Using MapWindow GIS with MMP Tools

1. Introduction to MapWindow GIS

• Draw and identify fields on an aerial photo of your farm.
• Calculate the acreage of each field.
• Display and identify soil types.
• Draw sensitive features and add manure application setbacks, then calculate spreadable acreage for each field.
• Draw conservation practices.
• Determine distance from field to water and distance to manure storage.
• Export field names, acreages, soils and distances to an MMP plan (www.agry.purdue.edu/mmp).
• Create maps of the fields suitable for use in a comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) or other nutrient management plan.

2. Installing MMP Tools and MapWindow GIS

1. Start the MMP Tools installer and follow the instructions.
2. If you don't already have the latest MapWindow GIS installed on your computer, make sure the "MapWindow GIS Common Files" component is selected. If you already have the latest MapWindow GIS installed, be sure to uncheck this component.
3. MapWindow requires Microsoft's .NET Framework Version 2.0. If you don't have .NET 2.0 installed and you select to install MapWindow, the installer will take you to Microsoft's Web site, where you can download the .NET installer.
   Tip: To determine whether you have .NET 2.0 installed, start MMP and in the About box click the Information About Installed Software link. If you have .NET Framework installed, you'll see .NET Framework at the bottom of the report. If it says 2.0 (followed by some digits), you have 2.0 installed.

• The MMP Tools plug-in consists of these 3 files that the installer places in MapWindow's Plugins folder:
  • mwMmpTools.dll
  • mwMmpTools.html
  • MMP.Interop.dll
• If you chose to install the example farm project, it will be installed under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents. To open the example farm project, start MapWindow, choose File | Recent Projects and select the example. You can also choose File | Open, then navigate to and select the example's .mwprj file.
• The example farm project was based on the 5/2/2006 revision of the example CNMP available from the Iowa State CNMP curriculum Web site: http://www.abe.iastate.edu/wastemgmt/cnmp-curriculum.html.

Uninstalling MMP Tools and MapWindow GIS

1. Open Windows Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
3. If you installed the MapWindow GIS Common Files with MMP Tools, select this item from the list. This will remove both MapWindow GIS and MMP Tools. If you installed MMP Tools into an existing MapWindow installation, select the MMP Tools for MapWindow GIS item. This will remove only MMP Tools.

3. Before You Start

1. If you want to look at an example farm project before you start, open the example in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents. Choose File | Recent Projects and select the example.

2. At a minimum, make sure you have an aerial photo of your farm. The easiest way to do this is to use the Missouri clipper app. This Web app will also provide a soils layer and topographic layer. Choose MMP Tools | Use Clipper to Get Layers to go directly to this Web site from within MapWindow.

3. Terminology: A "layer" is either a shapefile or an image (photo) file. A "shapefile" is a file of points, lines or polygons with an .shp extension (there will also be a .shx file and a .dbf file and usually a .prj file).

   An "image" file contains a photo in a popular format like JPEG, GeoTiff, or MrSid. An image file will have a .jpg, .tif or .sid extension. These image files will also have a "world" file with a .jgw, .tfw or .sdw extension that tells the GIS where the image is located in the world.

   If you use the clipper app, it creates a .jpg file and a .jgw file with "doqq" in the files' name to indicate that the aerial photo is part of a "digital orthophoto quarter quadrangle". The clipper also creates a .jpg file and a .jgw file with the USGS topographic map and includes "drg" in the files' name to indicate that the scanned topo image is a "digital raster graphic". When you create a farm project from a clipper download, MMP Tools renames the photo and soils files for readability.

4. Creating a Farm Project

1. Once you've installed MMP Tools and MapWindow GIS, start MapWindow. There are three ways to start MapWindow:
   • Double-click its shortcut on the Windows desktop.
   • Click Start and select MapWindow GIS from the Programs menu.
   • Once you have created a MapWindow project, you can just double-click on the project file (.mwprj extension) in Windows to open that project in MapWindow.

