Making dashed lines intersect at every intersection in MAPublisher

BlogDecember 7, 2010

One of the great advantages of using Adobe Illustrator for a mapping project is that you can make great line styles easily. For example, to make a double line stroke and one of them is dashed:

Double strokes are a line graphic style where two different line strokes overlap each other. For example, the image shows that there is a stroke with a brown color and its stroke size is 3 pts. On top of this brown line, there is a 1 pt white dash line:

You might have an experience where you duplicated one line layer and assigned a different style for lines in each of those layers. However, this has some disadvantages. The file size will increase because all the line segments as well as the attribute information attached to every line object is duplicated. Also, when you apply the double stroke line to road layer, the white dash line does not intersect nicely at every intersection of the map:

With Adobe Illustrator CS5, these problems are solved.

0) Create a graphic style like the one shown above.

1) Open the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder).

2) Select all the line objects in the line layer.
Click the outline tool .

This function in the Pathfinder tool breaks lines at every intersection.

All the selected objects which were selected at Step 2 will be broken into segments at every intersection and they will be grouped as one object in the layer.

3) Having the grouped objects selected, apply the graphic style with the double stoke.

4) The white dashed line is intersected at every intersection nicely.

Quick tip

When creating double stroke, make sure to select the option “Align dashes to corners & path ends, adjusting length to fit” available next to the dash line option.

Note

Since this operation involves a pathfinder functions, the attribute information will not be matintained after the “outline” function is applied to those selected line works. Our development team is looking for a possible solution to keep the attribute information for the future version of MAPublisher.

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.

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.

Creating a false-color composite image with Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop

BlogJune 3, 2010

One of the powerful remote sensing tools available in Adobe Photoshop is to detect the land surface information by creating a false color composite image. Multispectral images contain the reflectance information from the visible and invisible electromagnetic spectrum. Using this information, we can detect many kinds of land surface information. For this example, we will detect the green area using Landsat images imported by Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop, which ensures all the georeference information is maintained.

Landsat images consist of several gray scale images, with each image containing one of the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, in the Geographic Imager tutorial folder, there are a set of Landsat images available. Those gray scale images are from Band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8.

These images need to be combined into one image. The Adobe Photoshop function called “Merge Channels” produces one image by combining mulitple gray scaled images. With this example, those gray scale images from Band 2, 3, and 4 will be merged into one image by assigning a color for each band.

1) Open the Landsat image from Band 2, 3, and 4. Note that the Geographic Imager panel shows the information on the coordinate system and image extents.

2) Open the Channel panel (Window > Channels). Choose “Merge Channels” from the panel options menu.

3) In the Merge Channels dialog box, select RGB color as the mode.

4) In the Merge RGB Channels dialog box, specify the band for each channel: band 4 for the red channel, band 3 for the green channel, and band 2 for the blue channel.

5) As a result, those three images from Band 2, 3, and 4, are assigned to the Blue, Green and Red channels, respectively.

6) Now, let’s take a look at the image!

This combination of false-color makes vegetation appear as red tones. The bright red color indicates the growing vegtation. Water is displayed in a blue color. When the water contains high sediment concentrations, the color will be lighter blue. Urban areas will appear gray to blue-gray in color.

7) All the georeferenced information is inherited by the new image with merged channels from those original images. The georeference information is displayed in the Geographic Imager panel.

Import Geodatabase Feature Classes into Adobe Illustrator

BlogMarch 9, 2010

In this post, we’ll cover how simple it is to import a geodatabase feature class into Adobe Illustrator using MAPublisher import tools enabled with the Spatial Database add-on.

Spatial databases are optimized data repositories for spatial data storage and management. Many GIS environments use spatial databases to easily access and manage GIS data in a central location.

MAPublisher 8.2 introduces support for import of the popular ESRI single-user and multi-user Geodatabases: Personal, File and ArcSDE Geodatabases; and direct access to ArcSDE server. The MAPublisher Spatial Database importer is built on ESRI software libraries and requires a valid ESRI software and license installed on the computer (ArcGIS 9.2 and higher).

To import one, you can use either Simple Import or Advanced Import. In this scenario, we’ll use Advanced Import. When we add data, a list of Geodatabase types are located at the bottom of the Format list. We’ll be importing some feature classes from a simple geodatabase consisting of waterlines, hydrants and valves.

After browsing for the geodatabase (a File geodatabase in this case), the Select Feature Classes dialog box appears. We’ll go ahead and select a few feature classes from the Landbase and Water feature sets listed.

The Advanced Import dialog box shows the number of features being imported and the coordinate system as well as page and map anchors.

The features are imported and are ready to be used in a map.

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