SMS:GIS Module Menus

The following menus are available in the the GIS Module:

Standard Menus

See SMS Menus for more information.

Module Specific Menus

Data

Most of the SMS modules have a Data menu, but the items in this menu are different for each module. The GIS Module commands include:

GIS Data Menu Commands

• Enable ArcObjects

ArcObjects is a development platform provided by ESRI that allows developers of other applications (such as SMS) to incorporate ArcView/ArcGIS capability directly within their application. SMS can use ArcObjects to access some of the same functionality in SMS that is available in ArcView, providing SMS is running on a computer that has a current license of ArcView.

The Data | Enable ArcObjects command queries the ESRI license manager for ArcView/ArcGIS to see if a license exists. If a valid license is found then the ArcView functionality within SMS is enabled and access will be allowed. If a license is not found then the ArcView specific features remain unavailable.

• Add Data
  

  Select Data Dialog

SMS uses ArcObjects to incorporate much of the ArcMap® functionality directly. SMS can open any ArcView® supported file (coverages, shapefiles, geodatabases, images, CAD, grids, etc.) and use the ArcView® Display Symbology properties to render the GIS data and then display it in SMS.

The Add Data command is only available if ArcObjects have been enabled. The Add Data command is used to open Datasets and layers (*.lyr) files into SMS using ArcView®.

When ArcObjects is enabled, SMS is able to load any of the ESRI supported formats, including shapefiles, coverages, geodatabases, grids, images, CAD files and others, as GIS data layers in SMS. These data can then be converted to feature objects in map coverages.

• Add Shapefile Data

The Add Shapefile Data command is only available if ArcObjects have NOT been enabled. The Add Shapefile Data command is used to open a Shapefile (*.shp) into SMS.

• Add MIF/MID File Data

SMS uses ArcObjects to incorporate much of the ArcMap® functionality directly. SMS can open any ArcView® supported file (coverages, shapefiles, geodatabases, images, CAD, grids, etc.) and use the ArcView® Display Symbology properties to render the GIS data and then display it in SMS.

The Add MIF/MID Data command is used to open a MIF/MID file (*.mif) into SMS using ArcView®.

• Attribute Table

File:GIS Attribute Table.jpg

Example of the Attribute Table dialog using a shapefile

SMS uses ArcObjects to incorporate much of the ArcMap® functionality directly. SMS can open any ArcView® supported file (coverages, shapefiles, geodatabases, images, CAD, grids, etc.) and use the ArcView® Display Symbology properties to render the GIS data and then display it in SMS.

The Attribute Table command opens the Attribute Table dialog. The shapefile layer of interest is specified in the Attribute Table dialog. Once the shapefile layer has been specified, the Attributes dialog will be shown. The attributes for each record in the specified layer can be viewed in the Attributes dialog.

• Join Table to Layer
  File:Join Table.jpg

  Join Table Dialog

SMS uses ArcObjects to incorporate much of the ArcMap® functionality directly. SMS can open any ArcView® supported file (coverages, shapefiles, geodatabases, images, CAD, grids, etc.) and use the ArcView® Display Symbology properties to render the GIS data and then display it in SMS.

The Attribute Table command opens the Attribute Table dialog. The shapefile layer of interest is specified in the Attribute Table dialog. Once the shapefile layer has been specified, the corresponding DBF Table File (*.dbf) must be selected. The Join Table dialog is then shown.

The Join Table to Layer command, available when right-clicking on a layer in the Project Explorer, allows the user to join the attributes of one database file (*.dbf) to the features of a GIS layer based on a key attribute field. This is particularly important when the features are stored in a shapefile with a minimal set of attributes, and additional attributes are stored in a separate *.dbf file. The two files are related based on an attribute field named MUID. Other GIS data layers may be similar where the features contain some kind of key indexing field and the attributes are stored in a separate table that can be joined to the features based on the index field values.

