Maps

Map windows are the most frequently used windows in Manifold. A map is a projected view
that contains layers. Each layer is a separate drawing, image, surface or labels component. Maps
are the only view windows in Manifold with layers. They are used to see drawings, images,
surfaces and labels components in combined, layered views.

Creating a New Map

We can create a new map using whatever source materials we like:

1. Create a new project using File - New. This opens a project view window.

2. Using File - Import, import any drawings or other components into the project the
new map will use.

3. Create a new map in the project using File - Create - Map. We must specify the name
of at least one drawing or image this map will use. In the Create Map dialog, check
all the drawings or images from the project you would like to appear in this map.

4. Double-click on the new map in the project view window to open it in a map view.

5. Drag and drop any additional components from the project view window into the map
view window. This adds them to the map.

6. If images (or any other components) are not already georeferenced, they must first be
georegistered so that they appear in the proper geographic location at the correct size.

7. If desired, use Edit - Assign Projection to change the projection used by the map.

Maps are also used to edit drawings and images by using multiple layers for edits. PhotoShop-
style editing of images using layers is accomplished in Manifold in a map view.

There can be more than one map window open and each map window is fully independent.
Drawings and images can be used in multiple maps at the same time.
Maps can have multiple layers where each layer is a different drawing, image, surface or labels
component. Tabs at the bottom of the map window allow moving layers back and forth in the
layer stack. Double-clicking on a layer tab turns that layer on and off for visibility. Right-
clicking on a layer tab pops open a menu of commands for that layer.

Editing an image or drawing in one map view will simultaneously change it in all other map or
drawing or image windows in which it appears.

There is no structural limit on the number of maps or the components they show in Manifold.
Since processing overhead increases as many maps are opened using many drawings and images,
at some point a practical limit will be reached based on your computer’s speed and your patience
for slower operation. However, for ergonomic efficiency it makes sense to avoid a display
cluttered with too many different maps showing many different views.

Menus

When we click into a map window, Manifold will automatically change menus and toolbars so
they contain those menus and controls that work with maps. When we click on a layer in a map
to make it active, the menus and toolbars will adjust to the configuration for that type of
component.

Menu items that appear when a map window has the focus will apply only to the active layer.
For example, Edit - Select All, Select None and Select Inverse apply to the active layer only, as
does Edit - Copy. To apply selection commands to all visible layers, use the ALT key together
with a mouse-based selection command such as Select Box or with a keyboard short cut such as
CTRL- C. For example, and ALT-Select Box used with Invert selection mode will create an
inverse selection over all visible layers. ALT-CTRL-C will copy all selected objects from all
visible layers.

Projections
Map views use projections. At any point the map may be transformed to show its contents in a
different projection.

When using a projection, map views do not change the native data within a drawing or image.
Instead, the contents are reprojected "on the fly" if the projection shown in the map view is
different than that specified within the drawing or image. If the same drawing is used in different
maps, those different maps can use different projections and thus show that drawing
simultaneously in different projections.

Since the mathematics of projection require a lot of computer processing, if using projections
within maps that contain large drawings or images it makes sense to re-project the drawings and
images used into the projection that will be used. If a drawing or image already uses the desired
projection, there is no need for the map view window to reproject it on the fly. The result will be
much faster interactive operation.

When a map is first inserted into a project, if it is created using only one component the
projection of that drawing or image will be used for the map. If a map is created using multiple
components at the same time, then Manifold will use the projection of the largest image or
surface as the default projection. This is because images and surfaces are slower to re-project
than drawings so the map will run faster if it takes the native projection of an image or surface
and then re-projects any drawings to match.

At any time we can change the projection used by a map using the Edit - Assign Projection
dialog.

A shortcut: If we would like the map to use a specific projection that's used by one of the
components used as a layer in the map, we can easily specify the projection to be used by right-
clicking on any layer and choosing the Use Projection choice from the context menu. The map
will automatically switch to using the native projection used by that layer.

Exporting Maps

Manifold maps can contain many different types of components, such as drawings, images,
labels and surfaces. Since most GIS formats can host only one such component type and do not
support layers, the usual way of exporting a map to some different format is to export on its own
each component that participates in the map. For example, various drawings and images in the
map could each be individually exported on their own. An exception to this is the ability to
export drawings in a map to either DXF or KML format.

Maps may be exported to AutoCAD DXF files, excluding any surface or image layers. See the
Export Drawing - DXF topic.

Drawing layers in maps may also be exported to Google Earth KML or KMZ files. See the
Export Drawing - KML, KMZ topic for details.
Selection in Drawings
Please read the main Selection topic before reading this topic. The Selection topic explains
selection modes and the use of select object buttons.

Selection in drawings is the same as selection in drawing layers in maps. Since maps are the
preferred user interface for most interactive work, selection is less often done directly within a
drawing window. However, it works the same way in both cases.

Objects in drawings may be selected in several ways:

 Mouse moves such as Select Box or SHIFT Select Box

 Selection using mouse moves within any Tables linked to the drawing.

 Selection using the Query toolbar .

 Selection using SQL queries.

 Objects created by the Transform toolbar are automatically selected after they are created.
 Some transform toolbar operators (such as the Select Adjacent to operator) may select objects in the drawing.
 Scripts may select objects in drawings.
 A selection in a drawing or image can be used to create a selection in a drawing using the Transfer Selection command.

Selection using Mouse Moves

The key to selection using mouse moves is to choose the right selection mode and the desired
combination of select object filter buttons. The select object filter buttons used with drawings
are:

Select Areas - Enable selection of areas

by mouse selection tools.
Select Lines - Enable selection of lines
by mouse selection tools.
Select Points - Enable selection of
points by mouse selection tools.

Choose the type of items that are to be selected by pushing the selection filter buttons for the
desired types. When working in drawing windows, the Select Pixels and Select Text buttons will
not be visible since there are no pixels or text labels in drawing windows.
Examples

In the following sequence of illustrations we will make a Select Box mouse selection with
various combinations of select objects filter buttons enabled. The Select Box command selects
objects that are entirely within the rectangular mouse cursor. We use Replace Selection mode so
that every time we make a selection it replaces any previous selection.

