns the area of the polygon feature. GETX(): Returns the X coordinate value of the point feature. GETY(): Returns the Y coordinate value of the point feature. LENGTH(): Returns the length of the polyline feature or perimeter of the polygon feature. AREA() can be only used with polygon features; GET() and GETY() can calculate point features only. LENGTH() can calculate both polyline and polygon feature.
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Chapter 5 Editing
Editing Attributes
Each set of attributes contains the detailed information of each feature. As some feature is changed, you can modify its attributes by Edit Attribute window or Attribute Table. Editing attributes is to modify or update the information of the selected features by applying Edit Attributes and Edit Attribute window. Moreover, you also can right-click the layer you
would like to edit and open its attribute table in which you can edit the attributes. However, if you use Identify tool , you can only query the attributes of features. If you would like to edit the
attributes, you have to apply edit tools to modify the information.
Edit Attributes by Edit Attribute Window

While you are editing, you can use Edit Attribute tool on Edit toolbar to modify the attributes
of the selected features. First of all, click Start Editing and Select Features tool. Then, select the features you would like to edit and click Edit Attribute tool. Thus, Edit Attribute window appears, and the attributes of the features display in the right window. Also, you can click the column to modify the values. When you click a feature any of the features in left column in Edit Attribute window, the feature will blink once on the map window.
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You can Zoom to Feature, Pan To Feature, Unselect Features, or Delete Feature in Edit Attribute window. Just right-click the feature in the left column of the window, click the command you would like to implement.
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Chapter 5 Editing
Edit Attributes by Attribute Table

To edit attributes by attribute table, please click Start Editing and Select Features tool and select the features you would like to edit. Then, right-click the layer the selected feature belongs to and click Open Table. As the table is open, it is marked with Editing, and the selected feature is displayed with selection color. You can click the cells to modify the text or numbers.
Edit Attribute window and Attribute table are linked. No matter you modify the information by either of the windows, the information will be updated immediately in the other window.
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6
Managing Attributes
6.1 Managing Attribute Table 6.2 Viewing and Querying Attributes 6.3 Statistics of Attributes
Each feature has its related attribute data; each set of attributes is recorded in the attribute table of the layer. Therefore, this chapter mainly introduces the setting and management of attribute table and the ways to view, query, and calculate attributes. Firstly, Managing Attribute Table introduces how to open, change, and resize an attribute table and to rearrange the columns in an attribute table. In Viewing and Querying Attributes, the functions of viewing and querying attributes are presented. Moreover, the ways to calculate the existing attributes are introduced in Statistics of Attributes.
Chapter 6 Managing Attributes
Each feature has its related attribute data; each set of attributes is recorded in the attribute table of the layer. Therefore, this chapter mainly introduces the setting and management of attribute table and the ways to view, query, and calculate attributes. Firstly, Managing Attribute Table introduces how to open, change, and resize an attribute table and to rearrange the columns in an attribute table. In Viewing and Querying Attributes, the functions of viewing and querying attributes are presented. Moreover, the ways to calculate the existing attributes are introduced in Statistics of Attributes. First of all, before introducing the detailed functions, the interface of the attribute table is introduced first. This table records the attributes of all the features on the layer. The leftmost FID column lists the number of each record. Each row is one set of attributes; each column is a category of attributes. You can choose to show All of the records or the Selected records in Show drop-down menu in the lower-left corner of the table. Besides, you can type the number of the record you want to move in the text box next to Show. Moreover, the Option button provides Find and Replace, Select by Attributes, Select All, Clear Selection, and so on.
FID(Feature ID): lists the serial numbers of each feature, which are zero-based and unique.
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6.1 Managing Attribute Table

You can view the attributes of the features on the map via opening the attribute table. As the table is open, you can change the width of the column, resize the table, or rearrange the columns in the table. These functions are introduced in the section.
Opening attribute table

In map contents window, right-click the layer you want to view the attribute table of and click Open Table to open the attribute table. You can open several attribute tables at once and change the size of the table to view or compare the data easily.
The selection color, text color, and font of the table can be changed in Tools menu Options Table tab.
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Changing the width of column

The columns in the table are displayed with the default width. You can change the width of the column by dragging mouse. First of all, open the attribute table, move the mouse pointer to the edge of the column you would like to resize. As the mouse pointer becomes double-arrow icon, you can click and drag the edge of the column to the desired width. As you are dragging, the edge is displayed with a black line. Drop the edge of the column, and the column is resized. Take the table for instance, the width of the column Handle is changed.
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Resizing an Attribute Table

The attribute table can be enlarged or shirked by users as necessary. As the attribute table is open, move the mouse pointer to any corner and drag the table to the desired size. Drop the corner, and the table is resized.
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Rearranging the columns

The order of the columns in attribute tables can be adjusted by users. Users can use mouse to drag the column; the data in the column will not be changed. Firstly, click the column heading, hold the left key of the mouse, and drag the column to the desired order. Drop the mouse, the column is moved. Take the attribute table for example. Move LENGTH to the place between RPOLY and LPOLY.
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6.2 Viewing and Querying Attributes

To query the data in attribute table more conveniently, you can use some functions, such as Sort Ascending, Freeze/Unfreeze Fields to view the data. Meanwhile, you can select the records of attributes by applying SQL expression, attributes, selection records, etc.
Sorting records in a field

As the attribute table is open, the attributes are listed in the order of the numbers of FID field. Then, you can use Sort Ascending or Sort Descending to change the order of the data in the field.
Take the table for example. It is the attribute table of a road layer. If you want the attribute list to be in ascending order, you can right-click the heading of LENGTH and click Sort Ascending.
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After clicking Sort Ascending, the data in LENGTH field are listed in ascending order and a sign is marked in the heading of the field. If you click Sort Descending, the heading will be marked with . Since the order of the data is changed, the order of FID field will be neither ascending nor descending.
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Freezing/unfreezing field
When you are viewing or editing an attribute table, to compared fields within a large number of fields may be inconveniently. Therefore, you can use Freeze/Unfreeze Field function to freeze the field you would like to compare with. Then the field you choose will be listed in the first column, and you can move the scrollbar to compare with other fields. The function can be utilized either on the status of editing or non-editing. (The data can be edited only on the status of editing.) You only need to right-click the layer you would like to edit and click Open Table. As the table is open, you can right-click the field you want to freeze and click Freeze/Unfreeze Field. then, the field will be moved to the first column, like the heading which cannot be modified. In the sample, AREA field is going to be frozen.
As AREA is frozen, the field is moved to the first column. You can move the scrollbar to view the data.
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Then, you can move the scrollbar to view and edit the attributes. As you do not need to freeze the field, you can right-click the field and click Freeze/Unfreeze Field to unfreeze the field. Then, the field will return to the general status.
What should be noted is that as the field is unfrozen, the field will be left in the first column. If you would like to change the order of the field, please drag the field by mouse to the new position.
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Moving to the Specific Record

You can use the text box at the bottom of the attribute table to view the specific record. To set the specific record you want to view, open the attribute table and type the sequence of the record in the text box besides Show drop-down list. Then, press Enter key, and the table scrolls to the record you specify.
Take the table for example. Type 46 in the text box and press Enter key. The table scrolls to the 46th record.
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Finding records by specifying text or number

Besides typing the number, you also can click Option button and click Find and Replace. In this window, you can type the text or number you would like to find and also select the field you want to find record from. The default field is <all fields>. Moreover, you can choose whether to tick Match whole word only and Match case. If Match whole word only is ticked, the record containing the string exactly matching the text will be selected. If Match case is ticked, the case of the letters matching the condition will be selected. Moreover, the search direction can be set, and click Find Next to search the next record.
As the searching is finished, the system will display Search has completed
window
to remind you that the search has finished.
If you are not in the status of editing, you can only use Find function and Replace function is not available.
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Selecting all records

Click Option button on the lower-right corner of the attribute table and click Select All. Then, all of the records of the table are selected. The features corresponding to the features are displayed with the selection symbol.
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Clearing selection
If you would like to clear the selected records, you can click Option button on the lower-right corner of the attribute table and click Clear Selection to clear all of the selected records.
If you only need to clear some specific records, you can use mouse with Ctrl or Shift keys to clear the selection.
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Switching selection
When you have selected some records in the attribute table, you would like to clear the selections to select those unselected records, you can click Option button and click Switch Selection. For example, the first three records are selected. Then, click Clear Selection,
The first three records are unselected; the number 3 and 4 records become selected.
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Viewing the attributes of the selected features

After clicking Start Editing, you can select the features with Select Features tool. If you want to view the attributes of the selected features, you can right-click the layer the selected features belong to and click Open Table. Then, the attribute table opens. The table displays all of the records, but the records of the selected features are displayed with selection color. If you want the table to display the selected records only, please choose Selected in the Show drop-down menu. Then, the table shows the selected records only.
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Selecting features by selecting records

There are several ways to select features in SuperGIS Desktop, one of which is to select the records in the attribute table. With the table, you can select the records, the selected records will be displayed with the selection color. The features in the map corresponding to the selected records will be selected at the same time. Besides, you also can right-click the FID field to choose Select/Unselect to select or unselect the records of features.
While selecting the records, you can press the Shift key with mouse to do Range-Select to select features in a certain range. Or you can press Ctrl key with mouse to do Multi-Select.
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Selecting features by attributes

In addition to select features by selecting records, users can click Option button and click Select By Attributes. Then, Select by Attributes window shows. In this window, you can select the layer you would like to query and set the selection mode. Also, you can select the field name in Fields and the attribute value in Values. Then, the expression you set will be displayed in the text box at the bottom of the window (to select the field name or value, please double-click). As the expression is set already, please click Query. Then, the features matching the expression will be selected.
Take the map for example. Choose school for layer and New selection for selection mode, then set [ITEM_NAME]= park as the expression. Then, click Query. The features in the map window matching the expression will be selected. Meanwhile, Select by Attribute window will show the number of the found records in the map window.
4 selection modes are provided:

New selection: Clear the previous records and select features by the current expression. Append selection: Append the current records to the previous records. Remove from current selection: Remove the current records from the previous records.
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Select from current selection: Select the records from the previous records.
The operators in Select by Attributes window: Equal to can be used for calculation with numeric and comparison with strings. [area] = 1945 means that features whose [area] field is 1945 will be selected. [GROUPNAME] = 'park' means that features whose GROUPNAME field exactly matches park will be selected.
Less than
, Greater than
, Less than or equal to
, Not equal to
, Greater than or
equal to
all can be used for calculation with numeric. [length] >= 210 means features whose length is greater than or equal to 210
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will be selected.
can be used to combine more than one expression. [GROUPNAME] = 'park' AND [length] > 210 will select the features whose GROUPNAME field is park and the perimeter is greater than 210. [GROUPNAME] = 'school' OR [area] >2000 will select the features whose GROUPNAME field is school or the area is greater than 2000. (The selected features only need to match one of the expressions.) [ITEM_NAME1] = 'primary school' NOT [area] > 1900 will select the features whose ITEM_NAME1 field is primary school but the area is not greater than 1900.
is usually used with any group of characters.
and
represents any single character and
represents
[ITEM_NAME1] LIKE '?unior high school' will select the features whose ITEM_NAME1 field is junior high school because ? represents any single character. [ITEM_NAME1] LIKE '% school' will select the features whose ITEM_NAME1 field might be primary school, junior high school, senior high school because % represents any group of characters.
means the expression in the bracket need to be calculated first. [area] < 2*( [length] + 1000) will select the features whose area field must be less than twice the results of length plus 1000.
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Saving SQL expression

In Select by Attributes window, you can click Save to save the SQL expression you have created. When Save as window appears, choose the path to save the file. The file will be saved as *.exp file. Next time when you need to use the same expression to query attributes, you can load the saved SQL expression directly to query.
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Loading SQL expression

When you need to use the saved SQL expression in Select by Attributes window, you can click Load to load the saved expression to the window. In Open window, click the *.exp file you need and click Open. Then, the expression will be displayed in Select by Attributes window.
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6.3 Statistics of Attributes

The basic statistics is allowed to do in the attribute table. You can do the statistics only with the assigned field or some specific records. If the field is not numeric field, Field Statistics will be unavailable. The more advanced function, Field Calculator is introduced in Editing Attributes in.
Field statistics
In attribute table, you can right-click any field name to display the menu. Click Field Statistics, and Statistics of All Features window is open. You can choose the layer and the filed you would like to calculate. The statistics results include: count, minimum, maximum, sum, mean, and standard deviation.
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Statistics of selected features

You may only need some features to do statistics in the attribute table, and you can click FID field to select the records you need. Then, click Selection menu in the top menu bar to click Statistics, and Statistics of Selected Features window appears. You can choose the layer and the field you would like to do statistics; the statistics results, like count, minimum, maximum, sum, mean, and standard deviation, will be updated and displayed in the window.
Take the table for instance. There are 5 records selected; you can click Selection Statistics and choose the field name. Thus, the statistics results will show in the window.
Statistics of Selected Features help you to do statistics with the assigned features, while Statistics of All Features is to process with all features of a layer.
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Exporting the attributes

Option button at the lower-right corner of the attribute table provides Export Data function. Click the function, and Export Table window appears. You can choose to export all records or export all selected records and also specify the export path and type. Then, click OK to save.
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There are two types of file format, dBase Table and Text Files, for users to export attributes. If you chose Text Files, the attribute table will be exported as Notepad file, like the figure below.
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7
Setting and Managing Graphics
7.1 Editing and Managing Text 7.2 Editing Graphics 7.3 Styles of Graphics 7.4 Inserting New Objects
Besides the accurate and clear display, a complete map containing text labels and graphics will be more readable. Clear features on the map can show the correct geographic data, and the use of variable graphics and texts on the map can not only help users to know what the features are but also highlight some areas on the map. In this chapter, what is going to be introduced is the method to edit and manage the texts and how to edit the style, position of the text, etc. Then, the method to edit the style, position of graphics will be presented as well.
Chapter 7 Setting and Managing Graphics
7.1Editing and Managing Text

In using text labels, you will need to apply the functions on Draw toolbar, like the graph below:
Rotate Left Line Color Italics
Drawing Graphics
Font Size
Select Graphics Text
Label
Font
Bold Fill Color Text Color Underline
Draw toolbar is one of the default toolbars. As you open SuperGIS Desktop 3, if the toolbar is not displayed, you can right-click a toolbar and tick Draw, the toolbar will be added.
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Adding Text
When you need to add texts on the map, you can use Text tool to add the text. Firstly, click Text dropdown list, choose the text type you need, text, callout, or rectangle. Then, you can click the position you would like to add texts in the map window, and the Graphics Properties window shows up.
First of all, take Text for example. After clicking in the map window, the Graphics Properties window shows up and contains two tabs, Text and Position. You are allowed to type the text string in Text tab and choose the alignment and font.
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Position tab displays the position of the graphics (the XY coordinates are the position of the lower-left corner of the graphics) and the size. You can modify the position, width, and height of the graphics in the tab. In addition, you can name the graphics in Name textbox, and it will not influence the text in the graphics.
After all of the settings are completed, click OK and the text symbol is added.
Moreover, if you choose callout, you can also click the position you would like to add the text. Then, the Graphics Properties window shows up. In Text tab, type the text string; in Position tab, you can view and modify the position and size of the graphics. Meanwhile, the line, marker and fill style can be modified in the Symbol tab.
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However, if you choose Rectangle, you have to drag a rectangle in the map window and click the rectangle with Select Graphics tool the display contents. to open the Graphic Properties window and to modify
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Moving the Text Symbol

If the position of the text in the map window does not fit your need, you can click Select Graphics tool on the Draw toolbar and click the text you would like to move. The text framed with blue
dashes means the text can be moved by dragging. As you drag to the position you need, you can release the mouse and the text is moved.
If you want to move multiple texts, you can select multiple texts first and move the texts by dragging.
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Display Text Symbol of Individual Features

When you want to add the text symbol of individual feature, you need to decide what you want to display first. The text might be the name of the feature, class name, city name, etc. Therefore, firstly you need to double-click the name of the layer the feature you want to label belongs to in the table of contents, and the Layer Properties window appears. In Fields tab, you can assign a filed in the Primary Field, and the contents of the field will be the contents of the text symbol. Then, you can click Label tool feature will be labeled. on Draw Toolbar and click the feature you want to label. The
The text symbols will not be zoomed in/out as the map is zoomed; in Layout View, the label will be zoomed in/out as the scale of the layout view is changed.
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After you select the text symbols by Select Graphics tool
, you can right-click the
symbols and choose Properties. Then, the Graphics Properties window appears, and you can edit the color and style of the selected text symbols at the same time. However, what should be noted is that since the text strings might be different, the text tab will not display the text strings. Therefore, you are not able to modify the text string. Additionally, the XY coordinates means the lower-left corner of the frame of the selected graphics.
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7.2 Editing Graphics

