Layer Control Bar

The Layer Control provides quick access to turning on / off:

Background Images

Map Lines

Sample Areas

3D Objects

Building Footprints

Raster Data Layers

Contours

Legends

View Settings

The power of the Layer Control lies in its ability to turn off multiple map lines or sample areas based on different organizing criteria. Another powerful feature is that each View Window in VSP has independent Layer settings so each window can display different background images, map lines, sample areas, etc.

Background Images

If one or more background images have been loaded, the Layer Control can be used to control their display. Checking the box next to the name of the background image will show or hide that background image.

Background images are displayed in the order they are loaded, so the last image loaded will be displayed over the one loaded before it if they overlap. Each background image can have its transparency adjusted in order to see any background images underneath it.

To change the transparency of a background image, click on the image name in the Layer Control Bar to fill the Property Bar with the properties for that background image. Clicking on the current transparency value will cause a slider to appear that can be dragged to adjust the image's transparency.

To delete a background image, right-click on the name of the picture on the Layer Control Bar and select Delete from the pop-up menu.

Map Lines

The display of map lines can be turned on or off using the Layer Control. By checking the box next to the name of the map, all the lines for the map can be toggled. In this illustration, there are two maps: Base and Football.

If the map that was loaded is a DXF file, it may contain more than one Layer. If so, the lines for individual layers can be toggled by checking the box next to the names of the individual layers. In this illustration, the Base map contains layers named 0, BLDG, CREEK, etc. and the Football map contains layers named BOUNDARY, ENDZONE, etc.

By Right-Clicking on the Map Layer, you can access these commands from a pop-up menu:

Create Sample Areas for all Polygons

Subtract from Sample Areas

Sample Areas

Individual sample areas can be turned on or off by checking the box next to the name of the sample area. If the VSP project contains multiple maps, all the sample areas associated with a map can be toggled by checking the name of the map under the Sample Areas category. In this illustration, there are two maps (which are two floors in a building): ccbasement and ccmainfloor. By checking the box next to ccbasement, all the sample areas associated with the map ccbasement will be toggled on or off. This makes it easy to work with the floors of the building individually - if desired. In addition, because each View Window has independent layer settings, one window can view the basement and another window can view the main floor.

When user-defined sample area parameters exist, VSP can toggle sets of sample areas based on those parameters. In this illustration, there are 3 parameters that can be used to toggle sample areas: Zone, Release and Class. By checking or unchecking the box next to AHU-01, all the sample areas that have Zone AHU-01 will be turned on or off. This makes it easy to work with blocks of rooms based on characteristics such as air handling unit zone, contamination class, etc. Note that only parameters that are logic or lists can be used in the Layer control.

3D Objects

The 3D Object section will show up if you have a sample area or room selected that contains 3D objects.

De-selecting the 3D object will hide it from view, but won't keep it from having samples placed on it.

Building Footprints

See the section on Building Footprints for more information.

Raster Data Layers

Raster-type data (such as kriging results) can be shown or hidden by checking or unchecking the box next to the raster data set title.

To delete a raster data set, right-click on the name of the raster on the Layer Control Bar and select Delete from the pop-up menu.

To export raster data from the Layer Control Bar, right-click on the name of the raster on the Layer Control Bar and select Export from the pop-up menu. The raster data can be exported as an ESRI Grid file (.asc) or a GeoTIFF file (.tif).

It is also possible to see a histogram of the differences between two different raster data sets.  The raster data sets must be the same size.  To see the differences, right-click on the name of a raster and select Compare to from the pop-up menu.  VSP will then present a list of compatible rasters for the comparison.  After selecting one of the rasters, a histogram will appear that graphs the differences between the two raster data sets.

To create contour lines from the Layer Control Bar, right-click on the name of the raster on the Layer Control Bar and select Create Contours from the pop-up menu.

Contours

Contours can be created for Raster Data Layers.  Right-clicking on a Raster Data Layer control allows you select Create Contours from the popup menu.  Contours use the same color legend as their Raster Data Layer.  A Raster Data Layer can contain only one set of contours at a time, but every Raster Data Layer can contain its own set of contours.

The entire set of contours can be controlled from the Contours group.  Checking the box next to the Contours group turns all the display of all contours in the group on or off.  Right-clicking on the contour group provides a pop-up menu that allows you to:

Edit Contours

Delete Contours

Export to SHP file

In addition, the line display thickness can be set by editing the corresponding entry in the Property Bar.

Checking the box next to an individual Contour will turn the display of the corresponding contour lines on or off.  Right-clicking on the individual contour provides a pop-up menu that allows you to:

Delete Contour

Export to SHP file

In addition, the line display thickness can be set by editing the corresponding entry in the Property Bar.

Legends

The various legends (Sample Area Color-by-Value, Sample Color-by-Value, Raster Data, Windowed Densities, etc.) can be shown or hidden by checking or un-checking the box next to the legend title. Note that the legend Titles are automatically set from the context and cannot be manually modified.

View Settings

Most of the items in a VSP project that can be displayed by toggling them on/off from VSP's View menu can also be toggled on/off using the View Settings section of the Map Layers control. The figure above shows the display options currently available for a VSP project. The individual settings are discussed below.