Drawing Orthogonal Polygons - MapInfo_Pro - 2023

You can draw orthogonal (right angle) polygon line segments when you press the Ctrl key. Using this key you can draw the polygon at 45 degree increments relative to the slope of the last line segment. This functionality works for Line, Polyline, and the Polygon commands, as well as for the Ruler command.

This functionality is useful when you want to draw perpendicular lines at an angle rather than horizontal to the map.

To see this functionality:

1. From the HOME tab, in the File group, click Open, click Table, and select a map to display.
2. Make the layer that you want to work with editable. On the HOME tab, in the Windows group, click Tool Windows, and click Layers from the list, to open the Layers window.

   You can also see map layers in the Explorer window.

   Click the Editable icon beside the layer name to turn On editing.

   Click the Selectable icon beside the layer name to turn On selection.

3. On the SPATIAL tab, in the Create group, click Insert, and Line, and then Polygon.

1. Click and draw a single line in any direction other than horizontal following these directions:
   • To draw the next segment perpendicular to the last segment, press Ctrl while dragging the cursor.
   • To draw the next segment perpendicular to horizontal, press Shift while dragging the cursor.

Tracing Polylines and Polygons

When you are drawing a new polyline or polygon, you can use Autotrace to trace nodes from existing polylines or polygons. The Autotrace command is only in effect when you are using a polygeometric command (Polyline, Polygon, or Polygon Selection) and Snap is on.

Use Autotrace to trace a boundary of an existing object and avoid creating splinter polygons trying to trace a difficult line.

To trace the nodes of an existing polyline or polygon:

1. Press the S key to activate Snap Mode.
2. Press the T key to activate Autotrace (for information about autotrace, see Autotracing Objects).
3. Click on the first node of the polyline/polygon you want to trace.
4. Move the mouse to another node of the same object. Follow the procedure below for the type of object you are tracing:
   • Polyline: Hold down the Shift key or the Ctrl key and click.
   • Polygon: Hold down the Shift key for the shorter set of nodes or the Ctrl key for the longer set of nodes and click.

     Pressing the Shift or Ctrl keys highlights the trace path. Click to automatically trace the segments between the nodes and add them to the polyline/polygon you are drawing.

5. Continue until you have traced the entire polygon/polyline and right-click to end.