Show All Answers

1. How can I search for a property by address?

Click in the text field at the top left of your watershed viewer window where it says "Find address or place".  Type the FULL address in this text field and hit "Enter".  An address point will appear on the map with a dialog box.

2. How can I zoom to my current location?

Use the My Location button at the upper left of your watershed viewer window– this will take you back to a view where your current location is centered in the map.  You will be prompted to allow the browser to use your location, select Yes.

3. How can I get back to the map of Whatcom County?

If you have zoomed out too far, or lost your place in the map, you can easily get back to the default extent (amount of zoom in or out) by selecting the Home button.  This will snap you back to a map that is centered on Whatcom County.

4. How do I adjust layers visibility and drawing order?

All layer adjustment will be done through the Layer tool located on the toolbar.

1. Select one of the Layer Lists
2. Click the triangle to the left of the layer name to view the symbols for that item
3. Toggle the check box to turn on and off
4. Additional options are presented to the right, when the (...) icon to the right of the layer name is selected:
   • Set transparency
   • Show labels
   • Move layer up or down on the list, which also changes the display order on the map
   • Show item details

5. How do I measure distance or area?

1. Click the Measure icon (ruler) in the upper left to open the Measure window
2. Click the shape symbol to the left for area, the opposing arrows symbol in the middle for distance, or the square symbol to the right for location
3. Once chosen, a dropdown to the right will provide units-of-measurement options. Click on the pull down option to the right of the units of measurement to change units.
4. Click on your starting point, then click for additional points. Double click to select end point. By holding down control while drawing or measuring, you can snap to parcel lines or other layers.

6. How can I add my own text and markup to a map?

Both text and markup are available in the Draw window.  Simply open and select what color/shape you’d like to draw with, and scroll down for advanced options.

1. Select the Draw tool
2. In the popup window, select shapes, text or lines.
3. Once you select a shape or line, additional choices will appear which enable you to change the color, width and transparency of the lines of the shape (etc).

7. How do I print a map?

1. Use the Zoom Tool to zoom to the area of interestNote: The map will clip to the center of what is visible in the web browser, see image below for example.
2. Select the layers you wish to include from the Layer Lists. Use the Draw toolset to create arrows or highlights if desired.
3. Click on the print icon
4. In the print options window, create a Title for your Map or use the default name in the Map Title field
5. Select common layout sizes using the pulldown option
6. Select the Format “Image” type you want to use (example - PDF, JPG, etc)
7. Click print.  The map will appear in as a clickable file you can save to your computer or device.
8. The map will appear in the browser with title, scale etc.  To save the map, click the download button in the top right corner of the browser

Advanced Options: Select Advanced options and put in a mapping scale and other options you can check on/off.  You can also specify units you want to use for your map.

8. Why is the map responding slowly?

We are always monitoring for performance as more and more users discover the Watershed Viewer.  The app may occasionally experience slowness for a variety of reasons.  Here are a few:

• You are zoomed out in an area where there is a lot of map features (i.e. parcels) and you use the pan tool to pan to a new area.
• You are zoomed out when using the popup tool, which is delayed by having to draw the map features first. 

To improve performance, you can: 

• Reduce the number of layers turned on.
• Use search by address to get to your desired location.
• Confirm that you do not have more than one application session open at a time.
• Refresh the browser page if you encounter consistent slowness.