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Navigating

in

TNTmips®

TNTedit™TNTview®

NAVIGATING

Tutorial

Navigating

Before Getting StartedThis booklet supplies the information you need to navigate the integrated sys-tem provided in all TNT products. Consult these pages for an introductory surveryof basic system operations. The TNT products appear with the familiar graphicaluser interface of your computer platform (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/UNIX)while at the same time they present an interface that is identical in the essentialsacross all computer platforms. The TNT products have identical features andinterface elements on every computer platform.

Prerequisite Skills This booklet assumes that you have completed the exercisesin the tutorial Displaying Geospatial Data. The exercises in that booklet showyou how to select and view spatial objects stored in Project Files. You shouldknow how to zoom, pan, and enhance display objects, and how to use the Refer-ence Manual. This booklet does not present these basic skills again. Pleaseconsult Displaying Geospatial Data for any review you need.

Sample 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 productsCD, you can download the data from MicroImages’ web site. In particular, thisbooklet uses objects in the BEREAMSS Project File and the CB_DATA data collection.The installation process makes a read-write copy of these files on your harddrive; you may encounter problems if you work directly with the read-only sampledata on the CD-ROM.

More Documentation This booklet is intended only as an introduction to basicsystem operations. Consult the TNT Reference Manual, which includes over 240pages on basic system operations, for more information.

TNTmips and TNTlite™ TNTmips comes in two versions: the professional ver-sion and the free TNTlite version. This booklet refers to both versions as“TNTmips.” If you did not purchase the professional version (which requires asoftware license key), TNTmips operates in TNTlite mode, which limits objectsize, and enables data sharing only with other copies of TNTlite.

Basic system operations are common to TNTmips, TNTedit, TNTview, andTNTatlas. All exercises can be completed in TNTlite with the sample geodataprovided.

Keith Ghormley, 11 September 2003

It 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 newesttutorials on other topics. You can download an installation guide, sampledata, and the latest version of TNTlite:

http://www.microimages.com

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TNTmips is like no other software product in its class;it has exactly the same features and interface on ev-ery type of computer: Windows, Mac OS X, andLinux/UNIX. The software engineers at MicroImagesmaintain exactly one version of their programmingcode, and that code is prepared for each type ofcomputer without modification. Keeping one set ofcode is the only way to ensure that the version ofTNTmips on eachtype of computeris exactly like theversions on everyother type of com-puter. It letsMicroImages pre-pare TNT prod-ucts for release on new platforms easily. As aMicroImages client, you benefit because the ver-sion of TNTmips for your computer will never beorphaned or lag behind when updates and new ver-sions are released.

MicroImages accomplishes this seamless cross-plat-form development by using the X Window Systemas the system environment for the TNT products.UNIX computers have X in their basic configura-tion. Mac OS X uses Apple's X11 implementation.For Windows computers, MicroImages supplies MI/X, our own X Server. On every platform, X runs asan environment layer inthe background, so you asthe user can concentratecompletely on your workin the TNT processes.

The first exercises(pages 4-6) introducesome basic X con-cepts. Project Files,object types, namingand maintenanceprocedures arecovered on pages 7-15. Other systembasics are covered onpages 16-23.

The X Window Systemsupports multitasking,remote execution, anddisplay of graphicsgenerated in one computersystem on anothercomputer in a network. Xhas strong traditional ties toUNIX, but can run under anyoperating system.

X and the TNT products

For Mac OS X, Apple'sX11 provides the TNTrun environment.

For Windows,MicroImagesautomaticallylaunches MI/X. Set MI/Xpeferences from the icon inthe Windows system tray.

You can select a Windowsor X desktop interface.

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Windows Interface

X Windows / OSF-Motif Interface

Mac OS X Interface

Host System Differences

You may notice slight differences,such as the contents of the WindowMenu (if any), and what happenswhen you click on the desktop.

(X11 on MacOS X hasno windowmenu.)

