In light of the massive oil spill ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico this post is designed to highlight locations for data relevant to the spill, and to show these data in use in Cartographica. The BP oil platform Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20 and resulted in the deaths of 11 crew members. The subsequent fire caused the extreme deepwater oil rig to sink causing the largest oil disaster in U.S. history. In hopes of promoting more understanding about the incident several websites have offered GIS data regarding the incident. For this post data were obtained from The …

Washington D.C.'s GIS data catalogue provides numerous data about public issues within the city. One interesting data set is crime in D.C. In this post you will see how Cartographica can effectively manage large data sets for use in crime mapping. Specifically, this post will show you how to filter, export, merge, and analyze crime data. The crime data sets collected from the D.C. GIS catalogue combines many different types of crimes ranging from homicide to theft. Cartographica has the ability to quickly manage and sort data from data sets such as these so that we …

Exporting maps to Adobe Illustrator gives you the ability to enhance GIS output for presentation and publication. Cartographica 1.2 offers new enhanced features that give more specificity in what is exported to Adobe Illustrator from Cartographica. The new features give you the ability to choose line segment labels, to determine how polygons will be labeled, and it gives you the choice to export data along with the map. The segment labels option gives you choice in labeling lines with multiple segments. You can choose to label each line segment of label only the first segment. Also you are able …

A new feature of Cartographica 1.2 is layer bounding-box invisibility. This makes it easier to use a single large background map for multiple mapsets without having to be constantly zoomed in. Given that Cartographica now has the ability to import live maps you will find that this tool is very useful because it allows more flexibility with zoom commands when working with a large background map such as a Live Bing map. When a raster file is imported into Cartographica it will be displayed at its full extent. However when data are added for a specific location the map …

A great feature of Cartographica is the ability to add features to a map. This gives you the ability to quickly create new layers and add information to already existing layers. In conjunction with Cartographica's table tools (add coordinate, length, and area columns) the Add Feature option allows you to quickly georeference new layers, and it also can provide valuable information about the space used by the layer you created. These bits of information are important so that you can verify that the layer you created is a valid representation of the object being represented. The Add Feature option is …

Cartographica has been able to export to KML since it first shipped. Cartographica 1.2 has an enhanced KML exporter that makes it even easier to make your maps shine using Google Earth, Google Maps, and other products that use KML. The software now exports all raster and analysis layers, as well as the precise point types that you use in your maps in Cartographica (as opposed to using the default pushpins that are part of Google Earth's repertoire). To export a layer file to KML follow the steps below. First design a mapset that you want to export into …

Cartographica 1.2 offers new enhanced map layout and design capabilities with improved functionality and workflow.A new feature of 1.2 is the new layer control in Map Layout windows. Now, the visible layers in both Map objects and Legend objects may be edited separately from their original maps. This gives you the freedom to choose which layers displayed on your map will be shown in the design of final map output. Additionally, there were a couple of functionality improvement from previous versions. Specifically, the Map Layout legend no longer displays errant caution triangle when there is space for …

Cartographica supports many projection systems and now support the ability to add your own unique projection system to the program. The ability to add your own projection allows you to very accurately represent data on a map, which make for more accurate geospatial analysis. Cartographica has supported many projection systems in the past and the ability to add your own projection system gives Cartographica to accurately project data anywhere in the world. The new projection management features allow you to maintain custom projections in an group labeled User Defined Projections. This group contains all of the projections that you have …

A new feature of Cartographica 1.2 is the ability to re-geocode data that are already added to a map. This new option allows for additional information to be added to a dataset that describes the address used to match the point, a score indicating how accurate the geocoding process was, and a column that describes the source data used for geocoding. These pieces of information are important for keeping track of what went on during geocoding process, which allows for more accurate reporting of analysis results and procedures. Knowing how accurate the geocoding process was along with the specifics …

New to Cartographica 1.2 is the ability to compute columns in a data set (this includes adding computed columns to WFS layers!). Computed columns give users the ability to quickly create new variables that incorporate information from other data fields in the same data set. This allows users to quickly create rates, ratios, and proportions by using a simple drag and drop method. Cartographica currently supports a large number of basic math and geometric functions. See Below for the Step to Create Computed Columns The example below will calculate the number of retail sites per 1000 residents in Block …

