1 reply to this topic

[John Butcher]

Greetings,

My task is to map a large municipal area at a medium-to-large scale (hasn't been determined yet) that will be printed across a series of 8.5x11 paper layouts. I will likely be looking at approx. 30 pages covering the full extent of the city. Ideally I would like to use Illustrator for the enhanced graphic capabilities, although the data will be prepared in ArcMap.

I am unsure of Illustrator's/MAPublisher's batch capabilities for such a project. Is there a way to create a high quality map series quickly and relatively automated? Time is money so I need to do as little manual editing as possible.

Colour schemes and specifications have been developed already and I figure I can use templates / graphic styles in some capacity.

I'm just starting to brainstorm now and haven't actually done or tried anything yet so even the most rudimentary advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks alot!

John B.

[Hans van der Maarel]

My task is to map a large municipal area at a medium-to-large scale (hasn't been determined yet) that will be printed across a series of 8.5x11 paper layouts. I will likely be looking at approx. 30 pages covering the full extent of the city. Ideally I would like to use Illustrator for the enhanced graphic capabilities, although the data will be prepared in ArcMap.

I am unsure of Illustrator's/MAPublisher's batch capabilities for such a project. Is there a way to create a high quality map series quickly and relatively automated? Time is money so I need to do as little manual editing as possible.

Colour schemes and specifications have been developed already and I figure I can use templates / graphic styles in some capacity.

I'm just starting to brainstorm now and haven't actually done or tried anything yet so even the most rudimentary advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, if you define a color scheme through styles and a MAPublisher stylesheet, you've got the basic map look covered. Indexing can also be handled by MAPublisher, and with a bit of FME or Access trickery, you can combine the separate indexes (1 for every page) into a master index. Text placement may be a bit more of a hassle, although depending on your local road layout, MAPublisher may very well do a good job on that one with minimal editing needed.

In the data processing phase, you'll need to clip the source data to your page extents (so you get one set of source files for every page). I usually do that with FME, but it should be possible in Arc too.

Feel free to contact me privately if you have any more questions. I've set up processes like these for various clients (and as a matter of fact, it will be the subject of my upcoming training course, but that will be in The Netherlands and in Dutch, so it won't help you all that much I'm afraid.