This booklet illustrates its exercises with the Win-dows interface. You will notice only slight differ-ences if you are using Mac OS X or Linux/UNIX.

Some interface elements aredetermined by the host op-erating system. For example,Windows and Linux / UNIXcomputers put the Minimize,Maximize, and Close buttonsfor each window at the rightend of the title bar, while MacOS X puts those buttons onthe left end of the title bar.These are differences in thehost operating system, not inthe TNT products.

Other difference include thecontents of the Window Menu (if there is one), andwhat the operating system does with a mouse clickon the desktop.

Minimize, Maximize, andClose buttons differaccording to the conven-tions of the host operatingsystem.

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TWM with X WindowsIf you use the X Windows desktop under MicrosoftWindows (or if you use Linux / UNIX), you will en-counter the TWM window manager. The TWM win-dow menus and the TWM pop-up operations menusoffer several features for managing your work in theX Window environment.

The TWM window menu openswhen you click the menu icon.

Use the TWM window menu and its cascades tomanipulate window size, order, and position.

Click the right mousebutton on the title bar ofany window to LOWER it.

Click the left mouse button on thetitle bar of any window to RAISE it.

Click on an iconifiedwindow to restore it.

You can show orhide an Icon Managerbar that offers acontrol icon for eachactive process.

Keyboard focus follows themouse in TWM. But you cananchor keyboard focus to aselected window so that evenif you move the mousesomewhere else, thekeyboard input is still directedto the same window.

If for some reason a processstops responding, you canforce it to close with the TWMClose Window or Kill Processoperations.

Left-click pop-up:The right-clickmenu can beexpanded andcustomized byediting theTNTSERV.TWM file inthe TNT productshome directory.

Right-click pop-up:Click on any unused part ofthe desktop to open the TWMpop-up operations menus.

RAISE and LOWERoperations are apparentonly when there areoverlapping windows.

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Interface VocabularyThe TNT products provide a consistent and recog-nizable style for interface elements such as scroll

bars, check boxes and menu cascades.This consistentcy makes you instantlyfamiliar with the interface componentswhen you go to a different computer. TheReference Manual, tutorial booklets, andother documentation uses a carefully de-

fined vocabulary to refer to the elements of thegraphical interface. Review the basic terms, con-cepts, and appearance of the interface elements pre-sented on this page.

title bar

window menu

menu bar

toggle button (on)

option button

inactive feature(grayed out)

action button(alsopush button)

minimize button maximize button

close button

tool bar

tabbed panels

layers list

tool tip

icon buttons

text box

sliderA long slider

indicates thatmost of the

list or imageis in view. Ashort slider

indicates thatmuch of the

list or imageis out of view.

scroll arrow

toggle button (off)

A Dialog Box is a windowthat offers response pushbuttons, such as [OK],[Cancel], and [Help]

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The Project FileAn object is one completedata entity in a Project Filethat all the TNT productshandle as a unit, like oneairphoto scan (raster), orone imported CAD file. Asubobject is attached toan object and containssupplemental material, likecolor display information orgeoreference data. Youmay have as many ProjectFiles as the capacity ofyour storage devicesallows.

A Project File may containmultiple levels of nested

folders and virtuallyany number ofobjects.

TNT products use a single data structure, the ProjectFile, that can hold all of your project materials. Anycombination of raster, vector, CAD, TIN, region, text,and database materials can be kept in each ProjectFile, so all of your data that pertains to a project ortask can be kept together easily. The Project Filewas designed with cross-platform users in mind. TheTNT processes all use special read and write rou-tines so that any single TNT Project File can beused interchangeably by any kind of computer: Win-dows, Macintosh, or UNIX. From your point of view,all cross-platform conversion and translation issuesare automatic and transparent.

The free TNTlite product differs from the TNT pro-fessional products in three ways:

1 Object Size. TNTlite is limited in the size of theProject File objects it can use.

2 No Export. Data Export is disabled in TNTlite.

3 No Return. TNTlite can use Project File materi-als prepared by the TNT professional products,but the TNT professional products cannot useany object that has been edited or otherwisemodified by TNTlite.

