Task Maps

Draw and save polygon shapes on a live map to mark zones tied to your command tasks.

Task Maps is a full-screen mapping tool for sketching areas of interest, such as a hot zone, a staging area, or a search grid, directly on the incident map. You name the shape first, drop points by tapping, and the app fills the enclosed area in your chosen color. Saved shapes stay on the map and raise a notification on your phone when you cross into or out of them.

Overview

Control	What it does	Available when
Menu button	Opens a short dropdown whose only entry is Polygon	Always
Polygon	Opens the Add New Polygon dialog so you can name and style the shape before drawing	Always
Map area	The live map with your position, saved shapes, and their name labels	Always
Undo	Removes the point you placed most recently and redraws the shape	While drawing
Save	Stores the shape on this device and redraws it as a saved shape	While drawing
Clear	Throws away the shape you are drawing without saving it	While drawing
Back	Leaves Task Maps	Always

info

Undo, Save, and Clear are hidden until you confirm the Add New Polygon dialog, and they hide again the moment you tap Save or Clear. To draw a second shape, open the Menu and choose Polygon again.

The Add New Polygon dialog

Field	What it sets	Notes
Name	The label drawn at the centre of the shape, and the name used in entry and exit alerts	Give it a name you will recognize in a notification, such as Hot Zone
Color	The outline dot color and the fill color	Pick from the color choices in the dialog
Opacity slider	How solid the fill is	Slide toward transparent so you can still read the map underneath

Getting Here

1. Open an incident and switch to the Command view.
2. Open the command tools menu.
3. Choose Task Maps.
4. Allow location access if you are prompted. Without it the map cannot centre on you and cannot raise entry or exit alerts.

note

The map loads the map style configured for your organization. If no style is set it falls back to the standard street map. A blue puck marks your own position once location updates start arriving.

Draw a New Polygon

1. Tap the Menu button, then choose Polygon.
2. In the Add New Polygon dialog, type a name, choose a color, and set the opacity with the slider. Confirm the dialog.
3. The Undo, Save, and Clear buttons appear and the map starts accepting taps.
4. Tap the map to drop each corner of the area. Every tap places a dot in your chosen color with a white ring around it.
5. Once you have placed three points the app fills the enclosed area and writes the shape's name in the middle of it. Keep tapping to extend the outline.

tip

Place your points in order around the edge of the area, the way you would walk the perimeter. The shape is filled by joining the points in the order you tapped them, so hopping back and forth across the area produces a crossed-over shape.

caution

The map re-centres on your own position every time your location updates. If you pan away to draw a distant area, the map may pull back to you. Zoom and draw in short passes, or stand closer to the area you are marking.

Correct and Save

1. If a point is in the wrong place, tap Undo. The most recent point is removed and the shape is redrawn without it.
2. Tap Undo repeatedly to walk back several points. With fewer than three points left the fill disappears, though the remaining dots stay on the map.
3. To start over, tap Clear. The dots, fill, and label are removed and the drawing buttons hide, so open Menu then Polygon again to begin a new shape.
4. When the outline is right, tap Save. The shape is stored on this device, redrawn as a saved shape, and the drawing buttons hide.

caution

Save with only one or two points and the shape is recorded but nothing appears on the map, because a filled area needs at least three points. If a shape you saved is missing, this is usually why. Draw it again with three or more points.

Saved Shapes and Entry Alerts

1. Saved shapes reload automatically every time you open Task Maps, each drawn in its own color with its name at the centre.
2. While Task Maps is open, each location update is checked against every saved shape.
3. Crossing into a shape raises a notification titled Alert reading You are enter in [name] polygon.
4. Leaving a shape raises a notification titled Alert reading You are out of [name] polygon.

Situation	What happens
You walk into a saved shape with Task Maps open	Entry alert
You walk out of a saved shape with Task Maps open	Exit alert
You are already standing inside a shape when you open Task Maps	No alert until you leave and come back in
Location permission is denied	No alerts at all, and the map does not centre on you
You leave Task Maps	Checking stops until you open the screen again

caution

These alerts are not a substitute for a safety officer or an accountability system. They only fire while Task Maps is open on this device and location updates are arriving, and there is a short delay between crossing a boundary and the notification appearing.

Other Things You Can Do on the Map

Action	Result
Press and hold anywhere on the map	Shows the coordinates of the point you pressed
Tap a shape's name label	Selects the label; tap its close control to hide that label
Tap Back	Cancels any requests still in flight and leaves the screen. On an iPad held in landscape you return to the Commands view rather than the previous screen.

How This Connects

Shapes drawn here are saved in this device's own storage, filed under your current organization and marked as task polygons. That has a few practical consequences worth knowing:

• The shapes are yours, on this phone or tablet. Another responder on the same incident does not see them in their copy of Task Maps.
• Because they are stored locally, they survive losing signal. You can draw, save, and get entry and exit alerts with no connection at all, so long as the device still has a location fix.
• Shapes are flagged for upload when they are saved, so they can be carried up to the server once the app has a connection.
• Saved shapes are listed and toggled on and off from Map Shapes & Objects List, which also covers markers and freehand drawings made from the map. Turning a shape off there hides it on the map.
• The map style, and therefore how the base map looks, comes from your organization's settings and is shared with the Maps tab.
• The zones you draw are a visual aid on the map. They are not linked to a specific task record, so name them to match the task they support, and record the assignment itself in Tasks & Units.

Troubleshooting

If this happens	What to do
The Undo, Save, and Clear buttons are missing	Open Menu, choose Polygon, and confirm the dialog. The buttons only appear once a shape is started.
Tapping the map does nothing	You are not in drawing mode. Start a shape from Menu then Polygon.
No fill appears, only dots	A filled area needs three or more points. Keep tapping until the outline is closed.
A shape you saved is not on the map	It probably had fewer than three points. Draw it again with at least three.
The map keeps jumping back to your position	Each location update re-centres the map. Work in short passes, or move closer to the area you are drawing.
The map is blank or grey	The base map needs a connection the first time an area is loaded. Reconnect and reopen Task Maps.
You get no entry or exit alerts	Check that location access is allowed for the app, that notifications are allowed, and that Task Maps is open. No alert fires if you were already inside the shape when the screen opened.
The shape is too solid to see the map	Redraw it with the opacity slider set lower. Saved shapes keep the opacity they were created with.

Related Pages

• Map Shapes & Objects List
• Maps Tab
• Tasks & Units
• Weather Forecast

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