[GPlates-discuss] GPlates-discuss Digest, Vol 52, Issue 4

[Christopher Scotese]

John & Christian

Thanks for your comments and support.

See my interlinear replies.

Regards,

Chris



> Hi John & Chris,
>
> seconding the "shift click" multiple feature select option proposed by
> Chris. I think 'shift click' on most OSs is mapped to "select multiple
> items", so it seems logical to me.
>

Thanks!

>
> Re the "move/morph" features tool: That exact functionality is available
> readily in other GIS software such as QGIS (qgis.org) or ArcGis. In QGIS
> you can find the tools under the "advanced editing toolbox" which allows to
> rotate/move features. The only problem there is that this will not work
> with feature collections in *.gpml format - so all your data needs to be in
> ESRI *.shp format.
>

The GIS function is a 2D rotation/transform. I am suggesting a 3D rotation.

>
> Cheers,
> Christian
>
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> Thanks for your suggestions.
>
> In terms of current plans? There?s a symbology plan (that?s been on paper
> for a while) for more flexible control over points/lines/fill/etc.  Same
> with selecting multiple features.
>

Good to hear.  I have developed some code to plot (non-distorting) text,
numbers, & symbols on the globe (see attached image).  You are welcome to
use it.

>
> The SHIFT-click to select all geometries with same plate ID sounds good ?
> although currently SHIFT-click shows properties of selected feature ?
> however what you suggest sounds more useful (and we could eventually add
> more SHIFT-click choices besides ?select all geometries with same plate
> ID?).  For CTRL-click, it might be good to save this for incrementally
> adding a feature to the selection (ie, the user CTRL-clicks multiple
> features to build up selection).
>

This all sounds good.

>
> Just to be clear, currently the ?camera location? places moves the
> specified lat/lon to the centre of the viewport (for both the 3D globe view
> and the 2D projection views).
>

Right now the camera location shifts the 2D geometry.  What I am suggesting
is to substitute the camera location for the " 0, 0" (origin) of the map
projection.

>
> I guess the ?move geometry? tool sounds similar to the Modify
> Reconstruction Pole tool, except you?re modifying the present-day position
> of a geometry instead of its rotation. That sounds useful.
>
 Exactly!   It would be nice of the resulting total finite rotation pole
that was used in the transformation was accessible to user (but not
required).

>
> Regards,
> John
>
> From: GPlates-discuss <gplates-discuss-bounces at mailman.sydney.edu.au> On
> Behalf Of Christopher Scotese
> Sent: Thursday, 17 January 2019 12:57 PM
> To: gplates-discuss at mailman.sydney.edu.au
> Subject: [GPlates-discuss] Scotese's Suggestions for GPlates - Any
> comments?
>
>  Dear GPlates Community,
>
> After using GPLates for ~10 years, I have come up with a short list of
> things that would make map-making a little easier (for me & maybe others,
> as well). I will be using GPlates extensively to produce the figures for my
> book, "Evolution of the Earth System".
>
> I thought I would run these suggestions by the GPlates community, for your
> comments (can this be done already some other way?) and support (would you
> also like to see this functionalty implemented?).
>
> I would be happy to answer any questions concerning my suggestions.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Chris
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Scotese's  top 4 suggestions/requests are:
>
> Not very important
> 1. It would be nice to be able to set the transparency (opacity) of line
> work as well as filled polygons.
> Justification:  Why not?
>
> 2. At the moment the "camera" location is ignored when changing to flat
> projections (like Mercator, Mollweide, etc.). It would be useful if the
> camera location could be used to make "oblique" projections, i.e. a polar
> Mollweide projection centered on 90N, 180E or transverse Mercator
> Projections.
> Justification: Provides many more cartographic options.
> Potential Complication: Graticule would need to be rotated as well (or not
> shown).
>
> An enhancement useful for data management (delete & copy).
>   3. Currently the "select" (Feature Inspection) tool, only selects one
> geographic element at a time. It would be useful if:
> -"shift - select (click)"  selected all geographic elements with the same
> plate ID.
> and
> -"control - select (click)" selected all geographic elements with
> identical attribute information.
>
> Jusrification: With these modifications it would be much easier to delete
> or copy multiple geographic elements. At the moment, deletions/copies must
> be done one at a time. Very tedious.
>
> A new tool useful for "adjusting" geographic data. (This one is a little
> bit of a mind bender!).
> 4. Right now there are very useful tools to move, insert, or delete
> vertices in existing geographic elements. But sometimes I want to slightly
> adjust the position of an entire geographic feature - just a little. For
> example, say I have a shapefile of a modern outcrop belt, but for some
> reason the shapefile is offset/misplaced from where it should be. I would
> like to select the shapefile and "move it" (i.e. rotate it) to where it
> should be.
>  This feature would behave like the "rotate" tool in Photoshop or
> Illustrator.
>
> I would envision that this tool would be located below the "split feature"
> icon in the "choose feature" menu. It would look like the "view" icon - it
> might be called the "adjust" icon.
> Basically, you would select the feature to "adjust", then hit the "adjust"
> feature icon. This would allow you to freely move (i.e. rotate) the entire
> feature. When you got it where you wanted it to be, you would then need to
> confirm the changes by hitting an "Adjustment OK" button- sort of like the
> "Create Feature"button. Then (point of no return) all the vertices in the
> selected feature would be overwritten with their new geographic coordinates.
>
> Justification:  At present there is no way to do this sort of adjustment,
> which means either redigitizing the feature or adjusting the feature,
> vertex by vertex.
>
>
>
>
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