Except for the object size, export, and “no return”limitations, the free TNTlite product and the TNTprofessional products are identical.

Project Files

Folders

Object

Locked Files: When TNTopens a Project File, thesystem LOCKS the file fromother users and processesto protect it from simulta-neous updates. If yourcomputer gets turned off orotherwise interrupted whilea Project File is open, the.LOK file that TNT uses forlocking will not be erasedas it should. As a result,the next time you try toopen that Project File, thesystem will see the .LOKfile, assume that it is in use,and report to you that thefile is locked. In such ascase, you can delete the.LOK file as you would anyother unwanted file on yourcomputer.

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Raster Objects

Raster objects in TNTlite arelimited to 314,368 cells with1024 as the maximumdimension. Thus 1024 x300, 614 x 512, and 300 x1024 all fit the TNTlite limits.

The window shows the numeric cell values for part of the 8-bit grayscale rasterobject illustrated. The letter “Z” which shows in a soil type label in the image can bevisually distinguished in the numeric array by the lower cell values.

Techniques for displayingraster objects in color,pseudo-color, and en-hanced grayscale arepresented in a laterexercise.

display and examine theSHEET45_LITE rasterobject in the LANCSOIL

Project File from theEDITRAST collection

A raster object is a two-dimensional numeric arraythat contains values of a single data type. Eachnumber in the raster object represents the value ofsome spatial parameter, like spectral reflectance, im-age color, elevation, type of ground cover, or chemi-cal concentration. Cell values in a raster object areused to control the color and intensity of pixels on adisplay screen. When the dimensions of a rasterobject exceed the resolution of the display, the im-age can be zoomed or scrolled to accommodate thesize difference.

The Examine Cell Values feature is available fromthe Tools icon menu in the layer list of the displayprocess. You can use Examine Cell Values to viewthe numeric cell values that correspond to the rasterdisplay.

Cell data type refers to the number of storage bitsassigned to each cell. Raster object cells can havedata types of 1-bit (binary), 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bits of either integer or real number values.128-bit raster objects are supported for special pro-cesses that deal with the real and imaginary compo-nents of complex numbers.

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Vector Objectsdisplay and examine thePARCEL vector object inthe BLACKBRN Project Filefrom the BLACKBRN

collection

Vector objects in TNTlite arelimited to 1500 lines, 500polygons, and 1500 points.

A vector point element isdefined by x,y or x,y,zcoordinates.

A vector polygon element consists of one ormore line elements that define a closed shape.

A vector node element terminatesone end of a line element.

A vector line elementhas a node at each end.

A vector object is the collection of vector elements(points, lines, polygons, nodes, and labels) and at-tributes stored together in a TNT Project File. Points,lines, and polygons can be assigned to classes, haveattached database records, and be displayed in aselected drawing style (such as point symbols, linepatterns, and polygon fill patterns).

Processes that manipulate and analyze vector ob-jects can do so only with vector objects that have aconsistent and complete topology. The TNT prod-ucts automatically enforce one of three levels of vec-tor topology. Polygonal topology is the most rigor-ous level, ensuring that a point lies in at most onepolygon, and that no two lines intersect. Automatictopology maintenance requires a certain amount ofinternal bookkeeping about the relationship of vec-tor elements to one another, including• which lines emerge from a particular node,• what polygon elements are on either side of a

line element,• which line elements form a particular polygon,• which polygons are islands within other poly-

gons, and• what polygons they are islands within.

Vector topology does not support the idea of “lay-ered elements” as CAD topology does.

The TNT products supportthree levels of vectortopology: Polygonal,Planar, and Network. Formore information on thelevels of vector topologysupported by the TNTproducts, refer to the TNTReference Manual.

