Change map layers

You can use the Change Map Layer Options dialog box to amend various details of any layer that is shown on the Plot tab of the Map Visualization node.

Input details

Tag
By default, the tag is a number; you can replace this number with a more meaningful tag to help identify the layer on the map. For example, the tag might be the name of the data input, such as "Cities".
Layer field

If you have more than one geospatial field in your input data, use this option to select the field that you want to display as a layer on the map.

By default, the layers you can choose from are in the following sort order.
  • Point
  • Linestring
  • Polygon
  • MultiPoint
  • MultiLinestring
  • MultiPolygon

Display settings

Use hex binning
Note: This option affects only point and multipoint fields.

Hex (hexagonal) binning combines proximate points (based on their x and y coordinates) into a single point to display on the map. The single point is shown as a hexagon, but is effectively rendered as a polygon.

Because the hexagon is rendered as a polygon, any point fields with hex binning turned on are traeted as polygons. This means that if you choose to Order by type on the map node dialog box, any point layers that have hex binning applied are rendered above polygon layers but below linestring and point layers.

If you use hex binning for a multipoint field, the field is first converted into a point field by binning the multipoint values to calculate the central point. Central points are used to calculate the hex bins.

Aggregation
Note: This column is only available when you select the Use hex binning check box and also select an Overlay.

If you select an Overlay field for a points layer that uses hex binning, all of the values in that field must be aggregated for all points within the hexagon. Specify an aggregation function for any overlay fields you want to apply to the map. The available aggregation functions depend on the measurement type.

  • Aggregation functions for a Continuous measurement type, with Real or Integer storage:
    • Sum
    • Mean
    • Min
    • Max
    • Median
    • First Quartile
    • Third Quartile
  • Aggregation functions for a Continuous measurement type, with Time, Date, or Timestamp storage:
    • Mean
    • Min
    • Max
  • Aggregation functions for Nominal or Categorical measurement types:
    • Mode
    • Min
    • Max
  • Aggregation functions for a Flag measurement type:
    • True, if any are true
    • False, if any are false
Color

Use this option to choose either a standard color to apply to all features of the geospatial field, or an overlay field, which colors the features based on the values from another field in the data.

If you select Standard, you can choose a color from the palette of colors that are shown in the Chart Category Color Order pane in the Display tab of the User Options dialog box.

For more information, see Setting display options.

If you select Overlay, you can choose any field from the data source that contains the geospatial field that was selected as the Layer field.
  • For nominal or categorical overlay fields, the color palette that you can choose from is the same as that shown for the Standard color options.
  • For continuous and ordinal overlay fields a second drop-down list is displayed, from which you select a color. When you select a color, the overlay is applied by varying the saturation of that color according to the values in the continuous or ordinal field. The highest value uses the color chosen from the drop-down list and lower values are shown by correspondingly lower saturations.
Symbol
Note: Only enabled for point and multipoint measurement types.

Use this option to choose whether to have a Standard symbol, which is applied to all records of your geospatial field, or an Overlay symbol, which changes the symbol icon for the points based on the values of another field in your data.

If you select Standard, you can choose one of the default symbols from a drop-down list to represent the point data on the map.

If you select Overlay, you can choose any nominal, ordinal, or categorical field from the data source that contains the geospatial field that was selected as the Layer field. For each value in the overlay field, a different symbol is displayed on the map.

For example, your data might contain a point field that represents the locations of shops and the overlay might be a shop type field. In this example, all food shops might be identified on the map by a cross symbol and all electronics shops by a square symbol.

Size
Note: Only enabled for point, multipoint, linestring and multilinestring measurement types.

Use this option to choose whether to have a Standard size, which is applied to all records of your geospatial field, or an Overlay size, which changes the size of the symbol icon or line thickness based on the values of another field in your data.

If you select Standard, you can choose a pixel width value. Options available are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, or 30.

If you select Overlay, you can choose any field from the data source that contains the geospatial field that was selected as the Layer field. The thickness of the line or point varies depending on the value of the chosen field.

Transparency

Use this option to choose whether to have a Standard transparency, which is applied to all records of your geospatial field, or an Overlay transparency, which changes the transparency of the symbol, line, or polygon based on the values of another field in your data.

If you select Standard, you can choose from a selection of transparency levels that start from 0% (opaque) and increase in 10% increments to 100% (transparent).

If you select Overlay, you can choose any field from the data source that contains the geospatial field that was selected as the Layer field. A different level of transparency is displayed on the map for each value in the overlay field. The transparency is applied to the color chosen from the color drop-down list for the point, line, or polygon.

Data Label
Note: This option is not available if you select the Use hex binning check box.

Use this option to select a field to use as data labels on the map. For example, if applied to a polygon layer, the data label might be the name field, containing the name of each polygon. If you select the name field, those names are displayed on the map.