Mapping Center

Just using Maplex to label your map will result in more labels and more of those labels correctly located. We've been saying that for a while now. The simpler your map is (fewer features and fewer clusters of features) the more likely it is that Maplex will be able to place all the labels correctly. Another dimension of getting correctly placed labels is knowledge of what is possible with respect to how Maplex works and how to best leverage its features. However, it does not matter whether your map is complex or you don't know as much as you would like to about Maplex--producing and editing annotation is the answer if you want your map to look its best. Read More...

Last week I was working with a map layer of water mains and at 1:2,400 scale the shorter mains were labeled with leader lines (because they were too short to show the entire label along the line). My map was initially using the Transverse Mercator based on NAD_83 coordinate system. Then I learned that I needed to make the map in a different coordinate system as well: WGS_84, so I could serve it and have it mash up on our ArcGIS Online Street Map. Read More...

We got one of those perennial 'tough nut' questions on Ask a Cartographer today. The question had to do with annotation versus Maplex and what are often called overflow labels, which I have also heard called "key lists". While we are able to recommend tips and tools for specific circumstances or implementations, the person asking was more interested in what is the best strategy and why. So here's their question:

"We produce a 1"=1000' City map book from our GIS, similar to the Thomas Bros. street guides. Read More...

Notice in the first graphic below that the labels for "CAJON ST" and "CLIFTON CT" are placed over of major streets in a way that makes them difficult to read. This graphic is derived from my recent blog entry on the Maplex Street Placement option, and I was using the Street Placement option, but that left me with this problem. Well, this happened because I didn't tell the Maplex Label Engine to treat the major streets differently. Read More...

You may already have the Maplex for ArcGIS Extension. It's free with an ArcInfo license of ArcGIS. Many ArcInfo users don't know this and that fact has unfortunately kept many people from taking advantage of the superior text placement capabilities in the Maplex Label Engine.

One of those capabilities is the Street Placement option, which is available in the user interface for line layers. Though it is obviously for street labeling, we are often asked what exactly does it do?. Here's the answer Read More...

We've had a number of folks writing in on Ask a Cartographer wondering how to displace or offset coincident points so all the points could be seen. Data with coincident points is most commonly produced as a result of geocoding addresses. There are at least two ways to handle displaying this data.  One would be to create a graduated or proportional symbol thematic map, and to do that the input point data would be processed with the Collect Events tool, which would produce output containing points that represented the locations and an attribute that indicated how many points were at that location. Read More...