Global Mapper v25.0

No MP_TYPE Assignment for Points

Roger Edrinn
Roger Edrinn Global Mapper UserTrusted User
edited January 2008 in Vector Data
Export of points is not picking up assigned MP_TYPE attribute. Almost all points seemed to be assigned 0x0 unknown point.

I assigned all points, existing points types under Configuration > Point Styles. Or created new Point Types and assigned an MP_TYPE and Attribute value (0x???). Yet when I export those points, the unknown MP_TYPE is assigned.

If I search on all points, the MP_TYPE column is devoid of all values for thousands of points. Yet, summits are correctly shown after being complied.

An Example:
Gap, I assigned MP_TYPE = 0x660B and symbol “Diag Crosshair – Yellow”. When I check a point on the map of type Gap, the symbol appears correctly, yet it knows nothing of its MP_TYPE. When exported it get 0x0 unknown, so neither the Global Mapper gap or my explicit assignment for “gap” are being exported.

WHY???

Comments

  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    Roger,

    This is strange. What version and build date of Global Mapper are you using? I just tried creating a custom Gap point type with a MP_TYPE value in the default attribute list for the type and then created a new point feature with the 'Gap' type and everything worked fine with the MP_TYPE value being used in the export.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    GM v9.01 Dec 13, 2007

    Understand, I'm not creating these point, I'm sucking in massive shape files and using search to find and assign each unique point type. Then later I use the the Configuration > Points dialog to globally change each point type as to symbol and MP_TYPE.

    Thanks
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    Can you create a Global Mapper Package file with your input data (or even just a part of your input data) so that I can see exactly how they are set up? If you could also send me your custom_point_types.txt and dflt_attr_points.txt file from your Global Mapper folder that would help to complete the picture. You can send them to support@globalmapper.com.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    Is it possible?

    Is it possible I'm getting 'fooled' by workspaces? Rather than wrap my mind around all complications of package files and exported shapefiles, I resorted to a large workspace for all the data before exporting. We know that the last workspace loaded decides the name. Does that last workspace also decide point attributes?

    In other words, could the last workspace have "over written" assigned values?
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    When you add things like attributes to features they are not saved back to the original files that you have loaded. You have to save your changes either to a workspace file or by exporting them to a new file. So if you had loaded your Shapefile and then made your edits, then later just re-opened that same Shapefile, the re-opened Shapefile would not have any of your changes as they would have been saved in a workspace file (if you had saved one) and not in the Shapefile itself. Could this be what is happening to you?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    Don't think so.

    I'm very aware from my package files experience that changes are not saved. I've gone to considerable effort to keep individual layers intact and up to date. I frequently export shapefiles to new ones to reflect changes, these then become the master layer of its type. I then load these complete layers or groups of layers (workspaces) into a master workspace for exporting. I typically only make changes to the root layers as needed and then resave them.

    My concern/question was anytime you load a second workspace it becomes the file name and has anything else changed? The master workspace is always saved to disk with a new name, so I don't really care about the second or subsequent name change.

    In the morning, when the brain is rebooted, I'll suppy the files you requested.

    Thanks
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    When you load a new workspace file and already have other data loaded, you should be prompted to unload all of the existing layers or not. Assuming that you choose not to unload all of the existing layers, you should keep everything that was already loaded, and everything from the new workspace file will be loaded in addition to the existing loaded data. The default save to filename for the workspace will also change. This is reflected in the title bar.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    Can you create a Global Mapper Package file with your input data (or even just a part of your input data) so that I can see exactly how they are set up? If you could also send me your custom_point_types.txt and dflt_attr_points.txt file from your Global Mapper folder that would help to complete the picture. You can send them to support@globalmapper.com.
    In your in basket.

    I'm looking for one of those super fixes that you spoiled me with over the past months, like when the turkey is in the oven. ;)

    Thanks
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    Roger,

    Thanks for the files, I can see your problem. It appears that you have added a MP_TYPE attribute to each of your individual features, but left the value blank. You do have a correct MP_TYPE value in the default attribute list for your 'Gap' type (I did not check the others).

    When Global Mapper exports a point to a MP file, it first checks the individual feature for a MP_TYPE value, then if the feature does not have one, it then checks the default attribute list for the type of the feature for the MP_TYPE value. Since you have a MP_TYPE value added to your features (even though it is empty), that value is used rather than the MP_TYPE value from the default attribute list. What you need to do is simply select all of your features with the Digitizer Tool, right click and select to edit them, then delete the MP_TYPE attribute. This will cause the MP_TYPE value from the default attribute list to be used on export.