This section is going to introduce the manipulations of graphics, like add, move, remove, copy, resize, etc. What will be presented first is the styles of the built-in graphics, and then the basic manipulation will be introduced.
Introduction to Graphics
As you are editing graphics, you would need the Draw toolbar. SuperGIS Desktop 3 provides several styles of graphics. Users can choose the style from the Drawing Graphics dropdown list. The Default Graphic Styles function enables users to set the default style of graphics, and users will be able to add the graphics according to the default style.
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Adding Graphics
Click Drawing Graphics dropdown list on Draw toolbar and choose the style you would like to add (the default is rectangle). Then, drag with the mouse to create a rectangle graphic, release the mouse, and click on the blank. A new rectangle graphic is added. If you would like to add other styles of graphics, such as ellipse, polygon, etc, you can click the Drawing Graphics dropdown list to choose the style. The ways to add other styles are similar to the way to add a
rectangle. To create polylines or polygons, you need to click to add vertices of the graphics. You can repeat the actions till the graphic is completed. You can double-click to finish the editing.
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Moving Graphics
Click the graphic, and as the mouse cursor becomes an arrow, you can move the graphic. Move to the new position, and you can release the mouse. The graphic is moved.
Before editing graphics, you need to click Select Graphics tool and edit graphics until the mouse cursor becomes an arrow.
first. You cannot select
Besides dragging with mouse, you can also move the graphics by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard.
Deleting Graphics
Right-click the graphic you want to delete, and choose Delete. The graphic is deleted. You can also select the graphic you want to delete and press Delete button on the keyboard to delete the graphic.
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Copying Graphics
Right-click the graphic you want to copy and choose Copy. Then, right-click again and choose Paste. The graphic is copied and pasted on the map. Moreover, you can also press the Ctrl button and click a graphic at the same time and drag the graphic to copy the graphic.
If you would like to copy multiple graphics, you can select the graphics and press the Ctrl button to copy the graphics by dragging.
Resizing Graphics
Select a graphic, and the graphic will be displayed with several drag points. You can use mouse to drag the drag points to resize the graphic. While you are resizing the graphic, you can press Shift button at the same time and the system will automatically adjust the rectangle to a square and maintain the ratio.
The methods to edit the graphics mentioned above can be retrieved by Undo
and
Redo
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Properties of Default Graphic Styles

The Default Graphic Styles function in Drawing Graphics dropdown list allows users to set the marker, line, fill, font, and callout styles. You can click the buttons to enter the setting windows to set the properties. After all the settings are completed, click OK. As a result, when you add the text symbols or graphics, they will be displayed according to the default settings.
The display of the Draw toolbar will be modified according to your settings.
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7.3 Styles of Graphics

This section primary introduces the color and line of graphics, how to rotate the graphics, and the ratio of the graphics.
Changing the Color of Graphics

There are two ways to change the color of graphics. First, you can right-click the graphic you want to edit and click Properties. Then, Graphics Properties window appears. In Symbol tab, you can click Fill button to choose the color you need. As the settings are done, click OK. The other way is to select the graphic you want to edit and click Fill Color button you need. Then, the color of the graphic will be modified simultaneously. to choose the color
Besides right-click the graphic and choose Properties, to double-click the graphic can also open Graphic Properties window.
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Changing the Line Style of Graphics

Right-click the graphic you want to edit and click Properties. In Symbol tab, click Style and choose the style in Symbol Selector window. Also, you can set the color, width, transparency, and whether to use Anti-alias and Round pen. As you complete the settings, click OK to finish the settings.
The outlines of other graphic styles can also be set by clicking Style > Outline.
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Rotating and Flipping Graphics

Right-click the graphic you want to edit and choose Rotate and Flip. You can choose Rotate Right, Rotate Left, Flip Horizontally, or Flip vertically. Rotate Right and Rotate Left are to rotate the graphic by 90 degrees right or left. Flip Horizontally is to flip the graphic from left to right; Flip Vertically is to flip the graphic from top to bottom.
Rotate Right
Rotate Left
Flip Horizontally
Flip Vertically
In addition to the Rotate and Flip function in the right-click menu, you can also apply
the
on Graphics toolbar to rotate or flip graphics.
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Maintaining the Ratio of Graphics

To tick Maintain Ratio can make the ratio of the graphic fixed while the graphic is being dragged and resized. Firstly, select a graphic and right-click it. Choose Properties, tick Maintain Ratio in Position tab, and click OK. The ratio of the width and length of the graphic is fixed.
If Maintain Ratio is not ticked, there will be 8 handles of the graphic to adjust the width and
length the ratio..
; however, if Maintain ratio is ticked, there will be only 4 handles to adjust
All types of graphics can set Maintain Ratio. The default setting of Mark Ratio so that users can only adjust the width and length with the fixed ratio.
is Maintain
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Setting the Style of Multiple Graphics

When there are more than one graphic on your map, you can use Graphics toolbar to group the elements or order the elements. Meanwhile, you can also apply the right-click menu to edit multiple graphics.
Grouping Graphics
Group is the collection of multiple graphics and is able to group the graphics, so it is easier for users to edit the grouped graphics, like moving, resizing, and rotating. First, you need to select the graphics you want to group, right-click the selected graphics, and choose Group. Also, you can select the graphics and click the Group button graphics. on Graphics toolbar to group the
If the grouped graphics belong to the same type, you can edit the properties of the graphics.
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Ungrouping Graphics
Ungrouping is to make the graphics previously in the group become individual graphics. The way to ungroup is to right-click the group and click Ungroup. Or you can click the Ungroup button on Graphics toolbar and make the grouped graphics be individual graphics.
Multiple graphics can form a group; a group can be composed of several groups. That is to say, you can select multiple groups to form a new group. If you ungroup the new group, the groups formerly in the new group will be individual groups.
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Ordering Graphics
When you are drawing graphics in the map window and the graphics might be overlapped, you may need to adjust the order of graphics to reorder the graphics. First of all, right-click the graphics you want to reorder, choose the ordering option you need, for example, Move Forward. Then, the graphic will be moved forward.
Besides using the functions in the right-click menu, you can also utilize the buttons
on Graphics toolbar to reorder the graphics.
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Aligning Graphics
There are 6 methods to align the graphics, like Align Left, Align Center, Align Right, Align Top, Align Vertical Center, and Align Bottom. To select the graphics you want to position, you can select the graphic by pressing Shift button at the same time. As the graphics you need are selected, you can right-click the graphics, and the menu appears. Click Alignment and choose an alignment option you need. The dominant graphic is the last one you select.
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Align Top
Align Vertical Center
Align Bottom
The last selected graphic is the dominant one framed with blue handles. Besides the
right-click menu, you can use the buttons the graphics.
on Graphics toolbar to align
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Distributing Graphics
To adjust the distribution of graphics, you can use Space Across and Space Down to make the graphics equidistant from each other. Space Across and Space Down both can be only applied to 3 or more than 3 graphics. Therefore, after the graphics are selected, right-click the selected graphics and choose Space Across or Space Down. Space Across will use the leftmost graphic as the dominant one to make the graphics distributed with equal spacing between each other. Space Down utilizes the top one as the dominant graphic. In addition, you can select the graphics and click the Space Across and Space Down tools distribute the graphics. on Graphics toolbar to
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Resizing Multiple Graphics

Different drawing methods may cause the graphics to be different sizes. If you want to make the graphics the same size, width, and height, you can apply the Size options. Firstly, select the graphics (you can click and press and hold Shift key at the same time to do multi-select), right-click, and choose the Size option you need. The dominant graphic is the last one you selected. Take the picture for example. The right green rectangle is the last selected graphic and framed with blue handles. Also, the green rectangle is the dominant graphic for resizing.
Make Same Width
Make Same Height
Make Same Size
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Converting Features to Graphics

If you want to apply the selected features on the map to other uses, such as illustration in a book, you can use the function to convert the features to graphics and edit the graphics with the graphic tools. Firstly, select the features you want to convert to graphics in the map window, right-click a layer name in the table of contents, and choose Convert to Graphics. In the Convert to Graphics window, choose the layer the selected features belong to. You can choose either to convert All Features or Selected Features. As the setting is completed, click OK to finish the conversion.
After the conversion is finished, if the new graphics needs editing, you need to use the tools on Draw toolbar. Therefore, when selecting the graphics, you need to use Select Graphics tool ; when selecting features, you need to use Select Features tool
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7.4 Inserting New Objects

Users are allowed to insert standard Windows OLE objects on the map or on the layout view, for example Excel graphic, PowerPoint, Visio Drawing, Word, bitmap image, Graph 2000 graph, etc. The OLE object will be saved with the project file. So, the object will be loaded as the project is launched next time. What should be noted is that SuperGIS Desktop only provides the environment for inserting objects so that the objects cannot be edited in SuperGIS Desktop. Users need to edit the documents in the specific manipulation environments, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on. Click Insert > New Object in Edit menu, and Insert Object window appears. You can choose either Crate New or Crate from File. If you choose Create New, you need to choose the object type. If you choose Crate from File, you have to input the path for the file. Moreover, if Display As Icon is ticked, the new object will be displayed as an icon instead of the contents. If you choose Create from File, you can choose whether to tick Link or not. If Link is ticked, the pictures of the file will be inserted into the map and the picture will be linked to the file. Therefore, the changes of the file will be also displayed on the map.
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Take the map for example. Open Insert Object window, choose Create New and choose Adobe Acrobat Document. Display As Icon is ticked. Then click OK and choose the file you want to insert in Open window. The icon of the file is added on the map.
The way to edit the icon is the same as to edit graphics. You can modify its style, size, etc. Also, you can double-click the icon to open the file.
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If you would like to add the existing file into the map window, you can choose Create from File in Insert Object window. Then, click Browse to find the file you want to insert and tick Display As Icon. Click OK, and the map window will be like the lower-right graph.
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8
Layout and Printing Map
8.1 About Layout View 8.2 Setting Map Properties 8.3 Editing Text Label 8.4 Setting Scale and North Arrow 8.5 Editing Legends and Graphic Elements 8.6 Map Layout 8.7 Exporting a Map
In the previous chapter, we have introduced the methods to edit features, layers, text labels, and graphics. The chapter will present how to set the edited map and export the map. First of all, we will show the layout view and help users to know the relationship and difference between map window and layout window. Then, the ways to set and edit map properties and the associated elements, such as text label, scale bar, north arrow, etc. At last, we will introduce how to use each template to export the map.
Chapter 8 Layout and Printing Maps
8.1 About Layout View

Once you have finished a map, you can switch to Layout View and make it present as layout view. Besides the map, the elements of layout map include scale bar, compass, title and legend; each element is provided in different types for users to edit and apply. More, rulers are displayed at the top and the left side of the map so that users can easily arrange the layout. The unit of paper displayed on ruler can be set in File on the main menu Layout Page of Print Setup.
If you want to hide the rulers, click View on the main menu and uncheck Ruler.
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Opening Layout View

Open SuperGIS Desktop, the Map View displays by default. Firstly overlap the related layers on Map View then click View on the main menu Layout View to switch window to Layout View, after that you can start to edit the layout.
Or press Ctrl+Tab on the keyboard to fast switch to map view or layout view.
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About Layout Tools

When Map View is switched to Layout View, Layout View toolbar is automatically added to the toolbars. Layout tools are for the elements and layout use in Layout View, which do not work in the Map View. Therefore, the Layout toolbar is hidden when working with Map View, and revealed as soon as switching to Layout View.
Zoom Out
Toggle Draft Mode
Full Extent
Previous Extent
Next Extent
Clicking Zoom In or Zoon Out can zoom in or zoom out part of the layout view. Pan, Fixed Zoom In, Fixed Zoom Out and Full Extent can adjust the entire map. Besides Previous Extent and Next Extent allows you to view the previous map extent or next map extent as you are adjusting the map. Click the Layout Scale dropdown menu and select the layout view scale or you can directly type the needed scale. Toggle Draft Mode can resize the map layout. Change Layout can load templates or save the current map layout as new template.
When you want to edit graphic elements on the map, please click Select Graphics then select the element to edit.
Zoom In
Layout Scale
Change Layout
Pan
Fixed Zoom Out
Fixed Zoom In
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Setting Printer Properties

After the layout and properties are set up, directly click File on the main menu and click Printer Setup. Or you can right-click on the Layout View and select Printer Setup. Printer Setup dialog box shows up and then set up the printing orientation Portrait or Landscape as well as the paper size. Besides, you can check Use custom page setting and choose the needed paper size and unit or specify width and height by yourself. The unit you set will be displayed at the status bar when you are using layout view. In addition, if Show printer margin at the bottom of the window is checked, the Layout View will display the printing margin; if unchecked, no margin displays.
When the printer properties are set up, the settings will be stored in the project. When you open the project next time, you can print the map according to the original settings.
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8.2 Setting Map Properties

Many properties are included in Map View, when switching to Layout View the properties you want to display can be set by checking them on Graphics Properties dialog box. The unchecked items will not be displayed on the Layout View but still existed in Map View. Two ways to open the Graphics Properties dialog box, right-click the map and select Properties or right-click on the empty location outside the map, and click Insert Map Frame.
In the Graphics Properties dialog box Map and Position can be set. The map properties contain Set Visible Items, Frame Style, Visible Layers, Use Extent, Show Grid Lines and Background. In Choose Visible Items set the items you want to output, however, Layer is a must-choose item, it cannot be deleted. You can choose the style and color of frame in Frame Style. In Visible Layer give a check to the layer that you want to output to the map. Use Extent can select the layer extent to display in the frame. Besides in Show Grid Lines can decide whether to show the grid lines and choose the background style. The background settings are for layout view only, which has no influence on background of the map window.
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In the Position tab of the Graphics Properties dialog box, the position and size of frame can be set. The XY coordinates take the lower left corner of the frame as the origin that users can directly enter the value to change the position; also users can directly input values to width and height to change the frame size. If Maintain Ratio is checked, when either width or height is changed, the entire frame size will be changed automatically with the original ratio.
Choosing Output Items

Users can set the output items according to needs. Firstly, open the Graphics Properties dialog box of Layout View, in Choose Visible Items at the upper left corner of the dialog box some items are provided for your options, including Layer, Chart, Label, Feature Selection and Graphics. Among them Layer is a must-choose item, you cannot delete it. The unchecked items will still display in the map window but will not show in the Layout View.
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Setting Visible Layers and Specifying Extent

At the upper right corner of the Graphics Properties dialog box, Visible Layer has listed out all of the layers in Table of Contents, you can check the layer you want to output; at the lower right corner, Use Extent has listed out all of the layers in Table of Contents and Current Extent that you can specify the frame extent the checked layer; if Current Extent is checked, the current extent will be the layer extent. If any item of Use Extent is selected, the map extent is fixed and no more zooming in or out can function.
Setting Frame Style

The frame is designed to add a frame circling the map or grid lines when display the Layout View, which is different from the frame that circles the entire map. Users can decide whether to set frame based on the needs. To set the frame, open Graphics Properties dialog box first, in Frame Style choose a suitable frame type, and set color of the frame on color dropdown menu.
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Setting Map Grid

With the map grid, users can label the map coordinates on the Layout View according to X and Y axis in different areas. Firstly, open the Graphics Properties dialog box, check Show Grid Lines and click OK to show the grid lines in the Layout View.
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To set advanced grid line properties, click Grid Settings in Graphics Properties dialog box. Firstly, choose the type for grids, Latitude/Longitude or Measured Grid. If you choose the former, you can set degree, minute, second for longitude and latitude respectively. If you choose the latter, you can set the size for the grid. Furthermore, if the coordinate system of your map is projected coordinate system, you can still use Latitude/Longitude. The system can transfer the coordinate system to the geographic coordinate system. What should be noted is that if the map is not defined with coordinate system, you cannot use Latitude/Longitude. Moreover, you can click Style button to set the color, style of the grid line. In addition, the label of coordinates can choose Show text labels only or Show text tables and grid lines. The former shows the text labels of coordinates only without the grid lines, while the later shows both the text labels of coordinates and the grid lines. Moreover, you can choose whether to use All Borders and Corners. The figure below is the result of selecting Show coordinates at corners.
In the Graphics Properties dialog box you can also set whether to Show Major Tick and Show Minor Tick. Tick Count refers to the number of tick contained in a box. Lets take the three figures below for illustration, the figure in the left is the result of not checking Show Major Tick and Show Minor Tick, so it shows text labels and unit only. The figure in the middle is the result of checking Show Major Tick only so the text labels, unit and major tick are displayed. The figure in the right is the result of checking both Show Major Tick and Show Minor Tick and Tick Count is 2 so it displays text labels, unit and major ticks, besides, between the major ticks two ticks are placed to represent the minor ticks.
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Due to the text labels of map grid is displayed on the top and left side of the map by default, if you also want to label on the right side and bottom, click Show Both at the bottom in the Grid Line Properties dialog box and the grid line labels display as below.
Click the Font button at the lower right corner in Grid Line Properties dialog box to show the Font dialog box. Here you can set the style, size and color.
Maintaining Ratio
Besides the map you want to output can be resized, the frame of output map can also be resized. See the figures below; figure in lower left side is with original map ratio, while the figure in lower right is the frame with adjusted ratio. Due to the Maintain Ratio in the Graphics Properties dialog box is not checked, the frame size can be adjusted without restrictions. However if you want to fix the frame ratio, please click Maintain Ratio in the Position tab of the Graphics Properties dialog box.
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The figure in lower right is the frame result with Maintain Ratio checked.
Multiple Frames
In the Layout View multiple frames with different extents can be placed together for display. For example, one frame displays the full extent of the map and the other frame displays partial of the extent. Take the figures below for example, if you want to add a frame to the map in lower left, select the frame with Select Graphics tool, right-click to show menu and select Copy. Then paste the frame to the layout by pressing Ctrl+V of keyboard, see the figure in lower right.
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After the frame is pasted, adjust the display extent in the frame. However when the extent of one of the frames is zoomed or adjusted, the extent of the other will be influenced, too. Therefore, it is better to adjust the extent of one of the frames first, then open the Graphics Properties dialog box and check Current Extent in Use Extent to fix the map extent of the frame so that the map extent will no longer change while the other frame extent changes. In the next, you can adjust the map extent of the other frame. In other words, you need to uncheck Current Extent in Use Extent of Graphics Properties dialog box for the frame you need to adjust extent; as to the frame that you do not need to change extent should check Current Extent. The adjusted map should be displayed as the figure in lower right side.
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Exporting Attribute Table

