Map layers (lines and areas)

Map layers are how lines and areas live in geoDB as data, not as a picture: map units, contacts, faults, alteration zones, targets, infrastructure. Every feature keeps its geometry, its attributes and its original coordinates in the CRS you drew or imported it in.

From field sketch to project map

1. Sketch in the field. On the phone, open a mapping area and sketch contacts, faults and units by hand over the basemap, on separate sheets (lithology, structure, alteration). It works offline; a sync uploads the sketch in place on the map (the field app 2.0 and later also uploads the strokes themselves).
2. Open it in QGIS. With the geoDB QGIS plugin, version 2.35.6 or later, Field sketches lists each sketch by mapping area, who drew it and when. Open sketch loads the image in place with a see-through background, ready to trace. Open strokes as lines turns the strokes into draft lines, one layer per sheet, so you clean them up instead of tracing from zero.
3. Trace it. New map layer makes a layer of lines, areas or points with its kind (map units, contacts, faults…) in your project's CRS. Add the attributes you like (unit, confidence, notes) and note the sketch it was traced from.
4. Publish to geoDB. The layer goes live on the web map and on crew phones. Save it as a draft instead if it is not ready.

Bringing an existing map in

Upload a zipped shapefile, GeoPackage, KML/KMZ or GeoJSON from Import → Import map layers, from Display settings → Map layers, or from the map editor's Add layer menu. A package with several layers lists each one so you pick what to bring in. Uploads land as drafts: saved, but on no map until someone publishes them. The map editor's Add layer and the Import map layers page can put them straight on the map when you tick that box. If exactly one live layer of the same type (lines, areas or points) already has that name, a layer from a zipped shapefile package or a GeoPackage replaces it and the old one is archived (kept); a KML, KMZ or GeoJSON layer, which is named after the file, is saved as a draft and asks whether to replace that layer or keep both.

A layer that comes with its own style (a QGIS style, GeoPackage or KML styles) keeps it. A layer with none is coloured by geoDB and says so: areas by an obvious unit field (unit, map unit, lithology, formation…), anything else one colour per kind. Restyle it in QGIS and publish, or use Link to catalog to take the colours and FGDC patterns of your Lithology, Alteration or Formation catalog, shared with the strip logs and 3D.

Keeping a layer up to date

Pull the layer into QGIS, edit it, and press Publish to geoDB (plugin 2.35.6 or later). The new version replaces the old one on every map and phone, and the old one moves to Archived: kept, and it can be made live again. Features you did not touch keep their original coordinates exactly. If someone else published a newer version after your pull, the plugin asks before replacing it.

Managing your layers

Display settings → Map layers on the web lists every layer of the project, live, draft or archived. There you rename a layer or change its kind (Rename / kind), publish a draft (replacing the layer it updates, or alongside it), discard a draft, archive a live layer or make an archived one live again, and link a layer to a catalog. The draft badge in the map's layer panel publishes a draft right there.

In QGIS (plugin 2.35.6 or later), the geoDB map layers panel does the same and more: it shows each layer's kind, feature count, last edit and the sketch it was traced from, and restores a discarded draft from the Trash.

On the phone

Live map layers download to crew phones with the field syncs and work offline. In the field app 2.0 and later, tap a unit or a fault to see what it is: the layer, its kind, its name and attributes, and the field sketch it was traced from. The phone sketches; lines and areas are made in QGIS (or the web), not drawn on the phone.

Where map layers show

• Your project's map in the map editor, toggled in its layer panel, and in map figures you capture from it.
• QGIS, with their styling, through the geoDB plugin.
• Crew phones, offline included.
• Partner data access: live layers are part of the project data that connected tools and vendor exports read. Drafts and archived layers never are.

Not yet: the 3D viewer, shared review maps, public map embeds and the company-wide map.