CUBIZEN: Global GIS, CityEngine & Creative Tech Masterclass

Welcome back to the Global Mapper tutorial series. In our previous session, we touched upon the basics of the Layer Attribute Editor. Today, we will dive deeper into more advanced ways to manage and edit your data attributes efficiently.

Let's wrap up our look at the Attribute Editor (Attribute Editing Window). Open the file you saved yesterday and dock (stitch) the Attribute Editor window to the right side of your screen. I’ll skip the very basic tasks like selecting, deselecting, or deleting features and focus on the more practical tools.

[img 2 : Attribute Editor docked next to the main map window]

[img 3 : Selecting the Show/Hide Attributes menu]

First, let's clean up our view by hiding unnecessary attributes. Click on the Show/Hide Attributes icon as shown above. This will open a selection window.

[img 4 : Show/Hide Attributes dialog box]

In this dialog, Check All enables all attributes, while Clear All disables them. For this exercise, check only KIND, NMLY, and SHAPE_AREA, then uncheck everything else and click OK.

[img 5 : List displaying only the three selected attributes]

Now, only the three selected attributes are visible. However, you might notice that the SHAPE_AREA values are partially cut off.

[img 6 : Double-clicking the column divider to adjust width]

Simply double-click the column divider to automatically expand the width so that all values are fully visible.

[img 7 : Expanded view showing full attribute values]

That looks much better. Now, let's look at how to sort these values.

[img 8 : Sorting attributes by clicking the header]

Sorting is easy: just click on the attribute name (header). Clicking once sorts them in ascending order, and clicking again switches to descending order. The small arrow icon next to the name indicates the current sorting direction.

[img 9 : Attribute list sorted by the KIND column]

How to Edit Attribute Values

Changing a value is straightforward. Click on a value, wait a brief second, and click it again to enter editing mode. Type in the new value, and you're done.

[img 10 : Editing a single attribute value directly in the grid]

But what if you need to change multiple values at once? Use Shift or Ctrl to select multiple rows, then right-click and select Edit Selected Feature(s)....

[img 11 : Selecting multiple features and choosing Edit Selected Feature(s)]

The Modify Selected Area Features window will appear. Let's try changing the SHAPE_AREA value to 100 for all selected objects.

[img 12 : Modify Selected Area Features dialog]

[img 13 : Selecting SHAPE_AREA and clicking the Edit button]

In the Feature Attributes list, select SHAPE_AREA and click the Edit button. In the Edit Attribute/Value pop-up, enter "100" and click OK.

[img 14 : Applying the changed value in the main dialog]

Click OK again in the main Modify window, and you will see the updated values applied to the list.

[img 15 : Synchronizing selection with the Main Window]

Another useful feature is Synchronize Feature Selection with Main Window. When this is active, selecting an item in the list highlights it on the map, and vice versa. It’s a bit of a long name, but very handy!

[img 16 : Features highlighted in the list after being selected on the map]

The problem is that sometimes the selected items might be scattered across a long list and not visible on one screen. In that case, use the Only Show Selected Features toggle.

[img 17 : Using the toggle to show only selected features in the grid]

Adding New Attributes

Let's try adding a brand new attribute, perhaps something like "XXX".

[img 18 : Clicking the New Attribute button]

Click the New Attribute button. A dialog will appear where you can define the name and the default value.

[img 19 : Setting Name as 'XXX' and Value as '3435']

You can also decide what to do if the attribute already exists: do nothing, update only empty ones, or update all. Click OK once you've set your parameters.

[img 20 : The new 'XXX' attribute added to the list]

As you can see, the "XXX" column has been added with our specified value. It's quite simple, isn't it?

[img 21 : Icons for Search and Calculate Attributes]

There are also Search and Calculate Attributes tools (circled in the image above). These are powerful features that deserve their own dedicated session, so I'll cover them later when I have more time.

That's it for today!