Sampling Strip Direction

[hannahcunning]

I would find it very useful if I knew the orientation of the strip when I drew it. I always end up having to change the size of it and move it around to know for sure which direction is is going.

If arrows could be used to show which direction the strip was going that would be very useful, both while you are collecting the data and when visualizing it in publications if it isn't just a left-right strip. Something like the image below is what I imagined.

[lanari]

Dear Hannah,

Thank you for using XMapTools and for this suggestion. This problem has been bothering me for some time and I have never come up with a satisfactory solution. One idea I had before was to use a text label to show the direction, but I never had the time to develop it further. It is quite a challenge to keep track of the direction when you start to rotate the shape.

I have implemented an attempt to solve this problem in the developer version (not built yet). A label is added to the centre of the shape and is automatically adjusted when you rotate the ROI. Here is an image showing the results for different orientations.

Do you think this is a good solution? If you think so, I will close this comment and keep this change in XMapTools 3.4. The first beta has just been released to the developer repository.

Best,
Pierre

[hannahcunning]

Thanks for working on this program so I can analyze/visualize my data and finish my masters!

I think that will be a big step forward so that someone doesn't have to try and puzzle out the orientation of the stripe. The only other idea I had would be to make two sides of the box different colors to indicate the direction ( e.g. going from the black edge to the white edge with the other two sides purple) but that would also require explanation and the maps already have so many colors on them that more would just be confusing.
Thanks for being so quick to respond!