Articles

Changing the Point Angle using Expressions and Attribute Values in MAPublisher

BlogNovember 29, 2010

Here we have placed point symbols for a MAP Point layer. However, we want to change the point angle using the Attribute values.

Below is the attribute table for the point data shown above. The field directionAngle is the field containing the symbol rotation value. With MAPublisher, it’s possible to assign this value to every symbol in this layer.

Open the Edit Schema dialog box from the MAP Attribute panel. Find the field called #Rotation from the attribute field list. This #Rotation field is hidden/invisible by default. Click the Visible option to enable it and click OK.

In the MAP Attributes panel, you can see that the #Rotation field shown. The values in this field is 0.00 degree for every point in the layer. We’ll assign the angle value from the directionAngle field to the #Rotation value .

Open the Apply Expression dialog box from the MAP Attributes panel. Enter the column name directionAngle for the Expression and ensure that the value will be applied to the field #Rotation.

Every value from the directionAngle field is now inherited by the #Rotation field.

As a result, the rotation angle is now applied to every point.

The origin of the rotation is at each point’s registration point. With Adobe Illustrator CS4 and earlier, the registration point is set at the centre of the point symbol. With Adobe Illustrator CS5, the registration point can be flexibly placed. This will be discussed with some examples in a later topic. Stay tuned!

Creating a Custom Coordinate System from a Predefined Coordinate System

BlogOctober 13, 2010

When transforming a world map in a geodetic system (such as WGS84) to a predefined projection (such as Robinson) using MAPublisher, the central meridian of the predefined projection should be set to 0 degree longitude as shown below.

Image 1: world map in WGS84

Image 2: world map in a predefined Robinson Projection

However, you might want to have a map with a different region centred on your map. For example, Image 3 below shows a world map with a part of Asia centred. In this case, the central meridian was set to 160 degrees East.

Image 3: world map in a custom Robinson Projection with a central meridian value set to 160 degree East

Today we’ll introduce how to create a custom coordinate system by modifying a predefined coordinate system. We’ll use an example using a GIS dataset world.mif available in the MAPublisher Tutorial folder. We are going to transform a world map to a custom central meridian value with the Robinson projection.

Step 0 : import the “world.mif” file from MAPublisher tutorial folder.

Step 1 : Open the MAP View Editor window from the MAP Views panel.

In the MAP View Editor window, you can see that the scale of the map, position of the map extent with respect to the current document extent, and most importantly the current coordinate system assigned to the MAP View.

We are going to transform the MAP View from WGS84 to the Robinson projection with a custom central meridian value. Check the “Perform cordinate System Transformation option.

Click the Specify button under the “Perform Coordinate System Transformation” section. It will open the “Specify Destination Coordinate System” dialog box.

Step 2: Creating a custom coordinate system with the Robinson projection

We are going to create a custom coordinate system based on the Robinson projection by modifying the existing Robinson projection. Find the existing Robinson projection from the list.

On the left side, navigate to Coordinate system > Projected > World. Highlight the folder “World”. You will see the list of the predefined coordinate systems available on the right side of the window. Find the “Robinson” and highlight it.

Once the predefined Robinson projection is highlighted, click the Copy button at the bottom. It will duplicate the existing coordinate system and will open the “Projected Coordinate System Editor” dialog box for the duplicated coordinate system.

In the Projected Coordinate System Editor dialog box, there are two tabs: Identification and Definition. In the Identification tab, enter a new name for this customer coordinate system. This name will be used when you are searching the object.

Click the Definition tab. Change the value of central_meridian from 0 (default) to 160. Click OK to apply this new setting. You have just made a custom coordinate system based on the existing Robinson projection.

Step 3: Complete the Transformation

Under the “Perform Coordinate System Transformation”, the new custom coordinate system just created is indicated. Now you are ready to transform your map.

Now the world map is successfully transformed into the custom coordinate system (Robinson with the central meridian set to 160 degree East).