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Types of CAD elementsinclude: points, circles,arcs, arc chords, lines,boxes, polygons,ellipses, elliptical arcs,arc wedges, ellipticalarc wedges, ellipticalarc chords and text.Individual CAD elementscan be organized intoblocks that are inserted atone or many positionswithin a single object.

display and examine theFOOTPRINT CAD object inthe BLACKBRN Project Filefrom the BLACKBRN

collection

CAD objects in TNTlite arelimited to 500 elements.

A CAD object has a free-form topology, and is use-ful for applications that do not require an exactrecord of the spatial relationships between anobject’s elements. The CAD object data structuredoes not reconcile line intersections or polygonoverlaps and islands, and thus supports the con-cept of layered elements. That is, you can moveCAD elements around in a drawing without trigger-ing the topological reconciliation of overlapping el-ements.

The CAD object data structure also allows for thegeometric description of elements. For example, in avector object, an element that appears to be a circleis actually always a polygon, so that at a highenough magnification, the circular shape resolvesinto discrete vertices and line segments. By con-trast, a circle in CAD object is defined by its centerpoint and radius. Thus, at any magnification, a CADcircle looks circular. Unlike a vector polygon, it canbe resized simply by changing its radius, or movedby changing the location of its center point.

CAD Objects

Lines may overlap withoutexplicit intersections in CADobjects. (By contrast, in vectorobjects, nodes are imposed toreconcile intersecting ele-ments.)

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display and examine theTINLITE TIN object in theTINLITE Project File fromthe SF_DATA collection

A TIN object in a normal 2D view.

A 3D Perspective view.

TIN objects in TNTlite arelimited to 1500 nodes.

TIN ObjectsA TIN, or Triangulated Irregular Network, is com-posed of node and line data that represent a surfaceas a set of adjacent, conterminous triangles con-structed from irregularly spaced three-dimensionalpoints. The topology of a TIN object is more restric-tive than that of vector objects because in a TIN,every node is part of some polygon, and every poly-gon is a triangle. The TIN structure is carefully de-fined so that for any set of nodes in 3D space, thereis only one TIN that connects all the nodes. Theminimal size and uniqueness of TIN objects makethem ideal for processes that treat 3D surfaces.

TIN objects can be displayed in 2D or in 3D Per-spective as a three-dimensional surface.

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Region Objects

The GeoToolbox tool in thedisplay process lets youselect or create a regionobject and then apply it toelements in the active layer.The illustration shows aselection of polygonelements that are partiallyinside the region.

A 400-mile circular region iscentered over Nebraska.

Region objects in TNTlitehave no explicit limits sincethey are useful only inconjunction with otherobjects (which alreadyhave TNTlite limits).

In the GeoToolbox window (see page 20 in this booklet), the select operation uses aregion object to select polygon elements in a vector object of U.S. counties.

A Region Object is a special type of polygon con-struct that defines a complex collection of areas (in-cluding any islands) and stores it in a map projec-tion. Regions can be created in display processesand in the Object Editor by generating them over ageoreferenced image. Once defined, a region canbe used as a control object in other processes: forelement selection or area definition for processing,or in the application of other geospatial manipula-tions and analyses.

Region objects are useful only in conjunction withother geospatial objects (raster, vector, CAD, TIN,and database); they have no particular usefulnessby themselves. Region objects are particularly use-ful in Element Selection operations, which are intro-duced on page 20.

The illustration on this page shows a U.S. countiesvector object with polygon elements selected by aregion object with a 400-mile radius.

Look for more information inthe tutorial booklet Interac-tive Region Analysis.

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Database ObjectsDatabase objects in TNTliteare limited to 1500 records.

Select an element by clicking on arecord in the database window.

Open a database windowby pushing its icon button inthe layer list.

TNT database objects can store both direct geospa-tial data and related reference information for otherProject File objects. Database files can be linked orimported either as primary objects for direct use, oras subobjects that contain data cross-referenced toelements in raster, vector, CAD, or TIN objects. Da-tabases can be linked to a Project File either throughODBC (Open Data-base Connectivity), orwith direct support forparticular formats.

