Pima County Geographic Information Systems

Other MapGuide Tools

Overview

Most of our MapGuide maps include drawing tools and other map tools in the "Map Tools & Map Info" drop-down menu at the top of the map. These tool options are only available using Internet Explorer on Windows. They are not shown on other platforms.

Other tools in addition to the drawing tools are:

Oblique Aerial Photo
Zoom to Google Maps
Average Cross Slope
Calculate Area
Calculate Length
Get Lat/Lon
Zoom to Lat/Lon

The Average Cross Slope, Calculate Area, Calculate Length, and Get Lat/Lon tools return results from selected map features. For general help on selecting map features, see See Selecting Map Features in the MapGuide Viewer Help but be sure to scroll down on the page to see the most commonly used methods.

Using the Oblique Aerial Photos Tool

The Oblique Aerial Photos tool allows you to pick a point on the map to display an oblique (angled) aerial photo. You can then change the view (N,S,E,W) or pan and zoom the oblique view. If the selected point is outside the photo area, either a flat map is shown or the page remains empty. The tool has buttons for two sources of oblique photos:

Pictometry Aerial Photos provided by Pima County.
Oblique photos from Bing Maps .

If you double-click on a parcel, the parcel detail page also has links to "Pictometry Photos" (Internet Explorer on Windows only) and "Bing Maps Photos" links to photos for that parcel.

Printing Oblique Aerial Photos

Both Pictometry and Bing Maps oblique photos have printing problems. The methods and options for printing are a bit different for the two oblique aerial photo sources.

Printing Pictometry Oblique Photos
Unfortunately, the Pictometry Viewer has no built-in printing capability. The Pictometry print button shows the Printing Pictometry Aerial Photos page that explains how to save or capture the photo for printing. See Pictometry Aerial Photos Help for more on the various Pictometry Viewer buttons and tools.
Bing Maps Copyright and Printing Their Oblique Photos
Photos displayed from Bing Maps using the Bing Maps Photo button on the Oblique Aerial Photo Tool are copyrighted, unlike a good deal of the orthophoto imagery on our maps. You should review the terms of use on the Bing Maps site, including the Code of Conduct link (including the "Developers" section) at the bottom of the photo screen before printing the photo or using the following capture techniques.
The Internet Explorer Print button or File, Print... menu options won't print the oblique photo. It appears as there is no way to directly print an oblique aerial photo from Bing Maps.
You can use Alt-PrintScreen to put an image of the entire window on the clipboard in prepration for printing. You could also use a program such as SnagIt that provides many more capture options, including capturing just the image area itself, and printing from SnagIt. Using SnagIt can reduce the number of steps and streamline capturing, printing and saving the image.
Since capturing from the screen doesn't download the original photo file, you'll only get as much detail as you can see or fit on the screen. You may find many of the techniques from Optimizing Orthophotos, Imagery and Map Details used with MapGuide will be helpful to capture as much detail as possible from the screen.
If you use Alt-PrintScreen to capture the screen window to the clipboard, you can use the Windows Paint accessory or many other programs to clip out, print and save the window image you captured from the screen to the clipboard. To print just the photo portion of the captured image with Windows Paint:
1. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint to start the Paint program.
2. Choose Edit, Paste to paste the window image into Paint.
3. Pick the rectangle select tool and drag a box across the image or a portion of the image.
4. Choose Edit, Cut to place the selected image on the clipboard.
5. Choose File, New to start a new file in Paint. Respond "No" to "Save changes to untitled?".
6. Choose Edit, Paste to paste the selected image into the new file.
7. Use File, Save as... or File, Print... to save or print the photo image.

Using the Zoom to Google Maps Tool

The Zoom to Google Maps tool allows you to pick a point on the map to display in Google Maps. The Google Maps view will be centered on the point you pick with the approximate map width specified in the Zoom to Google Maps tool. Once in Google Maps, all Google Maps options are available, including panning, zooming and selecting the various map types. The Zoom to Google Maps Tool was added to MapGuide primarily as a way to link to the Google Maps Street View map with street level views.

Using the Average Cross Slope Tool

The Average Cross Slope tool calculates a selected parcel's average slope using the formula specified in the Pima County Zoning Code, Chapter 18.61, Hillside Development Overlay Zone. To use the tool, select a single parcel on the map, then select the Average Cross Slope from the "Map Tools & Map Info" drop-down menu at the top of the map. The displayed report has a link to "Exclusion (Natural) Areas Help" which explains how to exclude natural areas from the calculations.

Using the Calculate Area Tool

The Calculate Area tool calculates the area of one or more selected polygon areas in the map. It makes a report of all selected polygons, their estimated areas and totals in square feet, acres and square miles. If you select any lines or points in addition to polygons, the lines and points are ignored.

For parcels, in addition to using the Calculate Area tool to find areas, you can see parcel areas on parcel detail pages by double-clicking on parcels or by selecting parcels and using the MapGuide report simply called "Parcel Area and Values Report" with the View Report tool (or right-click, View, View Reports...). The advantage of the Calculate Area tool is that it can calculate the area of any layer's polygons, not just parcels.

