Quickstart

This is a quick introduction to the uDig application included as part of online help.

Sample Data

Before you start please take a moment to download some sample data we have made available on the web:

  1. Right click on the following link and choose Save Link As...:
    data-v1_1.zip
  2. When asked for the file location choose an appropriate location such as your desktop
  3. Unzip the contents of this file into a data folder on your desktop

If you have your own GIS data please feel free to experiment. Making use of the above sample data will enable you to follow along with this tutorial step by step.

uDig Application

  1. Choose uDig 1.1 > uDig from the start menu
  2. The application will take a few moments to start up

The uDig application keeps a configuration folder in your home directory, the folder will be created the first time the application is launched. If you have any difficulties, or are running uDig on Linux or Mac please review the Running uDig reference page.

Welcome View

  1. When you start up uDig for the first time the Welcome view takes up the entire display. This screen has links to tutorials, documentation and the project website.
  2. Click the arrow labelled Workbench in the upper right corner, to reveal the contents of the uDig workbench.

You can return to the Welcome view at any time by selecting the Help > Welcome from the menu bar.

Workbench

The Workbench window offers multiple Editors (each showing a Map) and supporting Views (offering information about the current Map).

Shown above is a typical uDig session with the Map editor, Projects view, Layers view and Catalog view labelled . These views will be described further as we demonstrate their use.

Files

To start out with we are going to load some of the sample data you downloaded earlier.

  1. Choose Layer > Add from the menu bar to open up the Add Data wizard
  2. Select Files from the list of data sources
  3. Press Next to open up a file dialog
  4. Select the following files from your data folder: countries.shp
  5. Press Open
  6. Open up your data folder in windows
  7. Drag the file clouds.jpg onto the Map Editor, a new layer is added to to the map.
  8. You can see the order the layers are drawn in the layer view. Right now the clouds.jpg layer is drawn ontop of the countries layer.
  9. Select the clouds.jpg layer in the catalog view and drag it to the bottom of the list

Info: One of the most common questions asked when uDig is considered for an organization is how much memory the application uses. Unlike most GIS applications uDig can get by with a fixed amount of memory. The above shapefile is not loaded into memory, we have a policy of keeping data on disk and drawing data like this shapefile onto the screen as needed.

Tip You can also drag and drop shapefiles directly into the uDig application!

Map

You can control where in the world the Map Editor is looking by using the navigation tools in the tool bar along the top of the screen.

  1. The Zoom tool is available by default
  2. The Pan tool can be used to scroll around your map with out changing scale.
  3. There are also several navigation buttons that can be used at any time:

Tip: Most tools allow you to Pan by holding the center button and control the scale using the scroll wheel.

Web Map Server

One of the reasons to use an application like uDig is to access all the great free geospatial information available on the web. This section covers the use of Web Map Servers which make available layers of information that you can mix into your own maps.

  1. Select File > New > New Map from the menu bar
  2. Change to the Web view, click on the tab next to the Catalog view to reveal the Web view.
  3. Click on the link WMS:dm solutions link
  4. From the Resource Selection page we are going to choose the following layers:
  5. Press Finish to add these layers to your map
  6. Use the Zoom Tool to move closer to one of the Parks
  7. Switch to the and click on one the parks to learn more about it

Tip: You can switch between the zoom and info tools by pressing Z and I on the keyboard.

Style

  1. Select the project > countries, you can double click to open this Map, or Right Click and choose Open Map
  2. Select the countries layer in the Layer view
  3. Open up the Style Editor by right clicking on countries layer and choosing Change Style
  4. We are going to change a few things about how countries are displayed
  5. Press Apply to see what this looks like on your Map, the Layer view will also be updated to reflect the current style
  6. When you are happy with the result you can press Close to dismiss the dialog
  7. Some files include style settings, Select Layer > Add ... from the menu bar
  8. Select Files from the list of data sources and press Next
  9. Using the From the file chooser open up timezone.shp and press Open
  10. It is a bit hard to see what is going on with the clouds.jpg layer providing so much details. Select Map > Mylar from the menu bar to focus on the selected layer
  11. Using the Layer view select timezone, countries and clouds.jpg in turn to see the effect
  12. You can turn off this effect at any time using Map > Mylar from the menu bar

What is Next

This is only the first step on the road to using uDig. There is a lot more great material (and ability) left for your to discover in our walkthroughs.

(c) Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Refractions Research Inc. and others.