Form Layer Properties

Modified on 2024/05/10 22:13 by Adam — Categorized as: Uncategorized

Surety^® Pro's Form Layer properties allow complete control of how your saved forms are visually displayed on the map. By being able to manipulate how different form data is displayed on the map, you can easily create a map that is colored and labeled to your liking.

Some examples of the different outcomes that can be produced are:

Color different forms different colors (Example: Aerial = blue, Manure = red, Invoice = green)

Add 1 or more attribute label to each saved form polygon. (Example:Label each boundary by its unique Status, Acres, Client Name, etc.)

Color code by attribute.( Example: All forms with a CropName of Corn are yellow, Soybeans are green, etc.)

Where are the Form Layers located?¶

The form layers are predictably located in the Layers Panel. You can access this panel by clicking "Layers" on the right side of the map.

Under Boundaries you will find individual form names as well as "Sensitive Crops" listed. Don't worry if you don't see anything listed. It just means that no forms have been saved to whatever client, location, or company that you currently have selected yet.

Each of these is a Layer on the map that can be stylized.

This page will walk through the entire process of of how to setup layer properties for any layer.

How to use the Form Layers¶

In order to use the form layers, there must be form records saved under your client accounts.

Lets start by saving two separate Chemical application forms to the map. See: Saving Forms with Surety® Pro.

I am going to assign the same crop to them but a different product to each of them as well as a different status. "Requested" and "Completed".

For Help on adding items to a list inside a Form, see: How to add, delete, and modify Form lists. (ie clients, crops, products, ect.)

Once we have saved the 2 separate Chemical form records, make sure the box in front of Chemical in the layers list is checked so the boundaries are visible on the map. By default, the boundaries assigned to the form will turn blue with a blue diagonal hatching with blue pins. This styling is what we are going to change.

Now that we know where to find this layer, we can modify how it is colored and add labels to each form border.

Click on the word Chemical in the layers panel.

It will bring up the Chemical form Layer Properties dialog box.

From here we can determine how the forms (in our case, Chemical forms) to appear on the map.

General Tab¶

The first tab that opens is General. This is where we can control when the layer styling is visible on the mapping interface.

Leave the values at "0" to have the layer always be visible or set a scale range where you would like the layer styling to be visible at.

As an example, say we set the Turn Off Above number to 7 Miles

When our map scale is under 7 miles wide, the layer styles will show but if it is over 7 then the layer styles will disappear.

Symbology Tab¶

The next tab over is the Symbology tab. It contains options that will determine the look of the layer.

Hatch Type:

The first option that you can set is the style of fill color that all of these particular forms use.

By default it is set to "rhash" or right hatch. There are a variety of options so feel free to try different ones. I am going to set mine to solid.

Default Color For (Form Name):Click on the blue square to choose a new default color for how the Chemical forms appear on the map. This color will be used in 2 instances.

1) When the Or Color by: criteria is not set
or
2) When the form does not contain any data that the Or Color By: is asking for.
In other words, if no other setting is telling these forms to appear a different color, then it will be what you choose here.

You can also remove the color completely to have no fill by clicking the Trash can Icon.

Outline Color & Outline Width

Outline color sets the color of the border, line or point of the layer and outline width sets the thickness of the line.

Or Color By:

It allows you to select any attribute in the form itself and color code according to what has been saved to it.

The Or Color By offers the ability to either:

color by an attribute's individual values (e.g. Crop Name, Status, etc.)
or
color by a range of an attribute's numeric values. (e.g. acres, price, etc. )

The type of attribute will determine how we can color the data. If the attribute data contains alpha values then you will be able to color by individual attribute value or static coloring. If the attribute contains numeric values only (especially a large variety of them) then you will be using the range coloring.

First let's go over the Static Coloring.

Earlier I made sure that I had entered 2 different statuses before saving the forms. This is an area where I can take advantage of what I entered.
If I select Status from the drop-down, a pencil icon will appear next to it meaning that I have different attributes to set up a style for.

Click on the pencil icon and a list will appear that includes all of the items in the status list. The Type of coloring will be locked on Static Coloring since the values of the "Status" attribute contain letters and not just numbers.

Initially, each item will have a blank box next to it. Click on each box to assign a color to that status.