The Calculate Area tool also works with polygons you add to the map, such as a buffer area you create, or a polygon you draw with the Draw Polygon tool. For instance, you could find the area of a roof or a paved parking area by drawing a polygon around the edges of the roof or parking area as seen on an orthophoto and then use the Calculate Area tool to get the area of the new polygon you made.

Using the Calculate Length Tool

The Calculate Length tool calculates the length of one or more selected line segments in the map. It makes a report of all selected line segments, their estimated lengths and totals in feet and miles. If you select any points and polygons in addition to lines, the points and polygons are ignored.

For streets, in addition to using the Calculate Length tool to find lengths, you can see street segment lengths by selecting street segments and using the MapGuide reports. Access the reports called "Street Names, Addresses and Lengths" and "Street Segment Names, Addresses and Lengths" by using the View Report tool (or right-click, View, View Reports...). The advantage of the Calculate Length tool is that it can calculate the length of any layer's line segments, not just streets.

The Calculate Length tool also works with lines you add to the map with the Draw Line tool. For instance, you could find the distance between any two points by drawing a line between the two points as seen on an orthophoto and then use the Calculate Length tool to get the length of the new line you made. The points can be anywhere you pick on the ground. They don't have to be map objects.

Using the Get Lat/Lon Tool

While you can display the mouse position as latitude/longitude or map X,Y values in the MapGuide status bar in the lower left corner of the map, the numbers change as soon as you move the mouse. (If you aren't seeing the values in the status bar, right-click in the map, choose Preferences, check "Display mouse position" and select either "Latitude, Longitude" or "Mapping Coordinate System", i.e. map X,Y units. Most all users want "Latitude, Longitude" units.)

The Get Lat/Lon tool works differently, listing latitude/longitude and map X,Y coordinates for point features you select on the MapGuide map. The advantage of the Get Lat/Lon tool over displaying the mouse position is that the Get Lat/Lon tool creates a report of selected points with results in decimal degrees, degrees/minutes/seconds and map X,Y formats. You can copy and paste the Get Lat/Lon report results into spreadsheets like Excel or other programs. You may want to pass the data through Excel to collect the data on the way to other formats.

Get Lat/Lon tool operation is similar to the Calculate Area and Calculate Length tools but Get Lat/Lon returns a report of selected point coordinates rather than a report of selected polygon areas or lines lengths. If you select any lines or polygons in addition to points, the lines and polygons are ignored.

To use the Get Lat/Lon tool:

Find point features on the map or add desired point locations with the Draw Point tool. Don't forget that you can turn on orthophoto layers and digitize any point on the photo.
Select desired point-type map features, either those you added with the Draw Point tool, or any existing point features on the map.
Pick the Get Lat/Lon tool in the drop-down menu to display the report of selected latitude/longitude and map X,Y values.

Using the Draw Point tool and the Get Lat/Lon tool, you can use MapGuide as a simple digitizer to collect latitude/longitude and map X,Y points. To assign an identifier to each point you draw, enter the identifying text into the "Map Tip" field of the Draw Point tool before drawing each point. The map tip you enter not only works like any other yellow map tip on the map, the map tip text also appears for each point in the Get Lat/Lon tool results and can be copied and pasted along with the latitude and longitude values.

The Get Lat/Lon tool may return "Not available" in the returned coordinate fields if the map layer hasn't been set up to work with the Get Lat/Lon tool. If you get "Not Available", please send the layer name to so we can adjust the map layer.

By drawing points on the map and using the "Get Lat/Lon" tool, you can use MapGuide as a digitizer to generate a report for coordinates of specific locations which you can then copy and paste into other applications or documents. Most GIS and related software understands the decimal degree latitude/longitude or map X,Y format produced by the Get Lat/Lon tool. This can save you the time and effort of going out in the field with a GPS device!

The map Latitude/Longitude values displayed by the Get Lat/Lon tool are in the WGS84 datum, decimal degrees.

The map X,Y values displayed by the Get Lat/Lon tool are in the "Mapping Coordinate System". For our Arizona MapGuide Map that's NAD 1983 UTM Zone 12 North, Meters. For all of our Pima County MapGuide maps, including the Main MapGuide Map that's NAD83-92 HARN (also known as HPGN) State Plane Arizona Central Zone (FIPS Zone 0202) International Feet.

Using the Zoom to Lat/Lon Tool

The Zoom to Lat/Lon Tool allows users to:

Zoom to latitude/longitude values from inside MapGuide.
Convert latitude/longitude values between decimal degrees and degrees/minutes/seconds formats.
Pick a point on the map and fill the form with the point's latitude and longitude in both decimal degrees and degrees/minutes/seconds formats.

While you can display the mouse position as latitude/longitude in the MapGuide status bar in the lower left corner of the map, the numbers change as soon as you move the mouse. (If you aren't seeing the latitude/longitude in the status bar, right-click in the map, choose Preferences, check "Display mouse position", and select latitude/longitude units.) Using the "Pick point..." button on the Zoom to Lat/Lon tool creates a snapshot of the coordinates for reference or to copy and paste into another application.

Remember that the Zoom to Lat/Lon tool uses negative degree values to indicate South latitude and West longitude.