You might want to take a look at this other blog about the new transformation engine implemented in MAPublisher 8.3.

Transforming an image into a custom coordinate system with Geographic Imager

You can use the same approach to transform your image into a custom coordinate system.

First, we open a world image that has a WGS84 coordinate system.

Click the Transform button in the Geographic Imager main panel. It will open the Transform dialog box.

Click the Specify button. Now repeat Step 2 illustrated above to create a custom coordinate system. Once you select the custom coordinate system in the “Specify Coordinate System” dialog box, it will be indicated in the Transformation dialog box (in the example below, a custom coordinate system “Robinson cm @ 160 degree East” is selected as a destination coordinate system).

As soon as you click the Transform button, the transformation process will start. Once the transformation process is completed, the Geographic Imager main panel will indicate the new custom coordinate system name.

Working with Custom Highway Shield Symbols and Label Features

BlogAugust 19, 2010

MAPublisher offers a variety of labelling options, ranging from the MAP Tagger tool used for hand labelling single pieces of art, the Label Features tool for automatic attribute labelling, and MAPublisher LabelPro™, a separately licensed advanced labelling engine.

MAPublisher LabelPro ships with nearly 100 highway shields from across North America into which attribute labels can be easily placed. Although LabelPro does not support adding custom symbols to its existing symbols library, the following instructions outline a manual method for adding a custom highway shield to your map, along with placing text on to this shield.

First we must setup our custom shield. This can be drawn in Adobe Illustrator, or produced from a pre-existing image brought into Illustrator using the File > Place menu option. For this exercise I have taken a highway shield I found online from York Region Ontario, and using Adobe Photoshop removed the highway number from the shield.

Once the shield is drawn and sized appropriately and placed in Illustrator, simply use the Selection Tool to drag the symbol into the Adobe Illustrator Symbols panel. Be sure to name the symbol, as you will need to access the symbol from a list later on; I named mine “York_Shield”

Our next step is to produce our feature labels. Using the Label Features tool, choose to label with the “Don’t follow line, create point text” option selected. Once the labels are placed on the map, use the Adobe Layers panel to select the labels and use the Paragraph panel or the Control Toolbar to centre justify the labels. This step is important for easily lining up our shields with the labels.

We now need to create a point layer with a point corresponding to each label. This is easily done by using the MAP Attribute panel option menu to “Export Attributes..” of our newly created Feature Labels MAP Text Layer. Be sure to choose export all attributes under Options: Scope, and to check “Include column names on first line” as we will be using the hidden MAPX and MAPY attribute columns when importing this data back into the map as point data.

Next, use the MAPublisher Simple Import tool to add the newly created .csv file of referenced attribute information. When prompted by the Settings dialog, choose the MAPX column as the column containng X coordinates, and MAPY for Y coordinates. Once the data is imported, if it has not been added to the MAP View containing your line and text layers, add it, and specify the coordinate system if necessary.

With the imported point data selected, open the MAP Attribute panel and right click a column heading to access the Show/Hide Columns > Show All option. double click the #Style column and change the style to your shield symbol. Use the Apply Expression tool in the option menu to apply the symbol to every item at once.

Alternately, a MAP Stylesheet can be built to apply the symbol only to art with a specific range of attributes. In the Adobe layers panel move your label layer above your symbol layer.

If text and symbol do not line up as desired, the symbol geometry will need to be altered. If you are using CS5, doubble click the shield in the symbol panel to enter isolation mode, here you can drag the symbol to respecify the anchor point so that your symbol lines up as you would like it. If you are using CS3 or CS4, you will need to add some invisible art (no stroke/no fill) just below or above the symbol to adjust its extents, and where exactly the symbol’s centre point is located. As well, symbol and text rotation can be edited globally by changing the #Rotation attribute in the MAP Attributes panel.

