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Maplex—Automatic Cartographic Name Placement Software

Maplex takes digital cartographic data, symbolizes them according to user specifications, and places labels clearly and unambiguously. In addition to producing files of positioned labels, Maplex also helps to produce symbolized maps in Encapsulated PostScript, Illustrator, and FreeHand formats.

Label Placement Aims

Maplex works to place map labels in such a way that the following goals are met:

No ambiguity in regard to which label refers to which feature

Minimization of overlap between labels

Minimization of overlap between labels and features

Aesthetically pleasing overall placement

Maplex Basics

Maplex reads vector map data and topologically structures those data. This structuring involves connecting the separate line segments that usually occur in the data into a linear network or into polygonal areas.

The structured vector data are converted into a map according to user-specified symbolization. This map forms the background of features onto which the labels are placed. The features are allocated weights to indicate their relative importance on the map.

In most cases, the features will have labels associated with them. The labels themselves generally do not have a specific position—they are positioned relative to their features. A single feature may have many labels associated with it: these are called multilabels.

Maplex can take a relatively complex input label from the data files and manipulate it in a variety of ways. For example, Maplex can

Split an input label at any of a number of specified characters to form a stacked label of up to fifty lines.

Change an input label to uppercase or title case.

Take an input label and substitute a translation or an abbreviation.

Filter out digits or alphabetical characters.

Select any one of eight label components from an input label that is in the form of a comma-delimited list.

Extract up to four parts (multilabels) from an input label and place them in a stack or independently (assigning to them individual placement rules, fonts, font sizes, colors, etc.).

Label placement rules must be entered into the Maplex Rulebase. The user can specify conventions for positioning labels and adjust many parameters to control placement details such as how far a label should be from its feature and how far it should be from other labels.

Maplex places the labels on the map taking into account the weights (priorities) that have been allocated to particular features. Features given high weights are less likely to be obscured than are features with low weights. Maplex generates a large number of trial positions for each label and then evaluates them according to the goals of label placement until the best position is determined for each label.

Rulebase and Parameters

Maplex stores all symbolization and label placement parameters in a Rulebase. Parameters are applicable to each feature class (identified by a unique feature code) in the data. Therefore, if there are 100 feature classes in the Rulebase, there will need to be, for

example, 100 symbol fill color parameters, one for each feature class. There are approximately 125 feature class-based rules.

Other Parameters

Other aspects of Maplex software's functionality are controlled by different parameters. For example, parameters exist for controlling PostScript output in the Export Map dialog box, while projection settings for graticule alignment are set up in a Projections dialog box.

Special Features

Most recently added special features of Maplex include

ARC/INFO Annotation Export and Label Box Export

Maplex writes placed labels as an ARC/INFO^® annotation layer. Label boxes are also output as an arc coverage. These can be built into regions so they can be filled. Symbology files (textset, lineset, and shadeset) are created so that the map can be drawn in ARCPLOT^™ software as it appears in Maplex. Unplaced labels are also output and you have control over the inclusion or display of these elements.

U.S. Route Number Shields and User-Defined Label Boxes

Maplex supports five styles of label box corresponding to the most popular kinds of U.S. route number marker symbols: interstate (red/blue), interstate (solid top), interstate (open), federal highway, and rounded rectangle. In addition, label boxes in Adobe Illustrator can be created and imported into Maplex.

Maplex File Manager

The Maplex File Manager provides a simplified interface for loading data files into Maplex. It is a generic screen for loading data files in any supported format.

Imperial Units Support

Maplex supports imperial units such as feet or yards. The data units field on the data format screen includes a large range of units. You can enter your own conversion factor to convert data in custom units into meters.

Support for Donut Polygons (i.e., polygons with holes)

Maplex draws polygons with holes in them. This is currently available only to users of shapefiles.

Street Mapping—European Style

Maplex provides high-quality curvature of labels inside street casing, the most common method of labeling European streets. Parameters that control text placement provide excellent results through facilities including

Overrun—Text is allowed to overrun the ends of the street into areas of free space or into street junctions.

Truncation—Street names can be truncated by automatically removing characters from the end of the street name (e.g., Radnor Rd could be truncated to Radn. Rd).

Stacking—Where appropriate, labels may be treble-stacked.

Street Mapping—American Style

Most of the placement techniques used in the European style of street mapping apply to the American style.

The American style differs from the European style in that solid lines represent the streets and the text is placed offset from the street. Maplex works to place the text above streets that are horizontal and to the left of streets that are vertical. Streets are usually labeled once with the words being well spaced out.

Requirements

Maplex requires an IBM-compatible PC with the following minimum specification:

Pentium processor

Windows NT Version 4.0

32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)

SVGA graphics card

User Interface

The Main Menu Bar

The main menu options are

File—Open, close, save, and export data and graphics files.

Project—Open, create, and save projects.

Map—Edit map-related parameters.

Placement—Label placement options.

Plot—Control the plotting of map objects and view unplaced labels.

View— Graphics operations such as panning/zooming.

Tools— Access to tools such as an on-screen ruler.

Help—Online help, the user manual, and tutorial.

The Toolbar	The toolbar contains buttons that provide quick access to menu items. Moving the mouse pointer across the toolbar items will bring down "tool tips" naming each button, and a short description of the item will be given in the status bar at the bottom of the Maplex window.
The Plot Window	The graphics operations that can be performed on the map are as follows:

Zoom in—Click and drag the mouse to create a zoom rectangle. The zoom in function is always enabled (unless the ruler tool is being used). There is also a "positive" magnifying glass icon that zooms in (2x) on the center of the current map view.

Zoom out—Use negative magnifying glass icon.

No zoom—Use crossed magnifying glass.

Zoom to scale— Use the 1:M magnifying glass.

Panning— Use arrow icons or cursor keys—the user can only pan if zoomed in.

Querying— Click on a feature and view its feature class code, description, and label in the status bar.

Edit Parameters—Double clicking on a map feature pops up the Rulebase Editor.

Ruler— Used for measuring straight-line distances on the map.

The Status Bar

The status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. It displays help on selected toolbar items and menu items. It also displays the current project folder. If the cursor is

clicked in the plot window then the map coordinates of the selected location are displayed. Click on a feature, and it also displays the feature's class code and class description.

Example Maps

Maplex comes with example maps that illustrate different label placement styles. These examples provide a useful reference for typical parameter settings.

The ReadMe file supplied with Maplex describes the example projects and data bundled with Maplex.

Using Maplex

There is a logical order to the operation of Maplex as one task is usually dependent on the completion of another.

Basic Procedure for Using Maplex

1. Create a project for the map.

2. Enter (or generate) a feature classification.

3. Symbolize the map.

4. Specify label placement rules.

5. Run label placement and refine label placement rules.

6. Export placed names or map graphics.

Projects

The specifications and any other information needed to process the data are held in a project. There will typically be many projects that correspond to different types of maps.

