4 replies to this topic

[ctknoll_ngs]

Hi all,

Seeing if anyone has any experience with editing maps in the Arc platform.

Working as the editor for a print production cartographic group, my group is moving more and more towards on screen editing and editing with GIS overlays in Arc. So we will take a map that needs to be edited in AI format, create a tif and geo-rectify it in arc, then use what ever data was incorporated into the map to edit against. I am curious to see if there is a way to make comments similar to sticky notes in Acrobat but on Arc, so that the comments are specific to a location and stay with that location.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[dsl]

I don't know of a way to add comments, redlines or markups directly in an MXD file. You might look into ArcReader to do something like this. (EDIT: just saw that this might require the ArcPublisher extension). Maybe the hyperlink tool could be used to note locations with comments?

I'm curious why you go from AI to ArcGIS, and presumably back again? You might look at storing all your data in a GIS database, and then exporting it to AI as needed either through the AI export or something like MapPublisher. Maintaining your GIS data would be easier...but you probably have your reasons, or I misunderstood your description.

You may also consider saving your AI file to a DWG and importing that into ArcGIS, rectifying the actual vector data instead of an image.

Hope that helps,
David

[Kathi]

Working as the editor for a print production cartographic group, my group is moving more and more towards on screen editing and editing with GIS overlays in Arc. So we will take a map that needs to be edited in AI format, create a tif and geo-rectify it in arc, then use what ever data was incorporated into the map to edit against.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you edit. The tiff? Or are you using the tiff as background for digitising vector data? As David said, you could probably save time by exporting a dwg, georeference that and have vectors to work with...

I am curious to see if there is a way to make comments similar to sticky notes in Acrobat but on Arc, so that the comments are specific to a location and stay with that location.

As of ArcView 9.3 you can add text not only in layout view (where it stays in the same spot on the page, no matter how you zoom or pan the map) but also in data view, where it stays in the same geographical location (I'm not sure what happens if you zoom.) I guess you could also use this to put something similar to sticky notes onto a certain spot on your map.
Since I haven't started using ArcView 10, I don't know if it's still the same there. Seems that a lot is going to change from 9.x to 10, so I was a bit reluctant to jump into it so far...

[jrat]

You could create a annotation layer to keep all of your notes. This layer could then be turned on and off so you could easilly see what was underneath.

[ctknoll_ngs]

Thanks for the feedback on all your comments. In looking into the issue, it looks like my best option will be to use callouts. The primary reason for going into Arc from AI is we are a graphic based carto group that works primarily in AI, but uses Arc to bring in data and export to AI. AS the editor I am tasked with making sure all data was incorporated correctly, so to be able to use these call outs to mark edits for the cartographer to do, this is the goal. Also, I found a cool tool to highlight correct information on the geotifs so I don't need to re-edit things.

Thanks again for all the support and info.

Chris