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 3 – Applying Terrain Shader to multiple DEM files

BlogAugust 17, 2010

If your workflow involves Terrain Shader, specifying a DEM schema is an important step, especially when dealing with mulitple DEM files.

When importing a single DEM file, Geographic Imager converts elevation values to gray scale values. For example, if the elevation range in your DEM file is between 0 and 2500 meters and the “Auto-stretched” option is selected, this range will be converted to the Adobe Photoshop gray scale range between black and white. As shown below, the black color is assigned to the lowest elevation value (0 meter) while the white color is assigned to the highest elevation value (2500 meters). For elevation values between 0 and 2500, Geographic Imager calculates and converts them into gray scale.

In this example, we’ll use six DEM files of one geographic region. Many datasets are distributed as tiled DEM files. Each of them is next to each other and the goal is to create a colorized DEM image from those six files.

When dealing with multiple DEM files, you will need to consider the elevation range of the each DEM file. In other words, the elevation range in each DEM file will be slightly different.

Option 1: Using the “Auto-Stretched” option for multiple DEM files

When importing multiple DEM images and using the “Auto-stretched” option, click “Apply to All”…

Every one of the DEM images will be converted to the gray scale between black and white.

As a result, you can get the maximum contrast in each image. However, you will not be able to mosaic or apply Terrain Shader to those six images because each DEM has slight differences in elevation and an all encompassing schema like the”Auto-stretched” option will not work.

Option 2: Creating a DEM schema by specifying a range

In order to apply Terrain Shader to multiple DEM files, you will need to assign one DEM schema to each DEM image you would like to share the same schema.

Step 1: Identify the elevation range amongst multiple DEM files

Explore the DEM files and find out what the elevation range is for each one. Then note which are the lowest and highest values among all DEMs. For this example, the lowest elevation is 0 m and the highest is 3,231 meters.

Step 2: Create a new DEM schema for your dataset

Choose File > Open and select multiple DEM files. Once the Import DEM file dialog box is open, click the Add button to open the “Edit DEM Schema” dialog box.

Create a new Schema name (e.g. “my study area”). Simply enter the lowest and highest elevation value found in Step 1.

Step 3: Apply the DEM schema to your datasets

When you’ve created a new DEM schema, it will be available in the “Select Schema” drop-down list. Choose the new schema and click “Apply to All”. This selected schema will be applied to all the DEM files being imported.

After the import process is completed, the images are ready for Terrain Shader.

When one of the imported DEM file is the active document, click the “DEM” tab in the Geographic Imager panel. It shows the DEM schema name, the DEM value range, and the actual elevation value available in the currently active document. Click the “Calculate” button if you do not see the statistics (actual elevation value range of the active document).

Step 4: Apply Terrain Shader to your DEM files

Since each DEM has a schema, a mosaic can be perfomed and then Terrain Shader can be applied to the mosaicked iamge.

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 1

BlogAugust 11, 2010

The upcoming release of Geographic Imager 3.2 introduces a new feature called Terrain Shader, used to apply color gradients and shaded relief to imported DEM images. Color gradients can be exported so that you can use them for other images or share them with other people.

You might want to take a look at our brief video about the Geographic Imager Terrain Shader on our Avenza YouTube channel.

In this blog, I’ll show you a quick workflow with Terrain Shader using one of the files from the Geographic Imager tutorial folder.

1) Open the DEM file called Yukon Water.dem from the Geographic Imager Tutorial Folder in Adobe Photoshop. Geographic Imager will automatically detect the file type so that you will see the “Import DEM File” dialog box(below).

When your workflow involves Terrain Shader, it is important to select an appropriate schema in the Import DEM file dialog box. For now, we’ll use the option “Auto-stretched”. We’ll return to this dialog box when we talk about an advanced use of Terrain Shader feature in another blog.

After the DEM file is successfully imported, you will see the geospatial information, the DEM schema and the value range information in the Geographic Imager panel. The panel has been redesigned and improved for version 3.2 (We think it works really well!)