Database objects canbe manipulatedrelationally, that is, afield in one table canindex a record in an-other table. Thus, a chain of relational links can beestablished whereby an element references a recordcontaining field(s) tied to records in other tables.Records in more than one table can also be attachedto a single element. Complex logical constructs canbe applied to values in multiple databases to governselection and processing operations “by query” inmany TNT processes. Select a record by clicking on

an element in the display.

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STEPSin the Display /Spatial Dataprocess, openLITEDATA / BEREA / LAYOUTS /LAYOUT1choose Save As fromthe Layout menu in theLayout Controlswindownavigate to the filelevel and click theNew File icon buttontype in a file name anddescription and click[OK]click the NewObject icon buttontype in an object nameand descriptionclick [OK] to completethe operation

File and Object NamingIf you have a large collection of project materials,you need to follow a good organization and namingpractice. Use descriptive names and give a cleardescription with each name.

Project File names may be fifteen characters longand always use “rvc” as the file extension. Notethat you may need to tailor your file names to com-ply with the limitations of your operating systemand network environment. (Special characters al-lowed by one system may be illegal in another.)

The names of folders, objects, and subobjects in aProject File may be 15 characters long with an op-tional 63-character description. Object names mustbe unique for each object type within a folder. Simi-larly, subobject names must be unique within anobject. Folders, objects, and subobjects can becopied, renamed, and erased with the Project FileMaintenance process (Support / Maintenance /Project File) described on the next page.

Click the New File icon button toopen the New Project Filewindow where you can name(15 characters) and describe (63characters) a new Project File.

Click the New Object iconbutton to open the NewObject window whereyou can name anddescribe a new object.

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STEPSselect Support /Maintenance / ProjectFile from the main menuselect any object fromany Project Fileclick the Info iconbutton and examinethe Object Informationwindow

••••• Break Lockreleases the writelock on a Project File.

••••• Delete removes anobject.

••••• Link To lets you linkto read-only objectsand have read-writesubobjects.

Project File MaintenanceA Project File is a single data structure organized ina multi-level, logical hierarchy that may contain ras-ter, vector, CAD, database, region, and TIN objectsand subobjects. During the course of your work,you may have occasion to copy an object from oneProject File to another, or perform other maintenancefunctions. To access Project File Maintenance, se-lect Support / Maintenance / Project File from themenu. The Project File Maintenance window opensand displays a list of directories and files. Mainte-nance operations are applied to the currently se-lected item with the push buttons at the bottom ofthe window.

Use the Info button to get general information, suchas an object’s type, source, and a list of attachedsubobjects. The Edit button lets you modify theitem’s name and description and some other things,depending on the type of object. For example, youcan use Edit to change the assigned Null value andcell size for a raster object.

The Info push buttonopens the ObjectInformation window.

Apply an operation to thecurrently selected item withan icon button.

Double-click on an itemin the selection list tomove to the next levelof the Project File.

You can save thecontents of the objectinformation windowto a text file.

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(1) A simple grayscale spreadfrom 0 (black) to 255 (white);

(2) A rainbow color spread thattraverses the color space from 0(violet) to 255 (red);

(3) A two-range color spread:from 0 to 122 (dark green togreen), and 123 to 255 (olive drabto yellow).

Three color tables applied to the same 8-bit elevation raster object.

STEPSdisplay the ELEVATION

raster object from theCB_TM Project File in theCB_DATA collectionselect Edit Colorsfrom the Tools icondrop-down menuselect Rainbow from thePalette menu in the ColorPalette Editor windowexperiment withcolor spread andediting tools and clickRedraw in the Viewwindow

Color MapsA raster object is a two-dimensional array of num-bers. Display processes use the values in the rowsand columns of a single raster object such that thecolor and intensity of each image display pixel isdetermined by a corresponding cell in the rasterobject. A variety of techniques are used to creategrayscale and color images from the cell values inone or more raster objects.

