Fellow Maptituders, I've placed two new tools on the directionsmag.com website for download. These were inspired in part by 1) Mike McCann's recent comment in message 3626 about difficulties with how Maptitude treats image annotations (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Maptitude/message/3626); 2) Doug Johnson's comment in message 3631 about the challenges inherent in taking maps "on the road" (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Maptitude/message/3631); and most of all 3) my own occasional frustration at taking a map home to work on, only to discover that I forgot one of the underlying geo files.
It is possible that the new v5.0 (hooray!) release will ameliorate some or all of these issues. And there is also the distinct possibility that one or both of these scripts will not work in 5.0 (can't test, since we've only just ordered it; I'm using 4.7). But here they are anyhow: Maps2go.rsc (http://www.directionsmag.com/files/index.php/view/745) "maps2go" moves a map to a "to go" directory, allowing you to take a map on the road with the assurance that it will open (all of the geographic files will be available) when you get to your destination. The script: 1) Elicits user input for the "to go" directory. 2) Checks whether the geographic files, including imagery files, used in the map exist in the "to go" directory (if not, makes copies). 3) Finds "freehand bitmap" annotations (.bmp/.jpg/.jpeg), makes certain that a copy of the image exists in the "to go" directory, records the info needed to restore the annotation to an external file, and finally removes the image from the map. (This step is necessary because Maptitude doesn't look for bitmaps the way it looks for geographic files-- again see Mike McCann's comment in message 3626). 4) Saves the map, sans bitmap annotations to the "to go" directory. The bitmap annotations removed from your map can be restored using the "restore images" macro (see below). Strip and Restore Images.rsc (http://www.directionsmag.com/files/index.php/view/746) This file contains two macros, "strip images" and "restore images" "strip images" searches through the list of annotations in a map_file. If it finds a "freehand bitmap" annotation (bitmap or jpeg) it records everything there is to know about the annotation to an external file: the filename of the annotation, its location within the map, and the like. This info is stored as plain text in a file named filename for the map itself + "-map-images.txt" "restore images" reads the information back from the external file and restores the bitmap annotations to the map. The macro looks for the image file first in its original place. If the image is not found there, the macro next looks in the path containing the current map. If the image is still not found, the macro prompts the user to search for the file. Once the image is located, it is returned to its original map coordinates and with its other settings intact. PLEASE NOTE: I'm making these available without charge (GPLv3 license), so there are no warranties or support available. Sorry. That said, if you do find a bug, I'd like to know about it. Please copy down the EXACT error message (the numbers separated by the commas are crucial!) and send it along. And though these tools are free of charge, they did take a considerable amount of time to develop. So please consider making a donation to one of my favorite 501(c)3's (see the comments in the code for details). Software tools and a tax write-off... what more could you ask for? Are you a skinflint? That's OK too-- just please pay it forward. That's what I'm doing right now: I wrote these tools on Notepad++, for which I paid not a dime. And in closing, the usual shout-out to Larry Manire and Armando Scalise, who helped foster a GISDK developer community by releasing lots of their code including-- but not limited to-- the DKAIDS package. In that spirit, I have posted commented code instead of a compiled version. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Maptitude/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Maptitude/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