The specifications held in a project will usually be applicable to any mapping task that has the same feature classification and the same requirements for feature symbolization and label placement.

The Elements of a Project

A project contains the specification files required to process the map. In the Windows NT file system, each project has its own folder that contains the project files. In Maplex, the active project is selected by selecting a project folder.

A project contains the following kinds of information:

Feature classification

Rulebase specification

Program settings

Font metrics

Color definitions

Projection settings

User-defined symbols

Creating a New Project

When creating a new project, a dialog will prompt you for two pieces of information:

1. The location of the project—Since a project corresponds to a folder in the file system (i.e., directory path) a folder must be selected for the new project. Maplex will create the folder if it does not exist.

2. The method used to create the project—The options are as follows:

· Create an empty project. Maplex creates the folder if it does not exist and a few fundamental project files are copied into the project folder. All the parameters such as the feature classification and Rulebase parameters must be entered.

· Create a project based on the current project. Same as above except Maplex copies the current project into the new project (just like a SaveAs operation), so all the parameters set up in the previous project are already set.

· Create project and generate Rulebase. Maplex creates a starter project based on the map data. This is the quick start option.

The Automatic Rulebase Generator

The Rulebase Generator analyzes data and identifies the unique feature class codes. This allows it to build a feature classification table. By analyzing the geometry of each feature Maplex can determine whether the feature class is a point, line, or area type. This enables sensible default values to be allocated to each feature class in the Rulebase.

The following sequence of events will occur:

The data format screen will appear. Select the data file format and units. If the data are in decimal degrees a projection must be set. There are also default values for the topological structuring options.

Enter the map scale.

Define a data set using the Maplex File Manager. The feature classification will be generated from the files specified at this stage.

Check the Rulebase. When the automatic Rulebase Generator has finished, the user will be prompted to check the default values.

Load data and display. The data must be reloaded (the first time they were loaded was for generating the Rulebase).

After completing this sequence of events a crude version of the map is displayed. At this point, the user can interactively query the map to identify the features and proceed to customize the default values.

Output Files

There are five kinds of output files:

Label files (conventional extensions .mpl or .txt)—Label files can be used as input to other cartographic software such as ARC/INFO or fed back into Maplex as a preset label file (.mpl files only).

Feature files (conventional extensions .map or .txt)—Maplex can be used as a map data processor. For example, a region can be clipped and then the clipped data can be saved in an output file that can then be used for other processing. Maplex software's feature inclusion parameters can also be used to filter map data and produce smaller files.

PostScript files (conventional extension .ps)—These are Encapsulated PostScript and are used for sending to a PostScript printer or for use within documents.

FreeHand files (conventional extension .ps)—These can be manipulated using the MacroMedia FreeHand graphics package. Formats for versions 3 and 5 are supported.

Illustrator files (conventional extension .ai)—These can be manipulated using the Adobe Illustrator graphics package.

Basic Data Loading

Data File Prerequisites

Maplex requires vector data that consist of a series of records where each record contains the following information:

Spatial position of feature

Associated label (optional)

A code that specifies the characteristics of the feature and label

For example:

12323,23434 Map coordinates for town symbol

Cardiff Label (without a position)

FC12 Feature class code

The label does not have a fixed position. The feature has a position, and the label is associated with the feature. Maplex determines the position of the label relative to the feature, taking into account other features and labels in the neighborhood, and outputs the result.

The feature class code references a specification (i.e., a set of parameters stored in the Rulebase) that determines the characteristics of that feature and label. It is used to specify the feature's symbol, the label's font, positioning rules, and so forth.

Data Format Screen

The first step to getting data into Maplex is to specify the data format and its associated parameters. It is important to specify the data format first because other screens in Maplex (such as the Maplex File Manager) change their appearance depending on the data format. The parameters on the data format screen are as follows.

Data File Format

Input Format Extension/Alias

ESRI Shapefile Format SHP

LaserScan Internal Feature Format TXT/IFF

MAPDATA Format MAP

Data File Units

Map Units

This option is used if the data have been projected. The user can select the file units from the options list (e.g., meters, kilometers, feet, yards). If the required unit does not appear on the options list then the user-defined conversion factor can be set.

Decimal Degrees

This option is used if the data have not been projected and are stored in decimal degrees. A projection must be entered if this option is selected. Maplex will load the data and project the coordinates of the features into meters, after which the work will be shown in meters in the user interface.

Topological Structuring

The raw data must be converted into a structured form to allow text placement to be performed. The structuring process is performed dynamically as the data are loaded into Maplex. The structured data exist in memory in the Maplex application and are not saved to disk. The options to control the topological structuring are as follows:

Connect Line Segments

This causes Maplex to connect individual line segments into linear features. This is usually essential because linear features, such as roads and rivers, are digitized as many small segments that must be connected together to create the original feature.

The line segments are connected together using the following rule: segments that have the same feature symbology and label text are connected together. Note that they do not require the same feature class code.

Connect Line Segments with Different Symbology

This option forces Maplex to treat line features that change symbology along their length as a single composite feature for name placement purposes. The connection only affects label placement—the symbolization remains unaffected.

Identify Street Junction Nodes Not Located at Line Segment End

Some linear data are digitized so that a single segment spans a junction and the junction occurs at a point within the segment. This option is used to split the segment into two segments, one on either side of the junction, allowing the street to be correctly labeled.

Extract Area Features

Area feature extraction refers to the task of creating area features from line features and seeds. The line features are connected together to form the boundary of the area feature, and the seed points are used to identify the interior of the area. A specially coded seed point is usually supplied with this kind of data.

Ignore Duplicate Features

Some data sets contain duplicate features (i.e., features that have exactly the same spatial position and attributes). Enabling this option will allow Maplex to remove the duplicates as the data are loaded. A feature is considered to be a duplicate if it has the same feature class code, label text, and position.

Maplex File Manager

The Maplex File Manager manages the list of data files that are sets of data that may cover different regions and/or contain different types of features the user is employing.

The Maplex File Manager provides a way to list all of the data files the user wants to load into Maplex and provides a means to give Maplex more information about certain types of files.

Data Sets

The Maplex File Manager operates on files called data sets. A data set lists the data files to be loaded into Maplex. When a data set is opened, each file in the list that has the loading switch set is opened and loaded into Maplex.

The data files can reside anywhere on the file system. The path to each data file must be specified; this can be the full path or a path relative to the Maplex root installation directory.

The Maplex File Manager allows the user to create more than one data set. The data set is stored under a user-defined name with a .ds extension. The file browser is of the multiselect type so the user can select many files in one operation using the control and/or shift keys.

Shapefiles

Maplex needs to read the feature class code and the label text from the DBF file, but because the attributes are user-definable Maplex does not know where to find them, so the user needs to give Maplex this information. Thus, the field name in each DBF file must be specified for the feature class code and label text.

