I have to finish a
project in AV and so am learning it using the ESRI online course. For fun I
decided to carry out the exercises with Maptitude 4.2 as well as AV 3.2. I
wanted to see what features are in AV that might be nice to have in Maptitude.
From now on I will
make these AV vs. Maptitude discovery emails much shorter. Just the main points.
To be fair to ESRI,
comments I make about features in AV may be just plain wrong since I do not know
the product very well. As an example I thought for about a week that the AV
selection tool didn't have the capacity to do anything but select items by
pointing until I discovered a drop down list with polygon select,
polyline select etc. Maptitude has the selection tools right up front on
the floating tool bar, AVs are a bit hidden and require an extra step to get one
ready to use. This I found to be a general hassle for me, a lot more clicking to
find the simple stuff.
The HELP
capacity: AV comes with a programming language Avenue (soon to be dropped
no matter what ESRI says, and changed to VB 6 or close). The HELP seems to be
heavily weighted towards AVENUE and far less to just using AV. Some items are
described very well, others are very brief. I have never had trouble with mapt
help, perhaps others can comment.
Selection
Sets: AV can make a selection set but as far as I can see, it
cannot be named, or have the color, symbols changed or saved. One has to make a
new view, save it there, etc. I found this to be a huge drawback as I use Mapt's
selection set capacity all the time and frequently come back to it to manipulate
the selection sets. Just low IQ has ever prevented me from ANDing and ORing a
selection set in Mapt one way or other .. not even a possibility in AV without a
lot of trouble, a lot more trouble anyway. When I asked about this - a friend
who is a AV super user, and explained how Mapt's selection set features worked,
she commented "oh yes, that would be nice ... golly I didn't know
Maptitude could do that! " What it amounts to is you get one selection set
at a time. Imagine Maptitude with just having available the default selection
set.
Mapt could make
selection sets stronger by having a little metadata item which lets me remember
how the selection set was created. It doesn't have to be automatic but just a
note I could add that could be retrieved.
Crosstabs: AV
has the capacity to do simple breakdowns of data, essentially a cross
tabulation. This would be a nice addition to Maptitude. Caliper people should
look at this feature in AV and then design it right - once you see it, its
pretty obvious how to do it right.
Simple items:
Things like having the last 5 projects that one has used available on the file
menu re not there unless you use an extension provided by a user on the AV
listserve. I have found a lot of things like this that really cause heartburn. I
have added I guess 10 user supplied extensions to do things that Mapt includes
as part of the product. Seems dangerous to be letting users define the
specifications of your product. I couldn't figure out a way to have a default
file location, it always opens in the AV program file. Mapt has the same
problem. A lot of extra clicking unless you put shortcuts pointing to other
directories all over the place.
That said, I wish
there was a collection of extensions for Mapt somewhere that I could browse
through.
THE AV "Project"
: Everything has to be done in the context of a Project, I think it is the
same as a Mapt workspace. One can't just open a MAP, you got to have a project.
For me this causes a lot of overhead and extra work. There is no way to just
open a shape file (shp) and look at it with first making a project (and you can
add a layer until you give it a name) and then make a view and then ... and then
..click click . and then .more clicks .. At first the Views with the
"legends" (they are not really legends) seemed appealing but it got old fast.
Also you do not know what you are really looking at unless you make 8 clicks to
change the properties, that is the label on the legend. So you do not know if
you are looking at income or population or what. Especially a problem with
thematic mapping.
One thing that would
be a nice addition to Mapt is to be able to toggle the layers from an
on-screen display of the layers, similar to AV. But the appearance of this
feature should be optional. It can eat up a lot of screen real-estate in a
hurry. But it could be done with a small bar off to the side or similar. Mayv=be
just having the current layer dialog box remain open would be OK. Also would be
nice to have an "apply" capacity on the layer dialogue box so that we could see
the results of a style change before closing out the box.
I prefer the
capacity to work with just a MAP or have a workspace but not be forced into
using a workspace, the AV project. A downside of the Project is that is you
screw up and move something or there is a problem with the Project system-wise
(like you assign it a long file name with spaces - it will accept it but
you can never open it again) you have lost all your work. I have problems
sometimes with Mapt's workspace (which I have never been able to nail down - its
better lately or I am) but if I save MAP files too I am not completely
hammered if the workspace fails.
A problem I have in
AV as a result is that I cannot open two projects simultaneously. Its one or the
other. Same with Mapt but I can open two different MAPS from two different work
spaces. So if I want to open a map (view) in AV from another project then I
have to completely reconstruct it in the project I have open.
General ease of
use: Seems I have to click and fiddle about 20-50% more in AV. There may
be shorter, more efficient ways to do things but it seems to be all oral
tradition and not in HELP or the manual. In Mapt I can make a very decent map in
2 minutes after installing it - this always delights my classes- after
three online lessons in AV I have still not learned how to make a map for
printing. There certainly is no MapWizard or Map Librarian.
Areal
interpolation: There is no capacity to do Areal interpolation,
polygon/polygon overlay, something I use all the time in doing disease outbreak
investigations. In Mapt its on the tool bar as a fundamental feature, no where
to be seen in AV. I have asked about this on AV listserves - no results so far.
(Same with MapInfo) The buffer tools in AV are pretty thin for me unless this
capacity exists.
Thematic
mapping: Better in Mapt by far, AV does offer Natural Breaks - but of
course that has pitfalls. The capacity to do manual changes is more facile in
AV. Caliper should check this out. The legends however are tough to deal
with and you can easily lose track of what you have mapped. If you want to make several thematic maps to save you
need to make a view, put in a layer, make the thematic map, label it properly,
etc.
Queries: Parts
of AV queries seem a bit more convient than Mapt's but I'll detail this later.
One cannot save a query to be called back later. You can't even get the one you
just made 1 minute ago - you have to reenter in the entire string. I had to add
on a user extension to have this capacity in AV which is of course is built
into Mapt. But since you can't have more than a default selection set then its
tough to work with selections without going through and remaking them every
time.
Projections:
One really has to have their knowledge about projections straight or you do not
function in AV. No automatic anything. I do not see how a beginner deals with
this one. When I get an AV layer I can deduce the projection a lot of the time
by looking at the coordinates appearing on the screen as I move the mouse.
General
organization: I can't figure out how AV is organized. I guess I am just
too stupid, but the layout seems to be a hodgepodge of buttons which I forget
about from one lesson to the other. Mapt definitely gets the prize on this one
for being pretty well organized.
Online course:
ESRI's on-line courses are pretty good. There is nothing flashy, just plain old
web pages with a few links. Basic info and then some decent exercises. They are
too expensive but a lot cheaper than their in-person training.
Richard Hoskins
To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