The example uses a map with several drawings as layers. It shows land areas in the San
Francisco Bay region together with major roads as lines and the centers of named cities as points.
The blue water region is not an area but is just the blue background color used for this map that
is seen through "empty" space between the land area objects. The task now is to selectively grab
just areas, lines or points in various combinations without selecting undesired types of objects.

Each illustration shows the mouse selection box drawn with the Select Box tool overlaid upon
the results of the selection to make clear the action of each selection. In real life, the selection
would not appear highlighted in red selection color until after we release the mouse button at the
end of the selection click and drag.

If none of the three select object filter buttons are pushed in then no objects will be selected.
When all three select object filter buttons are pushed in all areas, lines and points entirely within
the cursor box will be selected. Note that only those land areas (representing Angel Island,
Treasure Island and Alameda Island) that are entirely within the selection box are selected. The
other, larger areas representing the mainland were not selected because they are partially outside
the selection box.

If only the Select Points button is pushed in only points within the mouse cursor box will be
selected. Note that selected points are shown with red color used for their foreground color, the
normally black outline of the dots.
If only the Select Lines button is pushed in only lines within the mouse cursor box will be
selected. Note that only those line objects that are entirely within the selection box are selected.
If we wished to select all lines that are touched by the selection box, we could have used SHIFT
- Select Box for an "open" selection tool.

Poets, artists and those readers with advanced math degrees will have already begun to see a
pattern in this example and will have successfully thought ahead to realize that if only the Select
Areas button is pushed in then only areas within the mouse cursor box will be selected.
Any combination of the select object filter buttons works to select what we want. If we want just
lines and points we push in the Select Lines and Select Points buttons.

A reminder: The illustrations above show both the mouse cursor box as well as the resultant
selection at the same time. In real life, the selection appears in red color momentarily after the
mouse cursor box is drawn and released.

Select by Type

When a drawing window is active, choosing Edit - Select by Type or CTRL-T will select all
objects of the currently enabled select object modes. This is a quick way to select all lines in a
drawing, or all points or all areas. See the Edit - Select by Type topic.

Selections in Drawings Select Records in Tables

If a drawing is linked to a table making any selection in the drawing will also select the records
for those objects in the table. When a drawing and a table are linked there is only one selection
within either of them because there is a one to one association between records and objects in
linked tables and drawings. Selecting an object in a drawing will select (that is, highlight) the
associated record in the table and vice versa.

A very important adjunct to making selections in any drawing or drawing layer in a map is using
selection within tables at the same time we are looking at the same data in a drawing. It is very
important to read the Selection in Tables topic to learn about selection methods in tables.
Selections Pane

The most frequently used pane when making selections in drawings is the Selections pane . We
often will use the Selections pane to save selections made in drawings for later use. Each
drawing or drawing layer can have up to seven saved selections in the Selections pane. See
examples using the Selections pane in the introductory Selection topic.

Smart Mouse Selection

Smart Mouse selection is used to select objects for editing. An object selected with smart mouse
selection will appear with edit handles that can be used to move or reshape the object. An object
chosen for editing is also called the primary selected object.

Commands involving the mouse are normally controlled by whatever toolbar button is engaged.
To use Select Box for example, we push the Select Box button in and then use the mouse in this
mode. To provide fast operations when the mouse is not engaged in any other command,
Manifold allows "smart mouse" selection in a way that mimics ordinary Windows point and
click mouse highlighting and motion methodology as is used in Word and other applications.

Smart Mouse Touch Selection

The simplest form of smart mouse selection is to click on an object to select it. This is a smart
mouse version of Select Touch. For example, clicking on an area object in a drawing will select
it for editing. Clicking on an object

See the Editing Objects topic for examples and more information on interactive editing with
smart mouse selection.

Keyboard Modifiers with Smart Mouse Touch Selection

Because a selection may already exist in the drawing when we wish to select an object for
editing, smart mouse selection uses keyboard modifiers to allow a richer set of commands.

Click Equivalent to Select Touch in Replace

 mode. Click on an object to select it as
the primary selected object. All other
objects are deselected.

Clicking into an empty part of the

drawing deselects all objects (with
confirmation dialog).
CTRL Invert the selection state of the object
without changing the selection state of
any other object. Equivalent to Invert
mode.
SHIFT Select the object if it is not yet selected
and make it the primary selected object.
Does not change the selection state of
other objects. Equivalent to Add mode.

Smart Mouse Box Selection

When clicked on an empty region and dragged the mouse automatically makes a box selection
analogous to using the Select Box selection tool in Replace Selection mode. This is a general
shortcut for selection. To select an object as the primary selected object for editing, either click
on it or SHIFT click on it.

Keyboard Modifiers with Smart Mouse Box Selection

The following keyboard modifiers may be used with smart mouse box selection:

Click and drag Click on an empty region and drag to

make a box selection in Replace
Selection mode. Selects all objects that
are entirely within the selection box.
CTRL Click on an empty region and drag to
make a box selection in Invert Selection
mode.
SHIFT Use an open box selection to select all
objects any part of which are within the
selection box.

Notes

Why is it called "smart mouse" selection? This is based on the idea that to support this type of
selection the mouse cursor in its default mode must understand a lot about its environment. For
example, it must be able to keep track of and know when it is clicked on a drawing object (and,
for that matter, when the object is in the active layer if the mouse hovers in a map window) and
much more. This requires considerably more thought for the cursor than merely being a default
Windows cursor, so it is said to be a "smart mouse" cursor.
Note that the default action of the mouse in "smart mouse" action depends on the context of
where it is clicked and how it is moved. For example, clicking on an empty region and dragging
creates a box selection mouse move. Clicking on an object and dragging is a drag-n-drop
operation.

Tech Tip

When objects in drawings are selected the associated records in the drawing's table will also be
selected. One way to browse the data contents of objects is to open both the drawing and the
drawing's table.

Click the table window and press the Filter Selected button so the table window shows only
selected records. We can then select objects in the drawing and see their data contents in the
table window.

See Also

See the Transfer Selection topic to transfer selections between drawings and images.

Basic workflow:

1. Launch Manifold.
2. Add data.
3. View data.
4. Work on that data.
5. Save the project.

If desired... Export parts of the project, like raster images or vector drawings, into other formats.
Export a drawing to a shapefile, or an entire project to an ESRI geodatabase, for example.