Specifying DBF Field Names

The Maplex File Manager supports the processes of specifying the DBF field names. When the data format is set to shapefile additional columns appear in the file list. These columns, referred to as the shapefile properties, allow easy specification of the DBF field names.

Concatenating DBF Field Names and Text

In the majority of cases simply specifying one field name will suffice, but sometimes a more complex expression needs to be entered.

If the label text is not stored in one field in the DBF file, it is held across several different fields in the DBF file that must be combined.

· For example, a street name may be stored in three fields: one for the prefix, one for the primary name, and one for the suffix.

If these fields were called PREFIX, PRIMARY, and SUFFIX in the DBF file, the user can enter the expression:

"PREFIX" "PRIMARY" "SUFFIX"

in the label field name, and Maplex would concatenate the field names together, separated by spaces, to build up the full label name.

Every feature in a shapefile needs to be treated as one feature class code and the user doesn't want to specify a field name. A single code, such as RIVER, would suffice for the entire file.

No one field in the file can be used as a unique feature class code, but several fields could be combined to make a unique feature class code.

Suppose a ROADS data set has the following fields:

Code Type Number Name Length

ROAD A 34 WESTWAY 23.2

ROAD B 553 HOLBURN ROAD 4.3

ROAD A 237 GIGGLESWORTH ST 3.3

The user could enter the expression:

"TYPE"_"CODE"

This would generate feature class codes called A_ROAD and B_ROAD. Note that there is no space between the field names, but an underscore "_" is, and A_ROAD and B_ROAD would be entered in the Rulebase as feature class codes.

There's a field in the DBF file, such as a feature type, that is a unique code within the file but it is not unique across all of the data files.

For example, suppose the DBF field "TYPE" contains a value 1 that is a small town in a towns file, but a value 1 is also used in the roads file to represent a motorway. Some text can be added to the field name to make it unique within Maplex. The file list could read:

Shapefile Name Loading Switch Feature Class Field Name Label Field Name

C:\data\town.shp Yes T"TYPE" "NAME"

C:\data\roads.shp Yes R"TYPE" "NAME"

This would produce feature class codes T1 and R1. Feature class codes T1 and R1 would be entered in the Rulebase.

Feature Identifiers and Symbol Rotation

There are two optional DBF fields that Maplex can support.

Feature ID field name—If the features are tagged with identifiers, then these can be passed through Maplex and the exported text (and features) will be tagged with the identifier. This is commonly used when exporting to annotation.

Angle field name—Maplex can rotate point symbols, such as direction markers, on the map. The angle must be stored as an attribute in the DBF file.

Feature Classification

All of the features on a map must be classified in terms of their basic properties. In Maplex these classifications are called feature classes. Examples of feature classes are towns, roads, rivers, and railways.

Every feature class is uniquely identified by a code, the feature class code. When Maplex loads a feature it uses this code to identify the feature class to which the feature belongs. Information based on the feature class controls how Maplex loads, symbolizes, processes, and displays that feature.

Feature Class Table

A fundamental step in the operation of Maplex is to compile a list of the feature classes required and enter them into Maplex. This is performed in the codes tab in the Rulebase.

Feature Class Parameters

Any value can be entered for the feature class code, providing it uniquely identifies the feature class. The feature class code is the key field in the table, so duplicate values are not permitted.

Feature class code—Uniquely identifies each feature class.

Feature class description— Holds a short description of the feature class code. It is for reference only and is not used for processing.

Feature class type— Specifies a basic classification of feature classes in terms of their elementary geometry. The classes are point feature, line feature, area feature, area-point feature, street feature, extracted area feature, and extracted area-point feature.

Feature Class Types

Point features have a single coordinate. Maplex can center a symbol at this coordinate and/or position a label relative to it.

Line features have two or more coordinates. Maplex joins the coordinates with straight-line segments. It can place curved or straight labels along the line. Line features that form networks or connect to other features should connect at nodes (i.e., a single point present in each feature).

Area features have three or more coordinates (Maplex closes the area if the start and end coordinates are different) representing a simple filled polygon with no holes or crossovers. The label can be inside or outside the area, horizontal, or curved to follow its natural shape.

Area-point features are specified in the data file exactly as normal area features. They differ in that they are considered too small to attempt to place the label in their interior.

Street features are geometrically specified exactly as normal line features, but a different strategy is used when positioning the labels for these features.

Extracted area features are area features but are constructed from boundary line features by Maplex rather than being specified explicitly as areas.

Extracted area-point features are area-point features but are constructed from boundary line segments and a seed point by Maplex rather than being stored explicitly as an area.

Aliases

The aliasing facility can be used to combine several feature classes in the data into one feature class that is entered in the Rulebase.

The Rulebase Editor

The Rulebase holds the feature classification and it allows the user to specify the characteristics of each feature class. Most parameters in Maplex are specified on a per feature class basis, so most of the work is performed in the Rulebase.

The Rulebase is created and maintained using the Rulebase Editor. The Rulebase is viewed as a large table that has a row for each feature class and a column for each parameter. The table is divided into folders, or tabs, that contain a group of related parameters. There is an index to quickly locate a parameter and search facilities to view a subset of the feature classes.

The full Rulebase has over 100 parameters and may contain up to 4,000 feature classifications.

Entering the Feature Classification

The Rulebase parameters are categorized into groups, each of which appear in their own tab. The important point to understand about the tabs is that the codes tab is different from the other tabs.

The codes tab is where the feature classification is created and edited. The other tabs redisplay the codes tab information, but it cannot be changed from these tabs.

Rulebase Units

When a parameter represents a size or distance on the map, it is usually expressed in units of mm (millimeters), cm (centimeters), pt (points), or in (inches). These parameters can also be expressed in map units (i.e., the same units in which the map data are represented). Some parameters allow the user to express a value as a percentage of some related value. The hint field for any given parameter will show if units or percentages are allowed.

Popup Dialogs

Color fields, file name fields, and label separator (or inclusion switches) fields allow the user to double click for a popup dialog.

Map Symbolization

Map symbolization is the process of converting vector map data into a map that can be displayed or printed. Maplex uses the symbology specification entered in the Rulebase to symbolize the map. The symbology specification defines the appearance (shape, size, color, etc.) of map objects.

Symbolizing Features

Symbolizing features involves specifying their symbol styles, dimensions, and colors.

For a line feature one of the standard styles that are built into Maplex (solid, dashed, cased, ticked, etc.) must be selected.

For a point feature one of the standard Maplex styles (circle, rectangle, diamond, etc.) may be used or the user may design a symbol.

Area features may be cased (i.e., have an outline) or uncased. Cased areas can be filled or unfilled, and the user can specify the line style for the casing.

Symbol Colors

All colors in Maplex are selected from a palette of sixty-four colors. This palette is displayed as a pulldown list of color names wherever the user has to specify a color.

