DESCRIPTION

Note: wxGUI Cartographic Composer is currently under development.

wxGUI Cartographic Composer also called wx.psmap is a wxGUI extension which allows the user to create interactively hardcopy map outputs. This tool generates ps.map configuration file and then runs ps.map to create PostScript output. There are two modes - Draft mode for map composing and Preview mode (requires Python Imaging Library) to see how the result will look like. In draft mode map features (like legend or scalebar) are represented by a colored rectangle with a label.

Possible output files:

  • ps.map instructions file

  • PostScript/EPS file

  • PDF (using ps2pdf)

Cartographic Composer enables to load in saved instructions file. It works better with files created by wx.psmap (more tested).

Currently supported ps.map instructions:

  • paper

  • maploc

  • scale

  • border

  • raster

  • colortable

  • vpoints

  • vlines

  • vareas

  • vlegend

  • text

  • scalebar

  • mapinfo

  • point

  • line

  • rectangle

CARTOGRAPHIC COMPOSER TOOLBAR

Generate instructions file

Generates and saves text file with mapping instructions.

Load instructions file

Load text file with mapping instructions.

Page setup

Specify paper size, margins and orientation.

Pointer

Select object on the paper by clicking, drag the cursor while pressing the left mouse button to move it or resize object (currently only map frame) by clicking on a small black box in its bottom right corner. Double click to show object properties dialog

Pan

Drag the pan cursor while pressing the left mouse button to move your view.

Zoom in

Interactive zooming with the mouse in both draft and preview mode. Drawing a box or just a left click with the mouse and zoom-in cursor causes the display to zoom in so that the area defined by the box fills the display.

Zoom out

Interactive zooming with the mouse in both draft and preview mode. Drawing a box or just a left click with the mouse and zoom-out cursor causes the display to zoom out so that the area displayed shrinks to fill the area defined by the box.

Zoom to page

Zoom to display the entire page

Map frame

Click and drag to place map frame. If map frame is already drawn, open a dialog to set its properties.

Raster map

Shows a dialog to add or change the raster map.

Vector map

Shows a dialog to add or change current vector maps and their properties:

Data selection

Select data to draw:

Feature type

Select which data type to draw. In case of point data, points or centroids can be drawn, in case of line data, lines or boundaries.

Layer selection

Select layer and limit data by a SQL query or chose only certain categories.

Mask

Whether to use mask or not.

Colors

Color settings:

Outline

Select outline color and width in points. In case of lines, outline means highlighting.

Fill

Select fill color, one color for all vector elements or color from rgb column.

Size and style

Sets size, style, symbols, pattern; depends on data type:

Symbology

Available for point data. Choose symbol or EPS file to draw points with.

Line style

Available for line data. Select line style (solid, dashed, ...) and the look of the ends of the line (butt, round, ...)

Pattern

Available for areas. Choose pattern file and set the width of the pattern.

Size

Available for point data. Choose size (number of times larger than the size in the icon file) as a single value or take the size from a map table column.

Rotation

Available for point data. Rotate symbols counterclockwise with the given value or with the value from a map table column

Width

Available for line data. Set line width in points or take the value from a map table column.

Add map elements

Add map elements: legend, scalebar, map info, text

Add legend

Add raster or vector legend or edit their properties.

Add map info

Add information about region, grid and scale or edit map info properties.

Add scalebar

Add scalebar or edit its properties.

Add text

Add text label.

Remove selected element

Select an object and remove it. Pressing Delete key does the same.

Show preview

Generates output and switches to Preview mode to see the result. Be patient, it can take a while.

Generate hardcopy map output in PS

Generates hardcopy map output in PostScript/EPS file.

Generate hardcopy map output in PDF

Generates hardcopy map output in PDF using ps2pdf.

RELATED TO wxGUI.PsMap…

wxGUI

wxGUI components

See also wiki page.

AUTHORS

Anna Kratochvilova, Czech Technical Univesity (CTU) in Prague, Czech Republic (bachelor's final project 2011, mentor: Martin Landa)

$Date: 2013-02-15 23:04:18 +0100 (Fri, 15 Feb 2013) $

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