Map Help

How to Use the Map! (DC GIS Map Link)

The Douglas County Map Viewer has a plethora of capability in it. Being built on the VertiGIS Geocortex Essentials platform gives the ability for us to use built in tools as well as provide customized toolsets. Below we will dive into a bit about how it works. In addition, you can find the 'Hints and Tips!' at the 'Welcome' screen on the left of the map. If you are accessing it from phone, you may have different options than otherwise, by the way.

Map!

To pan the map, click and drag around the map. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out, or use the +/- buttons to zoom in and out as well.

You can click individual features on the map. These will bring up 'Pop Ups' to give you information about the feature. This will also select the item on the map as well. You can select 'Add to Result' at the bottom of the popup to add more data to this selection.

If you are looking at parcel data, this will provide links to Orion Taxlot Information, Plat Maps, Survey Maps, Aerial Imagery, Google Earth Imagery, as well as other information that may exist. (These were previously known as the 'Blue Buttons' in our old Assessor Information system!)

Basemaps can be changed in the lower left of the map, where you can change types of imagery, or switch to lidar data to see hillshade or other information.

Tools!

On the top bar, there are sets of tools to help you get around, research areas, and access data.

Here we will discuss what some of the 'Basic Tools' do.

• Layer List allows you to bring up the layers of the map.
• Initial View brings you back to the whole view of Douglas County.
• Freehand Identify and regular identify would allow you to select a single item or a series of items on the map and view the data on the left panel. This will be discussed later under 'Layers'
• Query allows you to put in queries about layers. Such an example would be to find all roads that have the name "Fair" in them. (there are 11 of them as of the writing of this document, by the way!)
• Plot Coordinates would allow a user to place Latitude and Longitude coordinates on the map.
• Share allows a user to share that extent of the map
• Upload Data lets you upload zipped shapefiles, as well as other format, to overlay with other data on the map.
• If you are a named user of the map, you may have the ability to save and load projects.

Here are what some of the 'Markup and Search' tools do.

• City Bookmarks bring you to particular cities around Douglas County.
• The line tool (as well as the drop down next to it) let you add markup on the map. This can vary by color, shape, and size. If you select markup on the map, you can click it and adjust the style, edit it, or delete it.
• The next tool (it says Polygon) allows you to do measurements on the map. This functions much in the same way as markup does, and the drop down gives you other ways to measure.
• The Edit tool allows you to edit markup and measurements, change styles, adjust shapes, and turn on and off snapping (allows automatic snapping to other layers, such as taxlots!)
• Export Drawings would allow all drawings to be exported to shapefile for use in other programs, or to be used in the map later on.
• The multiple 'Find' tools are custom tools to help a user find things in the map that may be difficult to find using the search in the upper right of the map.
  • Find a Road lets you type in road names or numbers and it locates them.
  • Find an Address allows to type in addresses or parts of addresses for location.
  • Find TRS allows you to type in TTRRSS to locate an area by PLSS.
  • Find a District lets you find certain Tax Disticts in the county.
  • Find a Parcel lets you type in information by Name, Property ID, Map Tax Lot, or Address to locate a parcel. It also supports multiple parcels.
• Print lets you print out pdf documents from the map based on what's on screen, including markup, measurements, and labels. The red zone on the Print option shows you what will print.
• Export allows a quick export of the map to image.

The 'Douglas County Apps' tab may change with what is available, but these typically involve custom applications to help facilitate your searches.

• Property Zone Information allows you to type in a property number, and it will provide the zone of which the property is in. This also works by clicking a taxlot and selecting 'Property Zone Information' at the bottom of the popup.
• Douglas County Street Directory is the online version of the Official Street Directory of the county. You can type in road names, sections of road names, or road numbers and zoom into them.
• DC Locator allows you to locate areas by mile marker, or to locate the mile marker of a particular area. This can be helpful for Right of Way applications.
• Geocode by Address lets you input an excel sheet full of addresses and city data (along with other information) and it will place all the data as points on the map, including labels.
• Survey Records Online is our replacement for S.A.R.S., which was our Surveyor's Office search tools. You can search for surveys, road data, control points, and PLSS points here.