Launch
 Launch Manifold from the Windows Start button, or by double-clicking manifold.exe in
a portable installation.

 Already running a Manifold session? For a quick launch of another session, right-click
on the Manifold icon in the Windows taskbar and choose Manifold System 9.0.

Manifold launches with a new, blank project. A new Manifold desktop opens with welcome
text on the gray background of the desktop providing tips for getting started. We can turn that
off in Tools - Options if desired.
Add
Add data from files like shapefiles or GeoTIF images by dragging and dropping into the Project
pane.

 Drag and drop a .map project file into Manifold or use File - Open to open an existing
Manifold .map project file.

 Drag and drop one or more files into the Project pane, or use File - Import to import
data into the project from other files. Importing data creates a full-power Manifold
component saved inside the project, with no connection back to the original file.

 Drag and Shift-drop one or more files into the Project pane, or use File - Link to link
data into the project. Linking data leaves the data stored in the original file, allowing us
to view and edit data "in place." Manifold will try to simulate a full-power Manifold
component with the linked component, to provide as many facilities as possible given any
limitations of the original source format.

 Drag and Ctrl-Shift-drop one or more files into the Project pane to link data read-only
into the project. Files that are linked read-only can be used by multiple Manifold
sessions at the same time. This is a shortcut that is simpler than using File - Create -
New Data Source to create a read-only linked data source.

 See the 10 Minute Tutorial - Drag and Drop video for drag and drop examples.

 File - Create - New Data Source creates a linked connection to databases and web
servers. Using

 File - Export copies data from a Manifold project into some external file format, like
copying a drawing into a shapefile.

The fastest way to work is to import data into Manifold and then save everything in a Manifold
.map project file. Manifold .map files open instantly, even when they are hundreds of GB in
size. Nothing is faster than opening a Release 9 Manifold .map file. It opens instantly.
Download samples of .map files from the Examples page.

Try to keep all of your GIS data - drawings, images, tables, ...everything - in Manifold .map
format files. That is much faster and more reliable than using legacy formats like shapefiles, or
using more modern but slow formats like GPKG. Migrate the data you use into Manifold .map
storage from other formats. Export to legacy formats for interoperability, but enjoy the
unbeatable speed, reliability and convenience of Manifold .map projects for your own work.
Manifold users usually import data into a Manifold project, to run super-fast without the
limitations of older formats. Older formats are great for interchange, but they cause slow downs
and reduced capabilities when used for operational storage. Of course, Manifold also can link to
external data in the original format if we want.

A big difference between Manifold and older GIS: Manifold itself is a super-fast database
system that can store huge data inside the Manifold project. Older GIS packages like Arc or
Q do not have an internal database: whenever they add vector or raster layers to a project those
layers are linked, with the data stored outside the project in the original file.

Unlike older GIS packages, with Manifold we can import data for storage within Manifold.
When we "add" a vector layer from a shapefile to Manifold with File - Import we copy data
from the shapefile into the Manifold project, where it is stored in Manifold's internal database.
Once the data is in Manifold there is no connection back to the original shapefile, so there are no
stupid shapefile limitations getting in the way of fast, modern GIS. If ever we want to save
vector data into a shapefile, we can do in an instant using File - Export to export it into a
shapefile.

In Manifold we also can use File - Link to leave data in the original source format if we want,
and work with it in-place the way older GIS packages do, but faster and better. Manifold can
work faster when linking to formats like an ESRI geodatabase or a PostgreSQL/PostGIS
database because Manifold itself is a fast, parallel DBMS. Using Manifold's internal DBMS for
caching and other performance enhancements, Manifold can operate a connection to an external
database faster than slower, single-threaded clients like ArcGIS Pro or QGIS.

For multiuser sharing of spatial data, use Manifold Server. Manifold Server is a high
performance, parallel, spatial database server that is built into Manifold Release 9 Universal
edition. It allows many Manifold users to share data that is published through Server.

Adding Data:

 Import tables, drawings, images and other data to the project. That brings the data into
Manifold and stores it within the project for maximum speed and maximum capabilities.
Imported data has no connection to the original source. If we edit the data in a table,
drawing or image imported into Manifold, that makes no changes to the original source
file. Manifold can read virtually every format and data source in existence. See the Big
List of Formats and Data Sources topic for the huge list.

 Link data from outside sources. That makes the data available within the project as if it
had been imported, but leaves the data stored outside of the project. This is what legacy
packages like QGIS do when they "add" a layer. Linking files leaves the data in-place in
its original source file. If we edit the data in a table, drawing or image linked into
Manifold, that immediately changes the data in the original source file. Most formats are
slower and more limited compared to importing into Manifold, but Manifold uses many
technical innovations to get better speed with linked files.

 Create a Data Source. A more sophisticated, flexible way of linking data from many
different formats and sources. This is how we connect to database servers like Oracle or
to web servers like Google and Bing.
  Link an existing Manifold .map file into the project. This allows us to use data stored in
other .map files with zero overhead and no performance hit. We can maintain huge
archives of data in .map files and link whatever we want into our project.

 Multiple sessions: Launch Manifold in different sessions with different projects. Copy
and paste between different sessions.

 Create new stuff. Use automatic tools like queries and scripts to create new
components, or create them manually with editing tools.

Now that you have Manifold, use it for everything: Everybody uses Manifold for GIS, but it
makes a spectacular personal database as well. Have hundreds of videos in a YouTube channel,
hundreds of login credentials, or hundreds of bottles in a wine cellar? Use Manifold to keep
track of them all. Manifold is small, lightning fast, and rock-solid reliable. If Windows decides
to update itself overnight when a Manifold session has been left open with important data, the
last thing we will worry about is a problem with the Manifold project.

Saving Data:

 Choosing File - Save or pressing Ctrl-S saves everything imported in the Manifold
project into a Manifold .map format file. Links will also be saved for data sources
created by linking data into the project.

 Choosing File - Export Project will save everything imported in the Manifold project
into a Manifold .mxb archival format. MXB files are highly compressed and robust, and
are a great way to transmit bigger files projects through the web in more compact form.
See the Projects and .map Files topic for more on .mxb files.

 Right-click a component in the Project pane and choose Export to export that
component to a choice of compatible formats that are useful for interchange with other
software.