Properties table is able to be added to the output map in SuperGIS Desktop through Add to Layout function, which is to display the properties table on the layout in the form of graphic for print use. In addition, the color, font and beginning ID of the table graphic can be set, even it can set to show only the selected records.
If you want to add the properties table to layout, switch to the Layout View, open the properties table of the layer that you want to add to the layout, and then click OptionsAdd to Layout. The properties table will be displayed on the layout in the form of graphic, please see the figure in lower right. The added properties table can be resized by the Select Graphics tool, if you want to change the style of the table, double-click the table to show Table Properties dialog box.
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In Table Properties dialog box the header, table background, grid color of the properties table you want to add can be modified. Header and the font of the records can be set by clicking Edit according to the needs. See figure in lower right side
In selection, you can select whether to check Only show selected records and Apply selection color. If you already select features in the map window, when you check Only show selected records, the properties table shows the selected features attribute data only, see figure in lower left side. If you check Apply selection color, the properties table shows all the properties data, and the selected features attribute data are represented in selection color.
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8.3 Editing Text Labels

Users can use text label function to name the title, create the descriptions or do works related to text editing. Take the below figure for example, map title is also a sort of text label. You can use Select Graphics tool on the Draw toolbar to click text element or double-click the graphic
element to open the Graphics Properties dialog box.
Graphics Properties dialog box includes the Text and Position tabs. You can enter the text you want to display and click the Font button to select font, style, size, color and effect. And select the alignment style. In the Position tab, the Position and Size of the text labels can be set.
The other way to open Graphics Properties dialog box is to right-click the text label and select Properties on the menu.
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8.4 Setting Scale Bar and North Arrow

This section will introduce how to insert and edit scale bar and north arrow. In editing scale bar contents, the scale bar style, division and unit can be set; in editing north arrow contents, the north arrow style, font and color can be set. The settings of both can be set according to users preference and needs.
The way to add scale bar and north arrow to the map is to right-click on the empty location in the Layout View to show the menu and click InsertScale Bar or North Arrow. When the scale bar and north arrow are added to the map, you can select the scale bar style in its Graphics Properties dialog box and set the related settings.
Besides the methods mentioned above, click Edit on the main menu Insert, and select the graphic element to add, such as North Arrow, Scale Bar or so.
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Editing Scale Bar

The style, division, unit of the scale bar can be set in its Graphics Properties dialog box. Firstly click Select Graphics tool and double-click Scale Bar graphic element to open the Graphics Properties dialog box. Or you can open the Graphics Properties dialog box of scale bar by right-clicking the Scale Bar element and select Properties on the menu.
In the Scale Bar tab of Graphics Properties dialog box, the scale bar style is provided in numerous types for your options. In Division at the upper right corner of the dialog, Division contains Count and Sub Div. dropdown menus. Count means the major division count on the scale bar and the Sub Div. refers the division count of the first division on the scale bar. Take the below two figures for illustration, the figure in the left side is the scale bar with division count of 3 and sub-division count of 0; the figure in the right side is the scale bar with division count of 3 and sub-division count of 2, therefore the scale bar is divided into three major divisions, and the first major division is further divided into two minor divisions.
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Besides, if the Division before zero is checked, zero will be shown right after the first division.
In the Graphics Properties dialog box, Unit and Number Position can be set. Number can align above or below. Fixed Interval can adjust the division interval the value you select on the dropdown menu (or you can directly type the value you need.) In Color, located the lower right corner of the Graphics Properties of scale bar, colors of scale bar text, line and fill can be set. Take the figure below for example, the unit is Meter, number position aligns below bar, the colors of text, line and fill are set green.
In addition, in the Position tab of Graphics Properties dialog box, the position and size of scale bar element can be set directly. The XY coordinates in Position uses lower left corner of the element as the origin, please directly input the needed coordinate location. The width and height of the element can also be set by inputting a value. If Maintain Ratio is checked, when you enter width or height item, the other item will change automatically based on the original ratio.
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Editing North Arrow

A number of north arrow styles are provided with SuperGIS Desktop for editing layout use. Firstly click Select Graphics and double-click North Arrow graphic element to open the Graphics
Properties dialog box. Or right-click North Arrow element and select Properties on the menu to open the Graphics Properties dialog box.
In the Graphics Properties dialog box of North Arrow, numerous north arrow styles are provided for options that you can change the color according to needs. In addition, Rotation function can adjust the angle of north arrow by clicking the upward and downward arrow to set a value or directly inputting a value in edit box. Preview will show the result according to the settings of Style, Color and Rotation. After the settings are finished, click OK to complete the settings of North Arrow.
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8.5 Editing Legends and Graphic Elements

In map layout, legends are considered as the graphic elements, too. About Legends, a Graphics Properties dialog box of legend is provided for editing and setting legends use. In which, you can set to show title or not, contents to display, layers to show legends and legend style. To display its Graphics Properties dialog box, right-click in the Layout View, click Insert on the menu and click Legend.
The Draw Graphics function on Draw toolbar can also be used in Layout View. In the settings of Layout View, all the map, north arrow, scale bar are considered as the graphic elements. Therefore, all the elements in the layout view can use the related tools on the menu to edit through right-clicking the mouse. Or select a graphic element and use the function key on the Graphics toolbar to adjust the order of elements (for example, move forward, move backward, bring to front or bring to back) or flip elements horizontally or vertically.
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Inserting Legend Element

The legend element is the contents of legend in Table of Contents, you can set the layer to display and spacing in the Graphics Properties dialog box of legend. To insert legend graphic elements, first right-click on the Layout View window to show the layout view function menu, click Insert Legend and its Graphics Properties dialog box shows up.
In the upper area of the Legend Properties page, you can choose whether to Show Title, set Align Left, Align Center or Align Right or you can set the font and style of the title. Legend is the default title or you can change it to fit your needs. Besides, in the middle of the dialog box, you can set the layer to show legend and set the font and color of legend text. The legends will follow the layers visibility settings in map contents as priority to display on the layout view, in other words, if a layer is set invisible in Map contents, when such layer is set to show legend here, the legend will not show, neither. If you want the settings in this dialog box have priority, check Ignore display check in Map Content Window and show the legends of the selected layers. About the
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arrangement of legend, you can choose to begin a new column per layer or follow previous layer to show the legends. If you check Begin a new column per layer that each layers legends will be displayed in a new column.
In the bottom of the dialog box, the background style and spacing of the legend can be set. The settings include Title and Items, Layer, Items, Columns, Patch/Labels, Margin Y and Margin X.
Take the figure below for example. In the Graphics Properties tab, Show Title is checked and Align Center is set. Three layers are set to show legends, the background is set to fill with light downward in orange color, the space between title and item is 5, between layers is 10, between items is 3, between columns is 10, between patch and label is 8, margin x is 10, margin y is 5. When all of the settings are finished, press OK and the legend element will display as figure in lower left side.
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Inserting Graphic Elements

In the Layout View, the graphic elements on the Draw toolbar can be inserted to make the appearance of the map look fine. The graphic element can draw as the map frame, please see figure below. Click the rectangle on the Graphic Elements dropdown menu on the Draw toolbar to add a rectangle to the map. You can edit size, color and style of this rectangle.
The rectangle you added to the map will display on the top level of all graphic elements, therefore, after size and color of the rectangle is adjusted as your needs, right-click the rectangle and click Order Bring to Back so that the graphic element will be brought to the bottom of all graphic elements.(About the settings of graphic elements please refer to the description related to text labels and graphic labels.)
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8.6 Map Layout

After the layout settings are finished, now we are going to start the map exporting. In the section, exporting a map will be explained in two parts: changing layout template and exporting map.
Change Layout Template is to apply the templates provided by SuperGIS Desktop to the output map, making the layout arrangement easier. Two ways are provided to open Change Layout Template, click the Change Layout button on the right-most of Layout View toolbar or right-click on the Layout View window and select Change Template to show the Layout Template dialog box.
Export Map refers to outputting the laid out map to files, exporting to image files for easy output or other documentary files use.
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Changing Layout
When switching to Layout View, system will display the map in default template. If you want to apply to other templates, please open the Layout Template dialog box, select a template to use, and click OK so the map will be re-arranged according to the template. The contents will be arranged according to the template, but the element styles will display as the settings.
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8.7 Exporting a Map

After the settings and arrangement of the related elements of the Layout View are finished, if you want to export the map to an image file, directly click FileExport Map to export the map to image file.
The supported image file formats for exporting map includes bmp, jpg, png, tiff and gif. Export map to graphics file box offers different options to set for different file formats.
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9
Querying Maps
9.1 Viewing Maps 9.2 Querying Maps 9.3 Selecting Features
In SuperGIS Desktop, users can use the tools to the various information of the map. The tools on Tools toolbar allows users to zoom in/out the map, measure the length, area, perimeter of the features. Furthermore, In SuperGIS Desktop, users can also query the features and the attributes. Additionally, several ways to select features are also provided for users to use.
Chapter 9 Querying Maps
While querying the maps, users may need the tools on Tools toolbar.
Line Measurement
Mask
Refresh
Hyperlink
Zoom out
Previous Extent
Select Features
Clear Select
Full Extent
Next Extent
In this chapter, besides the introduction to the tools on the Tools toolbar, the methods to query features and to select features will be presented as well.
Zoom in
Pan
Find
Fixed Zoom out
Fixed Zoom in
Identify
Remove Mask
i o n
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9.1 Viewing Maps

A complete map contains a number of data, including features of different types, attributes, etc. These data can be displayed in SuperGIS Desktop, and users can query the attributes tools. In this section, we will introduce the navigation tools on Tools toolbar.
Zoom in/out
Zoom in tool and Zoom out tool enable users to zoom in/out a certain area on the
map. Firstly, click zoom in/out tool, drag a rectangle to cover the area you would like to zoom in/out. As the rectangle is dragged, release the mouse, and the area is zoomed in/out directly. Besides clicking the buttons on toolbar, you can press Z button on keyboard to switch the mouse cursor to Zoom in tool and press X button to switch to Zoom out tool.
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Pan
Click Pan tool , and the mouse cursor becomes . You can pan the whole map by
dragging, and the map scale will not be changed. Also, you can press C button on keyboard to switch the mouse cursor to Pan tool.
Fixed Zoom in/out

While querying the maps, you can click Fixed Zoom in tool and Fixed Zoom out tool
to zoom the whole map. The map will be zoomed in/out about 75% every time you click either the tools.
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Full-extent
To view the features on the map clearly, you may need to zoom in/out the map in the process of navigating the map since the map is not displayed in the map window completely. Therefore, you can click Full-extent , and the system will zoom the map to the full-extent to display the map
completely in the map window.
Previous/Next Extent
Previous/next extent tools are able to record the changes of map extent. Once the
map extent is changed, the change will be recorded. Therefore, if you need to view the previous extent, click Previous Extent. And the map will be zoomed to the previous extent. If you click Next Extent, the map will be zoomed to the next extent.
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Measurement
While doing with paper-based maps, we used pens and rulers to measure the area or length and even use the planimeter to measure the map. However, working with digital maps now, we can apply the measurement tools provided by SuperGIS Desktop to measure the length, area, etc on the map. There are 3 kinds of measurement tools, including Line Measurement , Area
Measurement
, and Feature Measurement
. The first two tools can be used with mouse to
drag the distance or area to measure. The third tool, Feature Measurement can measure the features perimeter, area, etc. When using the measurement tool, the measurement window will appear and display the measurement results in the window.
Line Measurement
The window below is the result measured by Line Measurement tool. After clicking Line Measurement tool, click the location where you want to start to measure. Then, you can click to add a vertex to along a curve line. Double-click the location where you want to end measuring. In the process of measurement, the measure window will display the measurement results simultaneously. Segment means the length between the last vertex and the mouse current position. Length refers to the total length between the start point and the mouse current position.
If you need to measure several segments and calculate the sum of the lengths, you can click on Measure window. Then, apply the methods mentioned above to Show Sum button measure the first segment and then the second segment. Meanwhile, the sum length shows the sum of the length of the first and second segments, and so on.
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In Measure window, Change Unit function provides numerous metric, British units, and decimal degrees for distance units and area units (decimal degrees can be applied to measure distance only). Users are allowed to choose the unit they need to measure. Since the measure result is recorded as the map unit, Change Unit function only changes the display of measure result rather than the unit of the map itself. Furthermore, if Snap to Feature function is clicked, the snapping function is activated according to the Snap Settings in Start Editing dropdown list. During measuring, as long as the mouse cursor is within the tolerance area, the mouse cursor will be snapped to the feature automatically to improve the accuracy of measurement. The Clear Results is able to clear all the measure results in the current window.
Area Measurement
Using Measuring Area tool , users can drag a polygon to measure the area. The way to
measure is to click Area Measurement and click the position where you want to start to measure the polygon and click again to add another vertex of the polygon, and repeat the actions to finish the polygon. You can double-click to finish the area settings. During the process of measuring, the measure results will be displayed in Measure window, including the segment (the distance
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between the last vertex and the mouse cursor), perimeter, and area. Moreover, the other functions in the window, like Sum, are the same as the methods of Line Measurement. Please refer to the description of Line Measurement.
Feature Measurement
After clicking Feature Measurement tool , you can measure the point, line, polygon features
respectively. For point features, the coordinates of the point features will be displayed in the Measure window as the point feature is clicked by Feature Measurement tool. However, the Sum function is useless foe point features.
As a line feature is clicked by Feature Measurement, the length of the line feature will be displayed in the Measure window. If you click Sum, the sum length will be displayed in the window as you click another line feature.
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If you measure a polygon feature, the perimeter and area of the feature will be displayed in the Measure window. Similarly, if you click Sum and click other polygon features, the window will show the Sum Perimeter and Sum Area.
When you use Feature Measurement tool
, the Sum function
can be only applied to
the same type of features so that the system can calculate the measure results.
Refresh
Map drawing might be interrupted by some reasons in the process of displaying maps. You can click Refresh tool to redraw the map.
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9.2 Querying Features

The previous section mainly presents the way to view the features by zoom in/out tools or panning. However, in this section, the methods to query features and attributes will be introduced. SuperGIS Desktop enables users to query features by clicking, query the related website or document by hyperlinks, and find the features matching the conditions with Find Features tool. As a result, users can utilize the tools to query the attributes of the features on the map.
Querying by Clicking
In viewing the map, users can view the related attributes of the features by Identify tool .
Firstly, click Identify tool and click the feature you want to query. The Identify window appears and shows the attributes of the features. Besides vector data, Identify Tool can also be used to query Raster data.
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Identify Window
The Identify window consists of four parts: Layers for identifying, Layers located in the identifying area, Coordinates, and Attributes of the identified feature. In addition, the lower-left corner of the window displays the count of identified features. In Layers for identifying, the default result is the attributes of the position of all the layers. You can assign the layers to display in identify results. The options include Visible Layer, Top-most Layer, All Layers, and Active Layer.
Visible layers means that the result presents the attributes of all visible layers of that location. In the table of contents, if a layer is unchecked, attributes of the hidden layer will not be shown in the Identify window. Top-most layer means that the result only displays the attributes of the topmost layer. All layers means that the results are the attributes of all layers of that location. Even the attributes of the hidden layer will still be shown in the Identify window. Active layers are those layers selected in the table of contents. You can select one layer by clicking in the table of contents, or select more than one by pressing the Shift or Ctrl key. Therefore, if you choose Active layers, the Identify window displays the attributes of selected layers. Layers located in the identifying area are the layers based on the layer option. The layers are displayed as a tree view; + and before each layer name mean to expand or close the tree view. Coordinates mean the location you are identifying in the Map Window. If you click another feature, the coordinates will be modified as well. Attributes of the identified feature show the attributes of the layer; the default is the attributes of the top-most layer. If you need to display the attributes of other layers, you can click the layer you need in the left panel of the window. Identify Count means the count of identified data. For vector layers, it is the count of features,
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for raster layers, it is the count of pixels. If you change Layers for identifying, the data in the window do not change immediately but will modify in the next time you query.
Querying Vector Data

Click Identify tool and click the feature you would like to query in the map window, and the
Identify window appears. The left panel shows the identified features and their layers. The attributes in the right panel will be changed as you click different features in the left panel. Furthermore, if you have identified a feature, you can press Shift key to click another feature to identity. The attributes of the second clicked feature will be added to the original identify window, and so on.
Right-click the data in the left panel of Identify window, and you can choose the navigation functions in the menu. Right-click the data in the right panel of Identify window, and you can choose to copy, remove field, reset fields, and reset fields. If you remove a field, the field is removed in the window only, and the original file will not be affected. Moreover, you can click Field and Value to sort the data in ascending or descending order.
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Querying Raster Data

