Mapping Center

Marker fill symbols add realism to your maps

abuckley — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Another way to create polygon symbols that appear more realistic is to use marker fill symbols that mimic what you would see on the ground, but to vary them so that they do not clip at the polygon edges. This is the approach we took to create the symbol for the swamp/marsh features on our Crater Lake area map. Follow the steps in this blog entry to see how this was done....(read more)

Picture fill symbols add realism to your maps

abuckley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:00 GMT

The key to using picture fill symbols when imparting realism is to choose one that has a random appearance. Another trick is to pick one that looks something like the type of feature you are mapping. A number of pictures are provided with ArcGIS, and many of them fit these criteria. Follow the steps in this blog entry to see how you can apply this symbology on your maps using Esri-provided pictures....(read more)

Polygon fill symbols add realism to your maps

abuckley — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:00:00 GMT

When working with polygon data, it is common to symbolize these features with a colored fill and an outline. However, if you are trying to create a realistic impression on your map, this symbology works against you. In the real world, we rarely see lines around areas, and the inside of those areas are rarely the same color everywhere.

To add realism to polygon features, here are three tricks you can use....(read more)

Stream tapering adds realism to your map

abuckley — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:30:00 GMT

Stream tapering is a technique cartographers use to add more realism to a map and help readers determine the direction of flow by using a wider line width for downstream reaches than upstream reaches. Streams in nature vary in width based on things like flow, topography, or anthropogenic confinement. Tapering wider downstream lines to thinner ones upstream simulates the variation in stream width caused by increasing flow downstream. This method, which has long been used in cartography, was also described in Tom Patterson's article, Getting Real: Reflecting on the New Look of National Park Service Maps on his Shaded Relief web site. Although he describes how he achieved the effect using Illustrator, this blog entry describes how you can use ArcMap to accomplish the same thing....(read more)

Sun glints add realism to your map

abuckley — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:30:00 GMT

Sun glints are a way to add a more realistic effect to your map by modulating the tone of water features. We rarely see flat tones in nature, so using sun glints simulates the subtle tonal variations caused by the reflection of sunlight off a water surface. This method was first described in Tom Patterson's article, "Getting Real: Reflecting on the New Look of National Park Service Maps" on his Shaded Relief web site. Although he describes how he achieved the effect using Photoshop, here we describe how you can use ArcMap to accomplish the same thing....(read more)

Combining colored and grayshade rasters with high fidelity

rajnagi — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Have you ever noticed when you display a colored raster, such as elevation tints, transparently over a grayscale raster, such as a hillshaded surface, that you lose the intensity of your colors and that it is harder to see the hillshade details?

This is a problem common to all software in which colors and grayshades are combined. In the example described here, a layer tint with colors that relate to elevation values is overlain on a gray hillshade of the land surface. The resulting map looks washed out and relatively flat....(read more)

Making a Large-Scale 3D Map: Part 3

kenfield — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:00:00 GMT

In part 1 and part 2 of this blog entry, you learned about some of the design considerations for creating a large-scale 3D map, prepared your 2D building data in ArcMap, used ArcScene to create 3D representations of your building data, and transferred your data to Google SketchUp to render your models and then brought your models back into ArcScene. In this final part, you will use the models to create a 3D isometric map and add a range of additional symbols to create a rich large-scale 3D landscape for your static map.

...(read more)

Making a Large-Scale 3D Map: Part 2

kenfield — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:00:00 GMT

In part 1 of this blog entry, you learned about some of the design considerations for creating a large-scale 3D map and prepared your 2D building data in ArcMap. In part 2, you will use ArcScene to create 3D representations of your building data and also transfer your data to Google SketchUp for further model building. Part 3 will use the models to create a 3D map using an isometric projection and show you how to symbolize features.

...(read more)

Making a Large-Scale 3D Map: Part 1

kenfield — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:51:00 GMT

With the release of Esri CityEngine, advanced tools now exist for creating rich 3D content for urban planning, architecture, entertainment, and GIS, but does 3D allow you to build useful static maps? Can we make 3D static maps with ArcGIS and what are the design considerations?