Projections

When importing or linking, Manifold automatically reads the projection, if specified. If no

projection is specified, launch Assign Initial Coordinate System in the Contents pane to
specify the correct initial projection for the imported or linked component. See the Example:
Import a Shapefile topic for an easy example. Projection and Coordinate System are synonyms
in this documentation.

View
Pop open an item in the Project pane just like opening a file in Windows Explorer:
  Double-click a component to open it in a window, or click on a component to highlight it
and then press Enter.
 Right-click a component for a useful context menu.

With the focus on an open map, drawing, image, or table window, press the F1 Help function
key to launch a quick reference web page for navigating and other commands in that window.

To fit into this documentation, illustrations show an artificially small Manifold desktop, with
only a few panes docked to the right side. In real life we use a much larger Manifold desktop,
and all panes would be turned on, with some panes docked to the left and others docked to the
right as we prefer. Right-click a pane's tab to change where it is docked. Manifold will
remember that new arrangement for our next session.

If we double-click open a component and a red message icon appears in the window's lower
tab, we should choose View - Messages from the main menu to read the message. Blank
drawings or images may show an message icon: in the message Manifold will offer to fix the
problem for us.

Components
A Manifold project contains tables, images, drawings, labels, maps, data sources, queries,
scripts, and more. These are called components. That is just a generic, neutral word that means
"an item in a project." When we import data from GIS formats, we create components like
tables, drawings, and images.

Tables - All data within Manifold is stored in a

table in one form or another. Opening a table
window shows data in a row and column
presentation. A drawing or an image is just a
display window that shows geometry data or
raster tile data that is stored in some table.
That is why when we see a drawing or image in
the project we will usually see a similarly-
named table in the project from which it takes
its data.
Drawings - Vectors. A visual display of vector
data stored within tables. Vector data can be
stored using a variety of geometry types. The
same data from the same table can be seen in
multiple different drawings using different
styles, and the same drawing can be open in
multiple windows with different views in each.
Data Sources - Data linked into a project from
an external source, which could be a file, a file
database, a database serve or a web server,
covering virtually every database and file type
encountered in database or GIS work.
Images - Rasters. A visual display of raster
data stored within tables as tiles. Tiles can use
a wide variety of different data types and
channel combinations. All rasters are called
images in Manifold, even those which are
terrain elevation rasters or other non-
photographic data rasters.
Labels - Annotations, using text and symbols,
created manually or created automatically from
fields in a drawing's table.
Layouts - A composition on virtual sheets of
paper, for printing to a PDF or physical printer.
Layouts are made up of frames, each of which
can show components such as maps, drawings,
images, labels, or text frames.
Locations - Locations save a particular
geographic location with an associated scale,
thus saving a given view in a map or other
window to which we can return with one click.
Locations are human readable JSON text that
specifies latitude and longitude coordinates and
scale.
Maps - A window that shows a stack of layers.
Each layer in map is a drawing, image or
labels component. Maps can use different
projections than their layers. Maps will
reproject their contents on the fly as needed to
display them in the map's projection. Maps
take zero space, because they are just windows
 that show other components as layers.
Queries - Written in SQL, queries manipulate
data and projects, for example, creating new
tables and other components, performing
calculations, altering the structure of databases
and tables, and extracting, editing and analyzing
subsets of data.
Scripts - Manifold includes built-in support for
scripting in ten different languages with many
languages always available and the other
languages easy to install. Scripts provide
custom capabilities and can automate virtually
anything.
Comments - Text saved and displayed in a
comments window provides a simple way to
save notes about a project or to save text as a
scratch pad. For tips on editing Comments, see
the Editing Queries, Scripts and Comments
topic.
Folders - Organize a project by using folders.

Desktop Basics
Double-clicking a component opens it in a window, with a title tab at the top. Double-click
another component open and it will appear with its own title tab. Click a title tab to switch to
that window.
Windows with layers, like Maps, will open with one or more layer tabs at the bottom. Click a
layer tab to make it the active layer, for editing or selection. Double-click a layer tab to turn it
off and on. Right-click a layer tab for a useful context menu. Too many layers for tabs? Click
on the Layers pane to see them all.

Undock a window or a pane by Shift-clicking the name tab. Dock it again by Shift-clicking the
title bar.

Resize and position undocked windows anywhere on the Windows desktop. Use two or three
monitors to have plenty of Windows desktop, for big windows, and to see the Project, Layers,
and Contents panes undocked all at once.

Panes
  Project pane - Shows all the components in our project. Saving a project saves all the
components in the project into a Manifold .map project file.

 Layers pane - Shows all layers in a map, all fields in a table, and all frames in a layout.
Allows us to quickly turn items off and on, to set layer transparency in a map or field
width in a table, and to group layers or fields or layout frames into folders. The Layers
pane is more convenient than tabs when there are many layers in a map, or many fields in
a table, or many frames in a layout.

 Info pane - Shows coordinate systems (projections) and allows us to assign, repair, or
change a coordinate system. Also shows attribute info for objects, allows editing field
contents or coordinates, and allows setting Style for individual items.

 Select pane - Many point-and-click templates to select exactly what we want.

 Style pane - Choose colors and symbology for a drawing, do thematic formatting, choose
channels and display options for image, and colors, text and symbology for labels.

 Transform pane - Many point-and-click templates to analyze, transform, and geoprocess

data in vector drawings, raster images, and data of all kinds in tables.

Shift-click the title tab to undock the Project pane, the Contents pane, or the Layers pane, so they
can be resized and repositioned anywhere on our Windows desktop. This allows the panes we
use most often to be floating in view at all times.

Upcoming builds will move some sub-panes out from within the Contents pane into being
their own, independent panes, like the Project and Layers panes.

Navigation: Pan and Zoom

Cursor mode buttons appear in the main toolbar for an open window: Click the mode button to
enter that mode. The mode persists for that window until we click a different button. Buttons to
create areas, lines, or points will be enabled for drawing layers. The Create Path tool for
measuring and editing is in the mode button, too.

The default mouse cursor mode is navigation. Pick another mode to create points, lines or
areas in drawings, or to make measurements.
Click and drag to pan the view. Right-click and drag to zoom box.

 Double-click to open a component.

 Right-click and drag to draw a zoom box.

 Click and drag to move the view.

 Wheel mouse to zoom in and out.

