The Autodesk MapGuide Viewer transforms your browser into a map viewer which works over the Internet.  The advantages of this system are its speed and functionality.  Only the information required to produce the map in the browser's view window is downloaded, not the entire dataset.  Each item, such as a contour line, claim polygon or MINFILE point, has information associated with it or is linked to a large database, allowing access to vast amounts of information simply by selecting the object on the map.

The vector nature of the data allows the screen display to be cut and pasted into graphics programs such as PowerPoint or CorelDraw.  The graphic may then be ungrouped and enhanced for high quality map products.  The Viewer allows you to select a theme which is then downloaded from regularly updated datasets.  As each theme is selected, different layers are added to the map.  These layers can be turned on or off depending on the information that is required.  As you ZOOM into an area, more themes are available and the detail increases.

MapGuide Viewer Features & Functionality
Distributed to end-users free of charge, the Viewer is much more than its name implies: it enables non-technical users to interact with simple or complex maps; collapse or expand themed layers; make queries; create dynamic buffering zones; run custom reports based on selected objects; print to scale; and much more. The MapGuide Viewer is under 2MB in size.

For a demonstration of how to use the MapGuide Viewer, download and install the latest version of the MapGuide Viewer, then go to the Autodesk MapGuide demonstration site, click one of the map links, and follow the screen prompts to start a demo tutorial.

Organization of Data into Layers
The data is organized into layers. Layers are like transparencies; each contains different drawings, but when you stack them together, you see all of them at once as a single map. For example, there might be one layer that contains roads, another that contains rivers, and another that contains railways. When you turn all of the layers on, what would appear is a single map with all of the data, but if you wanted to see just the railways and rivers, you could turn the roads layer off and see just the rivers and railways. Additionally, because the data is on separate layers, you can easily select the objects you want from a specific layer without selecting overlapping objects from the other layers.  The organization of map data into layers improves your ability to work with your data while still displaying the data as a single map.

Autodesk MapGuide Viewers and Requirements
Autodesk provides three different versions of the Autodesk MapGuide Viewer. Depending on which Web browser you are using, download one of the following versions: