Spatial Manager Desktop™ - FAQs: Selecting and filtering

Introduction

• Objective of this section
  • To practice with the selection of spatial features using several methods for designation over the Map and in the data grid and to conduct combined selections or selections resulting from queries

• Topics in this section
  • Selecting over the Map: single selection or selecting by areas
  • Selecting a full Layer
  • Selecting on the data grid: control over the columns and information on selecting
  • Querying and filtering: selecting features by querying their data and filtering by Layers
  • Other functions: adding and removing features from the selection (CTRL), inverting the selection, deselecting all features (ESC) and selection properties

How can I select Features of a Map?

There are multiple methods to select Features in Spatial Manager Desktop™

• Graphical selections in the Map
  • Single selection: by clicking on a Feature in the Map
  • Rectangular selection:
    • By dragging the cursor left to right over the Map to define a rectangle (blue) and selecting all Features completely included in this rectangle
    • By dragging the cursor right to left over the Map to define a rectangle (green) and selecting all Features completely or partially included in this rectangle
  • Radius selection:
    • By dragging the cursor left to right over the Map to define a circle (blue) and selecting all Features completely included in this circle
    • By dragging the cursor right to left over the Map to define a circle (green) and selecting all Features completely or partially included in this circle
  • Polygonal area selection: by defining a polygonal area in the Map; to finish this area definition you must double-click over the last vertex of the polygon. In "Options\Workspaces" you can configure if you want to select all Features completely included (Contains) in this area, or select all Features completely or partially included (Intersects) in this area

• Select a whole Layer
  • You can select all the Features in the selected Layer by using the "Select" function in the "Layers" ribbon

• Selection queries
  • You can select Features in a Layer by querying their data and you can define simple or complex queries by choosing the "or"/"and" operators

File:SF-3.png

• Data grid selection
  • You can select a row in the Data grid by clicking on this row. If you want to add rows to the selection you can use the CTRL or SHIFT keys

• Notes:
  • When you apply any graphical selection method, you can control the Data grid behaviour in "Options\Workspaces" and in the "Selection\Tools" ribbon
  • When you apply query or Data grid selection methods, you can control the Map view behaviour also in "Options\Workspaces" and in the "Selection\Tools" ribbon

How can I add/remove Features to/from a selection?

• To add Features to a selection in Spatial Manager Desktop™
  • Press CTRL key when you use any graphical selection method
  • Press CTRL or SHIFT keys when you click on rows in the Data grid
  • Click the option "Keep current selection" when you use a selection query (you can find also this option when performing "Spatial queries" - not in "Basic" edition)
• To remove Features from a selection in Spatial Manager Desktop™
  • Press CTRL key when you click on a Feature in the Map
  • Press CTRL key when you click on a row in the Data grid

File:SF-7.png

How can I invert a selection?

To invert a selection in Spatial Manager Desktop™ you must use the "Invert" function, so you will get selected all Features not selected previously in the Map and vice versa

How can I deselect all Features selected?

There are three methods to deselect all Features selected in Spatial Manager Desktop™

• Press the ESC key
• Click anywhere empty in the Map
• Use the "Deselect" function

How can I filter selections by Layer?

You can use two ways to filter selections by Layer in Spatial Manager Desktop™

• By setting the "Layer scope" parameter in "Options\Workspaces", so the graphical selections will apply to all Layers in the Map or to selected Layer only
• Use the function "Restrict to layer", to limit only to a Layer in the current selection. You can also use this function to find out how much Features are now selected in every Layer of a selection

Can I get some information about a selection?

Yes, you can find data about a selection in the "Properties" panel of Spatial Manager Desktop™. If you do not see this information in the "Properties" panel when some Features are selected, set the focus of the application in the Workspace by clicking on the tab of the Workspace

In addition, at the bottom of the Data grid, you will see this information:

• How many Features are selected in the selected Layer of the Total number of Features included in the selected Layer
• How many Features are selected in others Layers and the number of Layers including any Features selected

How can I "navigate" through the selected Features in the Data grid?

To "navigate" through the selected Features in the Data grid in Spatial Manager Desktop™, you can use the bottom arrows in the Data grid to go to the next, previous, first or last Feature in the grid

Related links

• Spatial queries (not in "Basic" edition)
• Advanced methods for selecting Features in a Map
• How to highlight some Features in Google Earth

• Go to FAQS