 Back and Forward arrows on the toolbar go back and forward in views.

 Zoom buttons on the toolbar will zoom to fit, zoom out and zoom in.

 Undock / Dock a tab by Shift-clicking the name.

Press the F1 Help function key when a window is open to get a list of keyboard shortcuts
available for that window. If we try out some other modes, like Draw Path mode, a keyboard
shortcut back to default navigation mode is Shift-Esc.

Main Menu Keyboard Shortcuts

Manifold supports both Windows styles of keyboard shortcuts for main menu items: Ctrl key
shortcuts as well as classic access key shortcuts begun by pressing the Alt key.

Clicking a main menu heading will show Ctrl key short cuts. Pressing the Ctrl key and O key
simultaneously is the same as launching File - Open.

For keyboard enthusiasts, Manifold supports standard Windows access keys: Press the Alt key
and keyboard shortcuts for the menu items will be underlined. Press the arrow buttons on the
keyboard to cycle through menu items, and either press the access key shortcut, like V for View,
or cycle to the menu item and press Enter to pick it. We can cycle to View and then press
Enter to open the menu, and see the access key shortcuts for commands within that menu. For
example, pressing Alt and then V and then C will launch a new Command Window. If a
menu includes multiple commands with the same access key, pressing it cycles between these
commands without invoking them. Cycle to the command desired and press Enter.
In Windows 10, Manifold honors Windows settings for access keys as specified in Settings -
Ease of Access - Keyboard or in the Windows Control Panel, always showing access key
characters underlined in menu items, or showing them only when commanded with an Alt.

Cursor Modes
In the beginning we spend most of our time viewing data. As we learn more we will want to
edit drawings by creating points, lines or areas, or by using paths for editing or to make
measurements.

The drop-down menu on the mode button lets us choose a different mode, offering choices
depending on what window is active. When working with a drawing, if we choose Create Line
the mouse cursor user interface switches from Navigation mode into Create Line mode.

The mode button always shows what mode applies for that window.

Different windows can have different modes, with one window being in Create Line mode
while another window stays in Navigation mode. As we switch between windows the
mode button will automatically switch to show the mode for that window. The drop-down
menu for the mode button will show appropriate choices for whatever is the active window.
For example, if a layout window is active the drop-down menu for the mode button will show
choices that work only for layouts.

Work
 Tables: All data in Manifold is kept in tables. Tables can be huge in Manifold, hundreds
of GB.

 Table windows show tables in a classic, row and column presentation. When tables are
big we work with them using queries. Tables can contain geometry data for vector
drawings and tile data for raster images.

 Drawings, labels, and images visualize data from tables. They do not contain any data:
they just show data from a table based on what their properties tell them to show.

 Maps have layers that are drawings, labels or images.

 The Layers pane makes it easy to manipulate layers in maps or fields in tables when
there are very many layers or fields.

 Data from the same table can be used at the same time in many different drawings, labels
or images.

 Different drawings, labels or images all can use different Styles.

 Image servers and other web servers show the entire world with godlike power. We
often use them for background layers in maps.
  Change appearance: Use the Style pane to format drawings, to format labels, and to
style images.

 Interactive Edits: Edit tables, edit drawings and edit images in windows. Drawings and
images visualize data from tables. To edit a drawing or an image, the table it visualizes
must be editable and must have an index. If a table has a light gray background in all of
the columns it is not editable. See the Editing Tables topic.

 Contents pane: Shows key information about whatever window or layer is active, and
opens panes providing editing and formatting. Use the Contents pane to assign an initial
coordinate system or to reproject a drawing or image into a different coordinate system,
to view field values for objects, to support editing and much more.

 Command Window: Write and execute SQL queries or write scripts. The Command
Window is the first stop for SQL wizards. Automatically parallelize a query by adding a
THREADS SystemCpuCount() command.

 Transform Pane: Endless capabilities for manipulating data using point and click
templates or SQL expressions. The power of SQL for everyone.

 Select Pane: Select records and objects using point-and-click templates or SQL
expressions. Save and recombine selections. Superb, intuitive selection of exactly what
is desired.

 Scripts: We can do anything with SQL. We can do even more with programming.

Share, Save and Exit

 Viewer is read-only. Viewer cannot save, export, or print.

 Save the project in a .map file with File - Save or File - Save As.

 Export tables, drawings or images to many different formats.

 File - Export Project to save a project in archival, maximally compressed .mxb format.

 Linked items and data sources are automatically updated either immediately or when we
save the project, depending on the data source.
  Convert an entire linked data source, like an entire PostgreSQL server, in a single step
into Manifold .map project format by right-clicking on the data source and choosing
Export, to export to a .map project. Manifold will automatically harvest all the
drawings, images and tables and create a .map project that stores them all.

 Switch to a different project by, choosing File - Open or File - New. Manifold will
prompt to save any changes before closing the current project and moving on to the next
project.

 Compose and Print a layout to share work as a PDF or printed material.

 Print a map, drawing, image, or labels window to PDF or hard copy using Print
Preview, which creates a virtual layout on the fly that can be immediately printed.

 Exit Manifold using File - Exit or by clicking on the red X button in the upper right
corner. Manifold will prompt if any changes have not been saved.

Learn
 Watch the videos in the Gallery page.

 Read the topics in the Basics chapter.

 Enjoy the Examples

 Participate in the georeference.org user forum.

 Master the main dialogs:

Project Pane

Info Pane

Layers Pane

Select Pane

Style Pane

Transform Pane

Command Window
 Layouts

 Automate your work

Use SQL

Apply scripting

A great way to learn SQL with Manifold is to use the Edit Query button in the Transform pane
to ask Manifold to automatically write SQL for you and then to copy and adapt what Manifold
creates. Use the web and read books on SQL. It's easy to learn and incredibly powerful.

Learn scripting to do even more. V8 JavaScript, a really fast scripting engine, is built into
Manifold so it is always-on and easy to use. Five other languages, including C#, are always
available. If you prefer Python, that works too: Manifold supports ten scripting languages for a
wide range of choices.

Projections / Coordinate Systems

The terms projection and coordinate system are used as synonyms by Manifold.

Getting it right on import: When importing data, Manifold will use whatever coordinate
system the source says should be used for that data. Most modern formats used in GIS will
automatically specify the coordinate system to be used. But older formats won't do that, so we
have to assign the coordinate system when we import from those formats.

