Turn out my explanation isn't any better than the User Guide ;-) You should of course use the left mouse button, not the right.
Let's try something simple to describe how it works: 1. Let's you have a polyline with eg. 10 nodes 2. Now select the Polyline tool 3. hold the cursor ssomewhere beside this polyline and click with the left mouse button. 4. You have now started drawing a new polyline 5. Now activate snap with the 'S' and AutoTrace with 'T' 6. Now move the cursor to one of the nodes in the polyline. Watch how the snap changes into a larger crosshair 7. When you have snapped to a node in the polyline, click the left mouse button again. 8. You have now added a new node to your new polyline, and this point is snapped to a node in the polyline 9. Now move the cursor to a node at the end of the polyline. It's important that there are nodes between the node you just snapped to and the next node you hold the cursor on. 10. Again MapInfo will change the cursor as soon as it is possible to snap to a node, and what more happend is that the polyline you are drawing is automatically tracing/following the existing polyline. You will see this displayed as if the colour of the existing polyline is more "greyish" So the trace feature helps you trace the nodes betweens 2 nodes on an existing polygon or polyline It not that easy to tell in writing, but pretty easy to show on a screen ;-) Peter Horsb�ll M�ller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. Denmark Tel +45 6311 4900 Direct +45 6311 4908 Mob +45 5156 1045 Fax +45 6311 4949 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cowi.dk/gis -----Original Message----- From: Hughes, Colleen / Don Mitchell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 8:06 PM To: Peter Horsb�ll M�ller Cc: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: MI-L AutoTrace doesn't work?? Thanks Peter, but.... I am was doing exactly as your instructions before with the exeption of using the right mouse button. I was using the left mouse button (as I always do when drawing). I tried the right mouse button and all I get is the shortcut menu for choosing Layer Control, Change View, etc. (as I always have). If it would work, it would be a handy tool for adding to a layer for cataloguing plan drawings which overlap some lots on a property layer. The only thing I can get it to do is draw the ployline or polygon leaving a node at the points I snap to. There is no autotrace happening. Do you think I have a bug in my MI. By the way, I did try this in MI 7.0 as you mention as well. What happens is it sort of highlights the boundary (turns from a thin black line to grey) when I'm doing it, but I still lay down each node in the polyline or polygon. Don Mitchell -----Original Message----- From: Peter Horsb�ll M�ller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: October 26, 2004 1:36 PM To: Hughes, Colleen / Don Mitchell; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: MI-L AutoTrace doesn't work?? Well, I think MapInfo have been selling old wine on new bottles ;-) Autotrace is not a new feature. I think it was added to MapInfo 4.0/4.1 because some Danes - no names mentioned here - supplied some people in the development team with some feamous Danish bitter, or at least this is have I have heard ;-) ... or was this how the special Danish projection were implemented into MapInfo... Well, anyway it's a pretty good feature and I have used it a lot during the years I have been working with MapInfo. Here is some key information on the AUTOTRACE: - You can activate AUTOTRACE by hitting the 'T' og the keyboard, and do remember that you also need to active Snap using the 'S' on the keyboard. This is new in MapInfo 7.8. - You could also activate AUTOTRACE by holding down either SHIFT or CTRL - this has been so since MapInfo 4.0/4.1 - AUTOTRACE lets you "trace" an existing polygon or polyline. Remember that you can only trace one object at a time. So if you are trying to trace a road network and the network is split at every intersection, you can only trance from intersection to intersection. - You have to start the trace of a object by snapping to the object at an existing node. - The layer you want to trace has to be selectable in the Layer Control - The difference between SHIFT and CTRL is that when tracing a polygon: - SHIFT will trace the shortest way from the last point you clicked on the polygon to the point where you are holding the cursor now - CTRL will trace the longest way. - Longest is - as far as I remember - equal to largest number of nodes. Here is how it works - hopefully better explained than in the user guide ;-): 1. Select the Polyline or Polygon tool 2. Activate Snap using the 'S' 3. Activate AutoTrace using the 'T' 4. Point the cursor to the first node on the object you want to trace 5. Click with the Right mousebutton 6. Point the cursor to the last node on the object you want to trace - must be on the same object 7. Now MapInfo should draw the line as it will follow the existing object. 8. If you are trace a polygon, you can use CTRL to trace the other way around the polygon 9. Click with the Right mousebutton when the 'trace' look okay 10. Continue drawing if you need to Peter Horsb�ll M�ller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. Denmark Tel +45 6311 4900 Direct +45 6311 4908 Mob +45 5156 1045 Fax +45 6311 4949 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cowi.dk/gis -----Original Message----- From: Hughes, Colleen / Don Mitchell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:00 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: MI-L AutoTrace doesn't work?? Hi List, I have just gotten MI Pro 7.8 as a trial and was trying out the AutoTrace to create a polygon on the cosmetic layer. I am finding that the AutoTrace does not do what it is supposed to do, or at least what I understand it is supposed to do (I am coming from MI Pro 7.0 which doesn't have AutoTrace). When I use it, I can draw a polygon by snapping to the nodes of an underlying polygon object in a different layer. However, according to the Help file on AutoTrace, if I hold down shift while doing this, it will not allow me to trace outside the plolygon I am tracing. This is not the case when I am doing it. I have also noticed that I can get exactly the same effect as just drawing a polygon with just the snap on and snapping to the nodes to the underlying polygon as I go. This is how I "traced" a polygon previously in MI 7.0. The help file isn't very helpful on using AutoTrace. I seem to be doing everything it says, yet the only difference I can tell is the word AUTOTRACE on the status bar of MapInfo. Am I missing something here? Is this how AutoTrace works? If it is, it seems rather useless. Can someone explain how to use it and what I should be seeing when I use it? Thanks in advance for any help. Don Mitchell --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 13833 --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 13837