A color map (also color table) associates 8-bit ras-ter data values (0-255) with various display colors.The Edit Colors selection on the Tools menu opensa Color Palette Editor window where colors can beadjusted, and complete color spreads applied.

1

2

3

2 31

Look for more information in the tutorial booklet Getting Good Color

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STEPSdisplay the RED rasterobject from CB_TM in theCB_DATA collectionselect EnhanceContrast from theTools icon menuexperiment withcontrast editing

In this image, the cell valuesrange from 20 to 164.

A normalized contrastimproves the appearance.

In User Defined mode, you can use freehanddrawing techniques to reshape the contrast curve.

Contrast Tables

Drag the statisticalcontrol componentsin the top panel ofthe window.

To improve display appearance, the TNT displayprocesses apply contrast enhancements to grayscaleimages. The display processes can use an existingcontrast table or they can create one. A contrasttable can project a narrow range of cell values into awide range of display intensities, making the brightsbrighter and the darks darker for better visual ap-pearance.

You can adjust the visual appearance of grayscaleimages by creating and selecting different meth-ods of contrast enhancement. The display pro-cesses let you choose from linear, normalized, equal-ized, exponential, and user-defined translationcurves. The Enhance Contrast selection on theTools icon drop-down menu opens a Raster Con-trast Enhancement window where you can selector interactively create a contrast curve. Make theadjustments you want and click Redraw to see theeffect.

A narrow input/output range putsmore cells at the extremes.

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Icon Buttons and ToolTips

Vocabulary: An IconButton is a graphical pushbutton that activates aprogram function. AToolTip is a label for anIcon Button that appearsafter you pause the mousecursor over an icon button.

Pause the mouse cursorover an icon button toexpose its ToolTip.

ToolTip text disappearsautomatically when youmove the mouse cursoraway from its icon button.

Some complex programs that offer many menu andbutton choices tend to crowd the screen with textand labels. In order to reduce this kind of interfaceclutter, the TNT products employ icon buttons,which provide a graphical representation of thebutton’s function instead of space-consuming la-bel text. Icon buttons take less interface space, so awindow can present more functions at the main level,letting you apply operations without workingthrough several levels of cascading menus and pro-gram dialogs.

Some standard icons are widely used by other popu-lar computer software, and such icons are instantlyfamiliar to experienced users. The TNT productsuse such “universal” icons when possible. How-ever, many functions in TNT processes use unique

icons designed spe-cifically by MicroIm-ages. Use theToolTip feature todisplay a temporarylabel that describesthe icon button’sfunction. Positionthe mouse cursorover the icon button.

Whenever the mouse cursor pauses over an iconbutton, a ToolTip identifier pops in, naming the func-tion of the icon button.

Icon buttons in the DisplaySpatial Data windowprovide quick access toprogram functions andobject controls.

Icon buttons appear in themenu bar and also in thelayer list of the displayprocess.

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Custom Toolbars

Design your own toolbars,by picking an icon andassigning label text to eachprocess you select.

TNT provides customizable tool-bars so that your favorite pro-cesses and SML scripts can al-ways be instantly available. You can create a toolbarwith as many processes as you like on it, and there-after access each process with a single click. Launch-ing a process with one click from a toolbar is easierthan navigating through a seriesof cascading menus to find theprocess you want. For example,to use Feature Mapping, youcould navigate four levels of menu cascades for theprocess (Process / Raster / Interpret / Feature Map),or you could simply click the Feature Mapping iconin your custom toolbar.

You can create as many different custom toolbars asyou like and have any number of tool bars open at atime. You can create your tool bars with labels, andlater turn off the label display after you are familiarwith the icons. In any event, ToolTips are presentautomatically over every process-level toolbar icon.

To create a toolbar, select Edit from the Toolbarsmenu. The controls in the top panel of the ToolbarEditor window let youcreate and deletetoolbars. Select a pro-cess from the scrollinglist on the left, and add itto the process list on theright.

