View - Panes - Info

Reports data attributes of objects in drawings and relevant information for some other components.

Drawings

When a drawing window or a drawing layer in a map has the focus, the info pane shows data from either all objects or only those objects in the selection, showing information for one object at a time. The scope of the info pane is either the set of all objects or the set of selected objects. The context object is the one shown in the info pane.

$images\sc_info_pane_01.gif$

By default the info pane shows all objects with the context object being the first object. We can step through each object using the First, Next, Previous and Last buttons or by clicking on an object in the drawing to select it.

$images\btn_goto.gif$	Center - Center the context object in the window.
$images\btn_zoom_info.gif$	Zoom - Center the context object in the window and zoom to fit the object. Zooms are most effective with area or line objects. To distinguish between points, either use Center or Zoom and then zoom in and Ping to see the exact object.
$images\btn_ping.gif$	Ping - Highlight the context object by flashing areas and lines and by drawing converging circles about points. Pinging very small lines or areas will also show the location by drawing a series of converging circles. A great way to see what the context object is.
$images\btn_move_to_top.gif$	First - Show the first object in the scope as the context object.
$images\btn_move_up.gif$	Previous - Show the previous object in the scope as the context object.
$images\btn_move_down.gif$	Next - Show the next object in the scope as the context object.
$images\btn_move_to_bottom.gif$	Last - Show the last object in the scope as the context object.
$images\btn_restrict_to_selection.gif$	Filter Selected - Only show selected objects.
$images\btn_show_blanks.gif$	Show Blanks - Show empty fields.
$images\btn_show_intrinsics.gif$	Show Intrinsics - Show the value of intrinsic fields for this object.
$images\btn_show_types.gif$	Show Types - Show the data type of each field.

Example

We import the example drawing of Mexican provinces from the Examples folder on the Manifold CD.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_01.gif$

We open the drawing and open the info pane using View - Panes - Info. We press in the Filter Selection button on the info pane toolbar.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_02.gif$

Initially, no objects are selected so the info pane shows nothing because there is nothing in the selection.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_03.gif$

Using the Query toolbar we select all provinces with a population less than 800000.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_04.gif$

Immediately, the provinces with populations less than 800000 appear in the drawing in red selection color.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_05.gif$

The first object in the selection, the province of Baja California Sur, appears in the info pane. If we would like to step through the rest of the selected objects we can press the Next button in the toolbar.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_06.gif$

Each press of the Next button will bring the next object in the selection into the info pane.

$images\btn_ping.gif$ To see which of the selected objects is the province of Tlaxcala we can press the Ping button to call attention to the Tlaxcala province by flashing the Tlaxcala area object.

$images\btn_zoom_info.gif$ Very small areas may be difficult to locate even when they are flashing. We can always press the Zoom button to zoom the Tlaxcala province to fit the display window.

$images\sc_info_pane_eg_07.gif$

This makes it clear where the Tlaxcala object is located. We can zoom out in steps to see the region surrounding it, if desired.

Profiles and Elevations

Profiles and elevations are optional components that are available when the Surface Tools package is installed. See the Profiles and Elevations topic for more information.

When the focus is on a profile or elevation window or on a profile layer in a map, the info pane will report the average height for the profile as well as the minimum and maximum height in the profile. The number of decimal digits used after the decimal point is set by opening the elevation or profile and using the View - Display Options dialog to change the number of digits desired for that elevation or profile.