2) Click the Terrain Shader button.

In the Terrain Shader dialog box, on the left side, you can see the elevation range of the DEM file. There is a large preview image at the centre of the dialog box.

3) Click the check box beside “Apply Color Map” to apply a color gradient to the DEM image.

You can select one gradient from the preset gradients from the dropdown menu. Or you can edit the color gradient form the existing one. Click the pencil icon next to the preset dropdown menu. In the Edit Color Map dialog box, you can modify the gradient scheme. You can change colors, add ramps, adjust the ramp position, ….etc.

4) Click OK to apply the modication.

5) Another great function with the Terrain Shader is to apply the shaded relief effect at the same time. Click the check box beside “Applly Shaded Relief”.

You can adjust the angle of the source light and the intensity of the contrast. You can see how the settings affect the DEM image in the preview.

6) The DEM is stylized with a color gradient and a shaded relief effect.

Stay tuned for Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 2

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 2 – Creating shaded relief

BlogAugust 10, 2010

In a previous blog, we showed you how to create a shaded relief image from an imported DEM file by using either our JavaScript to automate all the processes or through a manual method.

With Geographic Imager 3.2, you can produce a shaded relief image using the new feature Terrain Shader quickly and easily with just a few clicks.

We will use the Rocky Mountain.dem file available in the Geographic Imager tutorial folder.

1) Open the Rocky Mountain.dem file in Adobe Photoshop. As mentioned in the previous blog, selecting an appropriate DEM schema is an important step before using the Terrain Shader. For this image, we will choose the “Auto-stretched” option, which will give you an optimum result in Terrain Shader.

2) Click the Terrain Shader button on Geographic Imager main panel.

3) In the Terrain Shader dialog box, uncheck the “Apply Color Map” option and check the “Apply Shaded Relief” option.

4) In the Apply Shaded Relief settings, adjust the light source angle and intensity.

As you adjust the settings, use the preview image to get a sense of what your image will look like.

Now that a shaded relief image is created, lets tweak it a little and make some adjustments.

The shaded relief image looks dark. It is because the blending mode of the shaded relief layer, #GI Shaded Relief Layer, is set to “Overlay” (the drop-down menu in the Layers panel).

5) Highlight #GI Shaded Relief Layer and Change the blending mode to “Normal”.

Alternatively, simply turned off the visibility of the original DEM layer “Rocky Mountain.dem” in the Layers panel.

You will get the same effect. The shaded relief now shows the crisp shading effect.

6) If you want to change the brightness and contrast of the produced shaded relief image, you can simply add an adjustment layer in the Layers panel.

Simply adjust the brightness and contrast values in the Adjustments panel.

Now, the shaded relief image is ready for your map!

As always, when you use Geographic Imager, all the georeference information is maintained while you work with Adobe Photoshop and Geographic Imager functions. This is a great advantage when dealing with geospatial datasets.

One quick note: If you want to use a shaded relief image with MAPublisher in Adobe Illustrator, you may save the shaded relief image with spatial reference information. Before saving the image, go to Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channels. It will convert the image from 16 bits to 8 bits, which is necessary when working with images in Adobe Illustrator.

To place the image in Adobe Illustrator, use the MAPublisher “Register Image” function to align the image with your vector work.

Using these steps will add a nice texture to your map.

Styling a MAPublisher Scale Bar

BlogJuly 30, 2010

After generating a scale bar, it is placed in a MAP Legend layer. You can accept the default look of it, but majority of users will want to customize and style it to match their map.

Now I’ve just generated a simple scale bar. If you expand the Legend layer, you can see the object “MAPublisher Scalebar” is placed within it. This is a special object generated by MAPublisher and there is currently a dynamic link between the MAP View information (i.e. spatial information) and the scale bar object.

