Introduction
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Main menu: Consists of five titles to give a specific command to work (See Figure 3).
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Standard toolbar: It consists of (14) icons; each gives a specific task to be worked in BAU OSGIS (See Figure 4).
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Main Map: This is the utmost important part as most of the results will be displayed in this object. On main map you can do several functions and set general display properties (display Map layer, tracking layer etc.).
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Legend: This is needed in order to clarify the symbols used to represent features on the map. Legend consists of examples of the symbols on the map with labels containing explanatory text. When you use a single symbol for the features in a layer, the layer is labeled with the layer name in the legend. User can open attribute for the layer or show properties, etc. (Figure 5).
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Classes: we wrote nearly 100 classes to use for all forms that are related in main form such as class: application, projection, draw, menu, layer, identified layer, etc. (See Figure 7).
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Codes: Some codes are meant for class application and description such as the code for measuring the area of a polygon. Other codes are written for drawing line, point, polygon with respect to the shape file that are selected from legend to start editing, etc.
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Module: We wrote 20 modules to use for all forms that are related to main form such as module main, module application, among others; see Figure 8.
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Running BAU GIS: When the “frm intro” appears, it starts to load other forms that are related to “form main” such as “forms of plug in” etc. (Figure 1). After loading the main form, the form of the welcome screen will appear. Only the standard toolbars will appear in the main form (new, open, save, print, add data, pan, select, measure area, measure distance, zoom in, zoom out, zoom, identify, and query). If you want to show other toolbars related to main form you should press plug-ins from the main menu and choose what you need to work with.
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GIS tool: It is the function that includes the processes that are needed to build a GIS such as: assigning projection to grid or image or raster, Georeferencing an image or grid, generating a contour shape file and other processes (See Figure 9).
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GPS Tool: This includes processes that should be applied when the GPS instrument is connected into a computer in order to process data, start logging track, draw GPS location on map, and display GPS information; see Figure 10.
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Image to map tools: This tool used to convert image to map registration by using least square method and to rectify image by using another original rectified image (See Figure 11).
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Path analyzer: This is designed to draw the path of the selected feature in shapefile by determining the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the rectified image and drawing this path as a profile to make other processes on shapefile (see Figure 12). The plug-in menu is very important.
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Shapefile editor: It is used to create shapefile and start editing the shapefile. It includes other processes that are related to shapefile such as snapping, edit vertices, and merge of features.
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Measuring tools: These include function for measuring distance, and area for the selected features in the shapefile.
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Map Window graph tools: This is meant to allow drawing graphs using one field in the attribute field of the shapefiles (see Figure 13).
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Download Mapwindow open source program.
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Create a new VB.Net Class Library project using Microsoft Visual Studio. Make a Right-click on the class in Solution Explorer and select “Properties”. Select the References page and click the “Add” button at the bottom of that form, then select the Browse tab and navigate to the location of and select the MapWinGIS.ocx and MapWininterfaces.dll; typically, found in C:\ProgramFiles\MapWindow\ as shown in Figure 14.
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In the compile settings, sometimes it is useful to set the build path to your MapWindow “Plug-in” sub-directory or sub-directory within it, such as C:\ProgramFiles\MapWindow\Plugins\PathAnalyzer directory. This will save you the task of having to copy your plug-in DLL into the Plug-in directory for MapWindow in order to load when it runs. If using this, it is strongly recommended not to forget that the path must be set for both Debug and Release properties.
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Back in your code, after the “Public Class…” line; insert the line Implements “MapWindow.Interfaces.IPlugin”. Then, hit enter on that interface and see how Visual Studio populates all of the interface properties and functions found in the IPlugin Interface (Figure 15).
Conclusions
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It uses an open Source Map Window soft.
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It is a standalone application, developed using Map Window Open Source GIS and visual basic 10.0.
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It has been designed to address the need for a GIS programming tool that could be used in engineering research and project software.
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It doesn’t require users to purchase a complete GIS package.
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It doesn’t require users to become GIS experts.
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It is a GIS modeling system and GIS application programming interface (API) all in one convenient redistributable package.