The Info pane tells us at a glance if a coordinate system has been assigned OK. When a
data source specifies the coordinate system to use, Manifold displays the coordinate system
in black color. If the coordinate system is shown in red color, we must click the coordinate
system picker button and choose Assign Initial Coordinate System. Do that immediately after
import whenever a coordinate system appears in red text.
Manifold shows the coordinate system in black color, as in the Latitude / Longitude coordinate
system seen above at left, when the component has been created with coordinate system
information or if it has been imported from a format that specifies the coordinate system to use.
When a component has been created without specifying the coordinate system or it has been
imported from a format that does not specify projection information, Manifold will show the
default Pseudo Mercator coordinate system as a placeholder in red color.
Tech tip: What projection is used by data can be difficult to determine sometimes. When
downloading data from the web or other sources, always look for any accompanying notes or
metadata information that says what projection is used for the data. If we have no idea what
projection is used and the file is older data, a good guess would be Latitude / Longitude. For
example, shapefiles that do not have a .prj file attached to specify what projection they use are
often in Latitude / Longitude projection.

For a complete, step-by-step example, see the Example: Assign Initial Coordinate System
topic.

Default Projection
Manifold applies the default projection listed in the Tools - Options dialog when creating new
components. The factory default projection used by Manifold is the WGS 84 / Pseudo-
Mercator (EPSG:3857) coordinate system that almost all web servers use. Newer GIS
packages, like ESRI's latest ArcGIS offerings, also use Pseudo-Mercator as a default.

When we create a new, blank map, it too begins life using the Pseudo-Mercator projection.
The map then automatically takes on whatever projection is used by the component that is the
first layer added to the map.

Manifold uses Pseudo-Mercator by default because the modern way to do map backgrounds is
use web servers to automatically generate the background map layer, and web servers like
Google, Bing, or OpenStreetMap use Pseudo-Mercator. It makes sense to use that same
projection by default for new components and maps in Manifold too. Many newer GIS
packages also use the same WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (EPSG:3857) projection by default, for
example, ESRI's latest ArcGIS Pro products.

Another big reason to use Pseudo-Mercator as a default is that the units of measurement are sane,
linear units: meters. That makes it more difficult for beginners to goof up measurements, as
routinely happens when people use Latitude / Longitude without realizing that the units of
measurement in Latitude / Longitude are degrees, which change size depending on latitude.

Older GIS packages often use Latitude / Longitude as a default. We can change the default
projection in the Tools - Options dialog to Latitude / Longitude if we like, or to some other
projection, like some State Plane projection mandated by our organization, if that is what we use
most frequently.

Projections Manifold Knows

Manifold, including Viewer, understands and can work with over 7500 coordinate systems,
including all coordinate systems and transformations specified by the vast EPSG system, and the
DBMS-specific SRIDs of major database systems. Manifold also knows essentially all
transformation methods between coordinate systems, including all grid-based transformations
(NADCON, HARN, HPGN, NTv2) known to EPSG, with over 170 transformation grids
available for different parts of the world. Manifold also allows specifying custom coordinate
systems, for endless more choices. We can use Reproject Component to reproject from any
system to any other system, including sophisticated transformations of vector or raster data.
When importing from or linking to a data source that conveys coordinate system information
Manifold will automatically use the coordinate system specified for the data, including any
projections specific to the data source, such as SRID designations of coordinate systems used by
a particular data source. See the Projections topic to learn how to work with projections in
Manifold.

Some file formats utilize accessory files such as "world" files, or .PRJ files to convey coordinate
information for formats, such as shapefiles, which do not automatically convey coordinate
system information. When reading formats Manifold will automatically read coordinate system
information from accompany files, if they exist, in the following order: "world" files, .PRJ
files, .XML files (Manifold System 8.00 accessory file) and .MAPMETA files (Manifold
accessory files). In the event of conflicting coordinate definitions the last read file wins, since
the read order is in order of more rigorous definitions.

Manifold maintains coordinate system information in JSON format to enable easy

interoperability with third party code. When exporting data to a file Manifold will write
a .MAPMETA accessory file saving the JSON coordinate system information in plain text.
When exporting to shapefiles, Manifold will automatically write a .prj file with projection
information as well.

Reprojecting
The usual way to work with drawings and images in Manifold is to add them as layers to a map.
A map is just a viewport into whatever layers we have added to it. A map can have whatever
projection we want, and it will automatically reproject on the fly, for display, the layers it
contains from whatever projections they use into the projection used by the map. If we have a
drawing in Latitude / Longitude and we want to see it in Pseudo-Mercator along with a Google
Satellite background layer, we do not need to reproject the drawing. Instead, we simply drop it
as a layer into a map that uses Pseudo-Mercator, and the map window will reproject the drawing
on the fly for display in Pseudo-Mercator along with the Google layer. The reproject on the fly
process happens so fast in Manifold that we can pan and zoom interactively without any delays.

When we want to reproject a drawing or image into a different projection, that is easy to do. In
the Info pane we click on the coordinate system picker button next to that component, and we
choose Reproject Component. The Reproject Component dialog lets us choose a new
projection, either with a single click from a list of Favorites in the dropdown menu, or by
clicking More... to choose the projection we want from many thousands of available projections
from the full Coordinate System dialog. See the Reproject Component topic for step by
step examples and full details.

Importing Files
Importing or linking a file will create Manifold infrastructure for what is coming in. For
example, import an image from some file format like JPEG or TIFF and Manifold will create
two components: a table component for the data plus an image component that displays the data
in the table. Import an ESRI shapefile and Manifold will create a table for the data plus a
drawing component that displays that data. The variety of data Manifold can import includes
virtually every format and data source in existence. See the Big List of Formats and Data
Sources topic for the huge list.
Importing a .csv file with one table in it will create a table. Importing or linking a file database
like an .mdb could create hundreds of tables, queries and other components at once. Connecting
to an enterprise class DBMS might involve thousands of items, neatly organized within the
hierarchical structure of the DBMS as revealed by Manifold.

Importing a table:

1. Launch Manifold
2. Choose File - Import.
3. Browse into the folder where the file is located.
4. Click on the filename.
5. Press the Import button.