User-defined symbols keep their own color records so the user is not limited to the colors in the Maplex color table.

Angled Point Symbols

If the user wants to draw the symbols for a particular feature class at different angles depending on their circumstances (e.g., distance markers, gradients, level crossings) the angle must be supplied for each feature in a column in the input DBF file. This facility is

currently only available for shapefiles.

Symbolizing Labels

For a label, two fonts need to be specified:

PostScript font—Used for the dimensions of characters for placement and for PostScript output

Screen font—Used for display on-screen (dimensions are still specified by the PostScript font)

The PostScript font is selected from the fonts specified in the font modifier file. This name is inserted in the PostScript output file.

In addition to specifying the font names, the font height must be specified. The font height includes all ascenders and descenders. A font aspect ratio can also be specified—if this is not 1.0 then condensed or expanded text is used.

Screen Fonts

The text displayed on-screen has exactly the same position and dimensions as the true text, but the typeface may be different. This is because Maplex is concerned with the placement of text, and the typeface used to display a character is not important to this process as long as Maplex knows about the size of each character (and the space between them and so on).

The screen font is selected from a list of built-in screen fonts that correspond to several common fonts in normal, italic, and bold styles.

Label Boxes

The box shape parameter allows a box to be drawn around certain labels. The default is no box. This includes rectangle, circle, diamond, oval, and some common U.S. highway shields. The thickness of the box sides is configurable, as is the distance between the text and the box sides. Alternatively, a custom box may be designed.

Symbol Plotting Order

The symbol plotting order parameter lets the user control the order in which feature classes are drawn.

Land and Sea

Maplex accommodates maps that have implied land and sea areas (i.e., specified by a coastline rather than explicit areas). The boundary between the land and sea can be specified and each area can be colored. This enhances the appearance of the map but does not affect label placement.

Plot Menu

The Plot menu controls which features or other graphical entities are plotted and also allows the user to set the plot quality, which controls how Maplex draws certain features.

Options— See Plot Options below.

Land and sea—Toggles plotting of the land and sea constructed areas.

Features —Toggles plotting of all features.

Labels—Toggles plotting of the characters in a label.

Character boxes— Toggles plotting of boxes around the individual characters in a label.

Unplaced labels—Toggles plotting of unplaced labels.

Plot Options

Border thickness —Specifies the thickness of the border in millimeters.

Border color—The color of the map border.

Background color —The color of the map background.

Plot rotation—Automatic, 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees.
Automatic rotation will maintain north to be "up" in Illustrator and FreeHand formats.

Connect unlabeled lines —Toggles the connection of line segments that have the same feature symbology but no text label.

View Commands

Pan north — Shifts the view one screen's height north.

Pan east— Shifts the view one screen's width east.

Pan south— Shifts the view one screen's height south.

Pan west— Shifts the view one screen's width west.

No zoom— Resets the view's zoom.

Zoom out—Returns to the previous zoom level.

Zoom in—Zooms in (2x) on center of screen.

Zoom to scale—Zooms to scale. The center of the zoomed region is the center of the current zoom window.

Redraw map—Redraws the view.

Label Transformation

Label Translations

Label translation refers to the process of changing a label in the input data into another label. The translation is specified in a translation file. This is useful for producing maps in different languages. To use the label translation facility a file of label translations must be provided, for example, English to Welsh:

Cardiff Swansea

Caerdydd Abertawe

Maplex will read the data file in conjunction with the translations file to perform the necessary translations. Maplex matches the label in the translation file with the label in the data so these must correspond exactly.

Label Case Conversion and Alphabetic/Numeric Filtering

Using the case conversion switch, Maplex can perform case conversions on the labels in the data files. For example, "cardiff" could be converted into "CARDIFF" or "Cardiff" using uppercase and mixed-case conversions respectively.

With the alphanumeric conversion switch, Maplex can filter alphabetic or numeric characters out of a label. For example, "A17" could be converted into "A" or "17."

Multilabels

A feature can have more than one label. When it does, the labels en masse are referred to as a multilabel. Each multilabel component can have a separate feature code, which means that it can have its own font, box style, placement rules, and so forth. Note that only some parameters are applicable to multilabel components.

The components can be positioned independently of one another according to the normal placement rules or relative to one another in a block or stack. The multilabel components are still positioned relative to the original feature.

Multilabel Extraction

Multilabel extraction refers to the process of extracting labels from a compound label in the input data. This process is important because the input label (as it appears in the input data file) may consist of many labels, some or all of which must be extracted and placed by Maplex.

There are two forms of extraction based on the number of separators present in the label, single and paired.

Single separator extraction means that the same separator character is used between all the parts, so for example, there might be a label that consists of a string of the form Mt Everest/29 028ft/8848m/Hillary 1953. One of the separators is set to be "/" and Maplex can extract four component labels: Mt Everest, 29 028ft, 8848m, and Hillary 1953. Maplex cannot use a space as a separator (specifying a space effectively clears the separator field).

Paired extraction means that two different separator characters are used. This is useful when there is a sublabel that is parenthesized (or delimited in some other way). In this form of extraction the user specifies two different separators. Maplex can only extract two components of this form. For example, the input data could contain a string of the form Snowdon(3560ft). The label "Snowdon" and the label "3560ft" will be extracted from the string and placed according to the specification in the Rulebase.

Multilabel Positioning

Stacked multilabels are labels that are treated as a group and are placed relative to each other inside that group. The first label extracted from the input string is the base label, and subsequent labels are placed relative to it. If the mountain heights were placed using a stacked multilabel style then the labeling could look like this:

Snowdon

3560ft

A particular justification (centered, in this case) can be forced or Maplex can determine the best justification. Each label can have a different feature class so they can have different font, size, and box style.

The use of independent multilabels includes labeling mountain heights where the mountain name label could be placed under the mountain symbol and the height could be placed above the symbol, like this:

3560ft

Snowdon

Selecting a Label from a Comma-Delimited Input Label

There is a facility to load a selected label from a comma-separated multilabel. For example, if the input data have a label like this:

"Cardiff, Caerdydd"

then Maplex can load the first label in the list "Cardiff" or it can load the second label in the list "Caerdydd." Maplex can select one label from a maximum list length of eight labels.

Fonts

Maplex uses a font modifier (fmod) file to describe the metrics and attributes of all the fonts it uses in the current project. The data in the fmod file give the dimensions of every character in the font, which Maplex needs for accurate positioning of labels. The easiest way to generate this file is to convert an Adobe Font Metric (AFM) file into a record in the fmod file. If there is pair kerning information in the AFM file, it also gets written to the fmod file. Maplex includes an integrated AFM-to-fmod converter. AFM files are available from Adobe, the Internet, or a font vendor.

Maplex uses two types of fonts.