    One note about default attribute lists that may be causing confusion is that the default attribute list for a type is only added to an individual feature when you either create a new feature of a given type or change the type of an existing feature to that type. The default attribute list does not automatically get applied to existing features of that type, otherwise you would easily wipe out the attributes of any features of that type that you did not want the default attributes to apply to.

    Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    The default attribute list does not automatically get applied to existing features of that type, otherwise you would easily wipe out the attributes of any features of that type that you did not want the default attributes to apply to.
    That's exactly what I wanted and expected. Why does GM change the symbol type globally? One could argue what if I didn't want the symbol changed everywhere? By changing the symbol it implies GM has also changed the attribute, its confirmation that the requested task is complete.

    If GM can't make the requested change, then don't change the symbol and lie to me that all is well.

    To me this is analogous to the Cntl-P for edit and not ID, GM has to be consistent. You say you've found my problem, this to me is GM not being consistent and is a flaw in GM.

    Give me an example of where I'd want different attributes on the same feature type. I'll argue that instead of different attributes, I'll simple create a new type, easy to do. Then all unique types will have the same attributes, not different attributes within a unique type.

    Thanks
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    There are numerous instances where you would want different attribute values for featuers of a given type than what is listed in the default attribute list. For example, if you had a 'Tower' type and wanted a HEIGHT attribute for each tower listing the height of the tower, you certainly might want different values for that HEIGHT attribute for each tower point, and it would be insane to create a separate point type for every possible tower height that you want to use. Instead what you want is simply for the HEIGHT attribute to be pre-created when you create a new point with a tower type, allowing you to easily edit it but not have to manually add the attribute each time.

    I could come up with infinite examples from many different fields (particularly marine types, like lights, buoys, etc). The important thing is that you don't accidentally wipe out critical information existing in existing feature attribute data by making a global change in a default attribute list. In some cases this would be disastrous and cause some extremely upset users.

    I would consider the attribute list for a feature similar to the feature name. In many cases each feature will have a unique set of attribute values (if not a unique set of attributes entirely), just like each feature will commonly have a unique name within a type. I'm sure you would agree that having some global default name attribute for a type automatically change the display label of all features of that type would be very bad and you certainly would not want to create a new type every time that you wanted a different display label to be used.

    The symbol for a point is not as critical a piece of piece of information as attribute data, but even it has some similar behavior. Changing the defautl Symbol for a point type only changes the symbol used for loaded point features that are already using the default symbol for that type. If you have point features loaded with a given type that have been manually overridden to use a non-default symbol, they maintain their manually assigned symbol.


    Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    Okay,

    But look at it from my perspective, I went into the dialog expecting to globally change a point type and not only did I not get the expected change, but I ended up "shooting myself in the foot" by overriding GM's default export attribute. Clearly not a desirable outcome.

    So a challenge to you as to the law of unexpected consequences. Perhaps, a switch, "Apply this change globally?" That switch would both warn/inform and apply it to all points of one type if desired by the user.

    Thanks
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited January 2008
    What I saw in your data doesn't look like it was a result of the default attribute list not being applied as expected. You had your default attribute list set up with a MP_TYPE attribute set to what I assume was the MP_TYPE value that you wanted to use for point features of that type on export to Polish MP files, provided that the features themselves did not already have their own MP_TYPE value. The problem was that your point features already had their own MP_TYPE attribute value. I'm not sure which method you added that from, but the presence of that attribute (with an empty value) in the attribute list of the features themselves was the source of the problem, not the existence of the MP_TYPE value in your default attribute list.

    For assigning MP_TYPE values to types in Global Mapper I would suggest only adding them to the default attribute list and not the features themselves. You should only need to add them to the features themselves if you want to override the behavior in the default attribute list or the default type assignment in Global Mapper for built-in types.

    What I could do is make the MP_TYPE value in the attribute lists of individual features be ignored if it has an empty value (like in your case). I can't see a use for having an empty MP_TYPE value.

    I'm afraid of even having an option to globally apply default attributes to loaded data as a user not having a complete understanding of exactly what this means could easily wipe out critical data and have no idea what they just did. Until they actually looked at the attribute values they would not know they had changed. I would rather the user just select all of the features with that type with the Search dialog and then edit them all at once and edit the attribute values that way, that way there is basically no chance of a misunderstanding and an accidental change to attribute data that may have huge implications.

    Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Roger Edrinn
    Roger Edrinn Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited January 2008
    Their are just no easy answers . . . sigh!!!

    Thanks