Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html
Hi,
Responding to Murry Rice's initial email here, as well as
relevant follow-up offered by others.
First, a global statement regarding the Adobe PDF writer: use
Acrobat 4.0 or higher! There were known deficiencies in Acrobat
version 3.0 and our experience has been very positive using the
Acrobat 4.0 PDF writer to make PDFs out of Maptitude maps.
>1. occasional lock-ups when printing layouts (usually not just straight
>maps), most often to my HP, but also a couple of times to Acrobat; these
>have occurred maybe 10%-20% of the time over the last year or two.
Lock-ups and other errors encountered when printing are most often
due to the printer driver. Maptitude itself is doing very little
from the moment you select the "Print" command. The remedy is to
obtain and install a newer printer driver for you printer. Check
the manufacturer's web site. Printer drivers are known sources
of problems and are updated fairly frequently. You'll usually be
able to find and download a newer one than you have.
>2. differences in manual label locations "on screen" vs. "on the printed
>page" (i.e. a place name shifted to the left or right between the two,
>sometimes by the length of the word). This occurs in printing to both the
>HP printer and the Acrobat PDF Writer; in Acrobat, the differences between
>Maptitude and the PDF file can still be seen while still viewing the PDF
>on screen in Acrobat.
There are a few things at work here. Again, drivers are key. Your
video driver and your printer driver together can greatly effect how
"true" a printout you get. When experiencing these types of problems,
I would first check to make sure you had the "latest and greatest"
video and printer drivers installed for your video adapter and printer.
Additionally, version 4.2 of the software has some enhanced handling
of manual labels which should prevent this problem
>3. an inability to have cross-hatching in Maptitude maps show up at all in
>PDF files created by Maptitude via the PDF Writer
My guess is that this is a problem with the PDF writer. Have you
tried it using Acrobat 4.0? There is a small chance that the PDF
writer can't handle the particular pattern you chose. Try
experimenting with some other fill patterns.
>4. in printing PDF files from Acrobat (file generated originally by
>Maptitude), color reversals in a small number of seemingly random polygons
>(e.g. sales areas, census tracts) but perfect in the rest of the map (the
>PDF files look fine on screen, the problem occurs when printing from Acrobat)
Again, try the Acrobat 4.0 PDF writer.
>5. in printing a very large PDF file (generated by Maptitude) to a 42"
>inch width page, the disappearance of all map features except labels 3/4
>of the way down the printed page (with the upper part of the page printing
>beautifully); note, this is printing a PDF directly from Acrobat to an HP
>DesignJet 1050C. Again, the PDF viewed perfectly on screen, but printed
>with the same flaw three times.
This behavior, as has been suggested by other listers, is probably
memory related. Whenever you see the printer output just stop
partway through in the manner you describe it usually mean the
printer basically gave up on completing the job, but didn't
get around to actually stopping the printout. Increased printer
memory is pretty much the only remedy to this type of problem.
>I realize that some of these problems could be the fault of the printer
>driver and Adobe Acrobat (as in perhaps #4 above), but I'm frustrated that
>Maptitude is the only application I have that has acted this way in printing.
When Caliper Tech Support brings up video and printer driver issues,
a common response is, "But all my other applications print/behave
perfectly well with the drivers I've got." This frustration is
totally understandable, but you must understand that Maptitude is
not at all like your other applications. Maptitude is often
rendering very complex maps, with dense linework, complex
shading and filling, varied text handling, etc. It is producing
graphics output unlike most other Windows applications, including
even other mapping/GIS packages. The downside of this is that
Maptitude can be more sensitive to problems with printer/video
drivers and the like. Most of these problems can be very simply
remedied by updating the relevant drivers.
-Philip Villars
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Philip Villars
Caliper Corporation
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
617-527-4700 x53
617-527-5113 FAX
www.caliper.com
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