5 replies to this topic

[mladner]

Hi,
I am looking to take our very detailed and sometimes incorrect files from their illustrator version (CS3) into Shape files generated through MAPublisher and have the coordinates line up.
Basically what I have is a large number of maps that I need to confirm have not been stretched or manipulated. I have access to GIS information in shape files from the canadian government and have Mapublisher to import into illustrator. But I don't know how to get my files communicating with the GIS information to find my flaws.
Is there a way to do this without converting the Illustrator file to .dwg as this crashes my brand new mac (crazy huh?).
Thank you,
Melissa

[Hans van der Maarel]

I am looking to take our very detailed and sometimes incorrect files from their illustrator version (CS3) into Shape files generated through MAPublisher and have the coordinates line up.
Basically what I have is a large number of maps that I need to confirm have not been stretched or manipulated. I have access to GIS information in shape files from the canadian government and have Mapublisher to import into illustrator. But I don't know how to get my files communicating with the GIS information to find my flaws.
Is there a way to do this without converting the Illustrator file to .dwg as this crashes my brand new mac (crazy huh?).

This is possible, provided you have some GIS-reference data. In general, the steps are:

• Import the GIS reference data as a new layer into your existing Illustrator file. Do try to set it to the appropriate projection and set a scaling in MAPublisher that's pretty close to the rest of the map
• Shift/scale/rotate your existing map data until it matches the reference data
• Add the existing map layers to the Map View
• Add attributes (optionally)
• Export (through the Map View, will have to be done one layer at a time)

Hope this helps.

[mladner]

Okay that gets me halfway there. What happens if my exisiting map has no geodata linked to it....is there a way to get geodata for it so that coordinates match up?

I am looking to take our very detailed and sometimes incorrect files from their illustrator version (CS3) into Shape files generated through MAPublisher and have the coordinates line up.
Basically what I have is a large number of maps that I need to confirm have not been stretched or manipulated. I have access to GIS information in shape files from the canadian government and have Mapublisher to import into illustrator. But I don't know how to get my files communicating with the GIS information to find my flaws.
Is there a way to do this without converting the Illustrator file to .dwg as this crashes my brand new mac (crazy huh?).

This is possible, provided you have some GIS-reference data. In general, the steps are:

• Import the GIS reference data as a new layer into your existing Illustrator file. Do try to set it to the appropriate projection and set a scaling in MAPublisher that's pretty close to the rest of the map
• Shift/scale/rotate your existing map data until it matches the reference data
• Add the existing map layers to the Map View
• Add attributes (optionally)
• Export (through the Map View, will have to be done one layer at a time)

Hope this helps.

[erik]

Another approach might be to export certain key layers to another format such as SVG (or even use a bitmap format with the save-to-web command) and then import that to a GIS tool and georeference the imported file by entering the lat/long coordinates for specific points that are easy to pinpoint on another map which is already georeferenced. For instance you could look at the intersection of a stream and a road in some program that provides a lat/long readout. You might have to repeat this 5-10 times per map. Once you have the Illustrator geometry georeferenced, you can compare it inside a GIS tool to your authoritative data.

Either approach sounds very tedious to me.

erik

[Hans van der Maarel]

Okay that gets me halfway there. What happens if my exisiting map has no geodata linked to it....is there a way to get geodata for it so that coordinates match up?

Yes, that was step 1. The problem is that in order to export it, you need to know the projection and georeference. Worst case scenario is that you have no georeference and no idea what the projection is. So if you import a dataset covering roughly the same area and then manipulate your existing map layers so that they match the reference data, you can then move the existing map layers into the Map View you've just created and thereby give them their georeference.

[mladner]

Ah I get it. I am missing that data. so I will look into that.
Thank you so much for your help.