Workspaces

A Workspace is your working environment, including a list of Datasets, view and legend preferences. Workspaces can be easily created, saved and reopened for easy management of your work and projects.

As of Orbit 4.2, a workspace can also be saved as composite resource and accessed as a single readonly resource.

• The location of each resource (location).
• The available Dataset Lists (visibility, status and all settings of each Dataset)
• The View settings : center point, scale, projection..
• Visibility of the Overview and Magnifier Windows
• All file references are saved as relative paths where possible.

• Preferences (Edit menu) : they are global settings for your application.
• Resources : the spatial data is NOT included in your workspace. The workspace only refers to the location and name of the resources used in the workspace.
• Legends : the legend is saved in a legend file, not in a workspace. If an explicit legend file is used, the reference to that legend file is saved in the workspace as one of the dataset settings. If no explicit legend file is used, the default legend will be applied to the resource, as would be the case when you open the resource in the resource browser.

Extensions can add properties and preferences to a Workspace. When saving a Workspace, Orbit GIS will request such data from each extension. Upon opening Workspace, Orbit GIS will pass these settings to the extension. The extension developer must decide which settings belong in a workspace and how the extension behaves.

For example : the Strabo Photogrammetry extension requires a project file to operate. This project file is saved into the Orbit GIS workspace.

1. Start from a blank workspace (New Workspace).
2. Open DataSets, manage their visibility, order sequence, specify legend, etc.
3. Manage the Viewport by using the zooming and panning options, to get what you want.
4. Manage your application views (Overview, Magnifier).
5. Save the workspace. The extension of the file is *.ogw (Orbit GIS Workspace) and in previous versions (before 4.1) also *.oew (Orbit Explorer Workspace). New versions of Orbit GIS are also compatible with older .oew workspaces.

As workspaces do not include the spatial resources, Orbit GIS will try to re-establish the connection to the resources when opening a workspace. Of course, when resources have changed name or location, the resource will not be found.

When you move workspace files, remind that it contains resource references. EOS and IOS references are defined as URL and are generally not influenced by moving the workspace file. Local resources however are referenced with relative path settings when possible. This means that resources located on the same drive as the workspace file, are referenced with a relative path. Other file references use a driveletter, drivename or UNC notation (\\servername\shared_directory).

The File menu refers mainly to the management of Workspaces. The Close menu clears the Workspace and closes the workspace file without saving or altering any saved workspace files.

Orbit GIS holds a list of recently opened workspaces. You can reopen them fast using the File → Recent Workspaces menu.

When opening a workspace that contains resources from a server, a Server Login will be requested if required.