Choose a process icon,label, and ToolTip text.

Pick a toolbar from the list tomodify the selection ofprocesses it contains.

Select processes and addor remove them from atoolbar’s SelectedProcesses list.

Select toolbars from theToolbars menu.

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STEPSdisplay HYDROLOGY fromCB_DLG in the CB_DATA

collectionzoom in on the twosmall lakes in thenorthwest corner asillustrated belowclick the Select toolin the Controlwindowselect both lakesand the hydrologythat connects them inthe View windowclick Create Region/ Buffer Zone,enter the valuesillustrated below, andclick [Apply]

The Create Regionicon opens the BufferZone RegionGeneration window.

Element SelectionIn many TNT processes, you will want to apply cer-tain operations to selected elements only. For ex-ample, you may want to select a single polygon ele-ment to view its attached database records, or toselect multiple line and polygon elements to create abuffer zone around them. Element selection is con-trolled with tools in the View and Controls windows.Follow the steps listed for this exercise to use theinteractive buffer zone tool: just one application ofthe flexible Element Selection controls.

Other Element Selection features are available in theGeoToolbox window. Click the GeoToolbox icon onthe menu bar in the View window and inspect theselection, measurement, and region tools in theGeoToolbox window. Refer to the TNT ReferenceManual for more information about the powerful andflexible selection features in TNTmips.

Coordinated use oftools in the View,Controls, and BufferZone windowsmake complex andpowerful elementselection possible.

The Select tool in theView window lets youpick multiple elementsfrom the HYDROLOGY

vector object.

The Select tool in theControls windowenables the multiple-element selection mode.

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Refer to the Getting Startedbooklet Understanding MapProjections.

For best results:• Keep all related project

materials in the samemap projection.

• If visual discrepanciespersist, resample rasterobjects to the geometryof the map projection.

STEPSdisplay the STATES vectorobject from the UNTDSTAT

Project File in the USA

data collectionselect Projection /Clipping from the GroupmenuIn the Group Settingswindow, changeAutomatch to Noneclick [Projection...] andchoose a differentSystem

Map Projections

Your choice of map projection affects the geometry of the display.

In order to draw portions of a spherical surface on aflat page or display, the surface must be geometri-cally projected onto the drawing plane. Many tech-niques for projecting portions of the earth’s surfaceonto planar maps have been defined over the years.The choice of a map projection determines the ap-pearance and map qualities of the results you pro-duce.

For many applications, particularly when the extentof the project area is local (rather than regional orcontinental), the choice of a map projection makeslittle visible difference: the curve of the earth’s sur-face is too slight to matter for short distances. Buteven at local scales, mixing project materials of dif-ferent geometry can result in layers that “don’tmatch” other layers. The TNT display processesautomatically reconcile different map projections onthe fly, but some factors remain that may affect thealignment of features and overlays.

If you want to be more than a casual bystander inthe profession of GIS and cartography, you need todevelop a strong grasp of the fundamentals of mapprojections so that you can make informed choicesfor your mapping projects.

Large-extentmaterials show bigdifferences ofgeometry caused bymap projection.

Misapplication ofmap projections andparameters cancause unwanteddistortions.

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Display a map with linestyles for rivers anddifferent types of roads.

Choose By Attribute in adisplay process to choosefrom (or create) a selectionof drawing styles.

