Layouts and Reports¶

Layouts¶

Home › New Layout adds a page layout (Letter to A0, landscape or portrait) with a map frame, title, legend, north arrow, scale bar and a dynamic credits line. Layouts open as tabs next to the maps; while one is open, its groups lead the Publish tab:

• Publication layouts: Home › New Layout › Publication Layout builds a finished sheet or figure of the map view in one step, with layout.publication behind it:
• Sheets (A4, A3 or A2, portrait or landscape): a frame and margin, the title and subtitle, the map, and a footer of two boxed columns (sources, and the cartographic reference; one with nothing in it is left out, the other taking the width) with a note and the authorship under them. Text sizes follow the sheet: an A3's are 1.41 times an A4's.
• Figures for a journal (90, 140 or 190 mm wide, as tall as the map's shape asks) or a thesis (160 × 225 or 160 × 110 mm): the map edge to edge with a line of its projection and datum under it, at 7 pt. A figure's title and sources belong in its caption, so they are left out, and the result says so.
• The map: the extent given (or the view) fitted at a round scale, two significant figures, rounded up so it still fits within the strips the graticule's labels take inside the frame. A graticule has its step picked from the extent, at most five lines across (2° for a state, 15′ for a city), and labels on every edge of a sheet. The north arrow, the legend (sized to what it lists) and the scale bar with the numeric scale under it sit in the frame's corners, on pale boxes, clear of the graticule's labels.
• Texts: the title, subtitle, footer lines and authorship are measured with the layout's font (the title and headings bold, as drawn) and wrapped to their box, so none runs past it, and each box grows to hold them. {projection}, {datum} and {grid} are filled from the map when the layout is made. {date} and the other dynamic text tokens stay live. The reference defaults to the projection, datum and graticule, and the authorship to "Made with RustGIS · {date}" ("author": "" leaves it out). headings renames the two columns.
• The locator, at the frame's top left: "locator": "globe" (a sheet's default) adds a map of the map's polygon layers on the globe, unlabelled, in a round frame, the globe nearly filling it and the area outlined in red; "inset" shows the surrounding region (about four times the area across) on the map itself, outlined the same way; "none" (a figure's default) leaves it out. The legend stops short of it. Undo takes the globe's map away with the layout.
• Every element is an ordinary one, to move or restyle afterwards. Running it again with another profile makes another layout of the same map.

layout.publication={"profile": "a4-portrait", "extent": [-46.8, -11.6, -38.5, -2.2],
  "title": "PIAUÍ", "subtitle": "Greening and browning of vegetation: NDVI trend, 2001–2025",
  "sources": ["NDVI: MOD13Q1 v6.1 (NASA LP DAAC), via the Brazil Data Cube (INPE)", "Boundaries: IBGE 2022"],
  "note": "Only cells with a significant trend (p < 0.05) are coloured."}