2. Now pull down the MapWindow Plug-ins menu and make sure the following plug-ins are checked:
   • MMP Tools
   • Shapefile Editor

3. If you clipped and downloaded an aerial photo of your farm as recommended above using the Missouri clipper app, choose MMP Tools | New Farm Project | From Clipper Zip File.
   • Select the downloaded .zip file.
   • Navigate to where you want to create the project folder on your computer, then enter a name for the project folder.
   • If the .zip file contains a soils layer, this will be added automatically to the new project.
   • If the .zip file contains a topo layer, this will also be added automatically to the new project, but its display will be turned off by default so it doesn't cover up the aerial photo. To see the topo layer, check its box in the Data Layers list.
   • Note: Creating a project from a clipper zip file adds these layers automatically:
     • Aerial photo
     • Topo (if included in .zip)
     • Soils (if included in .zip)
     • Fields (initially blank)
     • Setbacks (initially blank)
     • The clipper app also creates a RUSLE2 database (.gdb) for the clipped area. This file will be copied to the project folder for use later with MMP.

4. If you obtained the aerial photo of your farm some other way, choose MMP Tools | New Farm Project | Blank Farm Project.
   • Navigate to where you want to create the project folder on your computer, then enter a name for the project folder.
   • Enter the state's 2-letter abbreviation.
   • Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer | Aerial Photo and select your aerial photo.

• Whenever you need to close your project, choose File | Close. Later, to re-open a project, choose File | Open or File | Recent Projects.
• You can also create a farm project by importing an SNMP operation.

5. Drawing Fields

1. To begin drawing fields, make sure fields is selected under Data Layers.
2. Click the Add New Shape button (+shp) on the toolbar.
3. Use the left mouse button to click around the boundary of your first field, finally clicking the right mouse button when all done drawing the field. Remember that only left clicks are part of the field boundary - right clicking only tells MapWindow that you're done drawing and does not add that click's point to the field boundary.
4. Enter the field name when prompted. You can also enter an optional subfield name. Make sure that each field's name-subfield name combination is unique. You can't have two fields with the same name in MMP.
5. Repeat these steps for other fields.

• To draw a common field boundary accurately, feel free to draw inside the boundaries of adjacent fields. If there's any overlap, MMP Tools will clip the new field to the adjacent fields' boundaries when you're done drawing.
• To delete a field, select fields under Data Layers, then click the Select button (arrow) on the toolbar and click a field to select it, then click the Remove Shape button (-shp) on the toolbar. To remove the field's label, choose MMP Tools | Relabel Layer.
• To rename a field, select fields under Data Layers, then click the Select button (arrow) on the toolbar and click a field to select it, then click the Attribute Table Editor button on the toolbar. In the Attribute Table Editor dialog, the field you selected will be highlighted. Edit the field's name in the FIELD_NAME, SUBFLD_NAM and FIELD_LBL columns, then click Apply to save the change and Close to exit the dialog. To relabel the field with what you entered in the FIELD_LBL column, choose MMP Tools | Relabel Layer.
• If you need to adjust a field's boundary, use the Move a Vertex, Add a Vertex, and Remove a Vertex buttons on the toolbar. To improve drawing precision, you can choose the Shapefile Editor menu and uncheck Snap to Vertices. When done adjusting, recalculate the field's new acreage by choosing MMP Tools | Recalc and Relabel Fields.
• To merge two fields, select fields under Data Layers, then click the Merge Two Shapes button on the toolbar and follow the instructions. To relabel the merged field, choose MMP Tools | Recalc and Relabel Fields.
• To split a field, for example into two subfields, reduce the boundary of the field to form the first subfield, then draw in a new field adjacent to the first.
• To adjust the color or line thickness of the field boundaries, right-click on fields under Data Layers and choose Properties.
• For a discussion of what constitutes a "field" in nutrient management planning, see the "Terminology and assumptions" section of MMP's Getting Started guide.

6. Adding Soils

If you have an unclipped county-wide soil survey shapefile that you downloaded from the Soil Data Mart, you can clip a portion of it to use with your project:

1. Make sure you've drawn at least one field.
2. Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer | Soils Layer - Clip Before Adding.
3. Navigate to where you unzipped your Soil Data Mart download and select the shapefile that starts with "soilmu_a".
4. Enter the file name to use for the clipped soils layer that will be created. By default this will be "soils.shp".
5. Enter the distance to clip beyond the outermost field boundary.
6. Clipping may take a few moments. When complete, the clipped soil layer will be added to your project.