Identify Tool can also be used to query raster data by clicking the position you want to query.
Besides the attributes, the pixel value or RGB value of the raster data are displayed in the window as well. Different types of images have different types of data. Like vector layers, you can press Shift key to query multiple points at the same time.
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The Identify Windows of each type of images are listed below:
Type
Description
The left panel indicates that the image is a RGB
Identify Window
RGB image
image. The right panel shows the RGB value of the point you query.
The left panel shows the original pixel value of the Grayscale image point; the right panel shows the stretched value and pixel value
The left panel indicates the color index of the position; the right Index Color panel displays the color index and the RGB color of the. point
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Searching Features
With Find Features tool , you can enter the keyword and assign the layer and field to search
the features matching the conditions. Meanwhile, you can right-click the results of the records to blink the feature, zoom to feature, pan to feature, select feature, unselect feature, add to bookmark, etc. The way to search features is to click Find Feature tool to open Find Feature window and to
enter the keyword in Find. Then, choose the layer to set the search range in Layer dropdown list which includes all the layer names, <all layers>, and <visible layers>. In addition, you can assign the filed in Field dropdown list, which contains all the field names of the assigned layer and <All fields>. Moreover, users are allowed to decide whether to tick Match Whole Word Only. If the item is ticked, only the value matching whole word can be found. If the record you need is displayed already, you can click Stop to stop searching. As the searching is finished, click Close to close Find Feature window.
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Hyperlinks
Hyperlink tool enables users to display the features related data in various ways. You can
set website, picture, or text file as the hyperlink. Users only need to use Hyperlink tool to click the feature which has been defined with hyperlinks, the related data can be launched. This section will introduce how to create hyperlinks and the ways to query features with hyperlink tool.
Creating Hyperlinks about a Feature

After identifying features with Identify tool , you can right-click the feature you would like to
add hyperlinks to in Identify window. Then click Add to Hyperlink and to open Add Hyperlink window. You can choose URL or File. If you choose the former, please enter the website. If you choose the latter, you can enter the path or click Then click OK to complete the hyperlink settings. to browse the file you would like to link to.
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If you would like to view the hyperlinks, you can right-click the feature in Identify window and choose Hyperlink Manager to open Hyperlinks window. You are allowed to add hyperlink, remove the selected hyperlink, remove all of the hyperlinks or link to the selected hyperlink.
Storing Hyperlinks in Attribute Table

Besides creating hyperlink in Identify window, you also can store the hyperlink to the attribute table and the hyperlink can be opened by hyperlink tool as well. Firstly, double-click the
layer in the table of contents (or right-click the layer and choose Properties). In Field tab, choose the field you have assigned hyperlinks and click OK to save the settings. Then, you can click the feature with Hyperlink tool to open the website or document.
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Querying by Hyperlinks
To query the features with hyperlink tool, you can create the hyperlinks of websites or documents to the features. As a result, while querying the attributes of the feature and its spatial data, you can use the hyperlinks and related data to have more analysis. In the map window, the features with hyperlinks will be framed with blue lines. First, click Hyperlink tool on Tools toolbar and click the feature framed with blue line. Then, Hyperlink
window shows up, select the target you want to link to and click Link. The hyperlink is launched.
If the clicked feature only has one hyperlink target the hyperlink window will not show up. The hyperlink target will be launched directly after the feature is clicked.
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9.3 Selecting Features

While viewing the map, we may not need all of the features on the map but some of them. Therefore, SuperGIS Desktop provides several feature selection tools to view and select features. The feature selection tools include Select Features tool on Tools toolbar, several
Selection ways in Selection menu, such as select by attribute, select by feature, and select by graphic. Moreover, Selection Mode and Options in the menu also assist users in setting selection mode. Additionally, we also can use Find Feature tool to select the results by right-clicking. The mask on Tools toolbar can mask the some features you do not need in the map window to help you recognize and select the needed ones. These functions will be presented in this section respectively.
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The ways to select features can be set in Selection Mode and Options in Selection menu. The two settings can be used together; after the settings are finished, the selection in the map window will be implemented according to the settings. There are four types of Selection Mode, including New Selection, Append Selection, Remove form Current Selection, and Select from Current Selection. And there are three ways to select, such as Select features partially or completely within the rectangle, Select features completely within the rectangle, and Select features that the rectangle is completely within. In the following, Selection Mode and Selection method are going to be introduced respectively.
Selection Mode Click Selection menu and choose Selection Mode.
Mode New Selection
Definition Click or drag to select features and to make a new selection; the previous selection will be cleared. The features selected by clicking or dragging will be appended to the previously selected features. Drag an area and clear the selections within it. If there is no selected feature, all the features will not be affected. Drag an area to select the features which has been selcted within the area. Only the previously selected features in the area will be selected, but the others will not.
Append Selection Remove from Current Selection Select from Current Selection
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Selection Method Click Selection > Options to open Selection Options window in which you can select the method you need.
Method Select features partially or completely within the rectangle Select features completely within the rectangle Select features that the rectangle is completely within
Definition The features completely contained in the rectangle and the ones partially contained in it will be selected. Only the features completely contained in the selection rectangle will be selected. Only the features that completely contain in the selection rectangle will be selected.
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Selection Options
Selection Options window contain three parts: 1. Set Selectable Layers: all layers in the map will be displayed in the panel. A check before the layer name means the layer can be selected; otherwise, you cannot select features on that layer. You can press Select All or Clear All button to set selectable layers, and also you can check or cancel layer by layer. 2. Selection Mode: there are three options including Select features partially or completely within the rectangle, Select features completely within the rectangle, and Select features that the rectangle is completely within. These options can be cooperated with Selection Mode in the Selection menu. 3. Tolerance: This number indicates the distance within which features are selected when you use selection tools. The smaller the number is, the more precise the selection would be. The default is 3 pixels and you can type a number as your tolerance.
Since the selections cooperated with different selection methods will results in different selection results, the following section is going to introduce the selections resulted from New Selection, Append Selection, Select from Current Selection which are cooperated with Selection modes.
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New Selection with Select features partially or completely within the rectangle
If you choose New Selection and Select features partially or completely within the rectangle, you can click Select Features tool rectangle will be selected. to drag a rectangle. And the features intersecting the
New Selection with Select features completely within the rectangle

If you choose New Selection and Select features completely within the rectangle, you can click Select Features wool will be selected. to drag a rectangle. The features completely within the rectangle
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New Selection with Select features that the rectangle is completely within
If you choose new selection and select features that the rectangle is completely within, you can click Select Features tool rectangle will be selected. and drag a rectangle. The features completely containing the
Append Selection with Select features partially or completely within the rectangle
If you choose Append Selection and Select features partially or completely within the rectangle, you can click Select Features tool and drag a rectangle. The features
intersecting the rectangle will be selected. The previously selected features are still selected, too.
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Remove from current selection with Select features partially or completely within the rectangle
If you choose the two modes, you can click Select Features tool and drag a rectangle to
cover the selected features you want to clear. The selected features intersecting the rectangle will be cleared.
Select from current selection with Select features partially or completely within the rectangle
If you choose the two modes, you can click Select Features tool to drag a rectangle to
cover the selected features you would like to keep them selected. The features intersecting the rectangle will be kept selected.
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Selecting by Clicking
You can click the feature or drag a rectangle to select features. Before selecting, you can choose which layer(s) can be selected. You can set the selectable layers to avoid select the features overlapping with the other layers or very close to the other features. Therefore, you can click Selection menu > Options to open Selection Options window. In Set Selectable Layers, tick the layer you would like to select, or click Select All and Clear All buttons to select all the layers or clear all the selections. Then click OK to finish the settings. Click Select Features tool on Tools toolbar. In Map window, you can click the feature you want to select.
The selected feature will be displayed with the selection symbol (the default is yellow; you can set it in Selection tab in Layer Properties window. Each layer can be set respectively. ) or you can drag a rectangle in Map window; the features intersecting the rectangle will be selected as well.
If you need to select multiple features or features in different area, you can hold the Shift button to click or drag to select. In addition, if you want to clear the selected feature, you can click Selection menu >Clear Selection, or click Clear Selection tool on Tools toolbar.
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Selecting by Attributes
Besides selecting by clicking, you can click Selection menu > select by attributes to open Select by Attributes window. In the window, choose layer and selection mode. Click the field you need, and the values in the filed will listed in Values. Also you can click the operator and double-click the value to create the expression. Then click Query, and SuperGIS Desktop will query according to the expression. The features matching the expression will be displayed with selection symbols in the map window.
In Select by Attributes, the expression is created by Structured Query Language (SQL), so you can use SQL language to define the condition to query the features. The method to manipulate the window is introduced in Selecting Features by Attributes in ch6 Managing Attributes in details.
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Selecting by Graphics
In SuperGIS Desktop, besides clicking and selecting by attributes, users also can use Graphics, such as rectangle, ellipse, polyline, polygon, marker on Draw toolbar. To select features by graphics, firstly choose a graphic in graphic dropdown list and draw the graphic in the map window. Then use Select Graphics tool to move the graphic over the features you want to
select. Then, click Selection > Select by Graphics, and the features under the graphic will be selected.
Select by Graphics function also contains text label. If you add text labels in the map window, you can also click Select by Graphics to select the features.
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Selecting by Features
Select by Features in Selection menu enables users to select features through the spatial relationship between features. To Open Select by Features window, click Selection > Select by Features.
Select by Features window contains: 1. Selection Mode includes four options: New selection, Append selection, Remove from current selection, and Select from current selection. 2. Select Layers: To select the target layer(s) which are going to be selected. All layers will be presented in the dropdown list. Notice that not all layers can be selected; thus the dropdown list displays the selectable layers only if you check Only list selectable layers. 3. That represents how the target layer and the source layer work together to select features. Options include Intersect, are completely within, completely contain, are identical to, share a line segment with, are contained by, and contain. 4. the features in: refers to the source layer worked with the target layer. In the dropdown list, choose the layer you would like to work with.
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Intersect: the features of the target layer intersecting with the source layer will be selected. For example: the point features intersecting the polygon features are selected.
are completely within: The features are completely within the features of source layer will be selected. In other words, only the features of target layer not intersecting the features of the source layer are selected. For example: the roads in a school. Only the roads are completely within the school will be selected.
completely contain: the features of target layer completely containing the features of source layer will be selected. For example: the polygon feature completely containing the line feature, like the left feature, will be selected. However, the line feature intersecting the polygon feature, like the right one, will not be selected.
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are identical to: the features of the target layer are identical to the features of the source layer ill be selected. It means the features should be the same shape and size, but the drawing direction can be different. For example, the two polygon features belong to different layers, but their geometries are the same. Thus, the feature is selected.
share a line segment with: the feature of the target layer sharing a line segment with the feature of source layer will be selected. Share a line segment means there must be two points of a line segment overlapped at lease. For instance, the feature sharing a line segment with the source layer is selected, like the map below.
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are contained by: The features of the target layer are contained by the features of source layer are selected. Different from completely contain, the features intersecting the boundary of the feature of the source layer can be selected. For example: if you would like to select the line features contained by polygon features, the line features intersecting and being contained by the polygon are both selected.
contain: The features of target layer containing the features of source layer will be selected. Different from completely contain, the features intersecting the feature of source layer will be selected as well. In the following map, the left feature does not contain the feature of source layer so that it is not selected. The right feature contains and intersects the features but still can be selected.
5.
Use selected features: When you have selected some features in the map window and only need to operate some of the selected features, please tick the item. Take the map for example. If you have selected some features in the map window and want to choose the point features contained completely by polygon features, you can tick the item.
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In the map window, the previously selected line features and polygon features remain selected, and only the point features within the polygon features are selected.
6.
Use buffer to the features: buffer means that the selection can be inexact and be accepted in the tolerance. Thus, you should type a number for the distance as you check the item.
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Using Mask
Using the mask tool on Tools toolbar can display the selected in the map window only.
And the rest features are hidden temporarily, so users can view the map more easily. Like the map below, it only displays the selected features. If you want to display all the features, please click Remove Mask tool to display all the features on the map.
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10
Analysis Tools
10.1 Adding XY Data 10.2 Buffering 10.3 Geoprocessing Tools 10.4 Spatial Join 10.5 Grid Maker
In addition to creating digital map, GIS also facilitates users to apply the analysis tools to calculate, do statistics, and process with the digital map. Then, users are able to handle and analyze the geographic data to make the best policy. SuperGIS Desktop 3 provides Chart, Add XY Data, Grid Maker, Geoprocessing Tools, Buffer, etc. Chart is introduced in Creating Charts; the other tools are introduced in this chapter. First section Adding XY data is to introduce how to add the data from the database to SuperGIS Desktop 3 to easily create a point layer with X,Y coordinates. Section 2 explains the meaning of buffering and the method to use Buffer. Section 3 shows how to apply Geoprocessing Tools, such as dissolve, merge, clip, union, etc. Spatial Join will be introduced in Section 4, explaining how to utilize the spatial relationship between layers to combine the attributes. The last section, Grid Maker, shows how to create a grid layer with the tool.
Chapter 10 Analysis Tools
10.1 Adding XY Data

XY data refer to the coordinate data of the map. The function, adding XY data, can help us to export the data to the map and also create a point layer on the map. SuperGIS Desktop 3 not only supports DBF file but also Delimited Text format file (*.txt) and CSV format file (*.csv). The system will also recognize which fields are numeric fields. You can click Tools menu on the top menu bar and click Add XY Data. Then, Add XY Data window is open.
If you do not have any coordinate data, it would be difficult to understand the function. Therefore, we will introduce how to create XY data first and explain how to add XY data to create a point layer.
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Creating XY data
Creating XY data is to create a DBF file or an Excel file with the coordinates of the point features you would like to add. Then, you can directly import the file to SuperGIS Desktop to add point features. Here, take excel for example. Firstly, you can click Full Extent tool on the Tools
toolbar to display the whole map and to make sure the complete coordinate range of the map. While the mouse cursor is moving around the map, the lower-right corner of the window will show the coordinates of the mouse cursor current position.
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After making sure the coordinates of the point features you want to add, you can open Excel file and type X coordinate in column A and type Y coordinate in column B. Then, type 3 sets of coordinates, which are (229579 , 2441350), (220463 , 2435581), and (225586 , 2432354).
After typing the coordinates, please click save
and specify the path to save
in the file. Then, name the file (the sample is import). Click save to complete saving.
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Adding XY data
You can add the coordinate data of point features to SuperGIS Desktop to add point features. Click Add XY Data in Tools menu on the top menu bar to open Add XY Data window. Then, click to open the file which records XY data (for example, the Excel file, import created in the previous section). Then, click Open.
In Add XY Data window, you need to specify the tab of the excel file you store the data and the columns of XY coordinates. Then, click OK, and Save as window appears. Choose the position to save the file and name the file as Point. Click OK to complete the setting. As for the contents of the dropdown menus of X Field and Y Field, the system can automatically recognize the text title. In this sample, the system can recognize the titles, X coordinate and Y coordinate in the file. If you do not type any title, the system will use F1 to represent Field1 and F2 to represent Field 2.
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The map window will display the point features which are recorded in the Excel file; the map content window will display the Point point layer as the top layer.
SuperGIS Desktop can automatically recognize which fields are numeric. Thus, as you are choosing the field for XY coordinates, the dropdown menu will show the names of numeric fields only for users to choose. When the data are added to the map, the color of the features displayed in the map window and the map contents window are selected randomly. You can modify the color and symbol of the features in Symbology tab in Properties window.
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10.2 Buffering
Buffer refers to a zone surrounding the feature on the map at a specified distance. Buffer is useful for analyzing the adjacency. When we would like to know the adjacency between Feature A and Feature B, besides the measurement tool, we can use Buffer to know whether the two features would connect within a particular distance. Buffer can be also applied to indicate the area around the river bank which should not be developed so that the damage caused by flood can be prevented. Consequently, users can perform buffer on point, line, polygon features to create buffer zone for analysis and planning. To open Buffer window, please click the Tools menu and click Buffer.
Users can choose the layer they need from the Input Layer dropdown menu on the top of the Buffer window. Additionally, if you have selected some features, you can decide whether to tick Use Selected Features to perform buffer on the selected features only. If there is no selected on the input layer, Use Selected Features is unavailable. To set Distance, you can choose Value or Field. If you choose Value, please type in the distance you need. The Field dropdown menu lists all of the numeric fields of the input layer; as the field you need is chosen, each feature will be
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buffered at the distance, the value in its corresponding attribute record. On the right side of Distance, you can set the types of buffering, such as Normal, Outer, and Inner. For point layers and polyline layers, you can only choose Normal for the buffering type. For polygon layers, you can choose Normal, Outer, or Inner types. Moreover, the default path for saving Output Layer is the same as the input layer. So, you also can click to browse the new path for saving the
output layer. Besides, if you tick Dissolve Output, the system will dissolve all of the buffer features as a record; if Dissolve Output is not ticked, each feature will be buffered independently.
Buffering
Point features
Take the point layer meal for example. You can perform buffer on the selected features or all features of the layer. For the specific features, please select the features you need on the map first. Then, open Buffer window and choose the needed layer in Input Layer. Since this sample is to buffer the selected point features, please tick Use Selected Features. Then, you can choose Value or Field. Here, we choose Value and type 50 for the distance. After confirming the path for saving Output Layer, you cam choose whether to tick Dissolve. Here, we do not tick Dissolve Output, so the attribute data of the new layer will be corresponding attributes of the input layer.
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The new buffer layer will be added to the map window and placed as the top layer. Like the figure below, since Dissolve Output is not ticked in buffering, the attribute table includes 3 records.
If Dissolve Output is ticked in buffering, the attribute table of the new layer will dissolve all of the buffered features as a record.
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Polyline features
Take the polyline layer, road, for example. Open Buffer window, select road for Input Layer. Since we do not select any features on the map, Use Selected Features function is unavailable. Then, to set the distance, you can choose Value or Field. Here, we choose Value and type 10 for the distance. Due to polyline layer, we can only choose Normal type for buffering. After confirming the path for saving Output Layer, you can choose whether to tick Dissolve Output. This sample does not tick Dissolve Output. The figure below is the line features before being buffered.
The buffered line features are displayed below. Because Dissolve Output is not ticked in buffering, the attribute data of the new layer will be the corresponding data of the input layer.
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Polygon features
This sample is the polygon layer, school. We take a polygon feature for example. So, please select a polygon feature on the map first. Then, open Buffer window. Choose school in the Input Layer dropdown menu and tick Use Selected Features. To set Distance, you can choose Value or Field. Here, we choose Value and type 10 for the distance. Since the feature is polygon, we can choose Normal, Outer, or Inner for the type of buffering. After confirming the path for saving the output layer, you can choose whether to tick Dissolve Output. Here, we do not tick Dissolve Output.
The four figures below are the features before being buffered, buffered with Normal type, with Outer type, and with Inner type. Normal type is to create a new feature from the original feature at a specified distance. Therefore, the new feature covers the original feature (The dotted line is the area of the original feature; the dotted line will not show in manipulation). Outer type is to create an outward polygon feature from the boundary of the original feature at the specified distance, so it does not include the original feature. Inner type is to create an inward feature from the boundary of the original feature at a specified distance. Original Normal Outer Inner
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10.3 Geoprocessing Tools

