Displaying Geospatial Data - MicroImages

1 TutorialDisplayingGeospatial DatawithTNTmips TNTedit TNTview Displaying page 2 Displaying Geospatial DataBefore Getting StartedIt may be difficult to identify the important points in some illustrations withouta color copy of this booklet. You can print or read this booklet in color fromMicroImages web site. The web site is also your source for the newesttutorial and application booklets on other topics. You can download aninstallation guide, sample data , and the latest version of any TNT product: tutorial booklet introduces you to the TNT products from MicroImages , may be a professional with years of experience or you may be a studenttaking your first GIS or Image Processing course. Whatever your situation, thisbooklet will help you get started with the TNT products. We recommend thatyour next tutorial be TNT Product Concepts.

2 Once you learn the basics of TNTwith these first two booklets, you will be ready to branch off in any direction toexplore the many powerful features TNT data The exercises presented in this booklet use sample data that isdistributed with the TNT products. If you do not have access to a TNT productsDVD, you can download the data from MicroImages web site. In particular, thisbooklet uses objects in the CB_DATA, BLACKBRN, EDITRAST, and MAPLO data collec-tions. Make a read-write copy of the sample data on your hard drive so changescan be saved when you use this Documentation This booklet is designed as the first in the tutorial general system information is provided in the TNT Product Conceptstutorial, which covers many TNT interface conventions. After you complete theexercises in these two booklets, you will have the basic skills you need to pick upany of the other tutorial Pro and TNTmips Free TNTmips (the Map and Image ProcessingSystem) comes in three versions: the professional version of TNTmips (TNTmipsPro), the low cost TNTmips Basic version, and the TNTmips Free version.

3 Allversions run exactly the same code from the TNT products DVD and have exactlythe same features. If you did not purchase the professional version (whichrequires a software license key) or TNTmips Basic then TNTmips operates inTNTmips Free booklet refers to TNTmips, TNTedit, TNTmips Free, and TNTview as TNT. Since the display features in all four products are essentially the same, you will beable to follow these exercises no matter which product you have with the excep-tion of the exercises on adding web layers, which require the professional versionof the TNT products (except for WMS and ArcIMS layers).Merri P. Skrdla, , 18 September 2010 MicroImages , Inc. 1997 2010page 3 Displaying Geospatial DataYou can install the TNT products from a DVD orafter downloading from MicroImages web site. AnInstallation and Setup Guide in Adobe PDF formatis provided in the root directoryof the TNT products DVD.

4 Youcan also download or view the in-stallation booklet from Micro-Images web exercises in this booklet usesample data available with theTNT products. Copy the sampledata to your hard drive. Making aread/write copy enables displayparameters and other informationto be saved. The data and docu-mentation can be downloaded from MicroImages web site. A large collection of Technical Guides onindividual features is also posted on MicroImages web site. Consult the TechGuides for newer fea-tures that may not be included in this booklet. Acollection of Quick Guides, which provide helpfulhints for using the TNT products is also Geospatial display process is common toTNTmips, TNTedit, and TNTview. It also is at thecore of the free TNTatlas product. TNTview contains the display process, the SMLscripting language, the import and export pro-cesses, and file maintenance procedures.

5 TNTedit is TNTview plus the geodata editor, andgeoreferencing. TNTmips is the complete suite of TNT display,editing, manipulation, and support exercises in this booklet describe the Displayprocess as it appears in the TNTmips Pro, TNTmipsBasic, and TNTmips Free products. Only slight dif-ferences in the way you launch the process appearin TNTedit and exercises in thisbooklet on pages 4 10introduce basic object anddisplay concepts. Pages11 21 introduce each typeof internal spatial dataobject. More complexvisualization and outputfeatures, including thetypes of Internet-basedlayers supported arecovered on pages 22 TNTW indows computers begineach TNT session with theMicroImages splash new edition of TNTmipsthat includes the latest errorfixes is posted weekly onMicroImages web site (nosoftware is error free, butMicroImages is veryresponsive to fixing errors).

