Open Printable/Searchable Copy - Global Mapper

coordinate system of the current projected system. Any drawn paths will be straight lines between the
start and end point. This can result in inaccurate distances for long measurements or when working in
projection systems with high levels of distortion.
• Rhumb Line - Any measured distances will be drawn along the rhumb line if possible, which is a line
of constant bearing between the start and end point. Rhumb lines are often used in navigation so that a
constant bearing can be maintained. A rhumb line will be a straight line in the Mercator projection.
Any drawn paths will also be along the shortest rhumb line path between the start and end point.
On the right-click menu in the Measure Tool are options to control how bearings are repoted. The following
options are available:
• True North - Any measured bearings will be reported relative to True North. This means that a
bearing of 0 will point directly at the North Pole and bearings of 180 will point directly at the South
Pole.
• Magnetic North - Any measured bearings will be reported relative to Magnetic North. This means
that a bearing of 0 will point directly at the magnetic North Pole rather than the geographic North
Pole. All other bearings are relative to that, so a bearing of 180 is exactly away from the magnetic
North Pole. The magentic Nort Pole slowly meanders around, but is not coincident with the
geographic North Pole.
• Grid North - Any measured bearings will be reported relative to Grid North. This means that a
bearing of 0 will point directly up on the Y axis of your current display projection (to the top of the
screen assuming you don't have any rotation enabled), 90 will be directly to the right along the X axis,
etc. If your projection is one that is orthogonal to the lat/lon grid, like Geographic or Mercator, the
cardinal directions (0, 90, 180, and 270) will be the same, but in between could vary due to scale
differences.
Feature Info Tool
Global Mapper User's Manual
The Feature Info command selects the Feature Information tool as the current tool. This tool allows you to
select vector features (areas, lines, and points) by clicking on or near them. Once selected, a dialog displaying
information about the selected item appears.
To pick objects, select the [Feature Info] icon from the Toolbar or select [Tools/Feature Info] from the menu
bar. Press and release the left mouse button near the objects(s) to be picked. Holding down the 'P' key when
left clicking causes only area features at the clicked location to be considered. If left-clicking on a picture
point with an associated image, by default just the image will be displayed, but holding the Ctrl key when
clicking will cause the normal feature info dialog to be displayed. When an object is picked, it will be
highlighted and a feature info dialog (picture below) will be displayed. Right clicking the mouse button cycles
through each of the elements located near the selection point, displaying the information in the dialog box.
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