On-screen fonts—Used for display purposes

PostScript fonts— Used for printing

Maplex does not have the ability to display PostScript fonts on screen. The on-screen fonts are used as substitutes for these fonts. The important point to note is that the dimensions of the fonts used for label placement are based on the PostScript fonts the user has selected.

PostScript Fonts

Maplex comes with a standard fmod built for the PostScript standard set of fonts. Maplex knows the metrics of these fonts, and most PostScript printers will already have these fonts available.

Specifying a Custom List of Fonts

There are two mechanisms for setting up fonts for use with Maplex. If PostScript fonts are going to be output, AFM files should be chosen; if ARC/INFO is going to be used to display the map then the ARC/INFO font index file should be used.

ISO Encoding

If the AFM files are in Adobe Standard Encoding and the characters being used are in the top half of the character set (above the ASCII standard) then this switch should be selected.

Show Minus Signs as Hyphens

Maplex PostScript output files use the ISOLatin1 encoding of a font, rather than the standard encoding. Selecting the Show Minus Signs as Hyphens option sets up a translation in the fmod file that will convert minus signs into hyphens.

Character Sets with More than 256 Characters

Maplex fonts may contain up to 512 characters. To use more than 256 characters each Maplex font requires two Adobe font names, one for the normal font and the other for the alternate font. The normal font is used for plotting Maplex character values 0 to 255. The alternate font is used for plotting Maplex character values 256 to 512. The alternate font can be specified using the Alternate AFM File field next to the normal AFM File field.

Specifying Character Values Greater than 255 in Labels

There are two mechanisms for specifying characters from the alternate font:

Use escape sequences in the data and supply an accents.dat file to handle them.

For a given label specify that it is to use the alternate font.

Cap Heights Versus Font Heights

The user can change the way Maplex interprets the font size parameters specified in the Rulebase by using the Treat Font Height as Cap Height switch. The default for this option is off, which means that the font height parameter is taken as the normal height of the font.

Label Placement

Maplex uses the label placement specification entered in the Rulebase to control the placement of a label on the map.

Label Style

Label style specifies how a label is aligned relative to the feature it is labeling. It determines the label's offset from the feature to which it refers and also the angle of the label relative to the feature.

Label Alignment for Point Features

The basic choices for label alignment for point features are centered or offset. There are four new fixed direction alignments: NW, SW, NE, and SE. These can be used for fixed labels.

There are now two variable direction alignments: Offset North or South and Offset South or North. These cater to situations where a north/south swapping of paired labels can be accepted.

There is an alternative offset in addition to the label offset. Maplex uses the alternative offset if it can't find a nonoverlapping position using the label offset.

Preferred Label Zones

Maplex can place names in preferred positions relative to a feature. A scheme based on label zones is used to specify the positioning preferences. All the possible labeling positions for a feature are divided into zones, and each zone is given a number. A list of zones in order of preference is used by Maplex to place the label.

Label Stacking

Label stacking refers to the process of splitting a label over more than one line. Maplex can evaluate the space available for a label and automatically split the label into parts that will best fit that space.

The main parameters that control label stacking are

Label stacking switch—Enables label stacking

Stacked label separators— Characters at which a label may be split

Stacked label inclusion switches—Shows or hides separators

The label stacking switch enables label stacking. This switch has the following states:

None—No stacking occurs.

Stack—Forces the label to be stacked.

May stack —Allows Maplex to decide when to split the label.

To specify where the label may be split, use the stacked label separators parameter. The default value is a space character, but other characters, such as hyphens, could be used to split labels. Using the stacked label inclusion switches specifies whether the label separators should appear on the map or not.

Label splitting is constrained by the following parameters:

Min stacked label length—The shortest line allowed

Max stacked label length—The longest line allowed

Max label stacking level—Maximum number of lines

If a label cannot satisfy these criteria then it will not be split and the data will need to be preprocessed or the labeled map will need to be edited.

Stacking Strategy

If stacking is forced (Label stacking switch = Stack) then Maplex attempts to split the label to the fullest extent possible (i.e., the largest number of lines) in accordance with the constraints applied by the parameters described above.

If stacking is left up to Maplex (Label stacking switch = May Stack) then Maplex tries out several combinations of splits. The first of these combinations to be tried is to maximize the number of lines in the label.

Justification of Stacked Labels

The justification of the lines in a split label is controlled by the stacked label justification parameter. This parameter has two values, which allows Maplex the freedom to decide on the justification. Maplex attempts to justify the label so that it is aligned on the side nearest the feature. If the label is above, below, or over the feature then it will usually be centered.

Label Offsets and Buffers

The distance between a label and its feature is referred to as the label offset. Keeping a minimum distance between a label and other features or labels is referred to as label buffering. The parameters are

Label to feature buffer—A buffer between a label of any feature type (point, line, area, etc.) and point features

Label to label buffer—Buffer between label and other labels (of any type of feature)

Feature Weights

Feature weights control the extent to which labels overlap features. Maplex will always try to place a label in an area of free space. If there is no free space available and a

neighboring feature must be overlapped, then Maplex will choose to overlap a feature with the lowest weighting.

Label Weights

Label weights are similar to feature weights except they control the extent to which labels overlap other labels. Ideally no label overlap should occur on the map, but in dense parts of the map a limited amount of label overlap may be inevitable.

Deletion Priorities

Some parts of a map may contain more names in the map data than can be reasonably placed on the map. In such cases Maplex can be instructed to delete the less important names (and, optimally, associated features) from the map so that the map remains legible. The deletion process is controlled by a set of deletion priorities that allow the user to grade the relative importance of the place names.

Labeling Networks of Line Features

Maplex can connect line features into a network; enable this at the global level by selecting the Connect Line Features option in the data format screen. The number of labels generated at the feature class level can be controlled by varying the label repetition type; Minimize Labeling gives as few labels as possible while maintaining clear and unambiguous labeling.

Connecting Line Features

If the Data Format:Connect Line Features option is chosen, Maplex connects lines in one of two different ways: graphically or logically.

Graphical Connection

This accounts for data in which line features may be held as many noncontiguous segments. Adjoining line segments that all have the same label (or all have no label) may be connected together to form a single composite feature providing that either they are of the same feature class or they have exactly the same symbology and label parameters.

Logical Connection

Adjoining lines with the same (nonblank) label and exactly the same labeling parameters may optionally be connected for name placement purposes even if they have different symbologies, using the option Connect Lines with Different Symbology. If lines of different widths are connected, the name placement algorithms treat the resulting composite line as having the most popular of those widths.

Stretching Line Labels to Fit the Line

It can be specified to Maplex that a line's label should be spaced out to fill the entire length of the line.

Streets

Maplex has street labeling functionality. This requires a special feature type, street, and is controlled by several Rulebase parameters, which are primarily used to determine how the street labels are reduced in size to fit within the streets.

Creating Street Feature Classes

Each street that is to be labeled as part of the street network must have a feature type of street. Two styles of labeling are available, centered and offset. The centered style is typically used for European street maps, while the offset style is more commonly used for American street maps.