6 The posted developmentversion also contains newlyadded features. You caninstall and run thedevelopment version andalso run the current releaseversion of 4 Displaying Geospatial DataStart TNTmipsSTEPS launch TNT from thedesktop select Main / Display expose the ToolTip foreach icon button in turnon the Display Managertoolbar click the New iconbutton and selectEmpty 2D from its menuThe tutorial booklets refer tomenu choices with a menupath notation. For example,choosing Display from theMain menu is indicated withthe menu path Main /Display. You can always tell what an icon button does by exposing its ToolTip: hold yourcursor over an icon button for a moment to see a description of the button s :74 Launch TNT for Windows and Mac computers bydouble-clicking on the TNT program icon createdduring installation.

7 The system also starts the XServer, which provides the operating environmentfor TNT (MI/X on Windows and X11 on the Mac).TNT displays its main menu with the items Main,Image, Tileset, Geometric, Terrain, Convert, Script,Tools, and Help. This booklet uses the Display pro-cess to introduce the main types of Geospatial ob-jects used in the TNT products: raster, vector, CAD,TIN, shape, and database . The exercises show howto display both simple and multi-object / multi-layer you choose Display from the Main menu,TNT opens a Display Manager window. Icon but-tons on the toolbar give you quick access to fre-quently-used functions. For these introductory ex-ercises, we will use the simplest form: a 2D displaygroup. The Display process also supports 3 Dgroups, display layouts, and page you are finished with a TNT session, closeeach active TNT process.

8 You exit Display by se-lecting Exit from the Display menu in the DisplayManager. You exit TNTmips by selecting Exit fromthe Main menu on the main TNT menu bar. You canalso exit a process using the close icon in the mainwindow s title bar. The X Server automatically exitswhen the last TNT process is 5 Displaying Geospatial DataDisplay Group View and ManagerSTEPS inspect the interfacecomponents of theDisplay Group Viewwindow click on the main menusin each window tosurvey the drop-downselections right-click on the DisplayGroup 1 item in theDisplay Manager list andselect Close Group fromits menu (on a Mac, usecommand-click for theright-click function)The Sidebar may contain thelegend, a magnifier, and alocator for the geodata in theView View canvas of theGroup View windowshows a multilayer display ofyour Geospatial companion DisplayManager window providestools to add, remove, andexamine each layer in the you choose to open an empty group, the Dis-play process opens a Display Group 1 View 1 win-dow (hereafter called the View window) and listsDisplay Group 1 in the Display Manager choices in the Display Manager will result in aprompt for you to select an object.

9 Object selectionis discussed in the next Display Manager window lets you add and re-move display groups and layers, and lets you exam-ine the attributes associated with each object bymanipulating the expandable list of objects in eachgroup. Many of these functions are also availablein the legend area of the Display process lets you simultaneously openmultiple View windows, plus 3D groups, displaylayouts, and page layouts. This booklet introducesdisplay for 2D groups. Other tutorial booklets treatusing page layout displays for map and poster de-sign and 3D perspective and stereo is a single Display Manager window to man-age all of your buttons openand close 6 Displaying Geospatial DataEach arrow drops down a list of the contentsof drive/directory/file to its Project File is the TNT data structure for all raster, vector, CAD,TIN, database , and text materials, as well as associated subobjects(such as georeference control and display characteristics).

10 Click on theicon in thisposition to goup one level inthe iconshows thetype of eachitem in and Object SelectionMost processes open a standard Select Objects dia-log so you can navigate through drives, directories,and Project Files to locate input and output projectmaterials. In the exercises on this page and the next,you will select several objects for 2D display fromthe TNT sample data . For purposes of illustration,we assume your sample data is on drive C: in TNT Project file has an RVC file additional file types are supported for directuse or by linking to files in their original objects have no corresponding internal ob-ject type and are supported by direct use or linkingonly. File types supported for direct use have asame-named file with an RLK extension when neededfor ancillary information created in TNT, such asgeoreference, styles, and additional database select 2D Display fromthe New icon menu examine the SelectObject dialog that opensGrayed-outinterfaceelements are notactive in thecurrent Project File may contain manydifferent types of objects; thelist can be set to show all typesor only those selectable in thecurrent can view all files in adirectory, only RVC files, orother selected file arrowdrops down alist of selected items appear in this between Web andlocal layers using 7 Displaying Geospatial data Select the C:/ data /BLACKBRN directory from theobject list.