Patent ID: 7187389

Claim:
A method of displaying layered data, said method comprising: selecting one or more objects to be displayed in a plurality of layers; identifying a plurality of non-spatially distinguishable display attributes, wherein one or more of the non-spatially distinguishable display attributes corresponds to each of the layers; matching each of the objects to one of the layers; applying the non-spatiafly distinguishable display attributes corresponding to the layer for each of the matched objects; determining a layer order for the plurality of layers, wherein the layer order determines a display emphasis corresponding to the objects from the plurality of objects in the corresponding layers; and displaying the objects with the applied non-spatially distinguishable display attributes based upon the determination, wherein the objects in a first layer from the plurality of layers are visually distinguished from the objects in the other plurality of layers based upon the non-spatially distinguishable display attributes of the first layer.