MAPCONNECT — Connect to map data

Connects to a WMS, WFS, WMTS or XYZ service and adds its layers as map layers.

• Command: MAPCONNECT · Global name: _MAPCONNECT
• Ribbon: Mapping › Map services
• Menu: Mapping

Connects to a WMS, WFS, WMTS or XYZ map service and adds its layers to the drawing, like AutoCAD Map 3D Data Connect. Raster layers become live map layers: they are requested again for the visible area after panning or zooming, and are managed in ONLINEMAPS.

Use

1. Type MAPCONNECT (or click Connect to data… in the manager). Connect to map data opens.
2. Pick a connection from the list or type a new one: Name:, Type:, URL: and Version:. If the server needs it, expand Credentials and proxy (user, password and proxy). Save connection keeps it in the list.
3. Click Connect: the layers are read in the background (the dialog does not freeze; Cancel stops waiting). Errors are explained: no network, timeout, invalid XML or credentials.
4. Check the layers. For each one choose Format (PNG, JPG, TIF…), Server system (among those the server offers; by default the closest to the drawing system), Background (transparent or a colour) and Style. With several, Combine into one layer merges them into one layer in list order.
5. Click Load. The layer arrives in the background and goes below the drawing.

WFS: feature classes and query

• Each class is added as drawing entities on a layer named after it, with Colour: and Label: (an attribute labelled on each feature). Show geometry reads its fields and tells whether they are points, lines or surfaces.
• Add with query: only the view, by property (field, operator and value, with the server field list) or with a hand-written CQL filter. Feature limit: limits the features per request; if as many arrive as the limit, Next page requests the next ones.

Notes

• The drawing needs a coordinate system (GEOGRAPHICLOCATION). If the view lies outside the area of use of the system, or outside the server layer extent, you are warned before anything is requested.
• When you add a layer while the view lies outside it (or it declares no extent), the view is framed to the user's country (OPTIONS, Country): the layer extent inside the country and inside the system zone (a country with several zones, such as Spain, is framed in the drawing's own: mainland or Canary Islands) and the notice says so. If the country does not fit (more than 3000 km a side), 5 km around its capital.
• If the server does not offer the drawing system, another one is requested (Server system) and LinceCAD converts it.
• Connections and their credentials are stored in the settings (mapas.json; the password encrypted for your Windows user), never in the drawing.
• Built-in servers and terms of use: MAPSERVICE. WMS, WFS, WMTS and MAPSERVICE open this same dialog with the type already chosen.

See also

ONLINEMAPS · MAPREFRESH · MAPCLIP · MAPSERVICE · GEOGRAPHICLOCATION