Point, line and polygon elements in vectorand CAD objects can be displayed in anendless variety of drawing styles. For ex-ample, you could make points display as oilwell symbols, lines with highway patterns,or polygons filled with repeating geologicsymbols. You can select styles explicitly,or you can use values from attached data-bases to determine style selection “by at-

tribute.” To get an idea about style operations:

Style Selection

display the LITEDATA / BEREA / BERVECT / TIGERBEREA vectorobjectopen the Vector Layer Controls dialog and in theLines tab, select Style: By Attribute, and [Specify...]in the Assign Styles by Attribute dialog, click [EditStyles...]in the Style Editor dialog, select a pattern sampleand then click the Create or Edit Pattern iconbuttonin the Line Pattern Editor window, click the Openicon buttonin the Select Pattern dialog, select a pattern to openand click [OK]survey the tools in the Line Pattern Editor window

Obviously, TNTmips offers a rich feature set in sup-port of style selection and design. For more infor-mation, refer to the Online Reference Manual or thetutorial booklet Creating and Using Styles.

Refer to the tutorialCreating and UsingStyles.

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STEPSopen a new displaygroup and add CB_DATA /CB_COMP / _8_BIT, CB_DLG /HYDROLOGY, and CB_DLG /ROADS

select Open 2D Viewfrom the Group menu inthe Group Controlswindowturn off the GeoLocktoggle in the View menuof one of the Viewwindowsapply different viewcontrols and tools toView 1 and View 2experiment withthe Hide/Showicons for each layerand view

Group 1cb_tm satellite imagecb_dlg vector layers

Multiple Views and GroupsThe display processes letyou select and arrange com-plex views of your spatialdata. A Group can containmany Layers of geospatialobjects. When you create agroup, it has one View win-dow. You can open more view windows and ma-nipulate the controls for each View separately, togive you multiple views of the geospatial objects inthat Group. You can turn off certain view windows ifyou want to focus your work on one View

The complex capability of the display process iscompounded when you realize that you can alsoopen more than one Group: multiple Groups, witheach Group visible in multiple Views. Even morecomplexity is possible inasmuch as a View can beeither 2D or 3D.

If you have a single monitor on your computer, youcan quickly fill it with so many Groups and Viewsthat the result is confusion. If your computer isconfigured with multiple monitors, you can dragmultple Groups and Views to different monitors andspread out your work.

View 11X zoommeasure-ment tools

View 24X zoomGPS input

Group 2cb_spot satellite image

cb_elevation surface layer

View 12D View

3D viewpointtools

View 23D view

You can open multiple Groups, and look at eachGroup with multiple Views.

The Hide/Show icon togglesthe display of each layer ineach View.

Refer to thetutorial 3DPerspectiveVisualization.

Advanced Software for Geospatial AnalysisNAVIGATING

Voice: (402)477-9554FAX: (402)477-9559

MicroImages, Inc. publishes a complete line of professional software foradvanced geospatial data visualization, analysis, and publishing. Contact usor visit our web site for detailed product information.

TNTmips TNTmips is a professional system for fully integrated GIS,image analysis, CAD, TIN, desktop cartography, and geospatial data-base management.

TNTedit TNTedit provides interactive tools to create, georeference,and edit vector, image, CAD, TIN, and relational database projectmaterials. TNTedit can access geospatial data in a wide variety ofcommercial and public formats.

TNTview TNTview has all the same powerful display features forcomplex visualization and interpretation of geospatial materials asTNTmips. TNTview is perfect for those who need flexible access to theTNT project materials but do not need the technical processing andpreparation features of TNTmips.

TNTatlas TNTatlas lets you publish and distribute your spatial projectmaterials on CD-ROM at low cost. TNTatlas CDs contain multipleversions of the TNTatlas software so that a single CD can be used onany popular computing platform.

TNTserver TNTserver lets you publish TNTatlases on the Internet oron your intranet. Navigate through massive geodata atlases with yourweb browser by using the free, open-source TNTclient Java applet (orany custom applet you create) to communicate with TNTserver.

TNTlite TNTlite is a free version of TNTmips, TNTedit, andTNTview for students and professionals with small projects. You candownload TNTlite for your computer (about 100MB) from MicroImages’web site, or you can order TNTlite on CD-ROM (shipping chargesapply).

email: [email protected]: www.microimages.com

11th Floor – Sharp Tower206 South 13th StreetLincoln, Nebraska 68508-2010 USA

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