In order to make a custom scale bar, you will have to break the dynamic link between MAPublisher and the scale bar object. In your own workflow, it’s important that you setup the scale before breaking the link because it will not rescale dynamically after the link is broken. Break the link by expanding the generated object.

From the main menu, choose Object > Expand.

In the Expand dialog box, click the “Object” check box, then click OK.

The result: the object <MAPublisher Scalebar> is replaced by an object called <Group> in the Layers panel. The connection between the scale bar object and MAPublisher is removed. The art in the scale bar object simply became grouped objects.

At this point, select objects in the group and change its colors and lines by using the direct selection tool . The direct selection tool allows you to select individual object even if select objects is a part of a <Group> object.

If you are more comfortable with the selection tool , you will want to read the suggestion below. It works, too.

Take a look at the Layers panel again more closely. The screen capture of the Legend layer above shows that there is a <Group> object under the “Legend” layer. When the object tree under the “Legend” layer is expanded, you can see another <Group> object nested within a <Group> object. (a <Group> object containing a <Group> object). Since all the objects are still grouped, you can simply “ungroup” the art.

Select the <Group> object (i.e. the scale bar object for this example), then from the main menu, choose Object > Ungroup.

When you ungroup the object once, you now see only one <Group>. This <Group> object contains all the text, lines, and area objects composing a scale bar object.

Now, ungroup the object once more. Finally you do not see the object <Group> anymore under the “Legend” layer. It indicates that every object in the layer can now be selected individually using the direct selection tool.

Select the objects to edit and style them using Adobe Illustrator tools!

Geographic Imager: Create shaded relief from a DEM

BlogJuly 26, 2010

With Geographic Imager 3.x, you can import DEM files to Adobe Photoshop and can create shaded relief images.

There are two methods to achieve this:

Method 1: Run the pre-made JavaScript and apply it to all images

After opening your DEM image, choose File > Scripts > Browse… and select Shaded Relief.jsx from the SampleScripts folder inside the Geographic Imager Tutorial folder. It will generate the shaded relief image for the opened DEM image based on the settings in the JavaScript file.

Method 2: Create shaded relief images manually

We’ll use the DEM file Rocky Mountains.dem available in the Geographic Imager Tutorial folder for this demonstration.

1) Open the Rocky Mountains.dem image from the Geographic Imager tutorial folder. Geographic Imager automatically detects it as a DEM file and provides the option to select the DEM image import method. For this demonstration, choose Auto-Stretched from the Select Schema drop-down list.

The imported DEM is opened in black and white. Take a look at the header of the image (or tab of the image file). Notice that it displays “Gray/16”. This indicates that the image is in the 16 Bits/Channel Grayscale mode.

2) Now, change the image mode from 16 Bits/Channel Grayscale to 8 Bits/Channel RGB. From the top menu bar, choose Image > Mode and then 8 Bits/Channel. Once again, go to Image > Mode, this time choose RGB Color.

Once completed, take a look at the image header again (or file tab). Now “RGB/8” is indicated in the header, meaning that the image is now in the 8 Bits/Channel RGB color mode.

3) Select the entire canvas (use the Rectangular Marquee Tool) and copy the selected area to the clipboard (Edit > Copy).

4) Open the Channels panel (Window > Channels) and add one Alpha channel by clicking the Create new channel button at the bottom of the panel or go to the panel option menu and choose New Channel. Leave the channel name as “Alpha 1”.

5) Select the “Alpha 1” in the Channels panel and fill it in white using the Paint Bucket Tool.

6) In step 3 we copied the selected area (the entire canvas) to the clipboard, now we’re going to paste it to the new channel. Select “Alpha 1” in the Channels panel, and paste it (Edit > Paste). You can see that the same image is displayed for all the channels when the copied area is successfully pasted. Make the Alpha 1 channel invisible and make sure the RGB channels are visible.

7) Deselect the area (Select > Deselect from the top menu bar).