This three-part blog entry explores the cartographic design for 3D static maps and shows you how to use ArcGIS to create your own detailed static 3D map. Part 1 provides some background to the design principles used to create these maps and how you can prepare your 2D data in ArcMap. Part 2 takes the 2D data into 3D using ArcScene and shows you how to convert your data to a form that allows you to render your 3D models using Google SketchUp. Finally, part 3 makes use of your 3D models in ArcScene to create the final map and shows you how to add symbology for other features in the landscape.

...(read more)

Tips on exposing your published map services on ArcGIS Online

RupertEssinger — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:00:00 GMT

If you've published or are planning to publish web map services using ArcGIS, here are some things you can do that will help people successfully find and use your services through ArcGIS Online.

1. Add metadata about your service

In the ArcMap document for the map that you are preparing to publish as a service, be sure to fill in the description, credits, and other metadata information in the properties dialogs for the map, the data frame(s) and the layer(s) in your map. This metadata is included in the service you publish and is accessible to users in the ArcGIS Services Directory (click here for an example) and when they add your services in ArcGIS Desktop....(read more)

Using scale visibility ranges for symbology in ArcGIS Online web maps

kenfield — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:03:00 GMT

When creating an web map using ArcGIS.com Map Viewer, the basic approach involves adding operational overlays to a basemap. As you add layers, they are set by default to be visible at all zoom scales. This often leads to problems at smaller scales as symbols overlap which can very easily render your map illegible and meaningless. By contrast, when you create a static map at a single scale you would consider the available map space and so design and position symbols to avoid these problems. It is useful to keep this principle in mind when designing web maps in a multi-scale environment since not all layers should necessarily be visible at all scales. This blog entry shows you how you can use the visibility range settings in ArcGIS.com Map Viewer so that operational overlays are only visible at certain scales. By taking a thoughtful approach to designing the content for your layers and setting their visibility range you can optimize the viewing experience for your map reader rather than bombard them with a mashup of tangled symbols.

...(read more)

Esri Color Ramps Version 3.0

Jaynya — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:30:00 GMT

By Jaynya Richards, Research Cartographer

Now available for download from Mapping Center (zip file, 0.3MB) is an updated set of color ramps that can be used for mapping elevation, bathymetry, environmental events, and much more! These are the newest versions of color ramp styles published earlier (ColorRamps 2.0)....(read more)

Download a PDF of ArcGIS Version 9.3 Styles

Jaynya — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:45:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to see the contents of some of the Esri Styles so you could plan your symbology, find a particular symbol, or just see what is available to you? Download this PDF document (31 MB) to see all of the symbols that were included in version 9.3 of the software. (This document relates to the styles that are included with the complete install of the 9.3 version of ArcGIS.) The index in the PDF will help you search for specific symbols.

Because of the way that styles were reconfigured in ArcGIS 10, we do not yet have a similar PDF document for version 10 styles. If this becomes available, we will also be sure to post this for you! For now, you will be able to find many of the version 10 symbols in the version 9.3 document....(read more)

Adding labels to ArcGIS Online web maps: Part 2

kenfield — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this blog entry we showed you how to use the Feature Outline Masks tool to convert annotation feature classes to polygon feature classes in ArcMap which can then be added to your ArcGIS.com web map as an operational overlay. This is a great way of adding labels to your web map.

...(read more)

Ten Quick References for Map Makers

amtait1986 — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:00:00 GMT

At the North American Cartographic Information Society (nacis.org) conference in October, I presented a list of 10 quick references for mapmakers. These are the scraps of paper on my bulletin board next to my computer. Some are photocopies of key pages out of books, others are screen captures from useful web pages, and some things I've jotted down freehand as I've worked with maps over the years.

I thought that if I were going to organize this information for myself, I would put them together in the spirit of collegial sharing that runs through the NACIS group. I shared them at Practical Cartography Day at NACIS, and I am happy to share the references with you in this blog post....(read more)