Mapping Center

Creating tree symbols in ArcGIS

2009-11-12T05:00:00Z

Tree symbols are a great way to enhance the appearance of a large scale, detailed map. To make attractive point symbols for trees, you need a good place to start from and thankfully all of us ArcGIS users have that. Using multi-layer character marker sybmols, the variety of tree symbols you can create is endless. This blog is meant to introduce (or reintroduce) you to the ESRI US Forestry 2 font. It is also meant to give you some tips for creating a variety of tree symbols to use on your maps....(read more)

Announcing the ArcGIS Data Blog

2009-10-30T17:00:00Z

September and October sure went fast. We on the Mapping Center team have been very busy working on mapping projects, and have not spent as much time here--but we're finding a balance and will be getting more good blogs out here soon (several are in the pipeline).

Now there is a new blog, the ArcGIS Data Blog, that you should subscribe to in order to keep up on what's new with all of ESRI's data--this will give you an advantage by being able to produce better maps because you've got better content to use...(read more)

Globe locator map

2009-09-21T23:45:00Z

Need to add a quick locator map to your page layout? Want to spice things up a bit? Try this locator map – it has visual appeal because of the 3D appearance (promoted by the choice of projection and the gradient fill). There are just a few basic steps to creating this map: 1) Prepare the data to make the map, 2) create the map, 3) add your area of interest (optional), and 4) export the data used to make the map, if desired (this will save some drawing time for you.)

Note that this is a technique you would want to use only if your area of interest is large enough to be seen on the map, and it is best used when you want the map reader to get an idea of where in the world your area of interest is located....(read more)

Make a map of Washington Elevation – or a similar map for somewhere else!

2009-09-08T23:00:00Z

One of the presentations we gave at this year’s User Conference was "The One Minute Cartographer". While we were developing the presentation, we had several intentions in mind. Most importantly, we wanted to demonstrate to the attendees of our session that making a good map in ArcGIS isn’t always as hard as it seems – often times, it is just a matter of going one or two steps beyond the defaults. Another thing that was really important to us was to make sure that all of the data we used to produce this map was also available to you through the ESRI Data and Maps DVD. And in addition, we wanted to create a set of resources with great potential to help map makers in a variety of ways: ...(read more)

How to use Geologic Mapping Template symbology with your database schema

2009-08-21T18:11:00Z

A common question we receive goes something like, 'How can I use symbols from the Geologic Mapping Template with my database?' The solution is simple, once you have downloaded the geologic mapping template, follow these steps to add its representation symbology to your geodatabase...(read more)

Creating an elevation legend

2009-07-25T02:40:00Z

A common question that we get on Mapping Center is how to create an elevation legend in ArcMap. In September of 2007, there was a blog entry on Mapping Center (Creating a legend for hypsometrically tinted shaded relief) that outlined a method for creating a legend for hypsometrically tinted shaded relief. When that blog was written, the option to Convert Graphics to Features was not yet available. This blog outlines a simpler method for creating an elevation legend using this new option (version 9.3 and later). ...(read more)

Using highway shields of varying widths

2009-07-23T23:20:00Z

Depending on the type of highway you are labeling (interstate highway, U.S. route highway, or state route highway), the standard highway shield symbol may or may not be wide enough for all the characters in your labels.

Often, you do not get the desired outcome by simply using one shield for all highway number labels because one size rarely fits all! The numbers look “squished” or they overrun the shield symbol when there are more than two characters (depending on how large you make the shield and the characters).

Here are some tricks you can use to create highway shields for labels of varying widths, especially when there are more than two characters in some of the highway names....(read more)

Highlights of the 2009 ESRI User Conference

2009-07-17T16:45:00Z

All of the Mapping Center Team was at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California this past week (July 11-17). We taught Tech Sessions, we demoed our online map services, we had meetings with users, we attended sessions, we judged maps, we promoted books, we solicited feedback on our work, and we made connections for future projects. We also got to see many people we know and to make new friends!

