The end of the line

When you draw a line unless you have the snap options set small gaps can appear at junctions / joins.

To rectify this you can either edit the line as described in the previous chapter or you can perform an Action.  NB Using actions before a major edit can save a bit of time on a badly or quickly drawn map.  Do it afterwards and it can make a mess of earlier edits – you have been warned.

First we are going to create a new road and finish it short of a junction.  Just below and to the left of the Crystal Rig Farm label on the OS map, you should have an unmarked road.

1. Navigate to the unmarked road, so it is in the centre of your view
2. Now draw a line using the line tool from the turbine to the junction
3. Finish the line slightly short of the junction; use CTRL+E  top right hand stretch it back a bit if snapping is working correctly
4. Choose the select tool and select the new line and hold down SHIFT to also select the existing road
5. Both lines are highlighted red and will appear in Edit > Show Selection Manager (a very powerful tool)
6. Click the Actions tab and expand the Tidying option (click the +)
7. Select Tidy line junctions (spaghetti processing) and check that the options
8. Try a snap distance of 10 and gap of 10, and increase it gradually by 10, if nothing happens

If all goes well a correctly formed junction should be visible.  You can now tidy up using CTRL+E.

Nota Bene

During this session, we have not saved any of the lines we’ve drawn.

1. Save the Live Layer by using the right click Context menu and Save Live layer as
2. You’ll now see the data has been transferred from the Live layer to a static layer (if not try saving the project)
3. If you save during an edit session remember that the options for adding new information

• • append or Add to live layer (from the Edit menu)
  • create a new version with a filename like: Roads003.dra
  • overwrite the existing version
  • create a completely new file