Showing directions using marker rotation in a map chart

Some marker shapes, for example arrows, indicate directions. If you, in a map chart marker layer, rotate such markers, you can visualize directions of motions. What you need is a column that contains values that can be interpreted as degrees.

About this task

The rotation of the markers can be made clockwise or counter-clockwise. A full rotation is 360 degrees, and a value of 361 is interpreted as 1 degree.

Before you begin

A map chart with a marker layer has been created.

Procedure

Open the visualization properties for the map chart.
If you do not see the properties or settings for the marker layer of interest, select the marker layer in the visualization properties. This is done slightly different depending on which client you use and from where you open the properties.
In the visualization properties panel, you click the layer of interest under the top-level visualization title.
In the Appearance tab of the visualization properties panel for the layer, locate Shape and select a marker suitable for showing direction.

(In the visualization properties dialog of the installed client, or in the visualization properties popover of the web client, Shape is a separate section where you can change the shape from the palette directly.)
Next, locate the Rotate by section on the Configuration tab of the visualization properties panel (or the Rotation section in the dialog/popover).
Select the column and, if applicable, which type of aggregated value to use for defining how many degrees the markers should be rotated.
Select rotation direction; Clockwise or Counter-clockwise.

Results

The markers in the marker layer are rotated to indicate different directions.

Map chart marker layer showing wind direction

The data table below lists wind speed and wind direction, for a number of locations. The wind directions are expressed in degrees.

The markers in the marker layer below are used to show the direction of the wind at each location (and the marker sizes reflect the wind speed).

If the selected marker shape is Arrow pointing upwards , then, a 90 degree clockwise rotation of this marker shape will be shown as Arrow pointing to the right . If you instead select as the marker shape to use, a 90 degree clockwise rotation would be shown as . No markers are shown for null values.

How many degrees each marker should be rotated is defined by the selected column. The rotation direction in this example is set to clockwise. No markers are shown for null values.