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).

Good to know

Just wanted to thank Hampden GIS/IT for a very valuable MapInfo tip. As I've said a few times, I'm not a fan of workspaces, but there is something you can do with a workspace that you can't with any other proprietary program file I've worked with (e.g. *.dwg, *.mxd, *.map). You can open it up in Notepad or WordPad. This is excellent for fixing broken paths (which I'm needing to do right now). It's actually neat to read through it, because it is like reading a program...a LISP or FORTRAN program. Sort of takes me back to working with AutoCAD commandline. Personally, I think commandline is more efficient than searching for icons...This is probably a good workaround to the Named Views problem. Pick a view that works at then use map basic to set it...even copy and paste it into the workspace in Notepad. That's much better than saving it at the application level. In fact to rebuild this workspace, I'm just copying the Map Basic code because it wouldn't load anymore. That's definitely a mark in the plus column for MapInfo.

Still I couldn't resist an experiment. I started a new workspace with one Map Window and one Layout Window. Saved the workspace, then added a piece of text to the layout, closed the layout window and saved as a new workspace. I compared the two in Notepad, and the layout was gone in the second workspace. I was secretly hoping that it just retained all the commands, but of course that really isn't efficient to save all the commands. Oh well, nothing is perfect. In the end, I shouldn't be trying to fit MapInfo into an AutoCAD ArcGIS mold, all three are different programs. It's useful to know the quirks so that I can compensate when using any of the programs.