Spatial Manager™ for GstarCAD - FAQs: Advanced Drawing Tools

Notes:

• Some components in the images on this page (providers, names, windows look, etc.) may be slightly different from those that will appear on your computer
• Some application functions need to access the Internet from the application itself. If you experiment problems in any process, ask your network administrator if there is a Proxy server installed on your network. You can configure the Proxy settings through the application options
• Some geographic data providers (Geocode, image Maps, etc.) may need a user account, which you can configure in the Service Provider API Keys settings through the application options
• The functions described in this chapter can be very handy as a complement to Spatial Manager commands, but also if they are used with other GstarCAD functions

Introduction

• Objective of this section
  • To learn how to use advanced drawing and visualization tools that complement GstarCAD functions for GIS users

• Topics in this section
  • Advanced visualization tools, such us Zoom to Selected entities or Layers, Zoom to last Imported entities, etc.
  • Entities Elastic deformation (Rubber sheet) that allows you to geographically align two or more graphic datasets by selecting coordinate matches between them ("Professional" edition)

Are special visualization tools available?

Yes, Spatial Manager™ for GstarCAD includes several commands that allow to process zooms on selections, imports, etc.

• Zoom to Layer (SPMZOOMTOLAYER): Zoom to the entities on the selected layers (by default on the current layer)
• Zoom to Selection Layers (SPMZOOMTOSELECTIONLAYER): Zoom to the entities on the layers of selected entities
• Zoom to Import (SPMZOOMTOIMPORT): Zoom to the entities resulting from the last import process
• Zoom to Selection (SPMZOOMTOSELECTION): Zoom to the selected entities

Can I transform entities in order to geographically align them, based on reference points? ("Professional" edition)

Yes, you can use the 'SPMRUBBERSHEET' command of Spatial Manager™ for GstarCAD to elastically deform (Rubber sheet) a set of selected entities by defining a set of source points and the equivalent set of target points

For example, you can use this command when stretching a new subdivision map into a preexisting parcel map:

In the window of this command you can:

• Select the entities to deform
  • Select all objects: All entities in the drawing will be processed
  • Only selected objects: Only a selection of entities will be processed. You can select the entities before executing the commands or by using the Selecting buttons in this window
    • Manual selection
    • Select by Query: Select entities according to the result of a simplex or compound data query (See "Selecting by Query")
    • Select by Table: Select entities which have been previously attached to a specific data table (See "Selecting by Table")
      • Note: As you can select the entities previously to execute the commands, in addition to the use of the above included selection options or in combination with them, you can make use of some other Advanced selection application tools, select entities in the Data Grid or any other selection method available in GstarCAD (Quick Select, etc.). Also note that, as most of the advanced application or GstarCAD selection commands will let you apply the selection to the current selection, the number of possible combinations to select what you are interested in is almost unlimited
  • Select objects in a layer: Only the entities included in a drawing Layer will be processed. You can select the layer using the drop-down list in this window
    • Note: The selection of entities in GstarCAD may be a few slower when the "SpatialManager" palette is open, depending on the data of the entities
• Base-reference points
  • Add points: You can add as many pairs of Source/Target points as you want (at least one pair), to define the desired transformation
  • Clear points: Eliminates any previously defined pair of points
  • Use previous operation points as pins: Allows to keep previously defined points anchored in a transformation, which allows to reach the required result through several transformations incrementally
• Buffer
  • You can define a buffer width so that the calculations of the sides of the entities are better adjusted and without loss of precision or addition of superfluous vertices

Rubber Sheet transformation sample

Related links

• Blog posts
  • Rubber sheet, align geographically buildings, parcels, ... in your DWG
  • Adjust geometries to a base map

• Go to FAQS