Importing a table using drag and drop:

1. Launch Manifold
2. In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where the file is located.
3. Drag and drop the desired file into the Project pane of the Manifold desktop.

Drag and drop works with multiple files at the same time: highlight the files desired, and drag
and drop them all at once into the Project pane.

Manifold uses Microsoft facilities to connect to all Microsoft Office formats, including
legacy Office formats such as .db, .html. .mdb, .xls,and .wkx, together with newer Office
formats such as .xlsx and .accdb. If Manifold cannot import from such formats, that means the
Windows system we are using is missing the necessary facilities. Please see the Microsoft
Office Formats - MDB, XLS and Friends topic for a solution.

Importing a drawing, image or other component:

1. Launch Manifold
2. Choose File - Import.
3. Browse into the folder where the file is located.
4. Click on the filename.
5. Press the Import button.
6. If necessary, launch Assign Initial Coordinate System from the Contents pane to
specify the coordinate system used.

Importing a drawing, image or other component using drag and drop:

1. Launch Manifold
2. In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where the file is located.
3. Drag and drop the desired file into the Project pane of the Manifold desktop.
4. If necessary, launch Assign Initial Coordinate System from the Contents pane to
specify the coordinate system used.

Drag and drop works with multiple files at the same time: highlight the files desired, and drag
and drop them all at once into the Project pane.

Modern GIS data formats will specify the projection used by the data. When a format provides
projection information Manifold automatically will utilize that information to correctly set the
projection used by the data.

When importing GIS data from a file format which does not provide projection information,
when we open that drawing or image Manifold will warn us that was imported from a spatially-
clueless format by showing the coordinate system read-out in red text in the Contents pane.

That tells us we must launch Assign Initial Coordinate System from the Contents pane to
assign the initial coordinate system manually.

Example: Importing a Shapefile

ESRI shapefile format uses 1970's technology but it is still the most widely used GIS format for
interchange. A "shapefile" is an ensemble of at least three files, ending in .shp, .shx and .dbf,
and, if we are lucky, a fourth file ending in .prj.

If a shapefile has a .prj to specify the projection, Manifold will read the .prj and the shapefile
will be imported using the correct projection automatically. If a shapefile does not include a .prj
file, we must specify the projection the shapefile should use. If we fail to do that the shapefile
might look OK but it will be junk data that will waste our time later on.

Importing a shapefile:

1. Choose File - Import.

2. Browse into the folder where the shapefile is located.
3. Click on the filename that ends in .shp
4. Press the Import button.

After import, check the coordinate system:

1. In the Project pane, double-click the drawing created to open it.

2. In the Info pane, note the coordinate system.
3. If the coordinate system is given in black color, Manifold automatically detected and
assigned the right coordinate system. Done.
4. If the coordinate system is given in red color, click the coordinate picker button and
choose Assign Initial Coordinate System to specify the coordinate system.

For a step-by-step illustrated example, see the Example: Import a Shapefile topic. See the
SHP, Shapefiles topic for additional discussion. See the Example: Detecting and Correcting a
Wrong Projection topic for what happens when a shapefile is imported with the wrong
projection.

Limitations
As a practical matter, Manifold can address such large memory that usually we will run out of
physical resources on a machine, like storage space, before we hit Manifold size limits.
However, some limitations may be touched by users of very large data. See the Limitations
topic for a current list.

Notes
Three Letter Extensions - Most file names in Windows end in what is called a three letter
extension, which is usually three letters at the end of the file name following a dot . character.
The three letter extension is how Windows at times (but not always) keeps track of what a file is
supposed to be. Unfortunately, by default Windows hides the three letter extensions of files
and instead tries to associate files with icons of whatever program is normally associated with
that file. This is confusing when working with the many file formats that Manifold and similar
products utilize.
Therefore, please turn off the hiding of extensions by Windows. A typical way to do so in most
versions of Windows would be from Windows Explorer, choose Tools - Folder options, press
the View tab and then in the Advanced Settings pane ensure that the Hide extensions for
known file types is unchecked. Press the Apply to Folders and then press OK. You will then
be able to see extensions such as .map and others. See also the Essay on three letter extensions
and why the default hiding of them by Windows is such a bad thing.

Why import and then work? That is faster and more powerful, and it avoids the limitations of
antique vector and raster formats. Consider vector formats: there are hundreds of different
vector formats, all with their own limitations on what are allowed data types, allowed field
names and so on. Instead of forcing us to learn a hundred different ways to work with vector
drawings, taking into account the limitations of each format, Manifold does a conversion when
importing a vector file into Manifold so we only need to learn about drawings in Manifold. To
export that vector drawing out to some other format Manifold will do a conversion outbound.
When a vector file is imported into Manifold, it is no longer a shapefile, an E00 file, or a
GeoJSON file. It is a Manifold vector drawing, with the full power of one of world's most
sophisticated GIS and spatial DBMS engines at our beck and call. If we want to save it as a
shapefile, Manifold will convert it into shapefile, with all the brain-dead limitations of shapefiles,
on the way out.

Why create a table to import some small JPEG? Because everything is stored in a table in
Manifold, even small images from a JPEG. That means nothing is hidden in some secret
handshake form. All data is there in a table where all sorts of power tools, like the SQL you
probably already know allows you to get your hands on the data and do what you want with it.
Don't know SQL yet? That's missing a great opportunity to slice and dice data with the greatest
of ease. You'll learn quickly enough (it's easy) and until you learn you can use Transform pane
templates without knowing any SQL at all.

About .map files - Manifold stores data in .map format project files. A Manifold .map file can
be interchanged by all Manifold products that are built upon Manifold's hyper-fast Radian
engine. ".map" stands for Manifold Project, the file database format used for all Manifold
database and GIS products. In a time when disk space is endless and cheap and human time is
limited and expensive, .map files are designed to be as fast as possible and not as small as
possible. Saving a big table or image in a .map file will usually result in a bigger file on disk
than other formats but almost always the result will be far faster operation.

 Important: When opening a .map file created by earlier Manifold products, such as
Release 8, Manifold Release 9 always converts a pre-9 .map file into 9 .map file format.
Using File - Save or File - Save As thereafter will save the project as a Manifold .map
file which Manifold products before Release 9 (such as Manifold System Release 8 or
prior) will not be able to read. Use File - Save As to save to a new name in Radian .map
format without altering the original, pre-Radian .map file name.