We thought you might like to hear what the highlights of the conference were from our perspective, but we'd love to hear what you thought about the conference, if you were able to be here. Please take a moment to add a comment so we can hear from you!...(read more)

The Buffer Wizard in ArcMap

2009-07-15T18:56:00Z

In the next couple of blog posts, we want to explain a bit about the two tools you can use to create buffers in ArcGIS. Buffers are used not only in analysis of distances and areas around point, line and area features, they are also used in mapping to achieve a number of cartographic effects, such as coastal vignettes. Since there are two tools and multiple methods you can use to create buffers, and each have their particular strengths and weaknesses, we thought it would be good to review these for you. In the next couple of blog posts, we'll describe the tools and methods, how they differ and what you need to consider when using them....(read more)

The "Map Sandwich"

2009-07-13T20:44:00Z

Last week we started telling you about the new ArcGIS Online World Topographic Map. As I was working on the design of that map, with the intent of providing a better basis for mash-ups, I had an idea. It was born of frustration with the fact some mash-ups don't work because too much information obscures the base map, making for an unreadable, often ugly result. Demographic layers represent a great example of the kind of information that just doesn't always work well in a simple mash-up....(read more)

2009 ESRI User Conference

2009-07-10T21:30:00Z

Most of the Mapping Center Team will be at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California over the next week (July 11-17). If you’re there, look for us in the following presentations:

The One Minute Cartographer - Aileen Buckley and Mamata Akella
Map Use Book Series - A. Jon Kimerling and Aileen Buckley
Local Government Basemaps using ArcGIS - Charlie Frye and others (Scott Oppmann and Steve Grise)
ESRI Geologic Mapping Template - Charlie Frye and Janel Day
Map Use: Reading and Analysis - A. Jon Kimerling and & Aileen Buckley

...(read more)

World Topographic Map

2009-07-09T16:02:00Z

The Mapping Center Team is pleased to share the ArcGIS Online News announcement that includes the availability of the new World Topographic Map. As several members of the Mapping Center team played a significant role in the design and production of this map, we would like to begin telling you about this map. The World Topographic Map covers the globe to about 1:1,000,000 scale. Within the U.S. (excluding Alaska), the map scale extends to about 1:18,000. The map is a cached map and uses the Virtual Earth/Google Maps tiling scheme (WKID = 102113). What follows are some of the essentials everyone should know about this map, including that the service is free....(read more)

ESRI Color Ramps Version 2.0

2009-07-07T20:00:00Z

We’ve posted our recently revised Color Ramps version 2.0 styles on our site to be more suitable for your use. Our impetus was we needed something new to work on a project with the topic of Washington Landforms and it is specific to printed maps. This is a map that we will talk about in our "One Minute Cartographer" session at the ESRI User Conference this year. This presentation will be posted on the Mapping Center - Other Resources page after the conference. The color ramp used on this map was selected from the PNW_x set in the new Hypsometry style. (PNW stands for "Pacific Northwest".)...(read more)

Tips for caching ArcGIS Server map services faster

2009-07-02T15:00:00Z

How fast can you cache? We keep asking ourselves that and keep finding that the more we know the faster we cache.

If you’re involved in the job of caching maps for online map services, you are already familiar with the need to optimize the process as much as possible so that it takes less time and effort. One way you can do this is to optimize how your maps are displayed – another is to optimize the environment you are caching your map in or the circumstances under which you are caching. This blog post is dedicated to the latter....(read more)

ColorBrewer Version 2.0

2009-06-30T22:00:00Z

Recently, a new version of ColorBrewer called ColorBrewer 2 (colorbrewer2.org) was released by Axis Maps (www.axismaps.com). ColorBrewer is a web tool for selecting colors for maps. The original ColorBrewer was released in 2002, and the update incorporates comments that the developers, Dr. Cynthia Brewer of Penn State University and Dr. Mark Harrower of University of Wisconsin Madison (he used to be a grad student at Penn State), have received over the years. Here are what some of the new features are....(read more)