Selecting Objects

• Overview
• Selection mode
• Selecting individual map objects
• Selecting all objects in a rectangular area
• Selecting all objects in a circular area
• Selecting all objects in a polygonal area
• Selecting map objects by name
• Selecting objects within a specified distance from other objects (buffers)
• Selecting objects within other objects
• Goto Selected
• Unselecting objects

Overview

When you select objects on the map, you can view or print a report that provides information about the selected objects or you can adjust the map display to zoom to the selected objects. The number and type of selected objects are displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the map.

Sticky Buttons - VanMap Toolbox buttons Select, Pan, Zoom In and Zoom Out are "sticky" buttons for continuous selecting, panning and zooming. VanMap remembers the function of a sticky button you have clicked on until you select another sticky button. If you select a non sticky button, zoom Go-To for hundred blocks for example, after VanMap has zoomed to the correct location, VanMap will still remember the previous sticky button function. The only way to change the function of the currently selected sticky button is to select another sticky button.

All other buttons are not "sticky" They are one-click buttons except for Measure Distance which needs more than one click to perform the function.

Labels:Layers can be turned on or off but only one label can occupy a space and be displayed at a given time. How and when a label is displayed can depend on the length of the label and the size of the local area polygon. There must be sufficient room to display the labels. As well, the layer names in the layer legend are listed in order in which they take precedence. For example, if you have Street Names turned on and then turn on Street Segments, you will notice some Street Segments disappear. If you turn off Street Names, the Street Segments re-appear. The labels for some of the street segments and the street names were occupying the same space, so the layer with the highest priority, the Street Names, took precedence and were displayed.

The default setting for VanMap prevents a label from being drawn at a specific zoom level if it will obscure other labels or features on the map. However, the program will display the label when you zoom in far enough to allow sufficient space to display it.

Scale View:

The scale of the map can also affect what you're able to view and select. If your view of the map isn't what you expected, check which layers are turned on. Turn them off one at a time to see what, if any, difference this makes. You can also try changing the map scale. For example, if you zoom in a bit, you may be able to see a map object's name label that you were unable to see in the previous view.

Colours:

If you're selecting objects by drawing a polygon, usually the selected objects will change colour. Occasionally the colours don't change and you may think the objects haven't been selected. This is because a site or a point on the map may refer to more than one record in the database. A location may have multiple names or records in the database. For example, W Broadway and Cambie St is also known as Cambie St and W Broadway. After making your selection you can check the status bar at the bottom of the map to see if a site refers to more than one record. Property addresses will always change colour when selected because there can only be one address.

Note: Always refer to the map tip, before the label. The label depends on size of the label or the scale, but the map tip does not.

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Selection mode

By default, when selecting objects inside a rectangle, circle, polygon, or buffer, VanMap selects those objects that touch or intersect the selection area. However, you can specify that you want only objects whose centroids are within that selection area. To specify the selection mode, do the following:

1. Right-click over the map, and then choose Preferences from the right-click menu to display the Preferences dialogue box.
2. Click the Selection Mode drop-down list, and then choose the method you want to use for selecting objects.

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Selecting individual map objects

You can select an individual map object by doing one of the following:

• Click on the object. This selects the object and deselects all previously selected objects.
• Shift-click on the object. This adds the object to the group of previously selected objects.

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Selecting all objects in a rectangular area

You can draw a rectangle to select all map objects that fall within that rectangular area. To draw the rectangle: use the Select button, click the left mouse button, and drag the mouse pointer diagonally until the rectangle covers the area you want, and then release the mouse button.

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Selecting all objects in a circular area

You can draw a circle to select all map objects that fall within that circular area.

1. Right-click on the map, and then choose Select » Radius.
2. Click and hold the left mouse button on a centre point, drag to define the radius, and then release the mouse button.

The radius appears dynamically on the status bar at the bottom of the map as you drag the pointer. When the pointer stops, the radius also appears as a MapTip.

All map objects that are within the circular area are now selected.

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Selecting all objects in a polygonal area

You can draw a polygon to select all map objects that fall within that polygonal area.