Spatial data in GIS are displayed in points, polylines, and polygons. Generally speaking, different types of features are saved in different layers. However, if we would like to intersect Layer A and Layer B or clip a polyline layer on the other layer, we can apply the geoprocessing tools to deal with the spatial data. As a result, these tools can help users to satisfy the demands for spatial data and also facilitate the statistics and analysis of spatial data.
In SuperGIS Desktop, the geoprocessing tools are all in Geoprocessing Tool window. There are 5 operations, like dissolve, merge, clip. Intersect, and union. The functions of the 5 tools are introduced in the following table. Operation Illustration Definition Dissolve aggregates features that have the same value for an attributes.
Dissolve
Merge
Merge appends the features of two layers into a single layer.
Clip
Clip uses a clip layer on your input layer. The attributes are not altered. Intersect cuts an input layer with the features from
Intersect
an overlay layer to produce an output layer with features that have attribute data from both. Union combines features of an input layer with
Union
polygons of an overlay layer to produce an output layer that contains the attributes and full extent of both layers.
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In this chapter, the manipulation of each operation will be introduced. To open Geoprocessing Tool window, please click Geoprocessing Tool in Tools menu.
Geoprocessing Tool window can be divided into 5 blocks: A. Operation: 5 different computations and the definitions are listed. B. Input Layer: the layer you would like to process with. You can choose whether to tick Use Selected Features and specify the field. Then, you can proceed with field statistics and also display the results in the attribute table of the output layer. C. Operation Layer: the target layer. Users can choose whether to tick Use Selected Features to aggregate the selected features only. D. Output Layer: you can set the path for saving and the name of the output layer file. The default path for saving is the folder of the input layer. The default file name is the name of input layer_operation, such as geology_Dissolve. E. Progress Bar: the geopressing progress is displayed here. When you process quantities of data, please be patient to wait for the results.
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Dissolve
Dissolve creates a new layer by merging adjacent polygons that have the same attributes and removes the boundaries of the polygons. In SuperGIS Desktop, it is the only operation which can be performed on one layer. The others all involve two-layer operations. Take Northeast Coast layer for example. If you would like to dissolve the EDESC field in geology, please open Gepprocessing Tool window and choose Dissolve. Then, choose geology for the input layer and choose EDESC for Field. As the path for saving output layer is confirmed, please click OK. As the features are dissolved, the message window Do you want to add this layer to your map? will show. Click Yes, and the layer will be added as the top layer.
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Figure 1 shows the features before being dissolved and their attribute table; Figure 2 displays the dissolved features and their attribute table.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Since the field for dissolve is geologic data field, the features with the same geologic data are dissolved as one feature. Therefore, some of the boundaries of the features are altered.
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Dissolve the selected features

The method described above is to dissolve all the features of a layer. Besides, you can only dissolve some selected features. Thus, when you have selected some features on the layer, Use Selected Features will be available in Geoprocessing Tool window. You can choose whether to tick this function. If you tick it, the system will only dissolve the selected features. If not, the system will dissolve all of the features on the layer. Take the layer geology for example. You can select the needed features with Select Features tool, and the selected features will be displayed with the selection symbol. Then, open Geoprocessing Tool window, click Dissolve, select geology for Input Layer, and tick Use Selected Features. Also, choose EDESC for Field. As the path for saving Output Layer, click OK and add the new layer to the current map.
The new layer will be displayed like:
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Dissolve with field statistics

Besides dissolve operation, SuperGIS Desktop also provides field statistics function for statistics analysis and add the statistics results to the attribute table of the output layer. Here, take the layer geology for instance. Firstly, select the features on the map, open the Geoprocessing Tool window, choose Dissolve, and choose geology for Input Layer. Then, tick Use Selected Features and click Field Statistics. In Field Statistics window, there are several functions available, and you can choose Count as well. You can choose the field for statistics and the function you need. If you need to show how many records are from the input layer, please tick Count. As all of the settings are completed, click OK. Then, back to Geoprocessing Tool window, choose the field for dissolve and confirm the path for saving the output layer. Click OK to dissolve the features.
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The dissolved layer is displayed in the map window; the attribute table of the new layer records the fields of statistics results. In this sample, we ticked AREA for average and tick Count. So, there are two fields, A_AREA and Count added. A_AREA represents the average area of the input features. Count refers to the number of the input features.
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Merge
Merge is to combine two layers into one layer. Also, the attribute data will be combined to one attribute table. Merge operation can only be performed on the features with the same geometric type, such as point and point features, line and line features, polygon and polygon features. Therefore, when you select a layer for input layer, the operation layer dropdown list will show the same type layer only to prevent you from choosing other types of layers which cannot be merged with.
The sample here uses the layers geology and Geology. Add the two layers into the map and open the Geoprocessing Tool window. Then, click Merge and choose geology for Input Layer and Geology for Operation Layer. As the path for saving the output layer is confirmed, click OK to complete the merge operation.
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The merged layers will be displayed as the top layer in the map window. The attribute table will contain the attribute data of the two layers but based on the attribute table of the input layer.
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Merge selected features

Geoprocessing Tool can merge the selected features to create a new layer. The manipulation is similar to merging layers described above. Firstly, select the features on the map, click Merge in Geoprocessing Tool window, and select the layers to merge. Tick Use Selected Features for both Input Layer and Operation Layer. If you tick Use Selected Features for one layer only, the system will merge all the features of the other layer.
As the features are merged, the new layer will be added to the map as the top layer. The attribute table also combines the attribute data of the two layers.
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Merge in Geoprocessing Tool and Merge in Start Editing dropdown menu both can merge features. However, the former is to combine the features to create a new layer; the latter is to merge features and create a new feature.
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Clip
Clip is to clip the features with the polygon layer and to extract the features from the input layer. Therefore, to implement clip operation, the input layer can be any geometric type of layers, but the operation layer must be a polygon layer. Take the layers river and area for example. If you would like to extract the river within the area to create a new layer, please open Geoprocessing Tool window, choose Clip for operation, select river for Input Layer, and select area for Operation Layer. After checking the path for saving Output Layer, click OK.
As the new clip layer is created, it will be displayed on the map as the top layer.
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Clip the selected features on the input layer

Users can only clip the selected features. First of all, select the needed features on the map, open Geoprocessing Tool window. Then, choose Clip for Operation, select river for Input Layer, and tick Use selected features. Also, select area for Operation Layer, confirm the path for saving Output Layer, and click OK.
The new layer is created and displayed as the top layer on the map with the bold lines.
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Intersect
Intersect computes the geometric intersection of two layers and creates a new layer only containing the features in the common area of the two layers. The attribute table of the new layer lists the data of the two layers. What should be noted is that the intersection must be performed on polygon and polygon layers, point and polygon layers, or polyline and polygon layers. The intersection cannot be performed on point and point layers, polyline and polyline layers, and point and polyline layers. In this sample, we take the POI layer and School layer for example. If you would like to intersect POI layer and School layer, please open Geoprocessing Tool window, choose Intersect. Then, select POI for Input Layer, select School for Operation layer. As the path for saving the output layer is confirmed, click OK. The figure below is the map before intersection, and the attribute table of POI layer.
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After intersection, the new point layer will be displayed as the top layer on the map. Like the figures below, the attribute table contains the attributes of the point layer and the polygon features.
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Intersect the selected features

When performing Intersect operation, users can only intersect the selected features. In this sample, we take the layers river and town for example. If you would like to find the features of the polyline layer river within the selected area in the polygon layer town, please select the features first. Then, choose Intersect for Operation, select river for Input Layer, select town for Operation Layer and also tick Use Selected Features. As the path for saving the output layer is confirmed, click OK. The figures below are the selected area for intersection and the attribute table of river layer.
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As the intersection is completed, the new created polyline layer will be added as the top layer on the map, like the figure below. The attribute table of the new layer contains the data of the original polyline layer and the polygon layer.
To perform intersection operation with the selected features, the features of Input Layer and Operation Layer can be selected for intersection.
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Union
Union operation is to combine two layers into a new layer, which is the union area of the two layers and contains the data from the tow layers. Union can be only performed on polygon and polygon layers. Take the layers area and geology for example. Open Geoprocessing Tool window, select area for Input Layer, select geology for Operation Layer. Then, as the path for saving Output layer is confirmed, please click OK to complete the union operation. The figures below are the map before union and the attribute tables of the two layers.
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The new layer created by Union will be displayed as the top layer on the map. The attribute table is the union of the attributes of the two layers; the fields in the new attribute table include the fields from Input Layer and Operation Layer. The attributes of the overlapped features consist of the data of the two layers; the attributes of the features which do not overlap with the operation layer will be blank in the fields of the operation layer.
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Union with the selected features

Union can be performed with specified features. Take the layers area and geology for instance. Choose the needed features in area and geology layers, open Geoprocessing Tool window, and choose Union. Then, choose area for Input Layer, tick Use Selected Features, choose geology for Operation Layer, and tick Used Selected Features. As the path for saving the output layer is confirmed, click OK.
After Union is completed, the new created layer will be added to the map window, like the figure below.
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10.4 Spatial Join

Spatial Join is a type of spatial analysis, applying the spatial relationship between layers to join the two layers attribute data to create a new layer. Therefore, the new layer still contains the features of the original layer, but the attribute data of the new layer will add new fields or be appended with the fields of the other layer. For example, when you would like to find out how many gas stations in a certain district or search the nearest restaurants, you can apply Spatial Join to fulfill the goal. So, you can open Spatial Join window, choose the target layer and the joined layer, and specify the operation. Then, the layers can be joined to create a new layer and a new attribute table. The way to open Spatial Join window is to click Tools menu and click Spatial Join on the menu.
In Spatial Join window, there are Target Layer dropdown menu and Joined Layer dropdown menu. The menus list all of the layers displaying in the current project. You can choose the layer for Target Layer as the spatial join base and choose the layer you would like to join for Joined Layer. If the layer you would like to join is not in the current project, you can click to browse
the layer you need. According to the layer type you choose in the menu, the right side of the window shows different operations. You can choose the most suitable operation to join the layers to meet your needs. Then, you can confirm the path for saving the output layer; the default folder is the folder of the target layer. As all the settings are finished, click OK. Then, the progress bar at the bottom of the window shows the progress of the operation. After the layers are joined, the system will show Do you want to add this layer to your map?; if click OK, the new layer will be added to the map. There are different operations for joining different types of layers. The join operations for each type of layer are introduced in the following table.
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Target Layer Joined Layer
Point layer
Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects.
Polyline layer
Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each feature will be given all the attr butes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each line will be given all the attributes of the joined line that it is substring of.
Polygon layer
Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added.
Point layer
Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it
Polyline layer
intersects. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given
Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each feature will be given all the attr butes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given all the attr butes of the joined polygon that it completely falls inside.
Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined polygon that it completely falls inside.
Polygon layer
all the attributes of the joined polygon that it completely falls inside.
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Feature intersection
When you would like to know what intersects a layer, you can apply the operation Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. in Spatial Join window. For instance, if you would like to know how many restaurants in a certain area, you can utilize a polygon layer covering an area and a point layer recording the data of restaurants to find out how the two layers intersect. Take the layers meal and area for example. Meal layer includes lots of point features; area is only composed of a polygon feature. If you want to know how many features of meal located in area, please open Spatial Join window, choose area for Target Layer, and choose meal for Joined Layer. Then, choose Each feature will be given a count value that shows how many joined features it intersects. After the path for saving the output layer is confirmed, click OK.
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As the operation is finished, the system will show Do you want to add this layer to your map? If you click Yes, the new layer will be added to the current project.
The new created layer will be added as the top layer on the map. When you open the attribute table of new layer, you can find that one field, Count, is added to the table, and the new field records the how many features of meal intersect area.
Since the target layer is a polygon layer, the new joined layer is a polygon layer. The spatial join method described above can not only apply to polygon layer and point layer but also other layers.
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Closest features
The operation, Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added., can help users to find the closest features and create a new layer which contains the corresponding attribute data and the distance to the corresponding features. For example, when you would like to know the distance between each restaurant and its nearest road, you can apply the function. Take the layers, POI and road for instance. The features of POI are distributed near different roads. So, you can apply the spatial join operation to find out the distance between each point feature and its closest road.
Firstly, open Spatial Join window, choose POI for Target Layer, choose road for Joined Layer,
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and choose Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined feature that is closest to it and a distance field is added. (If the point or polyline is completely inside an area, the distance will be regarded as 0.) As the path for saving the output result is confirmed, please click OK.
If the polyline intersects with a polygon, the distance will be seen as 0 as well.
The joined point layer is added to the map, like the figure below. As the attribute table of the layer is open, you will find that the system automatically adds the nearest feature data to the table and also adds a Distance field for recording the distance between the point feature and its nearest line feature.
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Overlapped features
When both of the target layer and joined layer are both polyline layers, one of the operation is Each line will be given all the attributes of the joined line that it is substring of. This function can join the attribute data of the overlapped polyline features of the two layers. If you have two polyline layers recording the rivers data, and the two layers overlap, you can use the spatial join operation to view the attribute data of overlapped part of the two layers. In this sample, we use the layer river in Northeast Coast and the layer River in Yilan as the example. Due to the features from different layers, the data are recorded in different attribute tables. Therefore, you can apply the spatial join function to view the attribute data of rivers within Northeast coast, and the data of Yilna are recorded in the same attribute table as well.
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To join the two polyline layers, firstly open Spatial Join window, choose river of Northeast coast for Target Layer, and choose River of Yilan for Joined Layer. Then, click Each line will be given all the attributes of the joined line that it is substring of. As the path for saving the output result is confirmed, click OK.
The new created layer will be added as the top layer on the map. As the attribute table is open, you can find that besides the attribute data of the original layer the attribute data of the joined layer are added, too. The attributes of the overlapped features are displayed in the table; the attributes of the features which are not overlapped are displayed 0 in the field. The overlapped features and their attribute data are displayed with the selection color in the figure below.
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Features completely falling in another layer

The function, Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined polygon that it completely falls inside., can find out the features of some layer completely falling in another polygon layer and add the corresponding attribute data to the target layer. For example, two polygon layers are overlaid on the map at the same time; one records the data of schools, the other the data of districts. Then, you can apply Spatial Join to join the two layers to create a new layer whose attributes include the records of the target layer and the corresponding data of the joined layer. Here, take the layers, park and town in Taipei for instance. Park records the data of schools and parks; town records the data of districts in Taipei. Therefore, Spatial Join can help users to view which features of park completely fall in the town layer.
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To join the two layers, firstly open Spatial Join window, choose park for Target Layer, and choose town for Joined Layer. Then, select Each feature will be given all the attributes of the joined polygon that it completely falls inside. for Operation. As the path for saving the output result is confirmed, click OK.
The joined layer will be displayed as the top layer on the map. As the attribute table is open, you will find that the attribute data of park are preserved and the corresponding attributes of the districts are added to the table, too.
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10.5 Grid Maker

