Edit - Save as Map

This command appears when a drawing,  image, or labels window has the focus, and enables saving the drawing, image, or labels component as a map component with the same layer structure.

 

We can double-click on a drawing, image, or labels component to open it in is own window, and we can drag and drop other components into that drawing, image, or labels window as layers.   However, adding layers to a drawing, image, or labels window is temporary, and lasts only as long as the window is open.  If we close the window and then open the drawing, image, or labels component again in its own window, any layer added previously will not be there.  

 

Sometimes we might open a drawing, image, or labels component in its own window for a quick look, add a few layers, and find that we have gotten a bit carried away with how we have added and organized layers, with much work invested that we do not want to lose.  Perhaps we have even used the Layers pane to specify different opacity for different layers, to group some layers together in groups, and so forth.

 

To save such layered presentations in a persistent way, use the Save as Map command.  That will save the drawing, image, or labels component window together with the same layer structure in a new map component.  The new map will inherit the coordinate system used by the drawing, image, or labels component window.

Example

We start with a drawing of buildings in Monaco.

 

 

We pop open the drawing in a drawing window.   The Layers pane is seen at right.

 

 

We drag and drop some additional layers into the drawing window, as seen above in a zoomed in view to better show the roads and railways layers.   We double-click into the Background color well and specify a medium gray color background.

 

When we realize we've invested more work than we want to lose (all this will be lost when we close the buildings drawing window), we press Edit - Save as Map to save this layer structure and presentation as a map.

 

 

If this is the first map we have created in the project, the default name used will be Map, or otherwise will be iterated in the usual way as Map 2,  Map 3 and so on.  We pop open Map in a map window and we see it has identically the same layer structure as the drawing window.  Since maps have a persistent layer structure, we can close and open the map and the layers will still be in the same arrangement.

See Also

Maps

 

Drawings

 

Images

 

Layers Pane