1. Right-click on the map and choose Select» Polygon.
2. Click the left mouse button on each point that you want to use as a vertex of the polygon.
3. On the last vertex you want to use, double-click the left mouse button to end the command and complete the polygon.

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Selecting map objects by name

If you know the names of the map objects you want to select, you can select them from a list.

1. Right-click on the map, and then choose Select » Map Objects to display the Select Map Objects dialogue box.
2. In the Map Layers list box, select the map layer that contains the map objects you want to select.
3. In the Map Features list box, select the map objects you want to select by doing one or more of the following:
   • Click a single map object.
   • Ctrl-click lets you select multiple objects on the list.
   • Ctrl-click also lets you deselect objects from a group of selected objects.
   • Click All to select all objects in the list.
   • Click Clear to deselect all objects in the list.
4. When you finish selecting the map objects you want, click OK.

Note: Depending on which Map Layer you have selected, not all the items listing in the Map Objects box will make sense. For example, the Local Area map layer has meaningful map objects but the Reference Street layer currently does not.

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Selecting objects within a specified distance from other objects (buffers)

By creating a buffer around selected map objects, you can find all objects that fall within that buffer. This is particularly useful in site selection, for example, to find all parks within two kilometers of your site.

1. Using any of the preceding procedures, select the map objects around which you want to create buffers.
2. Right-click on the map, and then choose View » Buffer. The View Buffer dialogue box appears.
3. In the Buffer Offset Distance text box, type the distance you want the buffers to extend from the selected objects, and then select the unit (such as miles or kilometres) you want to use from the drop-down list.

   Example: To find all objects within two kilometres of your site, type 2 in the text box and choose "km" from the unit list. Note that you can also use the up and down arrows to increase or decrease the distance.

4. To treat all of the buffer areas as a single object, instead of treating each buffer area as a separate object, select the Construct One Buffer For All Selected Map Objects check box.

   Note: This is particularly useful if any of your buffers overlap and you do not want the overlapping area counted twice. Overlapping buffers will also appear differently on the screen.

5. From the Create Buffer On drop-down list, select the map layer on which you want to create the buffers, or type a new name to create a new map layer that contains only the buffers.
6. In the Fill area, specify the style, colour, and pattern to use for filling the buffer areas.
7. If you chose a hatch pattern for the fill, the color you specified is for the pattern, so you need to specify settings for the background behind the pattern. In this case, in the Background area, specify whether the background should be opaque (buffers cover the map objects) or transparent (map objects show through the buffers), and the colour to use for the background.
8. In the Edge area, specify the style, colour, and thickness to use for drawing the outer line around the buffer areas.
9. Click OK.

VanMap creates the buffers around the selected objects. To select the objects within the buffers, select the buffers, and then use the Select Within command to select map objects from other layers that fall within the buffers.

Note: After you have created one or more buffers a temporary 'buffer layer' will be available in the VanMap legend. You can turn the buffer layer on or off by selecting or clearing the buffer layer in the legend.

To clear all buffers, exit VanMap or right-click on the map and select Reload.

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Selecting objects within other objects

1. Select the polygon map object(s) containing the objects you want to select (for example, select a buffer area that you have defined).
2. Right-click on the map, and then choose Select » Within to display the Select Within dialogue box.
3. Choose the map layer that contains the map objects you want to select (if they fall within the polygons you selected in step 1) and then click OK.

   Example: If you selected a buffer in step 1 that represents a specific distance from a site, and you want to find all parks within that specified distance from the site, you would select the layer that contains parks.

All map objects from the specified layer that fall within the previously selected polygon(s) are now selected.

Note: If the appropriate report is available, you might use this method to select and report on all objects that fall within a certain distance of another object.

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Goto Selected

Once you have selected map objects using any of the above methods you can zoom directly to them by right-clicking on the map and selecting GotoSelected. The status bar will display the number of objects selected.

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UnSelecting objects

There are three methods for deselecting objects:

• To deselect one object while leaving the rest of the objects selected, Shift+Click on that object.
• To deselect all objects, right-click on the map then choose Select » Clear Selection.
• To deselect all objects, right-click on the map then choose UnSelect.

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