Cartographica 1.2 offers several new geocoding features that will enhance user's ability to effectively geocode several forms of spatial data. Some of the new geocoding features include the ability to geocode with Bing, the ability to geocode layers that have already been imported, and the ability add spatial information to data sets that are incomplete, or not spatially defined. Cartographica can geocode both address and coordinate data and has the ability to add spatial information such as X and Y coordinates to layers that are not georeferenced. Some of the New Features of Geocoding in Cartographica! Geocoding can now …

Cartographica has had the ability to geocode address and coordinate data for a long time now. However, the ability to geocode using Bing is a new feature of Cartographica 1.2. Past geocoding methods in Cartographica have focused on the use of either Census Street Files (Tiger/Line Files) or coordinate data already stored in a data set. Bing offers more up-to-date access to street and address data through live access over the internet, which provides more accurate geocoding, especially for data that were collected in recent time. Using the Bing geocoder also means access to geocoding information in a …

A new feature of Cartographica 1.2 is the ability to add Live Maps to documents. Cartographica has the ability to directly use data from Bing, OpenStreetMap, and or any OGC-compliant Web Map Server. Each of these data sources can be displayed in Cartographica, and additional layers can be added for analysis. The advantages of directly adding Live Maps and WMS data are limitless, but the largest is the convenience of not having to dig around for a base map. These maps provide high resolution imagery of nearly every location on Earth, and provide great opportunities for research and exploration …

Version 1.2 of Cartographica has a new way of selecting symbols that allows the use of just about any image or drawing as a symbol, either from the built-in symbol browser, or from another source such as the internet. This is really handy as essentially any object that has an Identifiable symbol can be found on the internet and used (keeping in mind copyright ownership of the symbols). Symbol selection is now done through a drop zone inside of the Layer Styles window, located at the bottom of the window, to the right of the preview. When you click …

Cartographica 1.2 offers a new user interface for creating choropleth maps, which includes more advanced color palette options and a new Jenks classification for displaying categories of data on your map. This post highlights the new process for creating choropleth maps and talks about some of the advantages of the new user interface. In order to create a choropleth map follow the steps listed below... In the example, we are using data collected from the Washington D.C. GIS Data Catalogue, which includes city block groups with 2000 census data on demographic characteristics. In the example we are going …

A new feature of Cartographica 1.2 is the new color and palette management system. The system was complex and effective before, and now it has even more functionality! In previous versions users had to manually select color schemes from several color palate options in order to create choropleth maps, but now users have access to both pre-defined and user created color palettes. The new Color Palette Window (previously the Color Map Window) is great because it not only allows new color schemes to be created, but users can now simply drag and drop the colors directly on any layer …

A new map feature put out by the census bureau allows users to track how well Americans are doing at returning their 2010 census forms The map is designed to track the percent of households that have returned their census forms through the mail. Users can search the map by typing the zip code, name, or state of their community and then see how well their community is doing. It seems that one idea behind the map is to create a bit of national competition that will hopefully drive up the response rate of the national survey. At the time …

I am a frequent driver between Bloomington, Indiana and Lexington, Kentucky. In the past I have taken a route that was suggested by both logic and my GPS unit. However, recently a friend suggested that I try a different route to get home because it was faster, and a more relaxing drive. In order to determine which trip was more efficient I used my GPS unit to track my trip to see which one was better. In order to determine which trip was better I used Cartographica's GPS import ability to map my two trips and to conduct some basic …

The 2010 Winter Olympics are underway in Vancouver, British Columbia!!! In honor of the games, this post is dedicated to mapping the city of Vancouver and several important Olympic sites. For this post data were obtained from the City of Vancouver's Data Catalogue, which has a lot of really interesting data about the city. Included within this data are several files that show important Olympic sites, as well as data about rapid transit systems and road closures. Vancouver is a coastal city that is a very popular tourist destination. Known for both its natural and man-made beauty it is home …

The 2010 U.S. census began this morning in a nearly $300 million dollar attempt to count the nation's population. The census bureau is sending out forms to nearly 120 million households in hopes that they will top the year 2000 response rate of 67%. The census is relevant to mappers because much of the information that is collected in done so through geographic units of analysis. We often hear about Block Groups and Census Tracts, well, the census is where we get these terms. The census divides the nation into incrementally smaller units and data are collected from each …