Tips:

• If you find the soil layer distracting when drawing fields, you can hide it by unchecking its box under Data Layers.

7. Drawing Sensitive Features and Manure Application Setbacks

• Points, like wells, sinkholes, tile inlets, etc.
• Lines, like streams, drainage ditches, etc.
• Polygons, like ponds, lakes, etc.

1. To add a feature layer, choose MMP Tools | Add Layer, then choose the type of feature layer (point, line, polygon) depending on what type of shape you want to draw, then enter the name to use for the new layer.
2. Make sure the feature layer is selected under Data Layers, then draw the features (+shp button on the toolbar). Drawing line and polygon features is similar to drawing fields. To draw a point feature, just click once where the feature is located.
3. Enter the new feature's name when prompted.
4. Enter the manure application setback distance from the feature, or enter 0 if no setback is needed for the feature.

• To help determine the setback distance from a particular feature, click the View Setbacks button, which goes to this University of Missouri Web site: http://nmplanner.missouri.edu/software/setbacks.asp.
• You can add more than one layer of the same type (point, line or polygon). For example, you might want each set of features to be drawn in a different color (right-click on the layer under Data Layers and choose Properties to adjust the color, line thickness, etc.).
• To change the setback distance from a feature, the easiest way is simply to delete the feature from the feature layer and delete its setback shape from the setbacks layer, then draw the feature again and enter the new setback distance.
• Normally you draw streams and ditches as lines. However, if they're wide enough to encompass significant area, you can draw them as polygons. To locate streams and ditches, look for blue lines on the topo map. For better accuracy, you can trace the blue lines on the topo map when drawing streams and ditches. (Note that sometimes the topo may not be very accurate, so make sure it lines up with the aerial photo.)
• See the tip given in the next section on the difference between practices and features.
• You can also automatically add frequently or occasionally flooded soils as sensitive "features", optionally treating them as non-spreadable areas. Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer | Feature Layer - Soil Flooding Frequency.

8. Drawing Conservation Practices

• Points, like vertical drains, wells, watering facilities, etc.
• Lines, like ditches, canals, dikes, pipelines, access roads, walkways, fences, terraces, etc.
• Polygons, like filter strips, grassed waterways, lagoons, sediment basins, WASCOB's, wetlands, etc.

1. To add a practice layer, choose MMP Tools | Add Layer, then choose the type of practice layer (point, line, polygon) depending on what type of shape you want to draw, then enter the name to use for the new layer.
2. Make sure the practice layer is selected under Data Layers, then draw the practices (+shp button on the toolbar). Drawing line and polygon practices is similar to drawing fields. To draw a point practice, just click once where the practice is located.
3. Enter the new practice's name when prompted.
4. Enter the NRCS conservation practice code.
5. Enter the manure application setback distance from the practice, or enter 0 if no setback is needed for the practice.

• To see a complete list of practice codes, click the View Practices button, which goes to this NRCS Web site: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Technical/Standards/nhcp.html.
• What's the difference between a practice and a feature? A practice always has an NRCS conservation practice code and is typically something that is constructed for a field or farm production area as part of a conservation plan. A feature is usually something geographic (for example, a stream) or man-made (for example, a public road) that was not constructed as part of a conservation plan and does not have a practice code. Both features and practices may require manure application setback areas. Also, by default MMP Tools removes both feature and practice polygons from any fields they overlap (reducing the size of the affected fields) since practices and features are not normally part of the field from the point of view of nutrient management planning.
• What practices should you draw? Be sure to draw any conservation practice, whether to the field or production area, that can easily be displayed on a map. Some practices such as Residue Management, No-till (code 329A) or Roof Runoff Management (code 558) may not have a spatial representation. However, you can still add practice layers for these types of practices if you want. For example, you could add a practice point layer and add and label a point "practice" in each field that is no-tilled. You could normally leave this layer unchecked under Data Layers if it detracts from the overall appearance of the layout, turning it on only when you want to view or map that practice's layer.
• The tips given above for features also apply to practices.