The first box indicates the color of the forms that do not have any data saved within the Status field. You can assign a color to this just like any other value.

Fill out all of the desired colors.

Click on the Advanced Options allow even further customization to each value including different border colors and hatching types and colors.

When done, exit by clicking the x button.

Now let's take a look at Range Coloring

For the Range Coloring option to be available we need to pick an attribute that contains only numeric values.

A good attribute to use for demonstration is the Actual Acres attribute that is an attribute on most forms.

Click the pencil icon.

If there are more than 100 values within a particular numerical attribute, then the Static Coloring will not even be available to use, Click on the Range Coloring Radio button.

The program will identify and apply a generic set of ranges based on the overall total range.

Here we can modify individual color ranges to color our data. Pay attention to the Current Range to see what the total range of values for this attribute set.

Remove Ranges by deleting the Values in both the Begin and End column and clicking Save.

Add Ranges with the Add Range button.
Notice that the range value is continued with the same increment when you do this e.g. 50-100, 100-150

You set the colors the same as everywhere else in the program by either clicking on the color square or using the Advanced option.

Save to see your results.

Take a look at this quick video demonstrating how to set the color by range values.

Opacity

You can set the Opacity of the fill by entering a numeric value from 0-100. Where 0 is completely transparent and 100 is completely solid.

Show Pins

You can decide whether or not you would like this type of form to be indicated with a Pin when zoomed out on the map. The pin color will be the same color as what the boundary itself is colored.

Click save to submit the changes if you only want to color the boundaries.

Labels Tab¶

You can also add labels to show up on the map over the boundaries/ points or lines.

If not still open, click on the Specific form name again in the layers panel to open the Layers Properties window.

Click on the Labels tab

Offset

Move the placement of the Labels on the saved form. X =Left & Right
Y is Up & Down
Enter positive or negative numerical values.

Label Position

Choose a desired position from the drop-down to change the position of the label on the boundary.

Priority

Choose from a 1-10 priority number. The layers with higher priorities will display before lower priority layers if they overlap the same boundary or location. FYI- the saved borders layer has a priority of 8 so if you are saving forms on top of saved borders, the priority needs to be a 9 or 10 to show any labels.

Min Feature Size

The Minimum Feature Size sets if and when the label shows up on the boundary, line or point on the map.

By default it is set to "0". This indicates that the label will always appear no matter what the size of the polygon or line.

By setting it to a number value of 1 or more, the polygon or line needs to be greater then that many pixels on the screen in order to show the label.

By setting it to "auto", the label will appear only if it fits within the boundary or on the line.

Turn Off At Scale & Current Scale

This setting will set the maximum scale at which the layer's labels will be visible at.

The Current Scale is to be used for reference. It is indicating the scale of the map at the time when the Layer properties window was opened. It is recommended to zoom the map to the scale that you would like the Layer style to disappear at then open the Layer Properties window and switch over to the Labels tab to display the Current Scale number that you need to populate the Turn Off At Scale number.

"0" is to be used if you always want to see the label and is the default value.

Font Size

Set the size of the font by entering a numeric value.

Font style

Set the style of the label to no style, Bold, Italic, or Both

Font Color

Set the letter color by clicking on the white box then choosing a color from the picker.

The option to remove the color altogether is also available by clicking on the trash can icon. (also applies to the Outline Color)

Font Outline Color

Set the outline color of the Font. By default it is set to white

Use Font Outline Color

Remove the check from this option to remove the Font Outline altogether from the label.

Add Label

Select an option from the drop-down to have it show up on the map. I will select Status since that is part of the information that I filled out on my Chemical Forms earlier. This list of label options is gathered from the information on the form itself.

Add multiple labels just by selecting another item from the list.

To delete a label, click the trash can icon to the left of the item.

When Finished Click save.

If you are zoomed into the area on the map where the forms are saved, then you can see the changes after the map refreshes.

Turn off Labels¶

Turn off the labels on a layer entirely by using the "Show Labels" option.

Delete an Imported Custom Layer¶

It is possible to delete an entire imported custom layer at once by clicking on the layer name and going to Delete layer tab (See also: Import Custom Layer (Polygon, Line, and Point Shapefiles))

If you are sure that you want to delete the layer and any saved information in it, click delete

Once deleted, the layer will be gone from your layer and form lists.