After selecting the Join Table to Layer command the user will be prompted for the database file they wish to join using the standard select file dialog. The Join Table dialog will then appear and will asked the user to select the Join Field from the GIS data layer attributes and the Join Field from the table being joined to the GIS data layer. Often these field names will be the same as in the example below, but they are not required to be the same. The important thing is that they contain similar information from which a join can be made. Finally, select to join all of the attributes from the join table or just add a specific field.

The join does not permanently alter the GIS data layer on the hard drive of the computer.

• Layer Properties

The Layer Properties command opens the Select a layer dialog. The shapefile layer of interest is specified in the Select a layer dialog. Once the shapefile layer has been specified, the Layer Properties dialog is shown. See the ESRI ArcGIS documentation for further explanation of the Layer Properties dialog. The Layer Properties command is only available if ArcObjects have been enabled.

• Map Properties
  

  Map Properties Dialog

The Map Properties dialog is used when ArcObjects® is enabled to specify the coordinate system to display/map features from the ArcGIS® data layer. An ArcGIS® data layer should have a currently defined coordinate system associated with it. If the coordinate system is geographic (latitude/longitude), then ArcObjects® is able to "guess" correctly at the projection. Using the coordinate system as defined in the Map Properties a user can specify the coordinate system to use to display features/rasters. While this does not change the actual geometry of the layer, it will display in the main graphics window according to this projection and any data mapped to coverages will be mapped into the coordinate system specified by the Map Properties.

GIS layers can have an associated global projection. If a layer has an associated projection, the entities will be automatically displayed in the current project projection. GIS projection information can come from multiple sources:

1. Files – ESRI shapefiles can have an associated prj file that contains the projection information. MapInfo MIF/MID files contain projection within the MIF file.
2. Assigned in SMS – assigns a projection to a layer by right-clicking on the layer and choosing Coordinate Conversions. When doing this, SMS will save a PRJ file or a new set of MIF/MID files with the updated information.

Selection

The GIS Module Selection menu commands are only available if ArcObjects have been enabled. The GIS Module Selection menu commands include:

GIS Selection Menu Commands

Command	ArcObjects® Required	Description
Select by Attributes	Yes	Opens the ArcObjects® Query Wizard Dialog. See the ESRI ArcGIS documentation for further explanation of the Query Wizard dialog.
Select by Location	Yes	Opens the ArcObjects® Select By Location Dialog. See the ESRI ArcGIS documentation for further explanation of the Select By Location dialog.
Clear Selected Features	Yes	Clears the current selection
Interactive Selection Method	Yes	Change the ArcObjects® selection options in use. Options include: Create New Selection Add to Current Selection Remove from Current Selection Select from Current Selection
Selectable Layers	Yes	Opens the ArcObjects® Check Selectable Layers dialog. The layers to be selected can be specified.

Mapping

The GIS Module Selection menu commands are only available if ArcObjects have been enabled. The GIS Module Selection menu commands include:

GIS Selection Menu Commands

Command	ArcObjects® Required	Description
Arc Objects → Feature Objects	Yes	Opens the GIS to Feature Objects Wizard
Shapes → Feature Objects	No	Opens the GIS to Feature Objects Wizard
Feature Objects → Geodatabase	Yes	Saves the Feature Objects as a Personal Geodatabase file (*.mdb)

GIS Module Right-Click Commands

The following right-click commands are available for GIS objects:

• Interpolate To – a sub-menu for commands to interpolate the GIS object into one of the following"

• 2D Mesh
• 2D Scatter
• 2D Grid
• UGrid
• Active coverage

• Convert To – a sub-menu with commands to convert GIS objects. See the article GIS Conversion for more information.
• Editing – a sub-menu with the following commands:
  • Arc Elevation Profile – brings up the Profile Elevations plot for a selected arc.

• Convert to TUFLOW Rainfall Boundary Conditions

If the format is correct, the GIS data can be converted into TUFLOW rainfall boundary polygons on a TUFLOW 1D/2D BCs and Links coverage. For more information, see TUFLOW Boundary Conditions.

Related Topics

• GIS Module