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Workspace

Tools for working across maps and views, and for setting up the app the way you like it.

  • Side by Side shows a second map beside the active one; Link Views keeps maps at the same place and scale, and Link Cursors marks the pointer's place on the other map.
  • Browser View shows the project's maps, layouts, tables, styles, tasks, models, folders and offline areas as cards (double-click to open); Item Pop-ups add hover details.
  • Pane Sets save the panes you have open and bring them back. The Workflow Manager tracks jobs (new, in progress, on hold, done) with the area each covers.
  • Tasks (Analyze › Tasks, or View › Tasks) steps through a task's instructions: read the current step and do it yourself, with Show Me to find where, or click Run to have it done.
    • Show Me points at the step's command:
      • a ribbon button gets its tab opened and is outlined for a few seconds;
      • a tool is outlined in the Analyze gallery, or opened, empty, in the Tools pane;
      • a symbology step opens the Symbology pane on its layer;
      • a command no button runs opens Command Search on its name.
    • Record Task (in the pane, or Analyze › Task) turns an exercise into a task: do it once, and each command that changes the project becomes a step. Panes, dialogs and moving the view aren't recorded, and a colour adjusted several times stays one step. Stop Recording makes the task, named as typed beside it, and opens it for editing. Opening or creating another project ends a recording without making a task.
      • Undo doesn't remove a recorded step; delete it with Edit Steps.
      • A task holds at most 200 steps, and a step's parameters at most 4 MB: add large data to the project before recording.
      • Steps keep their parameters as they ran, file paths included (a file you added, say), so check them before sharing a task. A command run on the selected layer names it, so the step replays on that layer whichever is selected then; where two layers share a name it replays on the first, so rename one first (the recording says so). A command holding a password, key or token (a database connection, a signed address) isn't recorded, nor is data added from a download, which is kept for the session only. A plain key parameter that doesn't read as an access key (a field or a lookup key, say) is recorded, and the recording warns that it might be one: delete that step before sharing the task if it is.
    • Edit Steps gives each step ▲ ▼ to reorder it, Edit for its title and instructions, and Delete. A recorded tool's step is named after the tool.
    • In the Browser pane, a click on a task opens its steps; Run All Steps is in its context menu.
    • A task from a file (.rgistask, or inside a project or a package) can't read or write files or run scripts. Its built-in analysis tools may still name their output layers with a plain name: one with /, \, . or : (a folder, an extension or a drive) makes the task count as writing files, so write Buffer 1500 m rather than Buffer 1.5 km. GeoLibre and plugin tools' outputs are refused.
  • Thumbnails for the project and for each map, from the view or an image.
  • Animation: add keyframes (views), play them, and export the moves as PNG frames.

  • Time Slider (View › Time) shows data through time, in a timeline docked under the map.

    The Time Slider under the map at 2018, showing a layer of dated events cumulatively, with a bar for each year
    The Time Slider in cumulative mode: every event up to 2018 is drawn.

    • Bind To Time Slider (a layer's context menu, or the bar's Layers menu) picks the layer's date field: the one most of whose values read as dates. Text dates (2015-03-01, 2015-03-01T12:00:00Z, 2015/3/1), epoch milliseconds or seconds, and years (1958) all read; times are UTC. Only the features whose date falls in the slider's window draw (and show in the legend). The bar's bars count each step's features.
    • Step is an hour, a day, a month or a year, times a number; the slider starts in steps that suit the data's span. Show sets the window: This step, Wide (a step either side), Wider (three either side), or Cumulative (everything up to the step).
    • Play, pause, step, or click and drag the timeline; Loop starts over at the end, and the speed runs from 0.5× to 4× (0.8 s a step at 1×).
    • Imagery by date: a tile address with date placeholders ({date:YYYY-MM-DD}, {YYYY}, {MM}, {DD}, {YYYYMMDD}) follows the slider. Add it with map.addTiles, or a cloud-optimised GeoTIFF a file per date with layer.addUrl, giving its start and end. For example NASA GIBS daily MODIS imagery: https://gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov/wmts/epsg3857/best/MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor/default/{date:YYYY-MM-DD}/GoogleMapsCompatible_Level9/{z}/{y}/{x}.jpg.
    • A Zarr variable added with Follow the time slider (Add Data › Zarr…) shows the step the slider is at; see Zarr stores.
    • From scripts: time.bind ("layer", "field", "start", "end", "unit", "interval", "show"), time.set (the window: "start", "end", "unit", "interval", "show", "speed", "loop", "format"…), time.goTo ("date", or "step" from 0), time.step ("by", negative goes back), time.fields (a layer's date fields) and time.unbind: rustgis-cli run --cmd 'layer.addData={"path":"quakes.csv"}' --cmd 'time.bind={"layer":"quakes","unit":"year","show":"cumulative"}' --cmd 'time.goTo={"date":"2018"}'.
    • Export writes the steps as an animated GIF (time.export also writes a zip of PNG frames). The slider, its window and the bindings are saved with the project; the off button turns it off and every feature shows again.
    • Time Series: a Zarr variable's values through time at points clicked on the map, as lines on one chart; see Zarr stores.
    • Profile: elevation profiles along clicked points or selected lines, auto-completed to the raster's edge, or across a line (a cross section), with gain, loss and a chart.
    • Infographics (Home tab) summarise what's in view: counts, totals and top categories.
    • Offline: Download Map takes the data in view into an offline area; open it to edit, then Sync sends changed, new and deleted features back and refreshes it. Feature Cache prepares every layer's geometry for the current projection (Fill, Empty, Cancel, Auto Cache).
    • Help: choose the ribbon's tabs and the Quick Access Toolbar's buttons, open the user guide, and watch the Diagnostic Monitor (frame rate, draw time, data size).
    • Plugins: Plugins › Plugin Manager installs, updates and removes plugins from the registry at plugins.rustgis.app or from a file.
    • Language: Settings › Language switches the interface among 16 languages and chooses the worldview of the built-in borders.
    • Start-up: Settings › Start-up sets what RustGIS opens with: Start With the World Atlas sample or a blank map, or, in the desktop app, Last Project (the .rgis project last opened or saved) or Choose Project… (one you pick once), the Projection the map opens in (a preset or a supported projected EPSG or ESRI code, such as 3010 or ESRI:102033), and the Extent it opens on (the full extent, or Use Current View to keep the view you are looking at). A project opened at start keeps its own projection and view; the Projection and Extent settings apply to the sample and a blank map. If the project no longer opens (moved or deleted), RustGIS starts with the sample and says why. After a crash it starts with the sample too, in case the project is what crashed; starting rustgis --sample also skips the start-up project. The choices are remembered on this computer, or in this browser for the web app. Opening files from the command line starts a blank map.