6 replies to this topic

[Greg]

I have been looking into MaPublisher for indexing road maps.

I had no problem creating the grid, and indexing the streets from that grid...

My problem is alot of the text in my maps have been broken into segments in order to fit on curved streets, or tight areas.
In some cases, the street name could be on two lines to accommodate a tight area.

"High"
"St."

When the Index is produced, I get alot of half names, and segmented suffixes listed as separate entities.

I am sure this is a common issue for all of you road mappers out there.. How is it solved?
Guys @ Avenza? Any solutions that don't involve me re-typing every street name on every map?

Here's an example of what the index output looks like.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


Smith Dr. C-6
Snowberry Cr. C-7
South Ln. B-2
Split D-6
Sq. C-6
St B-2, B-3, B-4, C-2, C-3, C-4, C-6, D-1, E-6
St. A-1
St. B-6, C-3, C-5
Standish St. B-6
Stevens D-5
Stewart Maclaren Rd. C-3
Stewarttown Rd. A-4
Stock Man Cr. C-5
Stone St. B-6
Stone- A-4
Sumach C-3
Summit C-5
Sutcliff Ln. C-2
t Cr. A-2
t C-3
Temple B-3
Tenth Line D-6
Tenth Line D-4
Tenth Line D-7
Ter. B-4
Terry Ct. B-4
th B-2
Thomas C-1
Thompson Dr. A-4
thur E-6
Todd Rd. C-4
ton St C-6
ton C-2
Torino C-4
Tr. A-1
Tr. C-3
Treanor C-6
Tweedle St. C-1
Union St C-3

[Hans van der Maarel]

Greg,

This is a very common problem and unfortunately there is no easy solution. I always recommend having 2 layers of text:

• The text labels you see... Abbreviated if necessary, on double lines, spaced out or using leader lines.
• The text labels you index... A hidden layer, where all text labels are single line texts, no abbreviation.

Especially in The Netherlands (but other areas in Europe suffer from this too I suppose) there has been a tendency to assign the longest possible names to the shortest possible streets, naming them after important people with double-barreled names and loads of titles for example. My pet peeve used to be the "Burgemeester Jonkheer Quarles van Uffordlaan" in Apeldoorn. It was lengthened a few years ago, but before that I had to abbreviate it to "Brg. Jhr. Q v. Uffrdln" and break it up into 3 lines of text.

By having a separate text-for-indexing layer, you have a lot more control over how texts appear in the index. It's a lot more work at first, but if you do this in Illustrator, you only have to do it once. If you make all those corrections in the index file itself, you'll have to redo all of that when you redo the index.

Hope this helps.

[Unit Seven]

Hi Greg,

Were the labels created with Mapublisher from the vector linework or did the labels come from some other placement process?

Do the labels have any ID that lets you tell what feature they apply to?

[Greg]

Hi Greg,

Were the labels created with Mapublisher from the vector linework or did the labels come from some other placement process?

Do the labels have any ID that lets you tell what feature they apply to?

They were all originally drawn in Freehand, and are now being converted to Illustrator.
They are not associated with any ID's or Features, just plain text!


I like the idea of the index text layer, but how do you place this text within the grid? what about features that span across multiple grid squares?

[Charles Syrett]

If I'm going to use Mapublisher for indexing (and I only do this with a disclaimer to the client, telling them they're getting a "budget" form of indexing), I always do just what Hans said -- clone (that's a FreeHand term) all the names to a new dedicated layer, and then (and this is important) release all text from paths. (Can you do that in Illustrator?) Another thing -- when doing name placement, make sure you always have the name and the generic in one text block.

Yes, you'll end up with a big editing job in the text file. But it's still faster than doing the index the "right" way (the way I always recommend to clients, even though it costs more), which is to copy and paste the names manually, as you go, grid square by grid square, from the map file into Excel. And edit as you go. One of the advantages of this method over the cheapie automatic methods is that you have a final, fine-tooth-comb review of your work. And you'll always find something!

Summary: if you have an inherited map file (or even if it's your own), don't use Mapublisher for indexing. Too clumsy and unreliable.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

Hi Greg,

Were the labels created with Mapublisher from the vector linework or did the labels come from some other placement process?

Do the labels have any ID that lets you tell what feature they apply to?

They were all originally drawn in Freehand, and are now being converted to Illustrator.
They are not associated with any ID's or Features, just plain text!


I like the idea of the index text layer, but how do you place this text within the grid? what about features that span across multiple grid squares?

[Hans van der Maarel]

I like the idea of the index text layer, but how do you place this text within the grid? what about features that span across multiple grid squares?

You can use multiple text labels in the index layer for that. MAPublisher indexes the reference point of the text object, so make sure that falls within the grid square the text itself falls into as well.

[Dale Sanderson]

...don't use Mapublisher for indexing. Too clumsy and unreliable.

I agree with Charles 100% - I have yet to find an automated indexing method that's as reliable and accurate as the manual cut-and-paste method. And I always find that "fine-tooth review" to be extremely valuable. Yeah, it takes a little longer, but I end up with a higher-quality map and index, so I think it's worth it.