Page History: Personalize Your Map

Compare Page Revisions

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Current 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

« Older Revision - Back to Page History - Newer Revision »

Page Revision: 02/13/2009 3:58 PM

Now that you have a basic understanding of the core functions of Weather Defender, its time to personalize your map by adding geographic layers and reference points.

This tutorial assumes you have completed the Getting Started Tutorial.



Step 1
To keep the display simple, turn off any active weather layers in the Map Layers window.



Step 2
Reposition your map so your Home icon is centered on screen. If you do not have a Home icon anywhere on the map, use the Set Home tool from the Map Tab toolbar to set it.

Tip
You may click Preset > Center Home on the toolbar to automatically center your home location on screen.

Step 3
Zoom the map to about 1:100 (does not have to be exact) as indicated in the lower-right of your status bar.

Note: The zoom scale identifies the number of pixels per degree. 1:100 means the current zoom displays 100 pixels for every latitudinal/longitudinal degree.

Step 4
Your map should display a small regional view of your location. Its time to start adding layers.

Click Add Layer from the toolbar and select U.S. Cities from the drop-down list.

Note: Some layers, like U.S. Cities will be downloaded to your computer the first time it is added to your map. You will not have to wait for the same layer to download if you add it again (or on other maps).

Step 5
In the Map Layers Dialog, drag the U.S. Cities button into the 'Foreground group. If the Foreground group is not expanded, click the Plus button to expand it.

Delete the USACITIES.ZIP group because it is empty. Do this by clicking the X in the group's panel.



Step 6
Repeat Steps 4-5, but add U.S. Counties.

Your map should now display county outlines:




Step 7
Next, we are going to add street maps. Click Add Layers again, but this time select Browse All Layers.

A new window will appear. This is the Layer Browser:


The Layer Browser gives you access to the full catalog of weather and geography layers in Weather Defender. It is organized by categories for easier reference and there is even a search engine if you don't want to browse.

Note: The Layer Browser is continually being updated with new and better Weather and Geography layers, so be sure to check out the selection regularly.

Step 8
In the Layer Browser, click the category link titled Roads, Rails, & Pathways.

On the next page, find the U.S. Highways listing and click the Add To Map button.

Close the Layer Browser.

After the download completes, you should see highways and interstates added to your map:


Leave the U.S. Highways layer in the default Ungrouped layer group.



Step 9
Now would be a good time to save your changes. Click the Save button on the toolbar.



Step 10
We are going to add some more detailed streets to your map. But before we do this, we want to store the current 'View' so we can return to it later.

On the toolbar Navigation section, click Presets, and Save Current.

Enter Home Base in the text field and press Enter.


If you click Presets again, you should see Home Base listed as an option.




Step 11
Zoom in closer to your home location. The zoom scale should read about 1:2000.

You will notice that as you zoom in more detail is displayed on your map including county names, more cities, and wider street lines. This is how the GIS engine works. When zoomed out, fewer details are shown so as not to overlap the weather imagery. To view more detail, simply zoom in closer.



Step 12
Open the Layer Broser again and navigate to Roads, Rails & Pathways > Local Roads:


Select the State and County for your home location. Then click Add To Map.

Finally, close the Layer Browser.

After the layer finishes downloading, your map should look something like this:




Step 13
Click the gearshaft icon in the upper-right of the Ungrouped panel in the Map Layers window.

The Layer Group Settings window will appear:


Change the Name to Streets and select All/None as the group Behavior.

Click OK.

You will see the new changed name in the Map Layers window. And if you turn off (or on) one of the two streets layers, both will turn off (or on).



Step 14
Click and drag the entire Streets group below/behind the Foreground Layers group.

Note: If you have trouble dragging to the correct spot, try collapsing the Foreground Layers group before dragging the Streets group.

Step 15
Click the Presets > Home Base button to revert to the original view we started with.

Congratulations!

Have other custom data sets you would like to import? See the Importing Data Tutorial.