Thursday, October 23, 2008

MapInfo MapCad 9.5

I thought I should post a little more about MapCAD than just "I Couldn't get it to install." If you are using 9.5 you should definitely download MapCAD. It will give you more data editing control than previously, as well as speed up some general data editing tasks.

To add MapInfo MapCad. Go To --> Tool Manager. Click on Add Tool, and navigate to C:\Program Files\AGIS\MapCAD. Then add the MapCAD.mbx. Two new toolbars should be added.

Highlights:
Basic CAD stuff like mirroring and filleting. The Copy Style tool is cool, and can be useful at times. This is a common feature in Word (AutoCAD has one as well).

There are some more sophisticated options such as splitting a polyline (exploding) to different line segments. There is a tool to add nodes at intervals on a segment. The Calculate angle and direction tools will be useful for more precise drawing.

I think the Create Lines and Create Polylines from database are interesting. Seems to be a way to store geographic data without using a spatial object...but with SQL server 2008 express this might not be necessary...

Basically they've added some nice little features that are part of a CAD application.

I found the tools a little cumbersome initially, but it didn't take long to figure them out.
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I've complained about Named Views on here a few times, so with that in mind here is a feeble attempt to produce something "different." This is my first MapBasic Application, so feel free to improve upon it. Basically it adds to options to the Map Menu - Load Saved View and Save View. All it does is write the centre coordinates and zoom to a text file. Nothing fancy, but it might work for you.

For the source code.

For a compiled file (mbx, version 9.5).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neat tool! This may come in handy for a few projects. Thanks for sharing.

Matt C said...

Here is the same exact thing, only coded more efficiently and avoids the need for any file i/o:

(Variable declarations omitted)

'----------------
Sub record_view

recView.x = MapperInfo(FrontWindow(),MAPPER_INFO_CENTERX)
recView.y = MapperInfo(FrontWindow(),MAPPER_INFO_CENTERY)
recView.z = MapperInfo(FrontWindow(),MAPPER_INFO_ZOOM)

End Sub
'----------------
Set Map
Window FrontWindow()
Center (recView.x,recView.y)
Zoom recView.z

End Sub
'----------------

David S. Lamb said...

Thanks for sharing! Does this record the view inside the workspace?

Matt C said...

No, this is just psuedcode. its missing a the rest of the code included in a typical mbx.

Suresh said...

Can I download MapCad.mbx from the net, can u gimme the link.

Mine was an Active Directory installation, do not have MI CD with me.