Drawing Spatial Entities Using IDRISI32 Purpose The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to generate point,

line and area features in IDRISI32. You will be required to use this tutorial for the first time with Continuous Self Assessed Exercise 3 in Module 2 where you are asked to capture information from an air photograph of Sefton Park. This tutorial has been written to assist you with this exercise. It will however be useful at other times in the course. Lesson 1 Copying files to your hard disk The aerial photograph required for completing this tutorial is stored as a .zip file on the UNIGIS PE Technikon website. You should create a new folder on your C drive called C:\Diploma\Module2\Airphoto. Please download and extract 'Tutor2.zip' (1 MB) to this folder. Lesson 2 Starting up IDRISI32 IDRISI32 is not a single programme but a collection of modules that are linked by a menu system in a Windows programme. Each module cannot be run outside of the IDRISI32 programme and must be called from the menu system. Start IDRISI32 from the IDRISI32 programme icon in the IDRISI32 programme group. Once IDRISI32 starts, you are presented with the IDRISI32 menu and icon bar. Some of the icons will be obvious, for example the map icon is used to DISPLAY images. Before we can operate on IDRISI32 data files, IDRISI32 must be told which Data Paths or Project Environment you wish to work in. You only need to set the data path whenever you wish to change directories, otherwise IDRISI32 remembers the last directory used. To change the working directory, select the FILE menu and the command DATA PATHS. Instead of selecting the command from the menu you could press the first icon on the left ( a coloured circle ) - the end result is the same. A dialogue box will appear that shows the current main working folder. Using the browse box, navigate to the directory C:\Diploma\Module2\Airphoto - this action is like finding a folder or file in Windows Explorer. Once the path of the main working folder displays: c:\diploma\module2\airphoto, press the OK button. Lesson 3 Image conversion The air photograph has been provided as a bitmap and should now be stored on C:\Diploma\Module2\Airphoto. Before the air photograph can be displayed in IDRISI32, the file has to be imported into IDRISI by using the BMPIDRIS module. Select the FILE menu and the command Import. Then go to 'Desktop Publishing Formats' and choose BMPIDRIS. The IDRISI Image / Bitmap Conversion tools dialogue box opens and the bitmap can be imported by choosing the .BMP to IDRISI option. You now have to specify the name of the Input file (dc.bmp), as well as the name of the Output file. Choose airphoto as output (raster) file name. Now press OK and the air photograph will be imported. The imported airphoto will automatically appear on the screen. Now close the airphoto. Lesson 4 Displaying an image To display the image of the airphoto you will use the DISPLAY Launcher function which can be accessed either from the DISPLAY menu or the map icon. You will also note that when you move the cursor over the icons in the toolbar a description of their function is shown. The Display dialogue box allows you to select various options. First, an image must be selected. Double click the left mouse button in the Name of File to Display text box and a list of files in the Pick a File list will appear - there should only be one file - Airphoto, select it and click OK. Next, you must select the palette that the image will be displayed in. Double click the left mouse button in the Palette File text box, select Grey16 and press the OK button. We are using a Grey 16 palette because it is the minimum level of colour and you will all be able to display it. Because Grey 16 was chosen the image must be autoscaled so that all values within the image are displayed, autoscaling makes use of the minimum and maximum values in the file. To set autoscaling click Autoscale (the box should change to a checked box). For this exercise we do not need a legend or title. Therefore click Title and Legend (the box should change to an unchecked box). Now press OK and the airphoto image will be displayed. You will also notice that another window appears when the image is displayed - the Composer window, ignore this for the moment until Lesson 8. Lesson 5 On-screen digitising - Points To enter on-screen digitising mode press the digitize icon whilst the image is displayed, make sure that the image window is the active window by clicking the mouse on the blue bar at the top before pressing the digitize icon. A dialogue box will appear where you can specify the type of layer to digitise and give a name to the layer that you will create. Enter the filename tree, because you are going to digitise some trees, and make sure points are selected then press OK. When you move the mouse over the image, a digitising cursor will appear in the image and its coordinates will be shown in the grey bar at the bottom of the screen, as you move the cursor about the image, the coordinates will change. Move the cursor over the centre of a tree and press the left mouse button. This will store the coordinates. Continue digitising other trees in the same way. To finish the digitising process, click the right mouse button. When you have finished close the image display by clicking the IDRISI32 icon in the blue bar of the image and selecting close. You will be asked if you wish to save the vector file, click the yes button. Lesson 6 On-screen digitising - Lines You are now going to digitise line features from the airpohoto. You will need to redisplay the image first as in Lesson 4. To begin digitising press the digitize icon and this time select line features and call the file streets. As before you should see a white cross appear on the screen. You are going to digitise the streets as a line feature. Start digitising by moving the cursor over a point in the middle of the street and press the left hand mouse button. When you move the cursor away you should see a small white dot marking the position of the point you just digitised. However you might have trouble seeing this depending on the background grey scale values in that area. Move the cross to the next point you wish to digitise and press the left hand mouse button again. You should now see a white line connecting the two points you have digitised. Continue down the centre of the street recording points where necessary and click the right mouse button when you have finished digitising the points you need. Close the image display by clicking the IDRISI32 icon in the blue bar of the image and selecting close. You will be asked if you wish to save the vector file, click the yes button.

Lesson 7 On-screen digitising - Areas You are now going to digitise area features on the airpohoto. You will need to redisplay the image first as in Lesson 4. To begin digitising press the digitize icon and this time select polygon features and call the filename park. You are going to digitise the park. Digitising the boundary for an area feature is similar to digitising a line feature, so begin in the same way as you did for the streets. Begin at one corner of the park and record the corner point. Continue around to the second and third corners. When you get to the fourth corner press the left hand mouse button to record the point as usual and then press the right hand mouse button. An extra line will appear closing up the area feature. This snap function ensures that the first and final point in the feature are at the same point. When you have finished close the image display by clicking the IDRISI32 icon in the blue bar of the image and selecting close. You will be asked if you wish to save the vector file, click the yes button. Lesson 8 Redisplaying Vector Files Within IDRISI32, it is possible to display the vector files on their own or overlayed on to the image. You will first display them on their own. Select the Display Launcher as per Lesson 4 but this time select Vector Layer as the file type to be displayed. Double click in the text box of the Name of File to display and you will see the three vector files you created in the digitising process. Select the trees vector file and press OK. You will accept all of the other default settings and press OK to display the data. If you now click the Add Layer button within the Composer Window, you can add more vector files to display. Simply double click in the vector file to display text box or type in the filename and then press OK. Now close the image and redisplay the airphoto. Next, using the Add Layer button, select the vector files and display them overlayed onto the airphoto.