Labeling Segmented Streets

The symbol plotting order is used to control how line features are joined into networks for the purposes of street labeling. All roads should have the same symbol plotting order for street labeling around the junctions of different classes of roads to work at its best.

Conflict Resolution with Nonstreet Labels

Maplex places all street labels first, then attempts to find positions for all other labels (e.g., points, line, and area labels).

Input Data Requirements

Maplex requires centerline coordinates for streets. Ideally, each street should be segmented (i.e., broken into separate features at all junctions with other streets that have labels). The segments need not appear in any particular order in the data file. Each segment must have the same label. If the streets are not segmented at junctions then Maplex has a facility to segment the data.

Rulebase Parameters

There are several Rulebase parameters that can be used to control the street mapping algorithms. These parameters can be specified individually for each feature class. Some of these parameters are street-specific and some are general.

Abbreviating Street Names

When a street name is too long for its street, Maplex normally tries abbreviating the keyword (e.g., SAINT becomes ST.) and the ending (e.g., ALBANY ROAD becomes ALBANY RD). In order for this to work, text files called strkeyw.abb and endings.abb must be supplied in the project folder. These files are a complete dictionary of all such abbreviations containing one line per abbreviation, and up to eight abbreviations can be specified for each word.

Stacking

Maplex may stack a name to fit it into a short street. To enable this facility, the label stacking switch must be set to May Stack. None of the usual label-stacking parameters apply when this happens; Maplex calculates the line leading and justification automatically.

Overrun

If the overrun switch is set to overrun, then Maplex may allow a street name to overrun the end of the street either into free space or into an adjoining street.

Font Width Compression

Maplex may compress a font (i.e., scale it horizontally) to make a name fit into a short street.

Font Height Reduction

Maplex may reduce the height of a font to make a street name fit into a short street.

End of Street Clearance

Names of more than one word are normally placed with the first word near one end of the street and the last word near the other end.

The preferred amount of clear space between the name and either end of the street as well as a limiting value can be specified. Maplex will always try to place the name with the preferred offset from either end of the street, but if this is not possible then the end of street clearance may be reduced up to the specified limit.

Word Spacing

The spacing between words in a street name will vary depending on the number and length of the words and the length of the street. If the space between words becomes unacceptably large, Maplex can repeat the name. If the space between the words

becomes unacceptably small then Maplex can apply other short street techniques, such as double banking, to fit the name into the street.

Labeling Area Features

Polygon labeling is controlled by the labeling style parameter. One of three styles can be specified: centered horizontal, centered straight, or centered curved.

Maplex can place the label outside the area, horizontally, if the area is too small for the label if one of the above styles with the option is chosen.

Preset Labels

Preset labels are labels that have already been placed. Maplex will not move or delete preset labels. Other labels are placed taking into account the weights and buffers of preset labels.

Using Preset Labels in the Map

The preset labels file is specified by entering the name of the file in the data file list. Maplex will only load preset labels for those features that have preset label loading enabled (preset label loading switch). Preset labels are always placed in their preset positions; they are never deleted. Other labels are placed around preset labels in the normal way.

Fixing Labels

Maplex can perform "label fixing," which means that certain labels, those with the label fixing switch enabled, are placed in the normal way but without regard for other labels (except for any preset labels) and then fixed in place. The other labels are then placed on the map as usual, avoiding the labels already on the map according to their weights.

Saving Deleted Labels

Maplex saves deleted labels to a special file (in addition to logging them in the log file).

Maplex File Output

Maplex can produce the following kinds of file output: unsymbolized features and unplaced labels, placed labels, and symbolized labels and placed labels.

Saving Features and Unplaced Labels

The Save Region command allows all currently loaded features in the current map bounds to be saved. The features are saved with their labels in MAPDATA format.

Saving Placed Labels

Placed labels can be saved in the following formats:

Maplex—Maplex format (.mpl)

MAPDATA—MAPDATA format (.map)

IFF Text—LaserScan Internal Feature Format (.txt)

ARC/INFO—ARC/INFO annotation coverage (.txt and others)

Maplex Format

Maplex format (or MPL) is a proprietary format for saving positioned labels. It cannot be used for saving features. Its primary use is for saving labels that have been placed by Maplex and reading them into other software packages or reloading them as preset labels. The following parameters control the saving of labels in this format:

Label Saving Codes indicate which elements of the label are to be output. The choices include Characters, Character Boxes, Boxes, and Box Fillers.

Sort toggles sorting of the labels in the output file.

Save Presets toggles the saving of any preset labels in the map.

Coordinates indicates the point relative to the label extents that is saved as the label's position. The choices include centered, bottom-left, bottom-right, top-left, and top-right.

ARC/INFO Annotation and Label Box Output

Maplex can export placed labels as an ARC/INFO annotation layer and label boxes as arcs. These two elements are both written to the same coverage. The annotation is written in a subclass that can be specified in the Save Labels dialog. Thus, more than one set of annotation in the same coverage can exist. Symbology files (textset, lineset, and shadeset) and a relate file (to attach symbology to box outlines) are also created.

ARC/INFO Annotation Export

ARC/INFO does not need to be installed on the same machine as Maplex nor does the machine need to have access to a license manager to export annotation. Instead, an ARCHOME environment variable and a number of ARC/INFO support files need to be present. The files used by Maplex must be the same as the ones available in ARC/INFO.

When saving annotation, the annotation for the current view extent is generated. To save annotation on the entire map, the user should zoom out fully before saving the annotation.

Unplaced labels are stored in an annotation subclass with UNP appended to the supplied subclass name. Deleted labels are not stored.

A text symbol file is created. It has the same name as the annotation subclass (it also has a .txt extension) but is stored in $ARCHOME\symbols.

In order to get spacing and kerning correct, Maplex exports each character as an individual piece of annotation. If other environmental variables are set, Maplex will write the annotation as lines or words rather than characters, though text overlap may occur in the annotation.

ARC/INFO Label Box Export

Box outlines are generated as arcs in the annotation coverage. Line and shade symbology is also generated. A relate table that contains the items PATH_SYM, FILL_SYM, LABEL_ID, and LABEL_LEVEL is generated. The PATH_SYM relates the arcs in the box outline with a line symbol in the lineset. The FILL_SYM can be used to relate the regions built from the arcs with the fill colors in the shadeset.

Label Levels and Unplaced Labels

Maplex has two levels of labels: background and foreground. Background labels are fixed. Foreground labels are normal labels (not fixed) and may be drawn on top of background labels.

Labels can also be placed or unplaced. Unplaced labels are ones Maplex failed to place on the map (e.g., insufficient space, text too angular).

Annotation is written to one of two annotation subclasses: placed labels go to the subclass specified, and unplaced labels go to the subclass with the same name but with UNP appended.