9. Measuring Distances

• Distance to water
• Distance to manure storage
• Slope length

1. Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer, then choose the type of distance layer (water, storage, slope length). MMP Tools will add the new distance layer.
2. Make sure the distance layer is selected under Data Layers, then draw the distance line (+shp button on the toolbar). Click somewhere inside the field that you want a distance for, then draw a line to what you're measuring. For example, to measure distance to water from the edge of a field, click on the field boundary, or just inside it, at the field's nearest point to water, then click along the flow path, finally right-clicking to signal that you're done drawing.

• You can turn off the display of any distance layers if you don't want them shown on your maps.
• When measuring distance to water, you may find it helpful to turn on the topo map display and measure the distance to the water's blue line.
• Distance to manure storage is normally the driving distance, so you would draw the route that would be used to drive to and from the manure storage. Since distance drawing always starts in a field, be sure to start drawing at the field, not the storage.

10. Creating Maps

1. To print a map, choose File | Print.
   • In the Print dialog, you can select to include a legend, add a title, etc.
   • To see what the map will look like when printed, click Preview.

2. To export a map, choose Edit | Export | Map.
   • Enter the name of the image file to create in the File Name box, using a .bmp, .gif or .jpg extension. The resulting image file can be inserted into a Word document using Word's Insert | Picture | From File command.
   • Use MapWindow's other Edit | Export commands to create image files with a legend, north arrow or scale bar.

3. To copy a map to the Windows clipboard, choose Edit | Copy | Map.
   • Open a Word document and choose Word's Edit | Paste command to paste the map into the document.
   • Use MapWindow's other Edit | Copy commands to copy a legend, north arrow or scale bar to the Windows clipboard.

11. Importing an SNMP Operation

1. Choose MMP Tools | New Farm Project | From SNMP Operation.
2. Navigate to the SNMP operation's folder and select its snmp.apr file.
3. Navigate to where you want to create the new MapWindow farm project folder, then enter a name for the folder.
4. MMP Tools will create a new farm folder and project, then import the SNMP operation's field boundaries and names, as well as any soils, features and setbacks, and conservation practices.

• If the SNMP operation's aerial photo is stored in the SNMP operation folder, MMP Tools will copy the photo into the new farm project folder it creates. If the photo is located in some other folder, MMP Tools will just point the project to it rather than copying it into the project folder. MMP Tools does the same with the SNMP soils shapefile.
• MMP Tools doesn't automatically label imported soils, features or practices. You can label these if you want by selecting the layer under Data Layers and choosing MMP Tools | Relabel Layer.
• If you want to use an up-to-date set of layers that you obtained from the clipper app with your SNMP fields, just create a project with MMP Tools | New Farm Project | From Clipper Zip File, then import the SNMP operation's fields.shp as described in the next section.

12. Importing Fields from a GPS or Generic Shapefile

1. Once you've created a farm project, choose MMP Tools | Import | Fields from Shapefile and select the field shapefile to import (.shp extension).
2. MMP Tools will import all shapes in the shapefile and insert them as new fields in the fields layer.

• A "shapefile" usually consists of at least four separate files with the same name but extensions .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj. Make sure all four of these files are together in the same folder before attempting to import the shapefile.
• MMP Tools names the imported fields "Import 1", "Import 2", etc. To rename the fields, select fields under Data Layers, then click the Attribute Table Editor button on the toolbar. In the Attribute Table Editor dialog, you can edit the field names in the FIELD_NAME and FIELD_LBL columns. When done editing, click Apply to save the change and Close to exit the dialog. To relabel the fields with the new names, choose MMP Tools | Relabel Layer.

13. Importing Fields from a Toolkit XML File

1. Once you've created a farm project, choose MMP Tools | Import | Fields from Toolkit XML File and select the XML file to import (.xml extension).
2. When prompted, select one or more conservation plans to import and choose how you want the imported fields to be named.
3. MMP Tools will import all "land unit" shapes from the XML file and insert them as new fields in the fields layer.

