Polygon and Geodetic Circle Draw Tool

In this sample, I'm demonstrating how to roll you own draw tool using the Flex API for ArcGISServer. I'm attaching mouse listeners to the map and based on the selected tool, I'm drawing a polyline, a circle or a geodetic circle. For the latter, I'm using the undocumented (subject to changes) ProjUtils class to enable me to calculate the distance in meters between two lat/lon values. In addition, this class has the capability to calculate a lat/lon value for a given lat/lon origin, radius and azimuth. When using this sample, watch out for boundary condition (too close to the poles or crossing the date line) as this is a very simple implementation. How to handle these conditions will be another post :-) as usual, you can download the source from here. Have fun, and hope to see some of you at MAX next week.

Comments

Anacaraka - Bali Unique Clothes said…
Wonderful
Why if I use draw circle and when i zoom in or zoom out the size of this circle isn't change.Not like if I use geodetic...

Regars,


Gus Leo
February 13, 2009 at 2:29 AM
thunderhead said…
Because the Circle distance is based on pixel value, vs Geodetic is based on a "true" distance.
February 13, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Anacaraka - Bali Unique Clothes said…
So how i can use Geodetic, because an error program because ProjUtils class isn't include..How i can get ProjUtils class???
February 15, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Unknown said…
hi this is interesting. i'm trying to run your sample, but there are errors whether agslib-1.0-2008-10-22.swc or agslib-1.1-2009-01-21.swc
is used. would appreciate some advice on this?
April 27, 2009 at 11:11 PM
thunderhead said…
I've updated the source code to include the Geodetic code - in addition, u need to get the flex api for ags swc from www.esri.com/flex. Hope that helps.
April 28, 2009 at 7:14 AM
harry said…
how could i draw a circle with a specific value of radius.

for example what do i do to draw a circle with a radius of 5 km?
October 19, 2009 at 1:12 AM
thunderhead said…
In this example, create a graphic with a circle geometry and a geodetic symbol. The circle geometry has a center x, y and a radius in meters.
October 19, 2009 at 5:10 AM
harry said…
thanks for the help.
i have a few more questions,
you have used sprite.graphics.lineTo()

while in this example (http://arcgis.myclearwater.com/police/callsforservice)the polygon.addRing() method from the package com.esri.ags.geometry is used, what is the difference between the two?
October 22, 2009 at 3:55 AM
thunderhead said…
The function addRing will add a set of map points to a polygon. When a symbol renders a polygon it will iterate over each ring and will use the flash graphic functions (moveTo, LineTo) to render that ring in pixel coordinate.
October 22, 2009 at 5:57 AM
harry said…
thanks for the prompt reply.
im a newbie in gis/flex programming, so my questions might be naive. what i wanted to know is that what is the difference between these two approaches if we consider the GIS functionality like query tasks etc.
October 22, 2009 at 7:57 AM
thunderhead said…
Sorry - not sure I understand the question :-( Questions are good from newbies :-)
October 22, 2009 at 5:33 PM
harry said…
let me put it another way. why has ESRI made the geometry package in the ArcGIS API for Flex.
why not use the graphics functionality provided by flex Graphics class?
October 23, 2009 at 1:24 AM
thunderhead said…
Ah - that is because we wanted to infer a map coordinate system through the class names, like MapPoint vs just Point and Extent vs Rectangle - in addition, we wanted to have the same naming convention as our JavaScript and Silverlight APIs
October 23, 2009 at 5:17 AM
Asif said…
i have added text symbol in geodetic circle code
private var ts:TextSymbol = new TextSymbol("Testing",null,0x0000FF);
private var m_txtGraphics:Graphics;

.
.
.

m_txtGraphics = new Graphics(m_circleGeometry.center,ts);
graphicsLayer.add(m_txtGraphics);

but after executing the code when i zoom-in and zoom-out the map, the size of text should be changed accordingly like geodetic circles ... what should i do???
October 27, 2009 at 5:44 AM
thunderhead said…
Write ur own custom text symbol that resizes the font size based on the map scale :-)
October 27, 2009 at 7:05 AM
Asif said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
October 27, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Asif said…
i am new to flex and GIS.Is it possible to give me a sample code or give me some guidance ...
October 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Asif said…
I have to draw circles each with different color and line width. What should i change within this code.







Also i want to know, from where it is calling draw method of GeodeticSymbol?
December 30, 2009 at 4:36 AM
thunderhead said…
1 - Create MyCircleSymbol that has public properties like color:Number and width:Number.
2 - In your main app, create MyCircleSymbol instance where u set different property values.
3 - To each "tool" - u can assign a previously created symbol dynamically - that will be associated with the generated graphic.
4 - We call the draw routine at the right time whenever the refresh function is invoked - to be more precise - refresh invalidates the display list - and draw is called in the update display list function.
December 30, 2009 at 6:58 AM
gviz said…
The geodetic Utils class looks very useful. I see the geodeticInverse method allows me to get distance between two points, but I do not see a way to compute the azimuth(heading) between the two points--do you have some sample code that does that?
February 22, 2010 at 2:42 PM
Asif said…
I have to draw a circular arc between two points. How can i do that and what changes should i made in this code?
March 15, 2010 at 5:33 AM
thunderhead said…
Please look @ the GeodeticSymbol for sample usage
March 15, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Asif said…
I have made following changes in GeodeticSymbol code.

while( ang < Maths.PI/4 )
{
ang += Utils.PI_OVER_180;
Utils.geodeticDirect( origPoint, circleGeometry.radius, ang, Utils.EARTH_RADIUS_IN_METERS, tempPoint );
sx = toScreenX( map, tempPoint.x * Utils.ONE_EIGHTY_OVER_PI );
sy = toScreenY( map, tempPoint.y * Utils.ONE_EIGHTY_OVER_PI );
sprite.graphics.lineTo( sx, sy );
}


Instead of drawing an arc of 45 degree, its draws semi circle ... But i don't want radii lines with the curve.
March 15, 2010 at 2:33 PM
Tanya said…
HI I am trying to use the sample which you have provided..I need to display the radius of the circle while I draw the circle.

I am new to this technology,can u tell me how to go about it
June 23, 2011 at 5:02 AM
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