8 replies to this topic

[Justin]

Hi

I'm always wary of posting questions to a forum because i'm fairly sure the answers to my questions are always painfully obvious and i'll look silly. However -

I'm using MAPublisher 7.6 with Illustrator CS3. I just got it, and I like it, although I wish there were more tutorials. Before I had just used ArcMap's export to AI without any other helpers. I'm having fun learning it.

My inquiry is about MAPublisher labeling. In ArcMap there is a little tick box that disallows overlapping type, but I cant find anything like that in MAPublisher. Any way I try to label things, they overlap. Scaling down the font to something tiny or using the map tagger is generally the same. I've googled and looked through documentation and all sorts of things, but I cant find the answer. Any tips on labeling are much appreciated.

To clarify, I know how to label things with it just fine. It's the overlapping and the generally terrifying blob of black type that inevitably shows up i'm wondering about.

Thanks for any pointers!
Cheers

[Charles Syrett]

When I use MAPublisher for labeling, I use the "MAP label tool". At least that's what the FreeHand version of it is called. It allows you to click on features, one at a time, and label them individually. It's a wonderful tool -- saves you all the trouble of typing (if you use a draw program without MAPublisher) and the nightmare of editing automatically-placed text.

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

Hi

I'm always wary of posting questions to a forum because i'm fairly sure the answers to my questions are always painfully obvious and i'll look silly. However -

I'm using MAPublisher 7.6 with Illustrator CS3. I just got it, and I like it, although I wish there were more tutorials. Before I had just used ArcMap's export to AI without any other helpers. I'm having fun learning it.

My inquiry is about MAPublisher labeling. In ArcMap there is a little tick box that disallows overlapping type, but I cant find anything like that in MAPublisher. Any way I try to label things, they overlap. Scaling down the font to something tiny or using the map tagger is generally the same. I've googled and looked through documentation and all sorts of things, but I cant find the answer. Any tips on labeling are much appreciated.

To clarify, I know how to label things with it just fine. It's the overlapping and the generally terrifying blob of black type that inevitably shows up i'm wondering about.

Thanks for any pointers!
Cheers

[ELeFevre]

Hey Justin,
No need to be wary of questions...just ask away! There is no magic button in illustrator or the Mapublisher plug-in that allows you to control overlaps. You could always check the Adobe Developers site to see if there is a script out there that can help with this sort of thing, but I doubt it. Nick occasionally creates super-handy scripts as well, so he's another good resource.

As far as the "blob of black type" goes (can you post a sample?), I'm not sure I follow? Is the text coming through? One thing you can do is create a line of type at the actual map text-size before generating the labels. Doing so sets the size of the labeling so you won't have to resize....and you shouldn’t have any surprises. The good news is moving labels in Illustrator is fast.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Hey Justin,
No need to be wary of questions...just ask away! There is no magic button in illustrator or the Mapublisher plug-in that allows you to control overlaps. You could always check the Adobe Developers site to see if there is a script out there that can help with this sort of thing, but I doubt it. Nick occasionally creates super-handy scripts as well, so he's another good resource.

And as an added recommendation, please let Avenza know about things like this as well. They're always happy to receive suggestions on how the software can be improved.

As far as the "blob of black type" goes (can you post a sample?), I'm not sure I follow? Is the text coming through? One thing you can do is create a line of type at the actual map text-size before generating the labels. Doing so sets the size of the labeling so you won't have to resize....and you shouldn’t have any surprises. The good news is moving labels in Illustrator is fast.

Illustrator seems to be very keen on using the default font/size/color (Myriad, 12 pt, black) whenever it can. Maybe that's happening here?

[BEAVER]

Mapublisher does not have intelligent labeling where it can detect overlapping labels. I tried v7.6 and I think I tried v6.2 before and both times I ended not buying it. Manifold is supposed to have a huge release coming up with labeling engine specially design for map making and better integration with AL (no broken curved text). They word on the Manifold forum is that it will blow us away. If Manifold 9.0 doesn't cut it I will most likely buy Mapublisher 8.0 when it comes out.

[Justin]

Thank you for all the responses, I appreciate it.

As for the "blob of black text", its just what it looks like when there are 1500 labels all on top of each other - and just looks like one big black gob of type. I'm a little dissapointed that it doesnt have an overlap detection, as most of the maps I work on are street maps of cities that require 2,000+ labels (one for each street). What I did before was just have ArcMap label everything and then went in and refined it in AI. Hopefully they will add that functionality in the future!

The Mag tagger tool is the one in AI that lets you click on an item and then have it labeled. Its pretty good but still offers a lot of overlapping if you happen to click on the wrong spot.

[Ted Florence]

Without going into further details, you can all rest assured that the coding elves in the Avenza workshop are busy with just the collision-free labeling solution you seek. This will be a very sophisticated improvement on the stock MAPublisher label functions currently available and will contain more features than just collision detection and resolution.
Expect to see it in Q4 2008.
Stay tuned ..............

[BEAVER]

Without going into further details, you can all rest assured that the coding elves in the Avenza workshop are busy with just the collision-free labeling solution you seek. This will be a very sophisticated improvement on the stock MAPublisher label functions currently available and will contain more features than just collision detection and resolution.
Expect to see it in Q4 2008.
Stay tuned ..............

Sounds good to me. Good think I waited with the purchase since I don't plan on buying the maintenance program.

[Ted Florence]

The maintenance is included for the first year anyway. It is not sold as a separate option.

Without going into further details, you can all rest assured that the coding elves in the Avenza workshop are busy with just the collision-free labeling solution you seek. This will be a very sophisticated improvement on the stock MAPublisher label functions currently available and will contain more features than just collision detection and resolution.
Expect to see it in Q4 2008.
Stay tuned ..............

Sounds good to me. Good think I waited with the purchase since I don't plan on buying the maintenance program.