• You can choose to have MMP Tools name the imported fields using either the combined tract and land unit numbers or just the land unit numbers. You can also rename the fields to use your producer's IDs (recommended). See the tip in the previous section.
• MMP Tools only imports crop, hay and pasture land units; non-crop land units are not imported since these are not used in MMP.
• If your XML file contains more than one conservation plan and you're not importing all of them, you'll want to create a subset of conservation plans for MMP to use when generating the CNMP document. Once you've exported to MMP, click the Get Conservation Plan button on MMP's Tools | Import panel and extract the conservation plans you want to a separate XML file. See MMP's help for more information.

14. Exporting Field Data to MMP

1. Choose MMP Tools | Export | Create MMP Plan to create a new MMP plan file (.mmp extension) or choose MMP Tools | Export | Update MMP Plan to update an existing MMP plan file.
2. Enter the new plan file's name or select an existing plan file.
3. MMP Tools will export the field data to the plan file and open the plan file in MMP.

• If you make changes to your MapWindow project (add fields or change field boundaries that result in different acreages), you can export the updated project data to your MMP plan file by repeating these steps. If you delete a field in your MapWindow project, you will also need to delete this field in your MMP plan.
• If you get an error message when exporting, it's probably due to a problem in your data (duplicate field names, etc.). To see a detailed report of any errors in your data, start MMP, create a new plan or open the plan you're trying to update, then click Import dBASE Field Data File on MMP's Tools dialog's Import tab, then navigate to your farm project folder and select the fields.dbf file. MMP will display its Import Wizard, where you can click View Errors to see the error report.
• If MMP Tools finds a Toolkit XML file (.consplan.xml extension) in the same folder and with the same name as the MMP plan file, it will also export name and address data to the MMP plan file.
• See the note below about non-contiguous fields for information about exporting multiple MapWindow projects to the same MMP plan.
• If your soil survey spans parts of more than one county, MMP Tools may not select the correct county when it creates the MMP plan since it only knows the survey code, not the county. If this happens, select the correct county in MMP and save the plan, then export again using Update MMP Plan.

Using MapWindow data in other programs

• You can also import a MapWindow farm project's field data into the WinMax recordkeeping software (www.agry.purdue.edu/max) by choosing WinMax's File | Import Data | Update Project From dBASE File command, then navigating to the farm project's folder and selecting the fields.dbf file.

15. Exporting Fields and Practices to XML

1. Choose MMP Tools | Export | Fields and Practices to XML File to create a new XML file (.consplan.xml extension).
2. Enter the name to use for the XML file.
3. MMP Tools will export each field and its conservation practices in a format that can be used by MMP when generating a CNMP document if you don't have a Toolkit XML file.

16. Using USGS Aerial Photos and Elevation Data

In many states you'll be able to clip recent, high-resolution, color images. Here are some brief instructions on how to clip a photo on the USGS site:

1. Zoom in on the area of interest, similar to the way you zoom in with the Missouri clipper app.
2. On the right, under Display, you can expand Places (Names) and check GNIS Cities (with Labels) to see town and city names.
3. Also under Display, you can expand Orthoimagery and check the NAIP 1m image to display a color aerial photo.
4. When you've zoomed in to the area that you want to clip, switch from Display to Download.
5. Under Download, uncheck the default 1" NED Elevation data. If you want to generate a contour lines layer, check the 1/3" NED Elevation data.
6. Also under Download, expand Orthoimagery and check the NAIP 1m image.
7. On the left, under Downloads, click the Define Rectangular Download Area tool and draw a rectangle around the area you want to clip.
8. When the Request Summary Page is displayed, click the Download button for your clipped image or elevation data. (Note that if the image you selected earlier is not available for your area, this will be indicated here - you can then close the window and select a different image under Download.)
9. After a minute or two, you'll be prompted to save the download .zip file to your local computer.

1. Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer | Aerial Photo and select the .zip file. MMP Tools will extract the .tif and .tfw files from the .zip file, then copy them to your farm project's folder and add the image to the project.
2. If your farm project already has an aerial photo, you can uncheck or remove it under Data Layers.