Saving Placed Labels and Symbolized Features

Output can be in PostScript, Illustrator, or FreeHand files from Maplex. Each stores positioned labels and symbolized features.

This operation is equivalent to plotting the symbolized features and labels to a device other than the screen, so Maplex only outputs the region displayed on the screen.

Settings for PostScript, Illustrator, and FreeHand Formats

For plot scale, Maplex can produce the files at true scale or autoscale (fit to page). True scale requires a map scale to be defined.

For PostScript output—A PostScript page size must be defined. If the map is larger than the PostScript page size then the map will be split into a number of plot sections.

For Illustrator and FreeHand output—A page size need not be defined (since these packages paginate the output), but if a page size is defined then the appropriate number of files will be produced.

Autoscale requires page sizes to be set for all output formats.

Plot Sections tells Maplex the number of files (pages) to use for autoscale output. The map will be scaled to fit onto the total area covered by these sections.

The Export Original Labels option passes the original label into the Illustrator file.

Page Margins specifies the distance between the physical edge of the media to the start of the drawing area.

Printable Page Size specifies the width and the height of the drawing area on the page.

Export for Mac can be enabled if the export files are intended for the Apple Macintosh.

Batch Mode

Batch mode is very useful when there are a large number of similar maps to produce (i.e., multiple maps from the same specification, for example, atlases). Maplex software's batch processing facility allows the user to switch data for each job, switch specifications, start a batch file in another project, and specify output formats and preferences.

Operating Maplex in Batch Mode

Maplex has a batch processing facility. This facility allows the user to run a number of jobs (up to 1,000 in any project) and to produce output as PostScript, ARC/INFO annotation, Illustrator, or MPL files.

The batch setup screen allows a number of job control parameters to be specified for a given project. These are run-time parameters, not Rulebase parameters. Projects, data files, map bounds, output formats, projection parameters, and so on can be changed.

These parameters are defaulted from the current project and are displayed as a list within the batch setup grid. The user simply edits the parameters in this grid. Maplex saves the batch file parameters (including all the projection parameters) when the user is done. Ordinary Rulebase parameters cannot be changed between batch jobs—the facility is meant for producing similar maps (i.e., with the same symbolization and placement specifications) from a number of different data sets or different views of the same data. Projects can be changed though; this means that a new set of Rulebase parameters can be used during a batch run.

The Batch Setup Screen

The batch setup screen consists of a row for each batch job and a column for each batch parameter. The user can specify up to 1,000 batch jobs. Batch parameters override a subset of the parameters set up for a project.

The Add Row button will add a row to the grid and default the batch job settings to those of the current project. This is most useful if a data file is currently open as the data file name will default automatically.

Graticule Alignment and Projection

Graticule alignment allows the user to place labels so they are aligned with the lines of latitude on the map. This feature is useful for small-scale map applications such as atlases. The user can also project latitude–longitude format input coordinates using the projection screen.

Maplex supports tangential alignment. That is, the labels are straight but angled so they lie at a tangent to the line of latitude at which they are positioned.

Feature Projection

Input coordinates can be projected using the projection specification screen. Data must be in decimal degrees longitude–latitude format.

If the Decimal Degrees option is enabled then the data are projected into meters. The units have no effect on graticule alignment; they are only used for feature projection.

In the longitude–latitude format:

Positive values are east of Greenwich or north of the equator.

Negative values are west of Greenwich or south of the equator.

Maplex Parameters for Graticule Alignment

The graticule alignment facility can be switched on or off for the entire map by checking the Enable Graticule Alignment box. Maplex then assumes that all the coordinates have been transformed according to the projection and can use the projection information to angle the labels it generates.

There is a switch in the Placement section of the Rulebase called the Graticule Alignment Switch. This switches alignment on or off for individual feature classes. Feature symbols, as well as the label, are aligned with the graticule and the label.

User-Defined Symbols

In addition to the built-in point symbols, Illustrator drawings can be used in Maplex. These symbols are read into Maplex and drawn on both the on-screen map and any other symbolized map output (PostScript or Illustrator, for example).

Illustrator Symbols in Maplex

User-defined symbols for points are taken from Illustrator files. One file is used per symbol and this file must be stored in the Illustrator Symbols Folder. The name of the file is used within the Rulebase to indicate which symbol should be used for each feature class.

Each symbol is drawn on the map at the size at which it is stored in the Illustrator file. These symbols are therefore scale independent (i.e., changing the map scale within Maplex will not affect the dimensions of these symbols).

The symbol is plotted with its origin at the feature's position so it is important that the user specify the origin correctly within Illustrator. Trial positions are generated about the symbol's actual graphical extent—the origin is not taken into account. Maplex approximates the shapes into either rectangles or circles.

Colors taken from the Illustrator file bypass the Maplex color table, so an unlimited number of colors can be used in point symbols. Patterns are not supported. Gradients are averaged from the two end colors. Text is only supported in as much text as can be broken down into paths within Illustrator and these can then be used within Maplex.

Colors

The Map:Colors menu item invokes a color table editor that allows modification of the basic palette from which all the colors used in Maplex are chosen. Each project has its own color table and can have only one of these tables.

The Color Table Editor

The color table editor consists of the following components:

Color names list—Lists the names of the sixty-four colors in the palette

Color palette—An 8 x 8 pixel grid showing the color of each of the colors

Color rainbow—Changes the hue of the selected color

Luminosity scale—Changes the lightness of the color

Direct entry fields—Allows color values in RGB, HLS, or CMYK formats to be entered

Changing the Colors

By selecting a color in the color names list, the user can adjust the color associated with the selected name in a number of ways:

Use the color rainbow to change the hue.

Use the luminosity scale to alter the luminosity.

Type in the RGB, HLS, or CMYK values.

Rulebase Parameters

This section contains a brief description of all the Rulebase parameters used in Maplex.

Feature Class Parameters

These are fundamental parameters that represent the user's feature classification.

Feature class code—Uniquely identifies each feature class. It is the key to the feature class table and is used as the reference for those Rulebase parameters that are specified separately for each feature class.

Feature class description— Holds a short description of the feature class code.

Feature class type—Specifies a basic classification of feature classes in terms of their elementary geometry. The classes are point, line, area, area-point, street, extracted area, and extracted area-point.

Loading Parameters

These parameters control which features and labels are loaded, whether or not translation of labels takes place, case conversion, and so forth.

Feature loading switch—Specifies which features are loaded from the data files.

Label loading switch—Specifies which labels are loaded from the data files.

Preset label loading switch—Specifies which preset labels are loaded from preset label files.

Case conversion switch —Controls case conversion of label characters.

Alphanumeric conversion switch —Filters alphabetic or numeric characters out of a label.

Label list index—Specifies which label is loaded from a label that is made up of sublabels separated by commas.

Label translations file number—Label translation files can be used to create maps in different languages from the same input data.

