Map features

You may want to display trees, benches, fire hydrants and other objects visually on your CIMS map. This is what map features are for! CIMS also offers the ability to place temporary map markers.

Add a map feature

Move your map so that it is zoomed in and roughly centered on the area where you want to add a map feature.
In the top navigation bar, click "Utilities". From the dropdown, click "New map feature".
Your default map feature shape will appear on the map. Use the options in the right-hand flyout to change the feature shape, color, size and rotation. Change the position of the map feature using controls in the right-hand flyout or simply clicking on the map. Select a feature type from the dropdown, then click "Save".
- Don't see the feature type you'd like to use as an option in the dropdown? Click the navy plus button to the right of the dropdown to open a popup that will allow you to add a new feature type.

Your map feature has been saved to the database and will appear on your map!

To add a new map feature, click "Map features" from the navigation bar, then "New map feature".
Customize your map feature, including changing the color, shape, size, position and rotation. Choose a type (in the above case, it's a tree), then click "Save".
Your map feature will appear as a solid shape on your map! In this case, the tree shape helps us understand why two of our spaces are marked as restricted.

Edit a map feature

To edit a map feature, first click on it on the map to load its information in the right-hand flyout.

Edit a feature's shape, including its color, position and rotation, by clicking the navy "Edit feature shape" button near the top of the flyout. Edit other fields associated with the map feature by clicking on the fields in question, making your changes, and clicking "Update".

Delete a map feature

To delete a map feature, first click on it on the map to load its information in the right-hand flyout. Click the red "Remove" button, then click "Ok" to confirm. The map feature will shortly disappear from your map.

Add media

This map feature has media attached to it, namely, a photo of the tree it represents.

Just like with spaces, burials, markers and more, you can choose to add media to a map feature. Click on the map feature on your map to load its information in the right-hand flyout. Scroll down to the Feature media section and click the navy "Add media" button. Upload a file or use your device's camera to take an image, then click "Save".

Vegetation options

If your cemetery contains trees or other vegetation, you can choose to categorize those plants by their species name and record such details as the planting date and physical measurements. This is done in CIMS using map features assigned a "vegetation" type.

Enabling vegetation

If your cemetery doesn't have any map feature types categorized as vegetation, you need to change those types:

Open up the dropdown options for map feature types. Read this section of our documentation on dropdowns to learn how to access the dropdown options.
Find the relevant dropdown option you want to categorize as vegetation. Click the "vegetation" checkbox next to it, then the green "update" button.
Alternatively, add any new dropdown options you want, save them, then mark them as vegetation by following step 2.

Marking a map feature as vegetation

Whether you're adding a new map feature or making an existing map feature vegetation, the process is the same:

Choose a "type" for your map feature that is categorized as vegetation. In the dropdown, these types will be bolded and green. If none of your options appear so, follow the steps above to categorize one or more map feature types as vegetation.
Options will appear below the type pertaining specifically to vegetation. You can choose to track the common name, species, planting date, measurements and more.
Click "Save" if a new map feature or "Update" if an existing to save your changes.

Finding vegetation

All map features are clickable. Click on a map feature to see its details and edit them.

For a list of all vegetation map features, open the left-hand flyout and use the "Search" tab. Specify a search type of "Map features". Click the checkbox "All tree/vegetation" and click "Search". A list of all map features whose type is categorized as vegetation will appear.

Not sure where the "Search" tab is? Read our page on searching.

To categorize a map feature type as vegetation, click the "Vegetation" checkbox and then "Update".
Assign a map feature one of your vegetation map feature types to make the "Tree/vegetation" options appear.
For a list of all vegetation map features, use the "Search" tab of the left-hand flyout, the type "Map features", click the checkbox "All tree/vegetation", then click "Search".

Default map feature color

In the "Map shapes" tab, change the "Default color setting" to the color you want your map features to default to. Click "Update cemetery settings" to save your change.

You can set a default color for your map features. This is especially useful if you're adding a lot of the same kind of map feature to your map at once, like a grove of green trees, or black utility boxes.

First, open the cemetery settings popup by clicking on the name of your cemetery in the upper-left corner of CIMS, then click "Cemetery settings". In this popup, click the "Map shapes" tab at the top, then scroll down to the "Feature shapes" section. Find the "Default color setting" and click the square of color next to it. This opens the color picker popup; choose the color you want, then click outside the color picker to close it. To save your default map feature color, click "Update cemetery settings". Your webpage will refresh and new map features will default to the color you chose.

Temporary map markers

Temporary map markers allow you to place markers that disappear the next time you refresh your webpage. These markers appear only to you, not to others who may be using CIMS at the same time on their own devices. Temporary map markers are useful when saving or emailing screenshots of CIMS.

Follow these steps to place and edit a temporary map marker:

Click "Utilities" in the top navigation bar, then "Add Temporary Map Marker".
A map marker will appear in the middle of your screen. Click and drag on its lower point to move it.
The latitude and longitude of the marker can be copied to your device's clipboard
Notes may be added in the text box below the latitude and longitude.
To remove a marker, click the "X" in the top-right corner.
From here, you may want to take a screenshot of your temporary map markers, or use the built-in feature to print or email screenshots.

First, click "Add temporary map marker".
To move the marker, click and drag the lower triangular part of the marker.
Copy the latitude and longitude using the button that looks like two pieces of paper.
Add an optional note.
Remove the marker by clicking the "X" button.