Pathfinder Office allows you to display map features and attribute information. This is useful for checking the contents of data files prior to exporting them to a GIS. Selecting File|Open displays a list of files in the current project directory (Figure 1).

Selecting a file and clicking "Open" will open a map window. The time-line window is opened by selecting View|Time Line. The map window shows map features - in the example below (Figure 2), a parking lot, 7 trees, 2 road signs and a fire hydrant are shown (Note:  the map's appearance is configured under View|Layers|Features - this window includes options to turn features on or off (including "not in feature" positions - see GeoExplorer Configuration) and select feature symbols). The time-line window shows the time interval during which positions were collected for each feature (the black bars under the feature symbols). Notice that 5 of the trees, the 2 road signs and the fire hydrant are all nested point features (they are nested within the perimeter of the parking lot and were mapped at the same time as the parking lot perimeter - see Mapping Area Features). The other 2 trees are not nested - they were mapped separately at a later time (see the Time-Line Window in Figure 2). A third window "Feature Properties" also appears in Figure 2. This window is opened by selecting Data|Feature Properties - the window displays attribute information for a selected feature (the feature can be selected by cursor either in the map window or in the time-line window - the parking lot is currently selected; its perimeter is highlighted on the map and its symbol (a long rectangle) is also highlighted in the Time-Line Window).

In the example below (Figure 3), a map of 11 light towers on the UNT campus is shown. The time-line window shows the time interval during which positions were collected for each light tower (the black bars under the light tower symbols). The time-line window also indicates a considerable gap in recording between about 14:45 and 15:30 - no positions were collected during this time interval because PDOP values were too high (see Mission Planning).

To obtain a hardcopy of a map window, File|Plot Map can be selected to plot the map. A plot of the parking lot map is shown below to illustrate the hardcopy plot output (Figure 4).
 
 

Figure 4. Example plot of parking lot map . The plot includes an optional latitude and longitude grid (shown in detailed insert).