Using the AutoMap Library  | Back to User Tips

MapScenes Pro contains a feature called the AutoMap Library. This customizable library contains the line codes and symbols we use when mapping crash and crime Scenes. This is a powerful feature of MapScenes and is easy to use. Whether you want your centerlines colored white or yellow, or if you have if have a particular style of street light or firearm, you can choose your preference and make that preference the default for your own AutoMap Library. If an EvR is used at the scene to collect the data, when you download into the desktop version and process the scene using your AutoMap Library, your own line types and symbols will appear on your map.

In addition to being able to select your own line styles or symbols, the AutoMap Library does much more. The AutoMap Library gives you the ability to create your own attribute, text that comes in with a particular symbol or line code. So for example if you frequently use yellow evidence tents at a crime scene, you can make your own library with as many different evidence tents as you want Then when you shoot evidence marker 75 for example, a 75 can be displayed next to the marker. This saves time and provides for a very professional looking forensic map.

Another feature that is most useful is the ability to control what layer your attributes, lines, and symbols go on. Again using our evidence tents as an example, we can have the evidence tent itself go to a pre-named layer called evidence. We can have the evidence tent attribute go to another layer called evidence_text or whatever you would like to name the layer. This gives us the ability to turn the attributes and symbols on and off by turning a particular layer on or off. This is most useful for the investigator, who is trying to determine which particular evidence item goes where, and yet when it comes time to print the forensic map, that text can be turned off by simply turning a layer off so that the map is not so cluttered.

We will go through and example of how to create and layer a particular item in the AutoMap Library. First, go to the MapScenes dropdown and then select AutoMap System. From there, select AutoMap Library. Once that is done, you can select a symbol to edit. In this case we will edit and Evidence Tent, so scroll down in the Library until you find EVID. Click on that and then select Edit.

Once you have selected Edit, the AutoMap Editor will appear. From this box, you have the ability to change wording of attributes by typing in the desired wording under Plotted Description, in this case you can could call the evidence tent “75” instead of Evidence Marker if you so desired. You can control the size of the symbol using the Symbol Scale Factor, and you can place the attribute on a particular layer by selecting the layer of choice under the Description Text Layer. If you want a particular layer for this evidence tent to be placed, that can be done by selecting the layer under the Symbol Insertion Layer.

This just scratches the surface of what the AutoMap Library can be used for. If you collect measurements manually, there is a simple way to do that using the Z method and Auto Map Connection. It takes a little time to set all these libraries up, but once it is done your at-scene time will be reduced considerably and there will be less map enhancing needed when then information is put into the Desktop Software.

By Sergeant Brad Booth
Brad Booth is a MapScenes Trainer and an adjunct instructor at the South Dakota Law Enforcement Academy and at Western Dakota Technical Institute. He is also a forensic specialist for the Rapid City, South Dakota Police Department.