• Map frames: rectangle, circle and ellipse frames, or polygon and lasso frames drawn on the page. Each frame shows a map of the project at its own centre and scale. Turn on Pan/Zoom Map (Map Frames group, or a frame's properties) to drag inside frames to pan their maps and turn the wheel to zoom them about the pointer; Esc turns it off. Without it, Shift-drag a frame to pan its map. Double-click a frame to match the map view, or set the scale in its properties. A frame can be turned and tilted like the map view: a new frame, or one matched to the view, takes the view's bearing and pitch, and Bearing and Pitch in its properties (or layout.update with bearing and pitch) set them. Its north arrows turn with it. Grid draws a labelled graticule over a frame; Extent Indicator outlines another frame's extent (an overview map).
• Extent indicators: the Extent Indicator section of an overview frame's properties sets the outline's Color and Line width (red and 2 pt to begin with), so it can sit quietly on a muted page, and Remove Extent Indicator takes it away. Scripts set the same with color and width on layout.addElement (kind extentIndicator), or layout.update with "extentIndicator": {"color": "#555555", "width": 1} (false removes it).
• Grids: the Grid section of a frame's properties turns the grid on and sets its Interval in degrees (Auto picks one from the frame's extent), its Style (full lines across the frame, ticks along its neatline only, or both, with the Tick length), its colour and Line width, and its labels: decimal degrees (112.5°W, as many decimals as the interval needs) or degrees, minutes and seconds (112°30′W), with a hemisphere letter or a sign (-112.5°), on any of the four edges (longitudes along the top and bottom, latitudes along the left and right; the bottom and left to start with), and the side labels horizontal or running along the edge. From a command: layout.addElement={"kind":"grid","step":0.5,"style":"ticks","format":"dms","edges":["top","bottom","left","right"],"labelOrientation":"vertical"} (given again, it changes only the options it names), or layout.update with "grid": {…} (false removes the grid).
• Map surrounds: north arrow, scale bar, legend, colorbar, table frame (a layer's attribute table) and chart frame (a bar chart of a numeric field), plus a neatline or backdrop. A north arrow's properties pick its Style (classic arrow, compass rose, triangle or star) and its Fill and Outline colours ("style":"compass","fill":"#B91C1C"). A scale bar's pick its Style (alternating bar, stepped line or single line), its Units (metres or kilometres to suit the scale, or kilometres, metres, miles or feet) and its Divisions (1 to 10), each labelled where there is room ("style":"line","units":"miles","divisions":2). A legend shows what its frame draws: only layers with a feature at the frame's scale (through their definition query, display filters and scale range) and, for Unique Values, only the classes those features have, with <all other values> only when some feature falls in it and its symbol is not fully transparent. Graduated Colors and Proportional Symbols list their classes as they are (they are taken from the kept features when the symbology is applied). A layer that draws nothing there, such as an empty one, is left out, in layouts saved before this too. Tick All classes in its properties ("allClasses": true) to list every class of every visible layer instead, and Hide other values ("hideOther": true) to leave <all other values> out of the legend in either mode (the features it stands for are still drawn). Its Layers section has a checkbox for each layer of the frame's map: untick one to leave it out of the legend while the map still draws it (a mask, a highlight, a basemap-like layer). Scripts give the same with "exclude": ["Graticule"] on layout.addElement or layout.update ([] lists every layer again); a renamed layer stays left out.
• Colorbar: the colour scale of a raster layer in the frame's map, as the map draws it (its stretch, colour ramp and enhancement): a gradient bar for a stretch or a tinted hillshade, steps labelled at their breaks for Classify, and a block per value for Unique Values and colour tables. Its properties pick the Layer (the top visible raster unless one is picked), the Title (the units, such as Elevation (m); the layer's name to start with), the Orientation, which side the Labels go on, how many Ticks a gradient labels (2 to 21, the ends included) and Reverse (high values first). An RGB raster or a hillshade without a tint has no colour scale and shows a placeholder, as does a picked layer that was renamed or removed (it is kept by name, like a table or chart frame's layer) until another is picked. From a command: layout.addElement={"kind":"colorbar","layer":"DEM","title":"Elevation (m)","orientation":"vertical","ticks":3}.
• Shapes: Rectangle, Circle, Ellipse and Line (horizontal, vertical or either diagonal) add a shape in the middle of the page, to frame, highlight or divide parts of it. A circle is an ellipse in a square box. The properties set a shape's fill, outline and outline width (0 for none; a fill with no opacity leaves only the outline), and a line's colour, width, arrowheads and angle. From a command: layout.addElement={"kind":"line","dir":"falling","color":"#C0392B","width":2}.
• Arrows: Arrow adds an arrow pointing right. Drag the round handle above a selected arrow or line to turn it about its centre: it snaps to level, upright and diagonal within 3°, and Shift turns it in 15° steps. Angle in its properties sets it exactly (0° points right, 90° up), and Arrowheads puts heads at its end, its start, both or neither, so any line can be an arrow. From a command: layout.addElement={"kind":"arrow","angle":30,"length":60}, or layout.update={"element":7,"angle":-90} to turn one.
• Text and Dynamic Text: {date}, {time}, {scale}, {map}, {crs}, {page}, {pages}, {pageName} and {layout} fill in when the page is drawn; the Format pane's Insert Dynamic Text menu, under the text, lists each with what it shows. The text, its size (2 to 400 points, as text graphics on the map), colour, bold, Italic (slanted, as water and ocean names are; the built-in fonts have no italic face, so the letters are slanted 12°), Alignment (left, center or right within the element) and Letter spacing in points (spaced-out names such as O C E A N O, or a negative value to tighten) are the same form a text on the map has in the pane; Enter ends the text and Shift+Enter starts a new line. Scripts set them with italic, align and letterSpacing on layout.addElement and layout.update. A layout's text also takes a Font: Sans-serif (the default) or Serif, for a title or a classic atlas look. The serif is one installed on the computer (Georgia or Times New Roman on Windows and macOS, Noto, DejaVu or Liberation Serif on Linux), with its own bold and italic faces, so italic there is a true italic rather than slanted letters (a family with no bold or italic file draws that style from its regular face: italic slanted, bold as the regular); RustGIS bundles no font. The project saves only the family, so it opens anywhere. Where no serif is installed (the web app, a minimal Linux), the text is drawn in the sans-serif and the pane says so, as layout.addElement and layout.update do in a warning. Scripts set it with "font": "serif" or "font": "sans". Picture places a PNG or JPEG.
• Map Series: one page per feature of an index layer, with the frame zoomed to each feature; step through pages, refresh, and export every page into one PDF.
• Click an element to select it, drag to move, drag its handles to resize, and edit it in the Format pane, which opens as a tab beside the other right-hand panes. Closing the pane keeps the element selected; selecting an element, or clicking the selected one, opens it again. The wheel zooms the page. Delete (or Backspace, the delete key on a Mac) deletes the selected element, and Ctrl+D (⌘D on a Mac) duplicates it: the copy is placed 5 mm down and to the right, on top, and selected. The arrow keys nudge it 1 mm, or 10 mm with Shift, and keep it moving while held; a run of nudges is one step to undo.
• Locked, at the top of the Format pane, keeps a finished element from being changed by mistake: it can still be selected (a lock marks its corner, and it has no handles), but not moved, resized, deleted or edited, and a locked map frame's map isn't panned or zoomed. A map series still turns its pages. Duplicate makes an unlocked copy, and a map frame isn't deleted while one of its surrounds is locked. Scripts lock and unlock with layout.update {"locked": true} or {"locked": false}.
• Rulers and guides: rulers along the top and left show millimetres from the page's corner. Drag out of a ruler to add a guide, drag a guide to move it, and drag it back onto a ruler to remove it. Guides are saved with the layout but never printed or exported. Clear Guides removes them all, and Rulers in the Page group hides the rulers.
• Snap: a dragged or resized element snaps to the guides, the page's edges and centre, and the other elements' edges and centres, and the line it snapped to is highlighted. Hold Alt to place an element freely, or turn Snap off in the Page group.
• Export writes PDF (every map series page) or PNG; Print opens the PDF in the system viewer; Save Layout File and Import Layout move layouts between projects (.rgislayout).

