The Custom Point Style allows you to define how to render point features on the map with custom icons. These icons can either be from our Symbol Library or an icon from your own collection. Custom Point Styles offer controls for size and offset.

Using a custom point style makes it easy to represent data in a visual manner rather than relying on colors and symbols that require Map Legends to be understood. With this style, a small thumbnail image can place more impact on a map. The Mars map sample is a good example of how useful custom point styles are.

Name - The name of the custom point style. Choosing a descriptive name can help you quickly identify styles when you are compositing many of them together.

Width - Sets the width of the icon in pixels.

Height - Sets the height of the icon in pixels.

Constrain Proportions - If this setting is checked, the width and height of the icon will always be the same.

X Offset - Sets the X offset of this style. A positive X offset will draw the style that many pixels to the right of the actual feature. A negative X offset will draw the style that many pixels to the left of the actual feature.

Y Offset - Sets the Y offset of this style. A positive Y offset will draw the style that many pixels below the actual feature. A negative Y offset will draw the style that many pixels above the actual feature.

Drawing Level - Forces this style to draw on a specific drawing level. The GIS Editor has a set of internal drawing levels that can be used to set rendering priority for certain styles. For example, labels are set to use the highest drawing level by default, so that they always appear on top of other map features regardless of what layer they're on. This enables you to add styles to any layer without worrying about them being covered up by other layers above them.

The Symbol Library is a collection of icons that come with the GIS Editor. There are several categories that are included, such as flags and buildings. Selecting an icon from the Symbol Library will assign it to your Custom Point Style.

You can also choose your own icons to use by going to the Image File tab and selecting your .png, .gif, or .jpg image on your file computer. Selecting an image will assign it to your Custom Point Style.