Point Styles

The Point Styles section of the Configuration dialog specifies Point Feature Types and their properties.

Access the Point Styles by selecting the configure button Configuration button from the File Toolbar or Tools menu, and navigating to the Point Styles section in the Styles folder.

Point Types

See Built-In Point Types and Symbols for a reference guide to the point types and symbols built-in to Global Mapper.

The Point Types section allows the user to configure what symbol will be used to display points of a given type. Select from the list to view the properties for the Point Type below, then use the bottoms to make changes.

Context Menu

  • Load Styles from File...
  • Save Styles to File...
  • Add New Types from cGPSMapper RGNType.txt file

Right click on the list of types, to display the menu above. This allows saving and restoring style settings using a style file. This provides an easy way to setup a set of styles to use, then restore them at a later date for use with a particular set of data.

New Types can also be loaded from cGPSMapper type files using the bottom option.

New Type...

Add a new point type and specify its symbology and labeling.

Edit Type...

Choose this option to edit name and symbol for the selected type. Built in types can not be renamed, but the symbols and labeling for the type can be modified using the sections below.

Delete Type

Delete the selected Feature Type. Custom point types are also specified in a text file in the user data folder. Built-in types can not be deleted.

Attributes...

Specify attributes that will be automatically assigned to new features created as the selected type. Default values can also be specified. For more control over possible attribute values, see Feature Templates.

Symbol

Select a Point Type from the list, then modify the symbol here. Custom Symbols are available in the list after being added in the Custom Symbol section.

The symbol selection list also includes several option at the top of the list to select symbols of common shapes, like dots, squares, diamonds, etc. with a user-specified size and color. For example <CUSTOM DOT SHAPE> allows creating a custom dot symbol by specifying size and color.

Rotate

Specify at what angle, if any, to rotate the symbol when displaying it on the map. Specify a value from 0 to 360. Then use the from setting to specify what the rotation is relative to:

  • Top of Map where 0 degrees is always straight up
  • True North where 0 degrees always points directly to the North Pole
  • Magnetic North where 0 degrees points directly to Magnetic North

Rotated symbols are good for use in geology maps and for adding things like north arrows to your maps.

Scale.../ Symbol Size...

Select the scale factor to resize the symbol. This provides a dialog with options for scaling relative to the original image size, or scaling to a fixed height in ground units.

Scale the Symbol Size by Some Factor

For example, to double the size of a symbol use a scale of 2.0, whereas to make a symbol half its original size, use a scale of 0.5.

Scale the Symbol to Some Fixed Height in Ground Units

Specify a symbol size in ground units. This will automatically scale the point so that it is always the specified number of meters tall on the 2D map regardless of zoom level.

Show Labels for Points of This Type

Check this option to label features of this type by default. The default label is the Feature Name attribute.

Select Label Font...

This opens a dialog for configuring the label properties for the Feature, including Font, background, relative position, size, and rotation.

Font

Select the font to use for the label. The list will populate with available system fonts. See also Labels Configuration for default font face and character set.

Effects

Specify text effects, including a halo around the text, a specific font color, or strikeout and underline effects.

Script

Specify the script to use for the label. The available options are dependent on the selected font.

Label Background Fill Mode

Specify how to fill the background for the labels. This setting is overridden by a halo effect.

  • Automatic: In most cases this will use a transparent background to the label text
  • Opaque - Background Color : Label text box will use the specified background color of the workspace.
  • Transparent: No text box fill color for the label.
  • Opaque- Custom Color: Use the select color... button to select a custom background text box fill color.

Label Position Relative to Point Feature

Specify how the label is placed relative to the point anchor. The Automatic setting will relocate labels with movement and zoom in order to declutter and reduce label overlap.

Label Distance from Point Feature

When this option is checked, the specified number will be used to calculate the distance away from the label anchor point in pixels based on the current screen resolution. Zero is a valid entry. When the option is not checked, the padding will be calculated as 1/8 of the font height.

Always Display Label if any Labels are Displayed

Objects with this label setting checked will maintain priority during label decluttering.

Display Labels using this Font at a Fixed Height in Meters

Use this setting to specify labels in a size relative to a ground unit size, rather than a font size. The labels will shrink and grow when zooming, to always maintain the same geographic scale. This setting can be particularly useful for reference features, such as labels of background area boundaries.

Rotate Labels

Specify the angle to rotate the labels. (This setting is only available for point and area feature labels.)

3D Model

Specify a 3D model to associate with the point type. For more information on using 3D Point Symbols see Working with 3D Models.

To create a 3D Point style from an existing model, select a built in model from the '3D Model:' drop-down menu and select apply. To apply a custom model first add it in the Custom Symbols section. In order to display in the 3D viewer the 3D points will need to contain an elevation attribute and height attribute. The 3D model will scale relative to these values. See Working with 3D Models for more information.

Recommendations: 

If you have existing points that you are applying 3D Point Styles to, first select between 10-20 point features at a time to evaluate your 3D point style. Processing and display rendering time for 3D point styles will vary by machine specification and minimum machine specifications will not be sufficient for working with large groups of 3D points that have been assigned 3D point styles.

It is recommended to use simpler models when rendering multiple 3D point symbols. Most standard machines can handle multiple 3D point symbols using models with between 500 to 1000 polygons. Higher end machine may be able to load more polygons.

Legacy support: With the 32-bit application it is recommended to use models with 250 polygons or less for custom 3D point symbols.

Picture Point Directional Arrow Appearance

For the point type used to display geotagged images as picture points, the type Picture by default, the directional arrow display can be altered. The directional arrow will point in the direction of the heading as read from the geotagged image metadata. This is most applicable when loading drone-collected images for use with the Pixels to Points tool.

Options for the Picture Point Direction Arrow Style include:

A few built-in Shape options provide different styles for the directional arrow(s).

Barbed
Barbed (Transparent)
Triangular
Triangular (Transparent)

Size options small, medium, and large will increase or decrease the display size of the directional arrow.

The Color option opens the color picker allowing the display color of the directional arrow to be selected.

Hide arrow when the projected ground length is greater than X meters will hide the arrow when zoomed to a scale where it is displayed on the map with a length greater than the entered value in meters.

Restore Default Style

This button will restore the default style for the selected Point Type.

Restore Default Style for All Types

This option will restore the default styles for all Point Types.