3. Map Control and Navigation

3.1 What is the difference between the Map and Layers tabs?

The Map tab lists the maps and views that are available in the application. The Layers tab lists the layers (themes) that make up the current map.

3.2 What does the paint brush symbol next to a layer in the legend mean?

This means that the polygons in a layer are rendered based on a value in the layer's attribute table. Double click on the paint brush to see the color/value pairs for the layer.

3.3 How do I turn layers on and off?

Click on the check box to the left of the layer name.

3.4 Why doesn't the map change when I turn on or off layers?

The map does not automatically refresh when you turn layers on and off. To refresh the map after making a change, click on the refresh button (far left in the tool bar) or right click on the map canvas.

3.5 I turned on a layer but it doesn't display, even when I refresh the map. What's wrong?

The display of some layers is scale-dependent. This means they won't show up until you zoom in or out to an appropriate level. Scale-dependent layers have an asterisk (*) after their name in the legend.

3.6 What does the asterisk (*) after a layer in the legend mean?

This denotes a layer whose visibility is scale-dependent. See the previous question.

3.7 What does the map tips button do?

The map tips button is a toggle. When pressed and the mouse is placed over a feature in the active layer, a small tooltip style box will popup identifying the feature by name or other relevant attribute. Not all layers have the map tips feature enabled.