Custer County Map Server Help Page

Contents

1. Navigation: Zoom In, Zoom Out, Re-Center the map
2. Getting information from the map (Info Tool)
3. Finding things on the map (Jump To... Find)
4. Controlling what is displayed on the map (Layer Control)
5. Measuring distances and areas
6. Printing, Saving & Sharing a map view
7. Technical information

To Zoom In - Select the tool from the tool bar and then either:

• Click on the map to zoom by a factor of 2 and re-center the map on your click point.
• Or hold the mouse key down to drag a box over the area on interest.

To Zoom Out - Select the tool and then click on the map.

• Click on the map to zoom out by a factor of 2 and re-center the map on your click point.
• Or hold the mouse key down to drag a box

Mouse Wheel Zooming

• Roll the mouse wheel forward to zoom in closer
• Roll the mouse wheel back to zoom further out

To Pan - Pick the tool.

Drag your mouse to pan the map.

Next and Previous Views

After you have moved around on the map by panning and/or zomming,
the and buttons will allow you to quickly move backwards and
forward through your views.

The "JumpTo ..." drop-down list provides a means to quickly re-orient the map to various areas in the County. Pick the desired area from the list and wait a moment while the map re-draws.

Select the tool from the tool bar and then either:

• Click on the map
• Or hold the mouse key down on the map and drag a box over the area on interest to select multiple lots or parcels.

A pop-up info window will display informaion on the parcel(s) you picked. Your browser must allow pop-ups for this site. Most of the information shown in the windw comes from the County Tax Roll.

Finding things on the map

The MapServer can find properties by:

• Street address
• Legal description (Subdivision and Lot, or Township, Range, Section)
• Property owner name
• Parcel Number

Searches can be enter either as free-form text in the search box, or in the "advanced search" by clicking the search button.

1. Search by Street Address
   • You may enter a street address number (not required), and a street name. Generally it is best to leave off the "Road", "Street", "Ave", etc. In the free-form text search, a full street name is required. In the advanced search, a partial street name works (this is handy if you are not sure of the spelling of a street name). You will be presented with a list of addresses matching your search. From the list you may pick an address to map.
2. Search by Legal Description
   • You can enter a subdivision lot number (optional) and a subdivision name. You will be presented with a list of matching lots. From the list you can pick a single lot to be mapped.
   • Township, Range, Section searches generally take the form of: SEC 10 T14N R18E. The free-form text search will usually produce better results for Township, Range, Section searches.
3. Search by Owner
   • You may search by property owner name. A list of matching property owner names will be presented, from which you may select a property to be mapped.
4. Search by Parcel Number
   • Parcel number searches can only be done in the free-form search box

After you have used the "Map It" button to highlight a selection from any of the above searches, the selection will remain highlighted until another searches is run, or until it is "Unselected" by clicking the button.

Map Layers

There is too much information to show all of at one time, so the map is organized in "layers" of data. A list of available layers is displayed to the right of the map. There are labels, foreground layers, and background layers. The foreground layers are lines and hatches, which are more or less transparent, so you can turn on as many as you want. The background layers are opaque, so it is only possible to turn on one background at a time.

Many of the layers are scale dependent, especially the labels. This means that even if a layer is turned on it may not be displayed if the scale is too large or small (if you are zoomed in too far, or zoomed out to far). For example, street address numbers simply can't be read at scales smaller than 1:10,000 so they are not displayed. If you do not see a layer that you have turned on, try zooming in a bit.

Measuring Distances and Areas

Approximate distances may be scaled from a map using the "Ruler" tool . Select the tool, and then click a starting point on the map. Subsequent clicks on the map allow you to measure distances along a route or around a polygon. Double click to terminate a distance sequence, and the total distance will be displayed on the left side of the bottom status bar.

Approximate areas may be calculated by using the "Area" tool . Clicking points on the map will draw a polygon. Double click to finish the polygon, and the total area will be displayed on the left side of the bottom status bar.

Printing, Saving & Sharing a Map View

Printing: The "print" link places the current map view into a new browser window without the toolbars, legend, or other map elements. Use your browsers print options to print the window. Before using the "print" link, you should size your browser appropriately for landscape or portrait orientation. e.g. if you want a portrait orientation, adjust the size and shape of your browser window so that it is taller than it is wide before clicking on the "print" link.

If you would like to save a view of the map to your favorites (bookmarks) or email a view to someone, click link. This will copy information into your brower's address bar that defines the center of your map, the zoom, the layers that you have turned on, and anything that you have selected on the map. You can now use your browser's "Add to Favorites" or "Bookmark This Page" menu option to save the view.

To email a view, click link and then copy the contents of your browser's address bar into an email. Be sure to get the whole address (URL) which may be quite long. Below is an example of a long link centered on the Custer County Courthouse with the aerial photography layer on.
http://localhost/custer/mapserver/map.html?zoom=9.933240296521875&lat=1034465.17825&lon=1580234.69015&layers=TB&mslayers=ownership%20roads%20aerial04&filter=%28pidn%3D%27RPA0001030001A%27%29&qlayer=ownershipq
If you don't like such a long URL, you can use a free service of tinyurl.com to shorten it.

Saving to your computer: Saving a link is usually preferable to saving the image, but if you do need to save the image, printing to PDF from the print window is usually the most reliable method of saving a copy of a map view to your own computer. If you do not have a PDF writer, the print window can be used to save the map as a GIF, JPG or BMP image. Right click on the map and select "Save Picture As" or "Save Image As". Your browser may not correctly identify the image type, so you may have to help it. If you have aerial photography turned on, try saving as JPG. If you do not have aerial photography on, try saving as GIF. If neither of these options work, try BMP. Also note that not all picture viewing software reads all image formats correctly - if your picture viewer says "Invalid format" or something simular, try opening the file with a different program.

Technical Information

Firefox may not move the active window to the front if that window is already open. To change this behavior:

1. Open the Firefox Options panel
2. Select the Content tab.
3. Click the Advanced... button to the right of "Enable Javascript".
4. Check to enable the Raise or lower windows option.

The Custer County Web Map Server was developed by Greenwood Mapping, Inc.
The system is powered by MapServer, OpenLayers, and PostGIS Open Source Geospatial software.