Odd... it worked on my home machine but I can't replicate it here at
work. Maybe they changed the behavior between versions?
McCann, Michael J. (Mike) wrote:
Hi Moshe,
"You can always fake out the program by sticking a dummy image into the
path Mapt is looking for, opening the layout, removing the image from
the layout, and then resaving. A pain, yes, but a reasonable workaround."
I don't believe this method works. Have you tested this idea? I
tried copying my images into the directory Maptitude was looking for,
and I still got the "Can't find image...retry or cancel" dialog box.
Also, if they can't add an image search dialog box, at least change
the program so it only tells you the missing image error once, not
every time you pan, zoom, refresh, print, etc.
As far as a release date for Maptitude 5.0, on October 15^th , Caliper
issued a press release stating that TransCAD 5.0 will be shipped out
in November. Hopefully, Maptitude will soon follow!
Mike
*From:* [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
*On Behalf Of *Moshe Haspel
*Sent:* Friday, October 26, 2007 10:28 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* [Maptitude] Re: Insert image into a layout
Mike,
You have a valid complaint... to a point.
The problem you refer to is not unique to Maptitude; it plagues every
GIS package I am aware of. A map file (or a project, or whatever the
other folks call it) is just a set of parameters specifying a query
against a spatial database (the geographic files upon which the map is
based). That's why your map file is a lean 100k or so even when the
underlying geographic files total 50 megs. By the same token, when you
insert an image into a map or an overlay, it again simply creates a
pointer to that file. Move the files, and the pointers point to nothing.
The most obvious alternative, embedding the actual data in the map,
would create more problems than it would solve. It would be nice,
then, if Maptitude was smarter about locating the missing file. But
that's not really Caliper's fault; Microsoft's file indexing system
stinks.
That said, I agree wholeheartedly that a "find image" dialog box
instead of a message that says "Note! Cannot find image X:\xxxxx.jpg"
would be helpful. Hopefully that will be part of the 5.0 overhaul.
[Release date PLEASE?!?]
You can always fake out the program by sticking a dummy image into the
path Mapt is looking for, opening the layout, removing the image from
the layout, and then resaving. A pain, yes, but a reasonable workaround.
Another potentially useful hack: move all of your geographic files to
a folder within your new, roomy c: drive, then map that folder as e:\.
Basically you 1) configure that folder as "shared" such that only you
may share it 2) Use map network drive to exploit the share. Once the
OS thinks it that folder is e:\, Maptitude will follow suit.
--- In [email protected] <mailto:Maptitude%40yahoogroups.com>,
"McCann, Michael J. (Mike)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Moshe,
>
> Thank you very much for your sharing your Maptitude scripts. I just
have a quick comment about using images in a layout:
>
> Inserting images in layouts should be done with caution. If you
have the images in one directory and the layout in another, or you
move files from one drive to another where there are layout files with
images, you will basically screw up the layout and go through extreme
frustration...
>
> For example, if you try opening a map and a layer file is missing
(because you have moved it, e.g.), Maptitude gives you the option to
browse for the missing file. With images, both in a map and in
layouts, you do not have this option. With a map, you will keep
getting an unable to locate image message for each and every image,
and you have to click a "cancel" button each and every time for each
image it can't find, and worse, you have to keep doing this if you
zoom, pan, refresh, etc. Ditto for a layout, and on some occasions,
if the image has been moved to a different directory or deleted, the
layout will simply not open. If it does open, you have to go through
the same clicking the "cancel" button for each image, each time you
make any kind of changes to the layout.
>
> As an example, I had been storing many maps and layouts on an
external drive. I recently got a new PC with a much larger internal
hard drive. I transferred the external hard drive (e drive) files to
my internal drive (c drive). This completely screwed up all my maps
and layouts with images. The problem also a real pain when you have
multiple users of Maptitude.
>
> Again, just cautioning about using images in Maptitude. I have
found layouts to be the biggest pain in Maptitude. Don't expect a
whole lot of improvement in 5.0. I have reported this problem to
Caliper, and requested that a search for missing images dialog box be
made available much like the search for missing layer dialog box is
available. Haven't heard anything back though as far as a resolution
to this problem. Otherwise, I think Maptitude is a fine product.
>
> Hoppe this makes sense!
>
> Mike
>
--
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| Moshe Haspel, Ph.D. |
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