8) In the Layers panel (Window > Layers), create a new layer named Bump map. Change the Blending mode to Overlay.

9) Using the Paint Bucket Tool again, fill the new “Bump map” layer with white.

10) From the menu bar, choose Filter > Render > Lighting Effects…

11) Adjust the settings in the Lighting Effects dialog window.

12) The shaded relief image is completed! You can use this image to overlay with other georeferenced images with Geographic Imager or with vector datasets with MAPublisher.

Buffer Art in MAPublisher

BlogJune 25, 2010

Up to MAPublisher 8.2, the MAPublisher Buffer Lines function was limited to only Line features. For MAPubisher 8.3, a revised buffer function called Buffer Art can be performed on both Line and Point layers. Buffer Art allows you to enter one fixed value to either all or the selected art in one layer or the values from an attribute column in one map layer.

Example 1: Applying a static value for the buffer width

Below is the new Buffer Art dialog box. I have one MAP Point layer with a location of a strong earthquake recorded in India n May 31, 2010.

I specified a value of 2100 Kilometer as the distance to buffer from the epicentre (the origin of the earthquake). The buffered art will be placed in the existing destination layer Buffer Area – 300 km interval.

For the buffered area, a pre-designed graphic style will be applied.

Lastly, I enabled the Add concentric circles every: option. This option will generate evenly spaced rings around the points within the buffered area. I am selecting 300 Kilometer for each concentric circle distance. It will generate seven concentric circles within the 2100 km buffer. As a result, you can see that a concentric ring is drawn every 300 km from the epicentre.

Example 2: Applying values from an Attribute Column for the buffer width (Creating Graduated Symbols for every point)

I will use another point layer this time. I have one MAP Point layer with the point information of earthquake epicenters. The size of the buffer width in the page unit (pixel) was calculated based on the size of the magnitude for every point in the layer. Those values under the BufferCircle column will be used for the buffer width.

Now, the Buffer Art feature will be performed with those calculated values for the buffer width.

The Attribute Value option is chosen and the BufferCircle field for the Buffer Width.

As a result, every buffered area (circle) has a different size. Also, the graphic style selected for the buffer art had some level of transparency applied. You can see the darker color when the buffered art overlaps each other. In other words, the region where the dark orange is observed experienced earthquakes more than once.

Buffer Art can be applied to many situations such as around parcel lots, around road or highway lines or even creating them to find intersection proximity between map features. Experiment with your own to find out what is most useful for your own data.

Create a New MAP View For Adobe Photoshop Paths in MAPublisher 8.3

BlogJune 10, 2010

In our previous blog, we introduced you to a quick technique for remote sensing imagery: to depict a type of land types (green area) from a Landsat image. Below is the false composite image created in the previous blog. Basically, the red area indicates a lot of green vegetation (i.e. trees, shrubs, etc).

Now, you may be wondering how those red areas can be extracted from Adobe Photoshop and Geographic Imager and brought into Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher?

An overview of the steps involved in this technique:

In Adobe Photoshop & Geographic Imager:

Select the red areas with Adobe Photoshop tools.
Save the selected pixel areas as “work path”.
Export the saved work path as an Adobe Illustrator file.
Export the georeference information from Geographic Imager option menu.

In Adobe Illustrator & MAPublisher:

Import the exported Adobe Illustrator file with the work path.
Assign the georeference information to the imported work path objects.
If you have already made a map with vector dataset, open the AI file.
Import MAP Objects from the AI file with the workpath to another AI file with a map.
Drag and Drop transformation to align the workpath objects geospatially.

Below are the detailed step-by-step intructions.

In Adobe Photoshop and Geographic Imager:

1. Select the red areas

Open the false color composite image in Adobe Photoshop. Now, all the red areas must be selected using any of the following Adobe Photoshop tools.

For example, you can select the red areas using the Magic Wand Tool. You may want to adjust the tolerance values as you begin to select the areas so that only the approriate areas are selected. If you disable the “Contiguous” option from the settings tool bar, it selects all the areas with the same color as the one you collected.

