It is often useful to use a hillshade raster to show terrain to support other information in a map such as an analytical surface like population density, or a thematic overlay like soils. There is one significant problem with this; however, which is that the shading from the hillshade modifies the colors of the main information layer making ...

We got a good question on Ask a Cartographer this morning. The gist of the question was how to go about symbolizing street centerlines so they could be drawn using line symbol widths that reflected, at scale, the actual width of the road (as shown in the image to the left). This is a good cartographic solution because varying the line width adds ...

If you're making a map that is either a large format print map or a map that will be served via ArcGIS Server, squeezing every bit of wasted time out of drawing performance is critical.  Don't get tired of sitting there drinking extra cups of coffee watching the word ''Drawing'', all your layer names, and that little blue globe. If you're ...

In the first dot density mapping blog, we discussed the workflow for creating dot density maps using ArcMap.  In that discussion we emphasized the need for using exclusion or inclusion layers.  Here is an example of how we set up the inclusion and exclusion choices for mapping population density in San Bernardino County, the county ...

Keeping track of scale ranges at which a layer will be visible when a map has a few scale ranges and dozens of other layers can quickly become mind-boggling. This entry describes a strategy for using ArcMap's Table Of Contents (TOC) to create these maps and effectively manage all those layers and scales. As you create a map that will cover ...

One issue we hear about from the folks who teach cartography with ArcGIS is that users who are new to ArcGIS have some frustration in learning how to make minor customizations to symbols in the style files that come with ArcGIS.  For example, removing a layer from a multi-layer symbol, changing the color of part of a multi-layer symbol, ...

This question comes in fairly regularly at Ask A Cartographer, so I felt it was time to add a brief blog to use for future queries.  This issue is a common one, and is the topic of a Knowledge Base article that describes the basic steps needed to solve the problem.  The value added here is a bit more discussion as to why this is a ...

A question was posed on Ask a Cartographer about using representation rules that you have saved in a style in another map on a different layer.  The online help for this topic didn't provide much assistance. The topic on organizing representation rules in a style explained how to load the rules in to a new layer, but it didn't explain how to ...

Depicting natural areas such as vegetation or complex hydrography such as swamps and estuaries can be accomplished by merely using solid green fill and blue fill symbols. However, such symbols are arguably bland, and certainly do not convey relative density, ruggedness, or texture. Marker fill symbols can create many effects, ranging from ...

The map excerpt shown at right (click on it to see the details) shows an example of hollow cased roads.  The map is from a mosaic of USGS DRG image files.  The map specification requires that the cased road symbol contains a transparent gap.  The examples shown below were created with ArcMap 9.2 and used cartographic ...