3 replies to this topic

[Caledon_Carto]

Ladies and Gents,
I would love to hear how anyone out there using a GIS and in particular ArcGIS handles the issue of mapping standards and symbology.
We have a large and diverse GIS user Group. We are a large organisation and as a Cartographer I like to see good quality maps produced from GIS. Of course not all GIS users have a cartographic background and sometimes the maps they produce just don't look good!
In attempt to assist many of the GIS users we've introduced Company Standard. Symbology, templates etc and this has been largely successful in helping the look and feel of the maps.
How have you guys out there managed your standards and helped the semi-professional map makers to make better maps!

I'd love to hear your experiences......good or bad!

[David T]

This is something I am dealing with right now. I am working on developing cartographic standards for the USMC, and it no easy task. We have quite a few GIS professionals, but very few with cartographic backgrounds. I am doing what I can to help develop their own abilities, while developing standardized templates and schemes that can be followed.

Cartotalk member Charlie Frye, who works for ESRI, posted on the Mapping Center recently - "Why do cartographic data modeling?" Among the infomation he posted was a 'Map Specification' sheet. I encourage you to take a look at it. It's a good place to start, with developing a set of standards. We will be utilizing to as a starting point, as we grow and develop standards that fit the information that we need to map.

[Themarko]

I made a basemap for everyone to use. I laid out the best fonts and their placements, shaded relief layers, different layers to turn on and off depending on the users need to show, plus a nice layout all ready to go. All the users have to do is select a particular feature, make it a layer and change it's depiction to suit their need and print it. Obviously, that's in theory and in practice it's not as easy as all that but its a start and the maps do look better than before on average. I really need to do the others for different purposes, but haven't done so yet.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Cartotalk member Charlie Frye, who works for ESRI, posted on the Mapping Center recently - "Why do cartographic data modeling?" Among the infomation he posted was a 'Map Specification' sheet. I encourage you to take a look at it. It's a good place to start, with developing a set of standards. We will be utilizing to as a starting point, as we grow and develop standards that fit the information that we need to map.

That looks very useful indeed. Thanks for posting that.