Grid refers to the basic geometry units for the storage, display and process of geographical data. To create a grid is like to create a layer. Grid is used to divide the continuous geographical space into discrete units in order to record, store and manipulate data. Grids are also useful in mapping and positioning. To create a grid, firstly click Tools menu Grid Maker. Then, Grid Maker window is open, and you can choose the extent of the grid to cover Map extent or some layer from Extent dropdown menu. If you choose Custom, you need to type in the values in the text boxes to define the extent. Moreover, you can choose Count or Size to customize the grids. If you choose Count, the horizontal and vertical numbers can be set separately, and the system will automatically calculate the width and the height of each cell. If you choose Size, you can define the width and height of the grid by yourself. At last, as the path for saving the output is confirmed, click OK.
Then, the system will show Do you want to add this layer to the map? window. Click Yes, and the layer will be added to the current map.
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As the grid is added to the map, the grid will be displayed as the top layer so that the other layers will not be displayed. Therefore, you can set the transparency of the grid layer to make the grid and the other layers under the grid display clearly. The color of the grid is chosen by the system randomly, but you can double-click the color block of the grid in map content window to set the color you need.
After the transparency is adjusted, you can clearly view the grid and the other point, polyline, and polygon layers.
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If you need to view or edit the attribute data of the cells, you can open the attribute table to edit. The way to open the attribute table is the same as the way to open other layers table. Right-click the name of the grid, and click Open Table.
There are three default columns in the grid attribute table, such as ID, Col_Name, and Row_Name. ID is the serial number of the cells. Col_Name is named after the column, from left to right in alphabetic order, and the first column is A. If there are more than 26 columns, the column will be named with 2 letters, like AA, AB, etc. Row_Name is the number of the rows; the first row is numbered 1. In addition, you can select the records in the attribute table, and the corresponding cell will be displayed with the selection symbol on the map window. Similarly, if you select the cells on the map window, their records will be displayed with selection color. If you choose a layer for the extent of the grid, the result will be like the figure below. The grid only covers the extent of the layer.
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11
Customizing SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
11.1 Creating Custom Toolbar 11.2 Customizing Menu 11.3 Customizing Button 11.4 Customizing Scale List 11.5 Customizing Area 11.6 Locking Customization
SuperGIS Desktop provides the flexible and easy-to-use interface, besides using the default user interface the user interface or program can be modified or increased in SuperGIS Desktop customization system to meet your request and develop a preferred working environment to increase the working efficiency.
Chapter 11 Customizing SuperGIS Desktop 3.0
SuperGIS Desktop provides the flexible and easy-to-use interface, besides using the default user interface the user interface or program can be modified or increased in SuperGIS Desktop customization system to meet your request and develop a preferred working environment to increase the working efficiency.
Click Tools on the main menuCustomize to open Customize dialog box. In Customize dialog box, there are six tabs including Toolbars, Menu, Buttons, Scale List, Locale and Options. In this chapter each tab of Customize dialog box will be introduced with the functions and applications in detail.
You can also right-click on the toolbar and select Customize on the menu to open the Customize dialog box.
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11.1 Creating Custom Toolbar

SuperGIS Desktop provides toolbars in two types, one is the built-in toolbars and the other is created by users. In the Toolbars tab of Customize all of the built-in or custom toolbars are listed; in the right side of the tab, the buttons are Add, Delete, Rename, Reset and Reset All. Clicking Add button can create a custom toolbar and you need to enter the title in Input Name in the dialog box. Press OK and a blank toolbar shows up. Delete function can only be used to delete the custom toolbars. If you select a built-in toolbar, the function of Delete will become disabled. Besides, Rename function can change titles of both built-in toolbars and custom toolbars. Reset function can reset functions of the selected toolbar to the default value; Reset All will reset the functions of all the toolbars in list to default value.
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11.2 Customizing Menu

Open the Customize dialog box, click Menu tab and all the items on the function menu will be listed. You can expand the menu and click the title of the item you want to change and adjust it by clicking the function buttons in the right side of the dialog box. Rename can change the title of the item you select. Delete can delete the item you select. New can create a new menu and allow users to customize the contents. Move Up and Move Down can move the selected item award or back. Change Icon can change the icon style of the menu. Edit Source can edit menu function with VBA. Reset can return the selected item to original settings. Show Menu at the lower left corner in the dialog box is set checked by default, if you uncheck it the function menu will disappear from the window.
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11.3 Customizing Button

The Buttons tab in Customize dialog box displays the default buttons of all toolbars and describes the functions. You can select the toolbar which includes the button you want to view on the dropdown menu of Toolbar, then click over the function key to display the description at the bottom of the dialog box. Besides, the new toolbar buttons can be added in this tab, too. Similarly, select the title of toolbar that includes the tool you want to add then click the toolbar button you want to add and drag it to the desired toolbar location. As the mouse pointer shows , which represents the button can be placed to this toolbar, when you release mouse left key, the toolbar button is added to the toolbar.
Besides, when Customize dialog box is opened, the order of toolbar buttons can be modified. You only need to click over a button, drag to new position then release mouse and the button is placed to new position. If you want the toolbar to return to the default position, you only need to click the toolbar you want to return in the Toolbars tab of Customize dialog box and click Reset to make it.
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11.4 Customizing Scale List

On the standard toolbar, the Map Scale dropdown menu displays the current scale and other built-in scales in a list, which can be used to view map at different scales. However the built-in scales are fixed; if you need to apply other scales, please go to set up in the Scale List tab of Customize dialog box.
In the Scale List tab Add Current Scale To List can be selected and the system will add the scale of the current map window to the list or you can directly enter the needed scale in the edit box, and press Add to add the new scale. In addition, the unneeded scales in the built-in scale list can be directly deleted by mouse clicking and pressing Delete. Moreover, Reset at the lower right corner in the dialog box can return the scale list to the default value when being clicked. You can decide whether to check the Thousands Separator at the lower left corner in the dialog box, if it is checked a comma will be added to the scale number by each triple figure. When all of the settings are finished, click OK.
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11.5 Customizing Area

SuperGIS Desktop interface are available in Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese or Korean; you can select the language you need in Locale tab of Customize dialog box; after clicking OK a warning message, You must restart the program to make the change of language take effect., shows up. In other words, the language will not be switched immediately after one language is selected in the Locale tab but you must close the current project and restart a project to take the new language settings into effect and display in language you just set.
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11.6 Locking Customization

In the last tab of Customize dialog box, Options, you can set up the password to lock customization to prevent the projects user interface from being changed or letting out the customization source codes. You only need to click Lock Customization on the Options tab to show the Password Setting dialog box, type the password and reconfirm then click OK to finish the settings.
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Creating a New Normal Button

1. Click New Control on the Buttons tab of Customize dialog box and drag it to the toolbar.
2. Right-click over
and the function menu shows up.
3. Click Edit Source to show the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) editor. 4. Type (Msgbox SuperGIS Customization) in the editor. 5. Close VBA editor; go back to the Customize dialog box and click OK. 6. Go back to the map window and click 7. The message box shows. .
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Creating a New Tool Button

1. Click New Control in the Buttons tab of Customize dialog box and drag to the toolbar.
2.
Right-click
to show the function menu.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Click Edit Source button and show the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) editor. Set the event for this button Mouse Down. In the editing dialog box enter (Msgbox SuperGIS Button). Close VBA editor; go back to the Customize dialog box and click OK. Go back to the map window and click .
Click on the map window and the message box shows.
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Creating a New Menu

The customization tool can be used to create or modify the menu with SuperGIS Desktop. 1. 2. 3. Click Tools on the standard toolbar to open the menu. Click Customize on the menu to open the Customize dialog box. Click the Menu tab to open the menu page. In the page you can Rename, Delete or change
the order of the default items and menu.
In addition you can create a new menu. You can use VBA to write the function of the menu to execute work. 4. Click the upper level menu directory to which you want to add menu. For example, if you
want to add a menu under Help menu, please click Help item. 5. Click the New button and a new menu item will appear, the default title is &New Menu.
You can rename the menus title in editing status or by clicking Rename.
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6. 7.
Click Edit Source button to open VBA editor. When the editing is finished, you can find the new menu and function items on the menu.
You can show/hide the standard toolbar by checking or un-checking the Show Menu item in the Menu page. If the item is checked, the standard toolbar will be revealed; if not, it will be hidden. All of the customization settings will be saved in the customization project file, and you can activate customization when the file is activated.
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Changing Icon
1 Click Tools and click Customize to show the Customize dialog box. 2 Right-click the button you want to change icon
Change Icon. to show the function menu, and click
3 Customize Icon window shows up, and click 4 The icon is changed on the map window.
Only the custom buttons can apply Change Icon function to change icons.
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Appendix 1
OGC Client
Open OGC Client Converting Layers to GML Adding GML Layers Adding WMS Layers Adding WFS Layers
OGC (Open GIS Consortium) is a voluntary, non-government and non-profit organization, devoted in developing an open system to run geoprocessing and leading the interoperability standard of geographic information. GML (Geography Markup Language) is defined by OGC, it uses the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for data coding so that the geographic data and the properties in different systems can be easily exchanged. In addition, WMS (Web Mapping Service) is also the standard protocol defined by OGC for internet client end to demand the mapping. Through WMS client end can require the specified layer and some parameters like size or reference coordinate system are provided for mapping. Besides, WFS (Web Feature Service) is also the standard protocol defined by OGC, the features are supported to Insert, Update, Delete, Query and Discover. Client end sends the request of the features needed by the application through WFS and obtained data.
Appendix 1 OGC Client
OGC (Open GIS Consortium) is a voluntary, non-government and non-profit organization, devoted in developing an open system to run geoprocessing and leading the interoperability standard of geographic information. GML (Geography Markup Language) is defined by OGC, it uses the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for data coding so that the geographic data and the properties in different systems can be easily exchanged. In addition, WMS (Web Mapping Service) is also the standard protocol defined by OGC for internet client end to demand the mapping. Through WMS client end can require the specified layer and some parameters like size or reference coordinate system are provided for mapping. Besides, WFS (Web Feature Service) is also the standard protocol defined by OGC, the features are supported to Insert, Update, Delete, Query and Discover. Client end sends the request of the features needed by the application through WFS and obtained data.
Converting layers to GML, adding GML, WMS and WFS data are provided in OGC Tool of SuperGIS Desktop. Through OGC Client, feature layers can be converted to exchangeable GML layer or to add GML layer or through setting server to add WMS or WFS layers.
Open OGC Tool

Open SuperGIS Desktop and click on the empty location on toolbar and click OGC Client on the menu. OGC Client shows up. The buttons of the toolbar include Convert Layers to GML, Add GML Data, Add WMS Data and Add WFS data.
Convert Layers to
Add GML Data
Add WMS Data
Add WFS Data
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Converting Layers to GML

Geography Markup Language (GML) is to describe and explain the geographic information, which can present the structure and contents of spatial data and conduct exchange and management of spatial data.
If you want to convert feature layers to OGC defined GML data, click Convert Layers to GML button to show the Export to GML dialog box. In Layers all the contained feature layer names will be listed out, and you can directly click the layer you want to convert. On Export dropdown menu choose to export All Features or Selected Features of the selected layer. In Location click and select the file path to output the file. Click OK to export the file to GML layer.
After the file is exported to GML layer, a query dialog box shows up and query if you want to add this GML layer to the current map.
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Adding GML Layer

Click Add GML Layer on the toolbar to show the Open dialog box and select the GML layer you want to add to the map. The layer will display in the map window and show on Table of Contents.
Open the Properties dialog box and select the Source tab, the file type is identified as GML.
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Adding WMS Layer

The specification of Web Map Service, WMS is the standard that client end requiring server end the files and how server describes the file to client end.
Click Add WMS Data on the OGC toolbar to show the Add WMS Data dialog box. You can select the default server source or enter the source by yourself, if then you press , the server
source will become the default. In the next, click Get Layer and the related layers will show on Layer Collection. Give a check to the layer you want to add and click OK, and Layers will show in the map window.
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If the layer you added does not show in the map window, the problem could be: the visible scale of the layer does not match the current map scale or the server end sets the layer invisible or so.
Like the general feature layers or raster layers, you can set the WMS layer added to display or not and adjust the map to the area you want to browser by Zoom to Active Layer(s) function.
In the same way, the view tools can be used to zoom in, zoom out and pan the WMS layer.
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Adding WFS Layer

WFS, Web Feature Service, is mostly to describe and demonstrate OGC feature data operation, enabling server and users to communicate on layers and get feature data under layers. GML is the core Protocol.
Click Add WFS Data on the OGC toolbar to show the Add WFS Data dialog box. You can select the default server source or type the source by yourself then press to set the source the
default. In the next, click Get Layer and the relevant layers will display in Layer Collection. Give a check to the layer you want to add and click OK. Layers will show in the map window.
The symbol color or style of the features on WFS layer can be modified, and it can only display in single symbol type rather than the other types.
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Appendix 2
GPS
Opening GPS Toolbar GPS Settings Tracklog Settings GPS OptionsDisplay GPS OptionsDestination GPS Options Trail Connecting GPS Closing GPS Connection Pan to GPS Position Auto Pan Zooming to GPS Position GPS Position Window Tracing GPS Signal GPS Tracklog Setting Destination Clearing GPS Position Clearing Destination
Through SuperGIS Desktop GPS tool, users can use GPS functions with Desktop platform. When PC or Notebook is connected GPS receiver, users can rapidly demonstrate the current GPS position on SuperGIS Desktop map and overlay with other files. Moreover, SuperGIS Desktop can record tracklog for advanced analysis and application so that the common GPS functions in mobile platform can be utilized in Desktop environment as well.
Appendix 2 GPS
GPS(Global Positioning System) is a set of global navigation satellite system, used with appropriate receiver can precisely decide any position on the surface. The satellite net is owned by US Department of Defense, which can be used in fields of navigation, mapping and survey, in which takes precise orientation.
Through SuperGIS Desktop GPS tool, users can use GPS functions with Desktop platform. When PC or Notebook is connected GPS receiver, users can rapidly demonstrate the current GPS position on SuperGIS Desktop map and overlay with other files. Moreover, SuperGIS Desktop can record tracklog for advanced analysis and application so that the common GPS functions in mobile platform can be utilized in Desktop environment as well.
Opening GPS Toolbar

Open SuperGIS Desktop, right-click on the toolbar and the function menu shows up. On the function menu click GPS and GPS toolbar will appears in the window.
Stop Streaming to Tracklog
Open GPS Connection
Zoom to GPS
GPS Settings
Stamp Current Position to tracklog
Set Destination
Start Streaming to Tracklog
Pan to GPS Position
Close GPS Connection
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GPS Settings
Open GPS toolbar, click GPS Settings on GPS dropdown menu. GPS Settings dialog box shows up.
Select Connect to GPS receiver or Simulate GPS using point or line layer. You can only select one item from the two. While one item has been selected, the other item turns non-performable status. If you select Connect to GPS receiver please select the communication port to connect to GPS in Communication Port. When you first open the tool, the item only lists the built-in communication ports. Besides you can select Auto Detect, system will automatically link to various built-in effective communication ports. Baud Rate is the signal number per second GPS transfers, the default is 4800, or you can modify on your need. Parity enables you to select synch-checking type, five types are provided, including None, Odd, Even, Mark, and Space. Besides, Data Bits is set 8 bits by default. Stop Bits is set 1 bit by default. Datum of GPS refers to the map datum applied by GPS receiver, it is WGS 1984. If you select Simulate GPS using point or line layer, select a layer in Layer to simulate the GPS tracklog, the layer could be point or line layer. Set up the interval of GPS tracklog movement in Interval, the unit is second.
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Appendix 2 GPS
Before setting up GPS settings, please close GPS first.
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Tracklog Settings
When GPS moves, the GPS track can be recorded through Tracklog settings. 1. 2. 3. Open GPS Toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Tracklog Settings. Tracklog Settings dialog box opens. Click New, New Tracklong dialog box opens; now users can set a new tracklog file.
4.
Click icon next to Output feature file, Save as New File dialog box opens and set up the filename and file path for the new tracklog file.
5.
Select new tracklog file to be stored in point feature or line feature in Features will be stored in.
6. 7.
Select the fields of tracklog data you want to record in Add fields to the tracklog. If you do not understand what data is recorded in the field, you can check any one of the fields to see the function description on Description square.
8. 9.
Click Select All or Clear All to select or cancel all fields. After settings are finished, please click OK and go back to Tracklog Settings dialog box.
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Appendix 2 GPS
10. If you want to open existing tracklog file, click Open and select file according to the file path. 11. If you do not want to record GPS track in tracklog, you can click Close to close tracklog file and stop recording. 12. Besides settings mentioned above, you can set up streaming transmission. 13. Click Advanced, Streaming Options part is expanded. 14. Check Minimum Sampling Distance Between Points and set up the degrees. 15. Check Sampling Rate and set up the seconds. 16. When all settings are finished, click OK to complete the tracklog settings.
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GPS OptionsDisplay
When SuperGIS Desktop receives the signals, the current GPS status will be demonstrated on the window. You can modify the display of GPS result according to your preference and need.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Open GPS Toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Options. Options dialog box opens. Click the Display tab. The Display tab is divided into two parts, Units and Current Position. Now we are going to explain the function of each item.
5.
Units is to set up the format of Latitude/Longitude, unit of speed and Altitude to display when GPS moves.
6.
Current Position is to set up the display type of current GPS position, such as symbol and data update rate.
7.
Set up the format of Latitude and Longitude in Latitude/Longitude Format, three options are provided, including Degrees Minutes Seconds, Degrees Minutes, and Decimal Degrees.
8. 9.
Set up speed unit to display in Speed Unit. Set up Altitude unit in Altitude Unit.
10. Check Display current position using this symbol and click the icon next to open Symbol
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Appendix 2 GPS
Selection dialog box; here you can set up the symbol to represent GPS point. 11. Check Change Update Rate and set up update rate, system will update current GPS position based on the setting. 12. When all settings are finished, click OK.
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GPS OptionsDestination
In the next how to set up the symbol of destination will be introduced. 1. 2. 3. 4. Open GPS Toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Options. Options dialog box opens. Click the Destination tab. Click the button next to Symbol, Symbol Selection dialog box opens and choose a preferred symbol. 5. If you want to add label next to the destination symbol, type desired contents in the box next to Label. 6. You can set up in Label Symbol the font and background color or check Transparent to eliminate background color. 7. When settings are finished, click OK.
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Appendix 2 GPS
GPS OptionsTrail
1. 2. 3. 4. Open GPS Toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Options. Options dialog box opens. Click the Trail tab. Check Show linear trail. When GPS turns on, the GPS trail will be displayed in the map window. 5. Click the button next to Symbol, Symbol Selection dialog box opens and select a symbol to display. 6. 7. Set up the trail length in Total Length, the unit is Decimal Degree. When settings are finished, click OK.
The unit of GPS trail length is Decimal Degree. When GPS trail length is over the value you set up, the current GPS position will be viewed as the start and the over-valued part will be deleted by system. Though system will automatically delete over-valued trail length on the map, the recorded data will still be kept.
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Connecting GPS
1. 2. 3. 4. Open GPS Toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click GPS Settings. GPS Settings dialog box opens. Check Connect to GPS receiver. Click Communication Port dropdown menu and select the effective communication port. Or click Auto Detect, and system will connect to effective communication port automatically. 5. You may modify the other settings if you have special demand; otherwise, we suggest to keep the four items with default values. 6. 7. When settings are finished, click OK. Click GPS Toolbar and click Open GPS Connection to connect SuperGIS Desktop to GPS.
Closing GPS Connection