 Important: Linking a pre-9 .map file or creating a new data source based on a pre-9
.map file will also cause that .map file to be converted into 9 .map file format. Make a
backup copy of any pre-9 .map files you wish to retain in the old format before you open
them or use them in a Manifold project.

MAP files and MXB files - For everyday work we want our projects to open instantly, save
instantly and operate at eye-popping speed. When exchanging data or saving archives for long-
term, rarely used storage we want our projects to be as compressed and as small as possible. To
serve both needs Manifold has two formats for project files: super-fast MAP and super-
compressed MXB.

Manifold .map format provides phenomenal speed and capacity for everyday work. Manifold
.map projects open instantly, save instantly and can be nested with links within projects to other
projects with zero loss of performance. Manifold .mxb files are highly compressed files that
archive a project in the most compact possible form. They are perfect for creating the smallest
possible project file for exchange over Internet or for archival storage.

Manifold ODBC driver - The Manifold ODBC driver makes it easy for other applications to
read/write Manifold .map files as well. See, for example, the Example: Create an ODBC
Data Source with Windows topic and similar examples.

The Manifold ODBC driver is automatically installed when installing Manifold using a
Windows Installer installation package, but it is not automatically installed when running a
portable installation. When using a portable installation we must install the Manifold driver
using the Help - About dialog. See the Installations topic for a quick guide to using portable
installations and to installing the Manifold ODBC driver.

Dataports: A dataport is a Manifold module that interacts with file formats, databases and other
sources of data. When we import data from a given file format, say, from shapefiles, we are
calling the dataport for shapefiles.

Please note: While it may be convenient to leave data within original formats, such as
shapefiles as often encountered in GIS, doing so means living within the limitations
imposed by those formats. Older formats may be fine for small amounts of data but when larger
amounts of data are involved they are way slower than Manifold .map files and they often have
limitations such as no ability to mix vector types, limits on data types, limits on size or other
limits.

Using .MAPCACHE can deliver impressive speed even with older formats but even so using
Manifold .map format is almost always faster, usually much faster, for larger files and
.map format does not suffer from the content limitations of older formats.

Read-only layers - Projects can contain read-only components. For example, an image layer
from a Google web server will be a read-only layer in our maps (Google does not let us edit the
images and maps that Google Maps serves). For example, we can create a data source from a
database and check the read-only box to make everything read-only that we bring in from that
database, such as drawings or images. Some formats are always read-only when linked into a
project. When the focus is on a read-only layer, commands that require writing, such as a Paste
command or buttons to create areas, lines, or points, will be disabled, since they cannot be used.

Copying and pasting between sessions - When copying and pasting between different Manifold
sessions remember to copy all parts of a component. An image component, for example, is just
a display module to show the contents of the associated table which stores the tiles for that
image. To copy an image from one Manifold session to another we must copy and paste both
the image as well as the table for that image.

Saving Data Sources - The Project pane tracks any unsaved changes for data sources that
support saving, including the root .map file itself. Data sources with unsaved changes will be
displayed using a different icon that shows an asterisk * in the lower right corner of the icon.
Making changes via a script to a data source that supports saving may require a few seconds
before the icon is updated. If a data source does not support saving the icon will not change and
the Project pane context menu command for that data source will not include a Save command.

CPU Parallelization - Manifold automatically runs parallel for internal Manifold tasks and for
Transform pane templates and similar operations, using all of the CPU cores available in your
system in parallel. When writing queries manually using the Command Window make sure to
add a THREADS SystemCpuCount() command to the query to automatically parallelize the
query to use all CPU cores in your system.

GPGPU - Manifold automatically uses NVIDIA GPUs for massively parallel computation.
NVIDIA GPUs of Kepler class or more recent which NVIDIA supports with CUDA are
required. See the GPGPU topic for details.

Open a .map file from a command prompt - For users who want to use a batch file to launch
Manifold or Viewer with a particular .map project file, Manifold can be launched with a project
from a command line. See the Command Line Execution topic. That topic also provides an
example of packaging a portable Viewer installation with a .map file and a small batch file
inside a .zip file, a convenient way to distribute projects to people for viewing who do not have
Manifold. They can simply double-click the batch file to view the project, with no need to
download or to otherwise install either Manifold or Viewer.

Videos
Watch tutorial videos for a fast start:

1. Manifold Tutorial 1 - Navigation and User Interface

2. Manifold Tutorial 2 - Add Data and Create a Map
3. Manifold Tutorial 3 - Export Data and Print a Map
4. Visit the Videos page for many more live action videos.

See the 10 Minute Tutorial - Drag and Drop video for drag and drop examples.

See Also
Projects and .map Files

Importing and Linking

User Interface Basics

How to Edit a Single File

Tables

Queries

Maps

Drawings

Images

Labels

Layouts

Manifold Server

Measurements

View - Panes - Project

Status Bar

Assign Initial Coordinate System

Examples - Do not miss! Browse through the many examples for step by step tutorials.

Example: Project Pane Tutorial - In this example we take an extended tour of the Project
pane, engaging in a variety of simple but typical moves that are illustrated step by step.
Example: Import a Shapefile - ESRI shapefiles are a very popular format for publishing GIS
and other spatial data. Unfortunately, shapefiles often will not specify what projection should
be used. This example shows how to deal with that quickly and easily.

Example: Closing without Saving - An example that shows how File - Close without saving
the project can affect local tables and components differently from those saved already into a
data source, such as an .mdb file database.

Example: Spectacular Images and Data from Web Servers - A must see topic providing a
gallery of views illustrating how Manifold can use web servers such as imageservers and other
free resources to provide a seemingly endless selection of spectacular background maps, satellite
images and GIS data with nearly zero effort.

Example: An Imageserver Tutorial - An extensive tutorial showing step by step how to add
new data sources that are imageservers, how to show them as layers in a map, how to create a
new drawing that matches the projection of the map and how to trace over what is seen in an
imageserver layer to create an area object in the drawing.

Example: Reproject a Drawing - An essential example on changing the projection of a

drawing, either within the drawing itself, or by changing the projection of a map window that
shows the drawing and on the fly reprojects the drawing for display.