If you want to more precisely select red areas with a preview window, use the Color Range Tool (Select > Color Range). With this tool, sample the color of interest first. In this example, you might want to pick only the areas with the bright red color or you might want to be within a specifc range of red. Using this, you will have more control on which areas are selected.

Of course, there are other techniques you can use to collect the pixels with a specific color. The two suggested above are used quite commonly in our workflows.

2. Save the selected pixel areas as “work path”

After all the red areas are selected, save the selected area as “work path”. This option is available in the Paths panel options menu.

The selection is now saved as a “work path” in the Paths panel.

3. Export the saved work path as an Illustrator file

Once the work path is saved in the Paths panel, export it as an Illustrator file (File > Export > Paths to Illustrator).

4. Export the georeference information from Geographic Imager option menu

As you saw in the Geographic Imager panel for the false color composite file in the previous blog, this image was georeferenced. Furthermore, we need to export the georeference information that will coincide with the Adobe Illustrator file we just exported.. You can export this georeference information as a MapInfo TAB file or Blue Marble Reference RSF file from the Geographic Imager panel options menu.

In Adobe Illustrator & MAPublisher

5. Import the exported Illustrator file with the work path

In Adobe Illustrator, open the Adobe Illustrator file exported from Adobe Photoshop (Step 3). Upon opening, a prompt appears to convert the exported file to Artboards. Select the second option “Crop Area(s)”.

When the artboard is opened, it seems like there is nothing on the artboard. It is simply because there is no color assigned to the fill and stroke. I put a green color for the work path objects.

6. Assign the georeference information to the imported work path objects

The imported work path objects do not have the georeference information yet. We exported the reference file in Step 4 using Geographic Imager. We are going to use the exported reference file to assign the georerefernce information to those work path objects.

In the MAP Views panel options menu, click “New MAP View For Photoshop Paths…”

Browse for the exported reference file (either *.tab or *.rsf format from Step 4). Then select “Area” as the feature type for the MAP layer to be created.

The georeference information from the original image is now inherited by the work path objects in the Adobe Illustrator file.

In the MAP View Editor window, you can see all the spatial information such as the coordinate system, scale, and map extent within the artboard. The name for the MAP View is renamed to “Green Area from Photoshop – GI” for Step 8.

At this point, if you have GIS dataset, you can import them to this document. However, I will show you one more MAPublisher trick to bring this green area into an existing MAPublisher file.

7. If you have already made a map with vector dataset, open the Adobe Illustrator file

Keep the Adobe Illustrator file with the work path objects open, then open another Adobe Illustrator file with MAPublisher MAP Objects. Now you have two Adobe Illustrator documents open.

8. Import MAP Objects from the AI file with the workpath to another AI file with a map

Make the Adobe Illustrator document with the map (not with the work path objects) the current document.

On the MAPublisher Toolbar, click the “Import MAP Object” button.

In the “Import MAP Objects” dialog box, select the MAP View “Green Area from Photoshop” and click OK.

All the path objects are imported to the other Adobe Illustrator file with the base map.

However, the imported objects and the base map do not line up appropriately. It is because the scale of the MAP View with the work path and the MAP View with the base map do not match. You can line up those green areas with a simple step.

9. Drag and drop transformation to align the workpath objects geospatially.

In the MAP Views panel, there are two MAP Views: “Green Area from Photoshop – GI” for the work path imported from another AI file and “Toronto map” for the base map.

Click the MAP Layer “Green areas” in the MAPView “Green Area from Photoshop – GI” …

… then drag the map layer to the MAPView “Toronto map”.

Now all the green areas (work path objects) are lined up nicely with the base map.

Try this out with your own workflow to see how it may improve your maps.

Avenza maps makes it easy to interact with offline
maps on your iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Get the app. Get the map.