Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html I appreciate David's explanation of the source of the problem of water blocks. The high resolution polygon files distributed by Caliper include water blocks (which include rivers). When building extracted polygon geographies from the national data files, it is frustrating to get counties (or other areas) bisected by rivers and pock-marked by all the internal water blocks which may exist. It would be extremely helpful if Caliper introduced a utility routine which could expedite merging these features (e.g. by a modified polygon overlay process which would, in effect, erase all internal water block features) so that area polygons selected and exported to unique files are whole and intact. I've used the tedious manual map editing procedures and have had problems with system crashes when trying to "remove" internal water blocks. Kevin Byrnes Va. Dept. for the Aging David Buckley wrote: > Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html > > I agree. Great Mapplication! Same with MassStat. > > It does, however, lead me to a "wish list" item which I have discussed with > Caliper tech staff but thought I'd air here for a list response. > > The way hi res county maps appear, with the county outlines distorted by > larger bodies of water and their outlines, sometimes even interior lakes > with "holes", really looks distracting. It's real obvious with the > national election map at smaller area views, and the MassStat site seems to > have the same problem with MCDs. > > I know why it happens: the Import Tiger function and the choices of > importing with and without water blocks, avoidable only by GISDK scripting > (to keep all the water blocks) using raw Tiger files. For me that ends up > only being a minor irritation because I use lots of Tiger block file maps, > but for regular users (or those not using DK) it can be a real pain. > Thematic maps really get chunky with big holes and counties get arbitrarily > separated if dissected by a water body -- and that confuses the county > border identification. > > I also am aware of the alternative by including (by default) water blocks. > States like New York have county boundaries that extend into surrouonding > water bodies like Lakes Erie and Ontario, and Long Island Sound and the > Atlantic, equally distorting the common sense "image" of the state and its > counties. > > Isn't there any alternative? > > David Buckley > _____________________________________________________________________________________ > Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com > > ______________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
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