Blog Archives

Linear features - How to Handle them - Beginners MAPINFO Tip

8/27/2014

In today's MapInfo blog I'm going to talk about how you handle linear features in MapInfo so digitising them and measuring them.

If you want to measure something on screen then you need to go into the measurement setting which is done by clicking RULER which you can find in the main tool bar. You can then click at the first point that you want to measure from, and a small Ruler window will then appear showing the length of that particular segment [DISTANCE = ] and also the total cumulative distance of the digitised lines or path [TOTAL = ]. Obviously at this stage with only one point on the map neither will give a reading.

The DISTANCE and TOTAL figures will now start continuously updating as you move the cursor around the screen. When you have the cursor over the end point of the line that you want to measure you can now press ESCAPE and this will freeze the values in the pop up box. Remember that you can use the zooming and panning tools to ensure that the points that you're choosing are really accurate.

That's it really. MapInfo makes measuring and dealing with straight lines on maps really very straightforward indeed.

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Editing a polygon - beginners mapinfo tip

8/18/2014

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Useful tools in this step: Select (), Reshape (), Add Node ()

We explored how to create a polygon in the previous blog article. Once you're created your polygon in MapInfo its very likely that you will then need to edit or amend it, luckily MapInfo makes that a very straightforward process.

Firstly, choose the polygon that you want to amend using the SELECT tool. Once you've chosen it you will then need to be able to see all of the different points that you clicked in order to make up the edge of the polygon (these are also known as nodes). So use the DRAWING tool bar to choose RESHAPE. Now that you can see all of the different individual points you can also change each of them. In the event that you actually just want to delete a point, just select the individual node with the SELECT tool and press delete on the keyboard. If you want to add a further node then the ADD NODE tool lets you do this.

Once you are happy with your polygon you can get some straightforward data on it using the 'GET INFO' option when you have right clicked using the SELECT tool.  This will then show you a selection of standard information about your polygon like the boundary and area of your polygon.





This will then bring up some characteristics of this polygon as shown in the image below. One of these measurements is the total area of the polygon in squared kilometres. Notice that the great advantage of using MapInfo (or similar GIS) is that, unlike counting up squares of graph paper, any scaling adjustments required to account for the scale of the source mapping data are already automatically accounted for. MapInfo’s measurements are also very precise, which is why it is important to ensure that the digitised polygon is accurately representing the real boundaries of the contributing area.

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Creating a polygon

8/12/2014

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Once you have created a map in MapInfo it is then time to start working with it.

A very simple thing to do it so create a polygon. This is simple just marking out an area of the map which, as we will see in subsequent blog posts, we can then measure and manipulate.

In order to mark out the area you simply select the pointer icon which is the 3rd item along on a mapinfo drawing tool bar. You then select polygons and you can start marking out your area.

Each time you click on the map it will create a point and a straight line. You then need to click on the point at each point at which you want to change direction. Obviously a polygon needs to be joined or completed. There are a couple of ways you can finish your polygon, you either double click your left mouse button or click ESCAPE and the computer will automatically finish your polygon and complete the area.

If you are not happy with your Polygon you can Select it and then press DELETE and it will delete you polygon so that you can start again.

If you polygon is almost correct, but not quite right you might want to edit it.

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Creating a Legend - Beginners MapInfo Blog Post

8/8/2014

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Another beginner's mapinfo blog post today, how to create a legend on your map.

Firstly you open the map menu and click on the create legend option. This bring up a dialogue box showing your legend frames, which should show all of the tables that are included in your map. This is where you can remove a dataset from the legend. You simply highlight it and then click the remove button just to the box's left.

Having done that you then need to use the Up and down buttons that are below the legend frames box to organise the datasets into the order in which you would like them to appear.

Having done this click Next and a new dialogue box will appear. This will ask you to choose a title for your legend, it will also ask a number of further questions about how you would like the legend to appear. In general it is best to just clear the default entries from these boxes if you want a simple legend.

Finally click finish and your legend will appear. If you would like to change the description for the datasets that are appearing you only need to double click on the individual dataset within the legend box and a new dialogue box will appear that very simply lets you do this.

Once you get the hang of this in mapinfo you'll find that creating a professional looking legend takes a couple of minutes.

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Using the Mask Tool - bEGINNERS bLOG POST

8/4/2014

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The Mask tool lets you to put a translucent mask around one or a number of region objects in your Mapinfo map. To use it first you need to select the region that you would like to mask. Obviously you need to select more if you want to mask more regions.

Next click on the MASK button and a dialogue box will appear. It will ask you to set the key parameters in your mask so Level of transparency, Border style and finally the name of the final mask table, and where you would like to store it.

A Gotcha to be aware of is that the MASK button is only enables when the selection that you have made only contains region objects and also when the front window is a map window.

Hopefully this is useful for beginners who are new to MapInfo.

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Linear features - How to Handle them - Beginners MAPINFO Tip

Editing a polygon - beginners mapinfo tip

Creating a polygon

Creating a Legend - Beginners MapInfo Blog Post

Using the Mask Tool - bEGINNERS bLOG POST

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