1. Click GPS toolbar and click Close GPS Connection to close the connection of SuperGIS Desktop and GPS.
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Appendix 2 GPS
Sometimes in the process when GPS moves, the current GPS position may be outside the map window due to zooming in of layer, at the time, you can use tools of GPS toolbar to pan current GPS position to the map window.
Panning to GPS Position

1. 2. Click Pan To GPS Position on GPS toolbar. The symbol representing GPS current position has panned to center of map window.
Auto Pan
Besides the method mentioned above can pan GPS position to center of map window, you can also set to keep GPS position within the map window always. 1. 2. Open GPS toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Auto Pan. GPS position keeps within the map window always.
These two functions can be applied only when GPS position is away from visible window. When GPS position is away form the visible window, with the two tools you can pan the GPS position to central map window or keep the position on the center of map window. If GPS position is not on the center of map window but somewhere within window visible range, when you perform the two tools, system gets no response.
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Zooming to GPS position

1. 2. Click Zoom To GPS Position on GPS toolbar. System moves GPS position to central window and fixed zooms in.
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Appendix 2 GPS
GPS Position Window

When SuperGIS Desktop receives GPS signals, users can read the current GPS position information with SuperGIS Desktop. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Open GPS toolbar, click GPS dropdown menu and click Position Window. GPS Position window opens and you can learn GPS current position information. Position records Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, speed and aspect. Dilution of Precision records three items of HDOP, VDOP, and PDOP. UTC Time is Universal Time and UTC Date is Universal date. Satellite Count records satellite number of which receives complete signal. Status records the GPS on or off and data receiving.
Dilution of Precision: the quality of GPS receiving gets profoundly involved in the geometry shape formed by received satellites and user. The deviation value caused by the geometry shape is called precision value intensity. Smaller precision value refers to the better geometry shape formed by satellites concerned and user. Therefore it calculates greater quality result with those signals.
PDOP: 3D dilution of precision is the square root value of deviation square sum of Latitude, Longitude and Altitude.
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HDOP: 2D dilution of precision is the square root value of deviation square sum of Latitude and Longitude. VDOP: Dilution of precision of vertical coordinate is the deviation value of Altitude.
Tracing GPS Signal

1. 2. 3. Open GPS toolbar and connect GPS to SuperGIS Desktop. Click GPS dropdown menu and click Debug Window. Debug Window opens, on the window displays the signals.
NMEA0183 format is defined by National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA). When GPS receiver receives positioning data transferred by satellites, such as latitude, longitude, positioning code, applied satellite number, satellite No., satellite heading and angle, signal receiving quality, satellite angle, altitude, relative panning, speed, direction and angle of panning, date, UTC Time and DOP deviation reference value, next these data are converted to NMEA0183 format to analyze Latitude and Longitude of GPS position, at last the window can display GPS current position.
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Appendix 2 GPS
GPS Tracklog
1. 2. 3. 4. Open GPS toolbar, connect GPS and SuperGIS Desktop. Click GPS dropdown menu and click Tracklog Settings. Follow steps of pages II-5~II-7 to add or open a tracklog. When a tracklog file is opened or added, the two functions on GPS toolbar of Start Streaming to Tracklog and Stamp Current Position to Tracklog become usable. 5. Click Streaming to Tracklog, system will follow the settings to record attribute data of GPS route. 6. If you only want to record the tracklog data of current GPS position, you can click Stamp Current Position to Tracklog and SuperGIS Desktop will record the current GPS position in accordance with your Tracklog Settings.
7. 8.
If you want to stop tracklog recording, click Stop Streaming to Tracklog. If you want to view GPS route record, click Add Layer on the standard toolbar and select the layer that records wanted GPS route tracklog.
9.
Displays the selected tracklog layer on the map window, right-click on the layer to show function menu.
10. Click Open Table on the menu to open the attribute table of this layer. 11. You can view the record result with the attribute table.
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When you add a tracklog layer into the map, you can right-click on the layer and click Properties on the pop-up menu, then re-set the symbol of this layer in Layer Properties dialog box, so that the layer tracklog can be easily and clear to view. Either the tracklog is stored in point or line layer, when it gets involved in recording attribute of date or time, system always records in UTC Date and UTC Time.
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Appendix 2 GPS
Setting Destination
1. 2. Click Set Destination on GPS toolbar, and you will see the cursor turns to setting cursor. On the map, click the mouse on the location you want to set destination, and destination symbol is placed on right the location. 3. When the Destination is placed, under GPS position symbol comes out a triangle. No matter how GPS moves this triangle always points to destination. 4. Through this triangle, you can control the relative relation of the current GPS position and destination.
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Clearing GPS Position

1. Click Close GPS Connection on GPS toolbar to close connection of SuperGIS Desktop and GPS. 2. 3. Click GPS dropdown menu and click Clear GPS Position. You can see all of the GPS positions have been cleared up and gone.
Before using with this function, close connection of SuperGIS Desktop and GPS, and the button becomes available to use. If GPS positions are cleared up, when you select again Open GPS Connection, they appear on the map window again.
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Appendix 2 GPS
Clearing Destination
1. 2. Click GPS dropdown menu and click Clear Destination. You can see the destinations on the map have been cleared up and the accompanied triangle under GPS position has gone as well.
The function can also be used when GPS closed.
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Appendix 3
Geodatabase Client
Opening Geodatabase Client Creating New Layer in Personal Geodatabase Importing Layer from Save Layer to
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 supports various types of geodatabases, including Personal Geodatabase(Access MDB), SQL Server, Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE. Spatial data stored in database makes data easy to share, interchange and read. In the past the spatial data was stored in feature layers, only one layer was recorded in one file, and data could be read with related GIS software only. Now the spatial data stored in database can be opened by the database programs. Furthermore, a database file can store multiple layers and related data at a time. As a result, Geodatabase Client enables users to record and read the spatial data easily and allows multiple users to read the files online to improve the availability of the data. SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 can read layer files from databases of Personal Geodatabase, SQL Server, Oracle Spatial, ArcSDE, however, only Personal Geodatabase files can be edited. In this chapter the operation steps will be introduced in detail.
Appendix 3 Geodatabase Client
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 supports various types of geodatabases, including Personal Geodatabase(Access MDB), SQL Server, Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE. Spatial data stored in database makes data easy to share, interchange and read. In the past the spatial data was stored in feature layers, only one layer was recorded in one file, and data could be read with related GIS software only. Now the spatial data stored in database can be opened by the database programs. Furthermore, a database file can store multiple layers and related data at a time. As a result, Geodatabase Client enables users to record and read the spatial data easily and allows multiple users to read the files online to improve the availability of the data.
SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 can read layer files from databases of Personal Geodatabase, SQL Server, Oracle Spatial, ArcSDE, however, only Personal Geodatabase files can be edited. In this chapter the operation steps will be introduced in detail.
Opening Geodatabase Client

Open SuperGIS Desktop, right-click the toolbar and select Geodatabase Client to show its toolbar.
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Creating New Layer in Personal Geodatabase

If you want to create new layer in Personal Geodatabase, click Geodatabase Source dropdown menu, select Create New Layer in and select Personal Geodatabase. Create New Layer in Personal Geodatabase dialog box shows up, and you can set the properties of the layer, like name, geometry type or so. Press the Fields button to show the Fields Setting dialog box and built up the attribute fields of the layer. Enter the field name and select the field type according to your needs. When the settings are finished, press Add to complete the settings. Go back to Create New Layer in Personal Geodatabase, click file and press OK. A new layer is built up. and specify the file path for the MDB
In this example, we are going to add a polygon layer named Polygon and a text field named Name.
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When the new layer is added to the map, edit features and attributes with Edit toolbar. The way to edit is the same way how you edit general layers. After the editing is finished, click Start Editing dropdown menu and select Save Edits to save the file.
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Importing Layer from

Geodatabase Client supports to import layers from spatial databases of Personal Geodatabase, SQL Server, Oracle Spatial and ArcSDE, but only those imported from Personal Geodatabase can be edited. Firstly, click Geodatabase Source dropdown menu, select Import Layer from and select the database type you want to import.
Personal Geodatabase
If you select Personal Geodatabase you can directly search and open the MDB file that contains the layer you want to import. In the next, select the layers you want to import in the table of the Add Layer form Personal Geodatabase dialog box and click Add to import the layers to SuperGIS Desktop.
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MS SQL Server
If you choose MS SQL Server, the MS SQL Server List dialog box shows up. You can click Add Server button and fill in the related information in SQL Server Login dialog box. Fill in the server name, Log in ID, Password and so on. Click Options to select database and language. After the settings are finished, the registration is completed.
Go back to the MS SQL Server List dialog box, select the database you want to connect and press the Select Table button to show the data list. Click the layer you want to add and click the Add button to import the layer to SuperGIS Desktop. The layer is displayed in SuperGIS Desktop only but cannot be edited.
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Besides, after the layer is selected, click the Detail button to check the data type. SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 supports to display WKB with Record Header only.
Select the layer and click Add to import and display the layer in SuperGIS Desktop.
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Oracle Spatial
Select to import layer from Oracle Spatial database and the Oracle Server List dialog box shows up. You can directly select a server or click Add Server to show the Oracle Login dialog box. In which, fill in the related information and press OK.
Click the server you want to use and click Select Table. Select Column from Table dialog box shows up. In Table dropdown menu select the table you need, select Get Column and click OK to import the layer.
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The specified layer is imported to SuperGIS Desktop. Please note that the layer can be displayed in SuperGIS Desktop only if the field of Geometry type is contained.
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Save Layer to
The layers that are edited with SuperGIS Desktop can be stored to Personal Geodatabase or MS SQL Server through Geodatabase Client.
Personal Geodatabase
If you choose Personal Geodatabase, firstly select Save Layer to on the Geodatabase Source dropdown menu; click Personal Geodatabase and the Save Data to Personal Geodatabase dialog box shows up. In Layer Source please select the layer name that you want to save to MDB file. You can save all features of the layer or check Use selected feature(s) to save only the selected features. In the next, click and specify the file path of the MDB file. When all
settings are finished, press OK to save the layer.
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MS SQL Server
If you decide to save layer to MS SQL Server database, click Save Layer to and select MS SQL Server. Save Data to MS SQL Server dialog box shows up and select the layer you want to save or you can select Use selected feature(s) to save the current selected features in the map window to MS SQL Server. After the layers are selected, click Next.
The MS SQL Server List dialog box shows up, select the server you want to store. Click Add Server and in the SQL Login dialog box fill in the related information, press OK.
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Appendix 4
Graph
Chart Type Opening Graph Opening Create Graph Wizard Create Graph Wizard Window Creating a Graph Creating Graphs of Selected Features Creating Mixed Graphs Creating Overlay Graph Setting Graph Tab Opening Graph Manager Viewing Graph Graph Menu Resizing the Graph Window Editing Graph Adjusting Graph Appearance Opening Option Window Changing the Font Style Changing the Color of Text and Background Changing Axis Style
Appropriate graphs might be the easiest way to figure out the information. Using graph is another way to present the features on the map so that users may compare and contrast the attribute data o f the features and recognize the changes or trends in the data.
Appendix 4 Graph
With charts, we can easily interpret some information, for example, the comparison and contrast of the numeric data of related features. Thus, users can not only recognize the changes of numbers but also figure out the trend of the development. In this chapter, we should know which type of chart we need first. Therefore, SuperGIS Desktop built-in 5 types of charts are going to be introduced firstly to help you choose the most suitable one to create a chart. Then, we will present how to manipulate and create each type of charts respectively and step by step. Furthermore, the methods to set the appearance of the charts will be displayed so that users can learn how to make their charts more appropriate. At last, how to modify and manage the charts will be presented.
Chart Types
Appropriate graphs might be the easiest way to figure out the information. Using graph is another way to present the features on the map so that users may compare and contrast the attribute data o f the features and recognize the changes or trends in the data. SuperGIS Desktop Graph tool has 5 built-in graph types, including bar, line, area, scatter plot, and pie. Also, you can display the charts in 2D, 3D, or stack. Thus, you can choose the graph chart which fits you the most to display the data in the best way.
Graph Type Bar
Definition
A bar graph is composed of two or more than two bars. Each bar represents a specific attribute value. The graph can be used to compare the values or show the trends. Also, bar chart can be created with other graphs. Bar is suitable for displaying the changes of data within a certain period or comparing the values of different features. Graph tool provides Vertical Bar and Horizontal Bar.
2D
3D
Stack
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Line
A line graph is composed of one or multiple lines. Line graphs mainly display the trends of values within a continuous scale. This kind of graph can be used with other graphs. Graph Tool provides Vertical Line and Horizontal Line.
Area
An area graph consists of the lines and area which are between the lines and X axis shaded. The lines are like Line graphs to present the trend in value, and the areas show the difference of quantities. Area graph can be used with other graphs. Graph Tool provides Vertical Area and Horizontal Area graphs.
Scatter Plot
Scatter plot graph shows each attribute as a point on the graph. The graph also can display the relationship between the attributes so that you can plot the attributes from more than two fields to create a mixed or overlay graph. Generally, the graph is usually applied to show the data distribution and the comparison of values.
Pie
Pie charts consist of a circle or pie, divided into two or more parts. Pie Charts are used to show the relationship between parts in proportions or ratios. Pie chart can display a certain field in a layer, so it is not suitable for creating mixed or overlay graph.
There is no principle for choosing graph type. It only depends on what kind of information users want to express to readers. Thus, even the same data can be displayed with different meanings in different graphs.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Opening Graph
Firstly open SuperGIS Desktop, right-click the toolbar, and click Graph. The toolbar appears. The buttons on the toolbar are Create Graph and Graph Manager.
Create Graph Graph Manager
Opening Create Graph Wizard

In SuperGIS Desktop, Graph enables users to apply the graph wizard to create graph to plot all or some of the features attributes on the map rapidly. Click Create Graph on the toolbar, and Create Graph Wizard appears.
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Create Graph Wizard Window
Graph Settings
Preview Graph
Graph Tab
Graph Properties Graph Legend
Preview Graph
Axis Properties
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Appendix 4 Graph
Creating a Graph
Creating a graph depends on how users would like to display the attributes of the layer. Therefore, before creating a graph, users have to understand the data so that they will be able to choose the appropriate graph type to analyze their data. For example, line graphs are suitable for the continuous data related to time; pie charts are suitable for the statistics data of sum or ratio. A good chart can show the trend in values, distribution, and the relationship between data. SuperGIS Desktop Graph can help you to create graph of all of the attributes of a layer or only some specific ones. The steps to create a graph are:
1. Open Create Graph Wizard. 2. In Graph Type, choose the type you would like to create. 3. In Layer, choose the source layer. 4. In Y Field, choose a field of the source layer as Y axis. 5. In X Label Field, choose a field of the source layer as the item on X axis. 6. In Color, choose the color you want the items in graph to be displayed. 7. Set the appended field for the graph type you choose. For example, if you choose Vertical Bar, you can set Multiple Bar Type. 8. Set whether to add a new graph tab to create a mixed or overlay graph. 9. After the graph settings are finished, click Next.
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10. In Appearance, you can set Show All Records or Show Only Selected Records. 11. In General Graph Properties and Graph Legend, set the title, footer, position, etc. 12. Set Axis Properties. 13. Click Finish, and the graph is created.
There is no principle of graph display. You only need to choose the type which can convey the information of the map.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Creating Graphs of Selected Features

With Graph, you can graph your current spatial data. SuperGIS Desktop Graph provides two ways to create graphs, Show All Records or Show Only Selected Records. Thus, if users want to graph the selected features, they only need to use the tools to select features or attributes. Consequently, users can create graphs easily.
Use Select Features tool to select features and create graphs In SuperGIS Desktop, one of the methods to select features is to select by Select Features tool. You can drag a rectangle to select the features within an area or some specific features. As the features are selected, you can use the Graph to plot the features.
1. 2. 3.
Click Select Features tool on Tools toolbar. Drag a rectangle on the map to select the features. The selected features are displayed with the selection symbols on the map.
4. 5. 6. 7.
Open Create Graph Wizard. In Graph Type window, complete the settings and click Next. In Appearance window, choose Show Only Selected Records, and click Next. The graph of selected features appears.
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Select features in Attribute Table and create a graph You are allowed to select one or multiple records of attribute data in attribute table. The selected record(s) will be displayed with selection color. Meanwhile, the corresponding features will be selected on the map as well. When the features are selected, you can apply Graph to graph the selected features.
1. 2.
Right-click the layer whose features you want to select, and choose Open Table. In attribute table, choose the record(s) you need. The selected record(s) will be displayed with selection colors.
3.
The corresponding features will be displayed with the selection symbols on the map.
4. 5. 6. 7.
Open Create Graph Wizard. In Graph Type, finish the settings and click Next. In Appearance tab, choose Show Only Selected Records. And click Next. The graph of selected features appears.
When selecting features, you can hold Shift button on keyboard to do Range-Select or hold Ctrl button to do Multi-Select.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Creating Mixed Graphs

