Patent ID: 8085268

Claim:
A method for drawing a geodetic polygon on a map, the method comprising: maintaining data that represents a geodetic polygon; wherein the data comprises an ordered set of geographic coordinates representing adjacent vertices along a perimeter of the geodetic polygon; transforming the set of geographic coordinates into a set of planar coordinates representing vertices of a planar polygon; wherein transforming the set of geographic coordinates into the set of planar coordinates includes proceeding through the set of geographic coordinates in a manner that represents a counter clockwise or clockwise traversal along the perimeter of the geodetic polygon until each geographic coordinate of the set of geographic coordinates is transformed to a corresponding planar coordinate; wherein proceeding through the set of geographic coordinates includes: transforming a first geographic coordinate of the set of geographic coordinates corresponding to a first vertex of the geodetic polygon to a first planar coordinate, transforming a second geographic coordinate of the set of geographic coordinates corresponding to a second vertex of the geodetic polygon to a second planar coordinate, wherein the first vertex and the second vertex are adjacent vertices according to the order of the set of geographic coordinates, calculating a distance along a horizontal axis of a two-dimensional plane between the first planar coordinate and the second planar coordinate, and determining that the geodetic polygon straddles a splitting meridian by determining that said distance is greater than one-half a horizontal extent of the map along the horizontal axis of the two-dimensional plane; where the geodetic polygon straddles the splitting meridian: dividing the planar polygon into a plurality of sub-figures; shifting at least one sub-figure of the plurality of sub-figures along the horizontal axis of the two-dimensional plane to produce a shifted sub-figure; and causing the shifted sub-figure to be displayed on the map concurrently with at least one other sub-figure of the plurality of sub-figures that was not shifted; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.