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wxGUI Cartographic Composer

Table of contents

DESCRIPTION

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:


wxGUI Cartographic Composer

Cartographic Composer enables to load in saved instructions file. Loading instruction files created by Cartographic Composer is more robust, as opposed to loading files created manually.

Currently supported ps.map instructions:

CARTOGRAPHIC COMPOSER TOOLBAR

icon  Generate instructions file
Generates and saves text file with mapping instructions.
icon  Load instructions file
Load text file with mapping instructions.
icon  Page setup
Specify paper size, margins and orientation.
icon  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
icon  Pan
Drag the pan cursor while pressing the left mouse button to move your view.
icon  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.
icon  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.
icon  Zoom to page
Zoom to display the entire page
icon  Map frame
Click and drag to place map frame. If map frame is already drawn, open a dialog to set its properties.
icon  Raster map
Shows a dialog to add or change the raster map.
icon  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.
icon  Add overlays
Add overlays: vector labels, grid (not yet implemented)
icon  Add labels
Add vector labels created beforehand by v.label module.
icon  Add map elements
Add map elements: legend, scalebar, map info, text
icon  Add legend
Add raster or vector legend or edit their properties.
icon  Add map info
Add information about region, grid and scale or edit map info properties.
icon  Add scalebar
Add scalebar or edit its properties.
icon  Add text
Add text label.
icon  Remove selected element
Select an object and remove it. Pressing Delete key does the same.
icon  Show preview
Generates output and switches to Preview mode to see the result. Be patient, it can take a while.
icon  Generate hardcopy map output in PS
Generates hardcopy map output in PostScript/EPS file.
icon  Generate hardcopy map output in PDF
Generates hardcopy map output in PDF using ps2pdf or Ghostscript gswin32c/gswin64c (OS MS Windows platform only).

SEE ALSO

wxGUI
wxGUI components

See also wiki page.

AUTHOR

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

SOURCE CODE

Available at: wxGUI Cartographic Composer source code (history)

Latest change: Thursday Sep 28 20:19:00 2023 in commit: c0bf40313580321eb1d0b24a90c593ef5a21d129


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