1. Choose MMP Tools | Add Layer | Contour Lines Layer and select the .zip file. MMP Tools will extract the elevation data files from the .zip file, then create a contour lines layer and add it to the project.
2. If you want to label the contour lines, choose MMP Tools | Relabel Layer.

17. Tips and Tricks

Mapping non-contiguous fields

Tip: If you create multiple MapWindow farm projects for a single operation, you can still export the fields from all projects to a single MMP plan. Use MMP Tools | Export | Create MMP Plan with the first project to add its fields to a new plan. With the other projects, use MMP Tools | Export | Update MMP Plan, selecting the MMP plan file created for the first project, to add their fields to the same plan. Just be sure that the fields are uniquely named across all of the operation's farm projects.

Drawing a pivot field

1. Draw the entire field as a rectangle and enter the ID for the "field" that contains just the pivot corners (e.g., "Corners").
2. Add a dummy polygon practice layer.
3. Use the "Add regular shape" button to add a dummy practice polygon. Select Circle and enter the pivot radius (currently radius must be in meters), then click on the middle of the rectangular field's first label line. Enter a dummy name for the practice and 0 for the practice code and setback.
4. Close the regular shape dialog.
5. Remove the dummy practice layer and delete its underlying shapefile.
6. Select the fields layer and use the "Add regular shape" button to add the pivot field. Select Circle and enter the same pivot radius as before and click on same place as before. Enter the field ID (e.g., "Pivot").
7. Close the regular shape dialog.
8. Tip: MapWindow's Labeler centers field labels inside their fields. With a pivot field and its corners field, the labels may overlap. To hide the corners field's label, blank out the FIELD_LBL and ACRES_LBL values for the corners field in MapWindow's Attribute Table Editor, then relabel the fields.

Drawing a field with a "hole"

1. Draw the hole area or inside field first. If you want the hole area to be labeled on the map, but it's not a field, consider drawing it as a feature instead of as a field.
2. Draw the outside field around the first field.
3. If you drew the hole area as a field, but it's not, you can delete it by selecting it (arrow on toolbar), then clicking the Remove Shape button (-shp on toolbar).

Drawing a filter strip with a specified width

1. Turn on topo map display.
2. Add a dummy line feature layer.
3. Add a dummy feature and trace the topo's blue line, entering a setback equal to the filter strip width (this assumes that the filter strip is on both sides of the blue line water if it runs through field).
4. Add a polygon practice layer.
5. Add a practice and trace the dummy feature's setback polygon, entering a name for the practice (e.g., Filter Strip), its practice code (e.g., 393), and 0 for setback.
6. Remove the dummy feature layer and the dummy feature's setback polygon. Delete the dummy feature layer's underlying shapefile.

Viewing additional soils data

• Select the soils layer under Data Layers.
• Make sure the soils layer is visible.
• Click the Select button (arrow) on the toolbar, then click on a soil to select it.
• Click the Attribute Table Editor button on the toolbar.
• In the Attribute Table Editor, the soil you selected will be highlighted. Look at the MUNAME, SLOPEGRAD and FLODFREQ columns for useful information about the selected soil.

Shapefiles and image files

• Don't edit anything in the soil shapefile!
• Don't edit any shapefile's MWShapeId column!
• Don't edit any column that MMP Tools calculates. This includes the ACRES, SPRD_ACRE, and SOIL columns in the fields layer.
• Don't rename the underlying shapefiles (fields.shp, setbacks.shp, etc.). To change the layer's legend name, right-click on the layer under Data Layers and choose Properties, then enter the new name to use under Display Name.

Managing your projects

• Duplicate a Project - if you're about to make changes to a project that you might regret, first make a duplicate of the project's folder.
• Rename a Project - if you don't like the name you gave your project file, or if you want your project file's name to match its folder.
• Archive a Project - zip up a project's files for easy backup or transfer to a different computer.
• Restore an Archived Project - unzip an archived project and open it in MapWindow.

Last updated: Jan. 14, 2009

Copyright © 2008-2009 Purdue Research Foundation.