You can use SuperGIS Desktop Graph to create a mixed graph. Mixed graph allows you to use one type of graphs to display the data of different fields in a graph. Through comparing with the data on the graph, readers can recognize the variances, like the male and female distribution, the exhaust proportion in the air. When you want to create a mixed graph in Create Graph Wizard, you can right-click the graph tab and choose Insert Item. A new graph tab is added. Switch the graph tab, and you can set the properties of the new graph, like the layer, color, etc. To create a mixed graph, you only need to set the graphs as the same type of graphs. For example, both of the graphs are Vertical Line or Horizontal Line. Then, set the properties of the graph tab. A mixed graph is created.
Pie charts are only applied to display the data of a field to present the relationship between one item and the whole data. Thus, pie charts cannot be used to create mixed graphs or overlay graph.
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Creating Overlay Graphs

You can apply SuperGIS Desktop Graph to create overlay graphs. Overlay graphs refer to create a graph composed of more than two types of graphs. Integrating different numeric data into a graph can display the data clearly. For example, overlay graphs can plot the relationship between the estimated house prices and the real house prices in some city or the population variances in recent year within a district.
When you want to create a mixed graph in Create Graph Wizard, you can right-click the graph tab and choose Insert Item. A new graph tab is added. Switch the graph tab, and you can set the properties of the new graph, like the layer, color, etc. To create a overlay graph, you need to decide the graph type first. For example, the first tab uses Vertical Line, and the second tab uses Vertical Bar. Then, set the properties respectively. A overlay graph is created.
Pie charts are only applied to display the data of a field to present the relationship between one item and the whole data. Thus, pie charts cannot be used to create mixed graphs or overlay graph.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Setting Graph Tabs

As several graph tabs have been created, you can hold the left key of mouse to drag the tab to change the order of graphs. Each tab is like a individual layer; the order of the tab will influence the display order in the graph. For example, when more than two fields need to be displayed on mixed graph or overlay graph, the tabs close to the right side would be displayed at top, and the tab close to the left side would be displayed at bottom.
Besides Insert Item, users can also use Delete Item. Right-click the tab and choose Delete Item, and the tab is removed. However, if there is only one graph tab, it cannot be removed.
To avoid being confused with the graph tabs, users can name the tabs respectively. Right-click the tab and choose Rename. Users can rename the tab. Or users can double-click the tab, and the text become editable. Then, users can rename the tab.
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Opening Graph Manager

As a new graph is created, you can apply Graph Manager to modify the graph properties. Click Graph Manager to open Graph Manager window.
There are three tool buttons on Graph Manager window, such as Open Graph, Delete Graph, and Edit Graph. The buttons are enabled only when a graph is selected in the window. Open Graph can open the selected graph; Delete Graph button can delete the selected graph. Edit Graph can edit or reset the properties of the selected graph.
The list displays the type, name, layer of the graph. Type shows the graph type; Name refers to the graph name. Layer stands for the layer whose attributes are displayed in the graph.
Delete Graph Open Graph Edit Graph
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Appendix 4 Graph
Viewing Graph
After a graph is created by the Create Graph Wizard, the system will show the graph automatically. If you close the window unintendedly, you can click Open Graph button on Graph Manager to open the graph again. Or you can double-click the record in the list in Graph Manger to open the graph.
Furthermore, you can also open several graphs at a time to analyze and compare the data.
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Graph Menu
As you are viewing the graph, you can right-click the graph, and a menu shows up. The menu contains Copy, Export, Page Setup, Print, and Properties.
Copy enables users to copy the graph and paste it to word processing software or image software. Export allows users to export the graph to BMP, JPEG, or PNG. Page Setup and Print are for the settings of print. If you click Properties, the Option window will appear. You can adjust the font, color, etc of the graph in Option window.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Resizing the Graph Window

Graph Window can be resized by dragging as users like. You need to move the mouse cursor to the corner or the edge of the graph window. Then, as the mouse cursor becomes the resizing cursor, you can drag the window to the size you need. Release the mouse, and the graph window is resized.
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Editing Graph
Through clicking the Edit Graph button on Graph Manager, users can edit the created graph. Basically, what users can set in Create Graph Wizard can be set in Edit Graph. For example, you can set the graph type, layer, field, color, title, insert new item, and so on in edit Graph Window.
You can graph the same data in different graph types to convey different information.
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Appendix 4 Graph
Adjusting Graph Appearance

SuperGIS Desktop Graph enables uses to set the appearance of graph, like the colors of title, background, graph, legend, footer, font, axis style, etc. As a result, users can create their own graph. You can set the appearance while you are creating the graph. Also, you can adjust the appearance after the graph is created.
In Option window, there are three tabs, including Font, Color, and Axis. In Color tab, you can set the background color and font color for each topic. In Font tab, you are allowed to set the font style for each option. In Axis tab, you can set the axis color, width, style, etc.
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Opening Option Window

There are three ways to open Option window to set the details of the graph. Firstly, while you finish the Graph Type settings in Create Graph Wizard, click Next. In Appearance tab, you can click Option button to open Option window.
Another way to open Option window is to apply Graph Manager to open Option. In Graph Manager window, select a graph in the list and click Open Graph button. Then, right-click on the graph and choose Properties, and Option window shows up.
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Appendix 4 Graph
The other way to open Option window is to open Graph Manager window as well. Then, click Edit Graph button, and choose Appearance tab. Click Option button, and the Option window appears and allows users to set the related settings.
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Changing the Font Style

In Font tab in Option window, users can set the font styles of the texts. The options contain, title, legend, footer, axis mark, and axis title. The way to change the font style of the graph is described below:
1. Open Option window. 2. Choose Font tab. 3. In Option, choose the one you need to change. 4. You can set the font style, bold, italics, underline, size, etc. 5. As the font settings are finished, click OK. 6. you can view the changed font style in Graph.
Title Legend
Axis Title
Axis Mark
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Appendix 4 Graph
Changing the Color of Text and Background

In Color tab, users can set the color of text and background. The options include Title, Legend, Footer, Axis Mark, Axis Title, Background, and Chart. The way to change the color of text and background is described below:
1. Open Option window. 2. Choose Color tab in the window. 3. in Option, choose the one you need to change. 4. You can set the background color and font color for the options. 5. As the color settings are finished, click OK. 6. You can view the changed color in Graph.
Title Legend Axis Title Background Chart
Axis Mark IV-22
Changing Axis Style

In Axis tab in Option window, users can set the axis style. The options are Axis X, Axis Y, Grid X, and Grid Y. The method to modify axis style is described below:
1. Open Option window. 2. Choose Axis tab in the window. 3. In Option, choose the one you would like to change. 4. You can set the width, color, and style for each option. 5. After the settings are finished, click OK. 6. You can view the changed axis style in Graph.
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Appendix 5
Common Questions
General Getting Start Platform Support Data Creating/Data Management SuperGIS Desktop Extensions
The frequently asked questions are answered in the appendix. The questions include the new features of SuperGIS Desktop 3, the meanings of the messages, supported platforms, data management, and so on.
Appendix 5 Common Questions
General
Whats new in SuperGIS Desktop 3?
SuperGIS Desktop 3, the new release of Desktop GIS software of SuperGIS 3 series products, has abundant GIS tools to offer GIS experts a professional GIS platform for geoprocessing and displaying, editing, managing, querying and analyzing geographic data even faster and more easily. SuperGIS Desktop 3 significantly enhances the performance in editing, displaying and geoprocessing. It also adds numerous tools for editing, navigation, authoring maps, etc. The new features are listed below: Greatly Enhanced Efficiency of editing, drawing and geoprocessing Provide more convenient tools and shortcuts for easier operation More excellent editing tools provided for different editing purposes Perfect your map quality with charts and various tools and templates Tighter integration of Geodatabases and OGC standards
A detailed list of functionality is provided in 1.3 Whats New in SuperGIS Desktop 3.
What are the basic differences between Standard Edition and Professional Edition?
SuperGIS Desktop 3 Standard Edition provides data visualization, query, analysis, and integration capabilities along with the ability to create and edit geographic features or data in a personal geodatabase. Professional Edition not only includes all the functionality of Standard Edition but also adds a set of tools for topology analysis and customization to enhance your GIS capability.
Standard Edition Map creation and management Data analysis and geoprocessing Create and edit data in a personal geodatabase Create and edit data in an enterprise geodatabase Tools for topology analysis Customization functions X X X Professional Edition X X X X X X
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Does SuperGIS Desktop 3 include all the functionality of SuperGIS Desktop 2.x?
Yes, SuperGIS Desktop 3 maintains the base functionality of SuperGIS Desktop 2.x and adds numerous new features driven by user requests.
Why cant I open SuperGIS Desktop user guide?

Your computer should install Adobe Acrobat Reader or higher to open SuperGIS Desktop User Guide. If you computer has not installed Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it from the Internet or install Acrobat Reader 9.3 from the Redistributable items in SuperGeo product installation disk. Then the user guide can be opened.
How long is the trial period of SuperGIS products downloaded from SuperGeoTek website?
SuperGeoTek website provides the trial versions of all SuperGIS products for free download. Once the software is downloaded, you can have 30-day trial period. When the trail period has expired, you cannot use the product anymore. If you would like to extend the trail period, please contact with us.
Getting Started
Can I install SuperGIS Desktop 3 on the PC which has installed SuperGIS Desktop 2.x?
Yes, you are able to directly install SuperGIS Desktop 3 on the PC which has installed SuperGIS Desktop 2.x. But, before installing SuperGIS Desktop 3, we strongly advise you to uninstall SuperGIS Desktop 2.x.
How to get SuperGIS Desktop license?

Please navigate to Start>Programs (or All Programs)>SuperGeo>License Verifier. After opening License Verifier, please choose the product desired to obtain a license and then click Single License or Floating License. Before obtaining the license, please make sure that the Internet has been connected. The details of getting license are provided in the Quick Start in installation disk.
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When SuperGIS Desktop is activated, why does the message License unavailable or the trial time has expired. Please run License Verifier to get the SuperGIS license. appear?
When the message appears, it means you have not obtained the license of SuperGIS Desktop or the license has expired. The solutions are listed below: 1. If the license of SuperGIS Desktop you use is single license, please run License Verifier before your first time to use SuperGIS Desktop. Please click Programs > SuperGeo > License Verifier and choose SuperGIS Desktop, and select Single license. Input the license key that is gained legally and click OK. Then, you can start SuperGIS Desktop successfully. If SuperGIS Desktop still cannot be started, it might be because the license key has been used in another computer. Please check whether you are the only user of the license key. Or please contact with us, and we will be glad to solve your problem. 2. If the license of SuperGIS Desktop you use is floating license, please run Floating License Manager on the license server. Please click Programs > SuperGeo > Floating License Manager. As Floating License Manager is opened, enter the license key that is gained legally and the license service is activated. Then run License Verifier on the client side, choose SuperGIS Desktop and Floating License, and enter the location of the license server. Then, SuperGIS Desktop can be started successfully. Please note that there is number limit on floating license. If the number of people using at the same time has reached the upper limit, the message mentioned above will show up when the other users start SuperGIS Desktop. If SuperGIS Desktop still cannot be activated, it might because of Windows firewall. When the windows firewall on the license server turns on, SuperGIS Desktop on the client side cannot be connected to get licensed. Please click Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Exceptions > Add Port, add the port number 7700 and name it. Click OK, and the client side in SuperGIS Desktop can connect to the server and obtain the license. 3. No matter for single license or floating license, if you use the license key for trial version, there will be time limit on SuperGIS Desktop. If the license for trial has expired, the message
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mentioned above will show up as well when SuperGIS Desktop is started. Then, you can choose to purchase the official version of SuperGIS Desktop or contact with SuperGeo to extend the trial period. 4. In Windows Vista/7 or higher, License Verifier should be run under the administrator account, and the obtained license will be recorded in the correct location. Otherwise, the message mentioned above might appear.
When SuperGIS Desktop is activated, why does the message "Error initializing VBA" appear?
The display of the message might be because you do not have enough permission. The solutions are listed below: 1. In Windows Vista/7 or higher, the message might appear as UAC (User Account Control) is on. As a result, VBA customization and the extensions cannot be used. To solve the problem, you can turn off User Account Control which is in Control Panel > User Accounts > Turn User Account Control on or off. Moreover, SuperGIS Desktop should be activated under the administrator account, the problem can be avoided. 2. As SuperGIS Desktop is installed completely, you need to restart the computer to make the system operate successfully. Therefore, the message "Error initializing VBA" might be because the computer has not been restarted. So, please restart the computer and start SuperGIS Desktop.
Platform Support
What operating systems does SuperGIS Desktop 3 support?
SuperGIS Desktop 3 is available for being installed on Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 2008/ 7 (32/64bit) for Window Desktop.
How to install SuperGIS Desktop 3?

When installing SuperGIS Desktop 3 or getting the license, we strongly advise that you should have administrator privileges.
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On Windows 7/2008/Vista, if you dont login as the build-in Administrator account, please right-click the icon of Setup.exe or License Verifier and click Run as administrator on the popup menu. Then you only need to follow the steps to finish the installation or getting the license. Besides, when SuperGIS Desktop 3 is activated first time, you also have to right-click the icon of SuperGIS Desktop 3 and click Run as administrator on the popup menu to activate SuperGIS Desktop.
On Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003, if you do not have administrator privileges, please right-click the icon of Setup.exe or License Verifier and click Run as on the popup menu and switch to the account with administrator privileges. You can start the installation or to get the license. When SuperGIS Desktop 3 is activated first time, you also have to right-click the icon of SuperGIS Desktop 3 and click Run as on the popup menu to switch to the account with administrator privileges. The SuperGIS Desktop 3 will be activated successfully.
Data Creation/Data Management

What geodatabases does SuperGIS Desktop 3 support?
SuperGIS Desktop 3 Standard Edition supports to completely read and edit vector data in a personal geodatabase (based on Microsoft Access files). It can also create new layers in a personal geodatabase. SuperGIS Desktop 3 Professional Edition supports to read and edit the data from an enterprise geodatabase, such as Oracle Spatial and MS SQL Server.
What data formats can I access with SuperGIS Desktop 3?

SuperGIS Desktop 3 supports the vector formats, such as GEO, SHP, MIF, DXF, GML, DWG, and DGN, and many commonly-used raster image formats, including SGR (SuperGeo Raster File), MrSID, GeoTIFF, BMP, GIF, JPG, JPG2000, ECW, PNG, LAN and GIS. In addition, SuperGIS Desktop 3 can not only read and write the data in a personal geodatabase and an enterprise geodatabase but also read the data conforming OGC Standards.
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Can the map edited in SuperPad be used in SuperGIS Desktop?

Yes, the map edited in SuperPad is supported to import to SuperGIS Desktop. You are allowed to store the edited map in *.slr format (SuperGeo Layer File) in SuperPad, and then import the *.slr file with Import function in SuperGIS Desktop. In addition to Import function, SuperGIS Desktop also supports to export the map in *.slr format, and then you can continue to edit the data in SuperPad in the field.
Does SuperGIS Desktop contain any sample data?

Yes, SuperGIS Desktop contains the sample data of different areas and in various themes with which you can practice manipulating the software.
Can SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 open the project file of SuperGIS Desktop 2.2 ?
Yes, SuperGIS Desktop 3.0 can open the project file of SuperGIS Desktop 2.2, but SuperGIS Desktop 2.2 cannot open the project file of SuperGIS Desktop 3.
SuperGIS Desktop Extensions

What extensions does SuperGIS Desktop 3 have?
SuperGIS Desktop 3 has many optional SuperGIS Desktop extensions, including 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst, Spatial Statistical Analyst, Network Analyst, Biodiversity Analyst and Topology Analyst, enabling you to extend more capabilities and power of SuperGIS Desktop. In addition, SuperGIS Desktop 3 also has many no-cost add-ons, such as OGC Client add-on, GPS add-on, Geodatabase Client add-on, SuperGIS Server Desktop Client and Image Server Desktop Client.
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SuperGIS Desktop 3.

Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0. 1-1

2.2 2.3 2.4

Setting and Managing Layer..... 4-1

Adding Step Color Ramp. Histogram... Exporting Image Layer.....

4-121 4-123 4-126

5-77 5-81 5-84 5-85 5-92 5-92 5-94

Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5

Chapter 1 Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

1.2 About SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Solve the Problems with SuperGIS Desktop

Chapter 1 Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

1.3 Whats New in SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Better Map Display Quality

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Chapter 1 Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Diversified Map Labels

Enhanced Layer Management

Page Layout and Printing

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Strengthened Data Editing and Processing

Chapter 1 Brief of SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Grid Maker window is improved.

Improved Raster Support

Enhanced Graphics Element

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Increased the interoperability with Geodatabase

Document and Data Support

Provide Various Applications

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

2.1 How to Setup SuperGIS Desktop

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

6. Click Install button.

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

Start SuperGIS Desktop

You can click the

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

2.2 Get the License

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

2.3 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

The Screen and Map Coordinates Data

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

2.4 Basic Functions

VBA editor Help

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0

Rotate Horizontally Rotate Left

Make Same Size

Make Same Height

Make Same Width

1. Draw Toolbar: includes graphics and text editing tools.

Align Vertical Center

Chapter 2 Overview of SuperGIS Desktop

6. Layout Toolbar: it works to set up the map layout.

7. Image Rectification Toolbar: it is used to rectify the image.

Start Editing Zoom in

Fixed Zoom out

Zoom out Georeference Tool

Toggle Draft Mode

SuperGIS Desktop 3.0