7 replies to this topic

[JRD Cartographics]

Hello everybody.

I've been frequenting this forum for several weeks now (this is my first post) and am very impressed with the help and support everyone is willing to provide.

I have a problem that I'm hoping someone can help me with.

I'm creating a map for a local government agency that is going to require the addition of 3 urban inset maps. These inset maps are to be an exact representation of the main map but at a larger scale (obviously). I am using Illustrator 10 and MaPublisher v5 (provided by client).

Now, I know these can be created with a mask but from past experience this does not produce desirable results.

Am I overlooking an easy solution (other than creating each one individually)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Johnny

[Rick Dey]

Johnny,

The approach I usually take with this is probably not the most sophisticated. It would consist of copying the areas and line work layers needed for the inset into another set of layers in AI. Using Rick Johnson's cutting tools you can quickly carve out what you need. You can maintain the layers by moving them into sublayers for each of the insets. A separate MAPview for each layer will allow you to place and scale your inset material. I personally do not use the labeling tools from MAPublisher at this time, I'm just anal about type placement.

I know it's expensive but I would heartily recommend moving up to version 6 of MAPublisher. The speed improvements and fantastic tools make it well worthwhile. I don't remember the exact tools that don't exisit in version 5 but I think MAPviews and a much better integration with layers in Illustrator were some of the major improvements in 6. It does require machine code verification for the serial number, so a client won't be able to loan or checkout a serial # to you.
Avenza has done a great job with the current version (6.2) and put a lot of resources into it.

[Claude]

Hi,
I know sometime has passed since your post but I'd like to echo Rick Dey's comments. What you'll want to do is take an existing layer and create a copy of it by dragging it onto the new layer icon. this will preserve the data attributes and automatically drop it into the same map view (a fuction in MapPub6). Then simply create a new mapview with your new scale and drag the layer from one mapview to the new. It's a very cool way of shifting stuff around and even allows you to feature different projections in the same map (and even cooler -you can drag a layer into a different projection on the fly).

So either buy MP6 or... i am pretty sure there's a time-limited demo on the avenza site...could be wrong but i think it's full-function.
Claude

[JRD Cartographics]

Thanks very much for your replies.

Unfortunately, we are currently using MP v5 (we hope to migrate to v6 in the coming months), so the techniques will not work in our environment.

On a more positive note, the Rick Johnson cutting tools are amazing - thanks for introducing them.

Anyhow, we ended up creating each inset from scratch for this edition. It was a bit more labour intensive, but they turned out well.

I hope to post a sample of the map for comment in the next week or so.

Once again your help is greatly appreciated.

This is a great forum and I look forward to being more active in the coming months.

Best,

JD

[EcoGraphic]

I just posted a new discussion on Snagit Screen Capture in the Software section. This may be an easy (and affordable) solution for you, although like I mentioned in the post, I have yet to test the images created for print quality:

httpa://www.snagit.com

Gillian

[Hans van der Maarel]

I seriously doubt a screenshot is going to have enough resolution for printing.

One thing I sometimes do for insets is create the inset in a new document, print to PDF, then place the PDF. Several PDF print drivers have an easy option for setting your custom print size and also offer some basic resolution settings (screen-print-press).

My personal favourite is the one that used to be installed as part of Adobe Pressready, before that was discontinued, about 3 years ago. If anybody has a copy of Pressready still lying around that they'd want to part with, please contact me privately.

[LenHoffman]

I am also creating insets and am using Rick Johnsons' cutting tools do they just work on lines? my polygone isn't "clipping" when I use the tools.

Len

[Rick Dey]

For polygons you should create a bounding box and just use Illustrators Path>Divide objects below command

This is where it becomes very useful to keep your polygons and lines on separate layers