Vector

Accessing Simply Map

All U of T students, staff, and faculty have access to SimplyMap. SimplyMap is accessed through a web browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer). If you are off-campus, you need to login with your UTORid before you can use SimplyMap. In this case, you should start by accessing SimplyMap through the library’s website. Go to https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca. Type “simplymap” in the search box. In the search results, under “Databases”, click “SimplyMap Canada”:

1. Open Scholars GeoPortal by going to http://geo.scholarsportal.info

2. Use the main search box to search for census tract boundary files. You can search by phrase, keyword, title, and more.
   Type in the phrase “Census Tracts 2011” and click Search.
   

Example 1: Batch Clip

This first example model will be used to process a batch clip. It will iterate through shapefiles in a directory, and clip each one based on another shapefile’s area, and save the new clipped shapefiles to a different directory.

For an accessible introduction to coordinate systems and map projections, please see the Coordinate Systems and Projections page in the Scholars GeoPortal user guide or UofT Geography Professor Don Boyes’ lecture materials on Earth and its coordinate system.

1. Launch FME Quick Translator from the Start Menu. On Map & Data Library computers, it is located in All Programs > FME Desktop 2012 SP4 > Utilities > FME Quick Translator.

1. Use the Add Data button to add each of the datasets you wish to convert to the map document.
   

DEMs stored as point shapefiles

1. Add your DEM point dataset to your map document. Open up the Layer Properties window and click on the Source tab. You should see the line “Coordinates have Z values: Yes” in the Data Source section of the window. This indicates that elevation or height values are included in the spatial reference information for each entity in the dataset.
   Click OK or Cancel to return to the map document.

1. Use the Add Data button to add each of the datasets you wish to convert to the map document.
   

1. Use the Add Data button to add the dataset you are interested in selecting from to your map document. For this example, we will use a shapefile that represents the municipalities that comprise the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (a component of DMTI’s CanMap Route Logistics suite of products) to create a new dataset that depicts just the boundaries of the City of Toronto.
   

1. Go to openstreetmap.org and zoom to the extent of your area of interest using the search box or the mouse.
   
2. Click on Export Data in the sidebar on the left to bring up the Export pane. If you are satisfied with the visible extent, click Export.