To manipulate a Project

To define a Project in SPRING it is necessary to establish the geographical limit of the area under study (Bounding Box) and the Cartographic Projection that is more adequate to the geographic area that will be manipulated in the work area. For each projection system there are different Earth Models and parameters like Hemisphere, Origin Latitude and/or Longitude and Standard Parallels that should be provided.

Take a look at:

A Project contains Infolayers (IL) within the defined bounding box and they will inherit its projection system. The original data from other projection systems, will always be remapped to the projection of the project during the import or data input process. Thus the importance of defining a system that is adequate to the data scale, also foreseeing the cartographic products that will be generated. To decide upon the cartographic projection we suggest the reading of the page about the Cartographic Concepts.

The bouding box of a project also defines the maximum limits of the Infolayers that belong to it. Geographic data with limits that are greater than the project area will be limited by the project coordinates during data input or import.

A project physically corresponds to a subdirectory under the directory of the database where it belongs. The data ( IL’s) of this project will be under this subdirectory.

NOTE: The parameters for each project are stored in the files "Projecti.dbf" and "Projects.dbf",  which are in the database directory.

See below how to create a Project.

See also:
What is a SPRING Infolayer and how to create one?
Defining a Data Model in SPRING

 


To create a Project

Creating a project implies the creation of a subdirectory inside the active database where the data will be stored. Creating a project though is no guarantee that you will be able to write or change it, in order to do that you will need to load it first. Make sure that you have loaded the desiredDatabase, otherwise the system won’t grant you access to the “Project” dialog box.


Creating a Project:

  • Click on File Project... in the main menu or on . The “Project” dialog box is presented.
  • Provide a name for the project, thirty two (32) characters maximum. Use only alphanumeric characters in the project name. Special characters (! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) - + = | \ { [ }] : ; " ',< > ./ ?) or spaces will be automatically removed when you click on Create or Change.
  • Click on Projection... to inform the cartographic parameters to be used in the project. The “Projection” dialog box is presented;
  • After defining the projection define the Bounding Box in Geographic or Planes coordinates (in meters). The two points should be diagonally opposite, such that the first (1) is the lower left corner while the second (2) is the upper right corner (see figure below);
    • For Geographic coordinates the syntax should be as follows:

Ex: Long1  w 23 14 00   Long2 w 23 09 00
      Lat1    s 45 55 00    Lat2 s 45 50 00

    • For Planes coordinates (meters) it is necessary to inform the HemisphereNorth or South, mainly when you’re using the UTM projection, in which case the values for Y1 and Y2 will be automatically added by 10.000.000 whenever any of the points lies above Equator. The syntax in this case is as follows:

Ex: X1   350000               X2   380000
      Y1   7950000  (S)      Y2   980000 (N)
obs: In this example the Y values lie within the 7.950.000 to 1.980.000 interval;

  • Click on Create to insert a project in the database.

NOTE: After creating a project on the UTM projection, for example, in the southern hemisphere to the right of the central meridian (see figure below), in geographical or plane coordinates, the window shows the bounding box in the two corresponding units. The values presented are not meant to provide the user a geographical calculator when switching between the Planes and Geographic options. If the box is informed in geographical, the resulting plane values actually refer to a rectangle that circunscribes the box defined in geographical coordinates. The figure below shows that there is always a difference between the box in geographical coordinates (circle) and the resulting circunscribing rectangle (square).

See also:
How to create an IL.
How to create a Database.

 

Project Manipulation


To Load or Unload a Project

Loading a project means that it is open for the definition of its planes, and for data input as well. Only one Project can be loaded at one time in a work session.

Loading a Project:

  • Select the desired Project from the list;
  • Click on Load. In case some other project is loaded confirm the message to unload it. Note that in the SPRING title bar the name of the loaded project is presented within brackets [<loaded_database>][SaoJose]. The Project dialog box is automatically closed and the “Control Panel” dialog is opened.


Unloading a Project:

  • Click on Unload to close the loaded Project. Another project can then be created and/or loaded.


NOTES:

unix.gif - 943 Bytes1- To automatically load a project edit the environment variable "SPRINGPROJ" in the ".config.spring" user file or in the script "configura_spring".

windows.gif - 1353 Bytes2- In the Windows version whenever a SPRING session is closed the variable SPRINGPROJ will be automatically updated if in the Next Spring Session parameter in the windows "Environment Configuration" the Present Configuration is selected, such that the last project from the last database will be automatically loaded whenever the system is run again. On the contrary you can always specify one same project to be loaded, irrespective of the one that was loaded in the previous session. Or you could leave that variable null so that SPRING will always ask for a project to be loaded. More details in Configuration.



See also:

How to load an IL.
How to load a Database.

 

Project Manipulation.


How to change a Project

After creating a Project it is possible to change its name and resize its Bounding Box.


Changing a Project:

  • Click on the Project name on the list;
  • Edit the name in the text box Name: and/or the values in Bounding Box;
  • Click on Change to make the changes in the Project effective.


OBS: In this version of SPRING the project bounding box can be resized to a smaller or bigger area. In the first case there is a restriction when the project already has some infolayer of the image model.


See also:

How to change an IL.
How to change a Category or Class.

 

Project Manipulation.


To Delete a Project

Deleting a Project deletes also the directory with the same name, that is, deletes all the definitions as well as the data files of the IL’s (Infolayers).


Deleting a project:

  • Select the Project to be deleted;
  • Click on Delete and confirm the project deletion when asked in order to make it effective.


OBS: ATTENTION when deleting a Project since all the IL’s will be also deleted, so have always a backup copy of your databases and projects.


See also:

Removing an Information Layer.
How to delete a Database.

 

Project Manipulation