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Map Suite Explorer is a helpful tool that is automatically installed when you download the evaluation edition of Map Suite Map Suite Web, Desktop, or Engine. With Map Suite Explorer, you can easily do the following tasks:
- View Shapefiles
- View Aerial Imagery
- Generate C# & VB.NET Code
- Run SQL Queries against the ShapeFile
- Plot Points
- Build Shapefile Indexes
To launch Map Suite Explorer:
- Go to the Windows Start button
- Go to All Programs > ThinkGeo
- Click the Map Suite Explorer icon
Once launched, you can load multiple shapefile layers by choosing "Add New Layer" from the file menu, and your shape file will appear with a random color selected. Once you have loaded a layer, you can easily manipulate the look and feel of the map by clicking the Map1 Tree control on the left-side of Map Suite Explorer. This tree control allows you to easily change properties on all of the objects under the Map and add new objects by right clicking on a node. Once you have the map looking the way you want, you can easily generate the code in either C# or VB.NET by right clicking Map1 at the top of the tree control.
Beyond code generation, Map Suite Explorer also has many other useful features to help in your development project. You may often need to view the tabular data associated with the shapefile so you can easily add labeling, view the column names, or view the data itself. To accomplish this, simply load the shapefile layer and then click the Tabular Data tab, which will open an interface where you can use SQL to query the shapefile tabular data and view the results.
Beyond code generation, Map Suite Explorer also has many other useful features to help in your development project. You may often need to view the tabular data associated with the shapefile so you can easily add labeling, view the column names, or view the data itself. To accomplish this, simply load the shapefile layer and then click the Tabular Data tab, which will open an interface where you can use SQL to query the shapefile tabular data and view the results.
Another useful feature of Map Suite Explorer is plotting points and building spatial indexes. Plotting a point is as simple as choosing the "Plot a Point" menu item under tools and providing an X & Y coordinate. If you want to plot a point on the map by simply clicking, you can also do this by clicking the Plot a Point icon from the toolbar. Finally, to get the best performance out of Map Suite, you will most likely want to build a spatial index. While this can easily be done in code using the BuildSpatialIndex method off of the layer, you can also use Map Suite Explorer by highlighting the layer in the tree control and clicking the Build Index button from the tool bar.
In summary, Map Suite Explorer can be used as a quick and easy tool to view shapefiles and aerial imagery, query shapefiles, build shapefile indexes, and generate C# & VB.NET code to help with your development project. If you would like to see other features added to Map Suite Explorer or have any questions, please feel free to post your comments on the Map Suite Explorer Discussion Forum.
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