3 replies to this topic

[Montana]

I need to make maps of land ownership/leasing status, and export these maps to clients. Making the maps in ArcMAP is simple enough (minus finding base maps, which is another problem) but then I need the client to be able to read the maps I export. I've tried exporting as PDF but they are huge. I could buy Illustrator and finish them up in that if it would help. Any advice? The maps are large.

[ProMapper]

I need to make maps of land ownership/leasing status, and export these maps to clients. Making the maps in ArcMAP is simple enough (minus finding base maps, which is another problem) but then I need the client to be able to read the maps I export. I've tried exporting as PDF but they are huge. I could buy Illustrator and finish them up in that if it would help. Any advice? The maps are large.

Normally PDF files generated by ArcGIS are quite manageable. But I really do not know if you are using all vector data or a combination with heavy raster data, like imageries in the background or may be DEM data as shaded relief. All this can make the files really huge. Another reason could be heavy vector files, which you need to prune based on the scale you want the maps created.

Illustrator will not be much of help if it is raster data, but if it is vector data then you can use various routines which thin out the vertices while retaining the shape. Why don't you just get a trial version and try it out with Illy.

Best,

Anu

http://www.mapsandlocations.com

[Montana]

That sounds good. I am really not an ArcMap expert - I know more than my boss so I am the designated "mapper" here at work. He doesn't quite understand projections, so he has scanned in gigantic (8 feet tall) maps and sent them to me as TIF tiles which I have put into ArcMAP. I'm drawing shapefiles on top of them, but the result is that I cannot export them to the same scale that he sent them to me, and he doesn't understand why. I realize this is an embarrassing use of ArcMAP but with the files he sent me, I don't know what else to do.

[cipher6]

That sounds good. I am really not an ArcMap expert - I know more than my boss so I am the designated "mapper" here at work. He doesn't quite understand projections, so he has scanned in gigantic (8 feet tall) maps and sent them to me as TIF tiles which I have put into ArcMAP. I'm drawing shapefiles on top of them, but the result is that I cannot export them to the same scale that he sent them to me, and he doesn't understand why. I realize this is an embarrassing use of ArcMAP but with the files he sent me, I don't know what else to do.

Did you geo-rectify the tiffs? Depending on the source scan this could be a time consuming process, but once rectified to a projection, you can export at what ever scale you like.

I use Global Mapper for geo-rectification. You have to load in base data that is already rectified and is on the scanned map. Like a shape file of county or landgrid. The pick lots of common points on the base and scan.

Once your scanned image is in a projection, you can add your custom data, and convert projections change scales etc.

And 8' tall scanned tiff will be pretty large no matter what you do, and including it in any export won't help it much. You can crop out areas if you don't need the whole thing. Or, print hard copies and mail them. Or burn them on CDs and mail them or set up simple FTP site to get around email size limits.