How do I plot a simple location mark by lat/long?

[tim_v]

I'm trying to plot a simple mark on the map by lat/long.

I can use Draw Freely and refer to lat/long at the bottom, but the program always draws symbols starting at a corner instead of at the center, so it's impossible to align a symbol over a given lat/long. I have tried different combinations of Shift+Drag and Alt+Drag to change origin behavior, as is standard in programs like Illustrator, but this has no effect.

The "Location Indicator" function would be ideal, but it's overly complicated (requires origin, point, x tick, y tick, z tick) and plots a large crosshair across the entire image instead of a small mark, plus it's always set to an 8000 m altitude.

It seems what I need is a simple "Plot a small crosshair at this Lat/Long".

What is the best way to get this functionality?

[bobc]

Hello,

I think you're on the right track by using the Drawing Controls. Once you add a drawing control layer to your display, in the Layer Controls you should see a "create a symbol" button (see the red square in the image below):

Drawing Control widget

draw1.png (10.4 KiB) Viewed 5101 times

Once you select this shape, you should be able to left-click and add a crosshair to the display. Note that the most recently drawn shape will be the active shape in the Main Display and have a pink square drawn over it. You can use the "move or stretch graphic" mode to move the crosshair to a different location.

If you don't want the pink square over the crosshair, there are a couple options:

1. Add another shape somewhere out of the scene. The new shape you add will be active and thus have the pink square over it.
2. Go to the Shapes tab of the Layer Controls for the drawing controls layer and find the shape that's highlighted in the table. You can hold down Control and left-click on the shape to deactivate it.

Please let me know if this gives you what you are looking for.

Thanks,
Bob Carp
McIDAS User Services

[tim_v]

Thanks, I appreciate it... I tried that and that definitely looks like the best option.

Tim