Reports¶

Publish › New Report lists the selected layer's records page after page; the Report pane previews it and sets it up.

• Data: pick the detail Fields (or Autofill Fields), Group records by up to four fields (each group gets a heading and its own statistics), add Statistics (count, sum, mean, minimum, maximum), a Dynamic Picture per record (a field holding a PNG/JPEG path relative to the saved project's folder, or base64 image data), Attachments (a field listing each record's files, separated by ;; image files show when they're inside the project's folder), and a Chart Frame (records, or a field's sum, per category).
• Report Section: Supplemental Pages of text before or after the records, New Template and Existing Template (a page layout drawn as a report page), a Related Report appended after this one, and Subreports (each record's related records through a relationship, listed beneath it).
• A where clause or the layer's selection limits the records; a sort field orders them within their groups.
• Publish › Report: Export Report writes a PDF (or the first page as PNG); Save As Report File keeps the report, and Report Template its design without the data source, to start reports on other layers (Publish › Import Report).

Presentations and notebooks¶

Publish › New Presentation starts a presentation with a title page; the Presentation pane previews, edits and plays it.

• Page: a Map page shows the map view as it is now, a Blank page shows text on a coloured page, an Image page a picture with a caption, and a Video page a video file or URL with an optional poster picture.
• Each page has a title, speaker notes and a duration (for Play), and can move up or down.
• Publish › Presentation › Export Presentation writes a self-contained HTML slideshow (arrow keys, N for notes, P to play; videos play in place), a PDF, or the first page as PNG. Save As Presentation File keeps it to import into other projects.

Analyze › New Notebook starts a notebook of text and command cells; Add and Open opens a RustGIS (.rgisnb) or Jupyter (.ipynb) notebook. A command cell runs one command per line (id {json}, as in scripts) and shows each command's result beneath it. Notebooks save in either format.