Extracted area boundary class—This is the feature class of boundary line segments for an extracted area feature.

Extracted area seed class— Specifies the feature class of seeds (point features inside) for an extracted area feature.

Symbology Parameters

Symbology parameters specify the appearance of the map.

Symbol style—This is the basic kind of symbolization that will be used by Maplex for this feature class.

· Points

· Lines and Streets

· Areas—For area features the symbol style can be no casing, cased, dashed casing, dotted casing, and dashdot casing.

Symbol file name—Specifies the file name (excluding the directory) of a user-defined point symbol in Illustrator format.

Symbol width—Specifies the width (or diameter) of a point symbol or the overall width of a line symbol. This includes any casing or shadow but excludes any ticks.

Symbol height—Specifies the height of point symbols where the symbol style is not a circle.

Symbol fill color—The main color for a symbol (i.e., the color for solid and patterned line features and the fill color for cased points, lines, and areas). For shadowed line styles, this is the color of the shadow.

Symbol fill style—Set this to "Filled" to fill the feature with the symbol fill color. Set to "Not Filled" to draw the casing only, leaving the feature unfilled.

Symbol casing width— Specifies the line width for the casing (outline) around the symbol.

Symbol casing color—Specifies the color of the casing (outline) around the symbol.

Symbol centerline width—For line features where the symbol style includes an additional centerline, this specifies the width of the centerline.

Symbol centerline color—For line features where the symbol style includes an additional centerline, this specifies the color of the centerline.

Symbol inner size—For points, values greater than 0 cause a scaled-down version of the shape to be drawn inside the main symbol, filled with symbol fill color 2.

Symbol fill color 2—This gives the second fill color for two-color line styles and inner point symbols.

Symbol dash length—Adjusts the length of dashes in patterned line styles. Also gives the tick length for ticked lines.

Symbol dash gap—Adjusts the gap between dashes in patterned line styles. Also gives the gap between ticks for ticked lines.

Symbol dot length—Adjusts the length of dots in patterned line styles.

Symbol plotting switch—Indicates whether or not the feature and associated label are plotted.

Symbol plotting order—Specifies the order (256 first, 1 last) for plotting features.

Symbol suppression switch—Specifies that the feature is not to be drawn on the map but that its label is to be shown.

Font Parameters

These parameters control the appearance of a label's text.

PostScript font—Specifies the font metrics used to symbolize and process the font. The PostScript font name is selected from the fonts specified in the font modifier file.

Screen font—Specifies the font displayed on the screen. The screen font is used for display purposes only.

Font color—Specifies the color of the characters of the label for this feature class.

Font height—Specifies the standard height of each character in the label.

Font aspect ratio—Specifies the standard width of each character in the label as a ratio of the font height parameter.

Character spacing—Specifies the width of the space between label characters.

Line spacing—Specifies the width of the space between the top and bottom parts of a stacked label.

Word spacing—Modifies the standard width of space characters in a label.

Font height reduction limit—This is the smallest allowable reduced font height; it must correspond with the font height and reduction step.

Font height reduction step—This is the amount by which the font height may be progressively reduced in order to fit a street name along a short stretch.

Font width compression limit—This is the smallest allowable font compression ratio; it must be a multiple of the compression step.

Font width compression step—This is the amount by which the font width may be progressively compressed in order to fit a street name along a short stretch.

Box Parameters

These parameters control the appearance of label boxes.

Box shape—Controls whether a label is drawn within a box and it specifies the shape of the box.

Box fill switch—Controls whether or not a label box is filled using the box fill color.

Box border color—Specifies the color of label box sides.

Box fill color—Specifies the color of label box fillers.

Box border width—Specifies the thickness of box sides.

Box buffer width—Specifies the thickness of the space between label characters and their box sides.

Box height—The height of a label box when it isn't stacked.

Box height when stacked—The height of a label box when it is stacked onto two lines; the box graphics are stretched vertically to this height.

Box width (1–4 characters)—The width of a label box when the longest line in the label has N characters. For N>4 the width is extrapolated. The box graphics are compressed or stretched horizontally to fit this width.

Placement Parameters

Placement parameters control label placement.

Labeling style—Specifies the general style of a label relative to its feature. The labeling style parameter has different options depending on the feature type.

· Points: For point features the parameter options are

¨ Centered offset

¨ Offset west

¨ Offset south

¨ Offset east

¨ Offset north

¨ Offset NW

¨ Offset SW

¨ Offset SE

¨ Offset NE

¨ Offset S or N

¨ Offset N or S

The diagram below shows some of these styles.

· Lines: For line features the options are

¨ Centered Horizontal ¨ Centered Straight ¨ Centered Curved

¨ Shifted Horizontal ¨ Shifted Straight ¨ Shifted Curved

¨ Offset Horizontal ¨ Offset Straight ¨ Offset Curved

· Streets: For street features the options are

¨ Centered. Labels curve along the center of the line.

¨ Offset. Labels curve outside and along the line's casing.

· Areas: For area features the options are

¨ Centered Horizontal

¨ Centered Straight

¨ Centered Curved

¨ Centered Horizontal or Offset Horizontal

¨ Centered Straight or Offset Horizontal

¨ Centered Curved or Offset Horizontal

· Area-Points: For area-point features the options are

¨ Offset Horizontal

¨ Offset West Horizontal

¨ Offset South Horizontal

¨ Offset East Horizontal

¨ Offset North Horizontal

Label offset— Specifies the distance between a label and its feature.

Alternative offset—Maplex uses the alternative offset if it can't find a nonoverlapping position using the label offset. This only applies to points. Maplex only uses it if it is different from the label offset.

Maximum horizontal shift—This only applies to point labels that are centered or aligned north or south. It specifies a maximum shift away from the normal center justification.

Maximum vertical shift—This only applies to point labels that are centered or aligned east or west. It specifies a maximum shift away from the normal center justification.

Feature weight—Specifies the importance of the feature relative to other features.

Interior area weight—Specifies the weight of the interior of area features.

Label weight—Specifies the importance of the label relative to other labels.

Label to feature buffer—Specifies the preferred minimum distance that labels should be from features other than their own.

Label to label buffer—Specifies the minimum distance that labels should be from other labels.

Label repetition type—Enables linear feature connection. This has the effect of removing redundant repetitions of the same label along a linear feature.

Min. label repetition interval—Specifies the minimum distance along a line feature that must occur before a label is repeated.

Abbreviation switch—Controls how abbreviations are applied to labels when a label abbreviations file is used.

Overrun switch—Allows or disables a label to overrun the ends of streets or areas.

Graticule alignment switch—Turns on graticule alignment for a feature class.

Preferred label positions—This field specifies the preferred label placement positions for a label relative to its feature.

Zone codes for point features and area-point features

Zone codes for linear features

Label fixing switch—This should usually be left as not fixed. Fixed labels are positioned immediately after preset labels. They are positioned in the normal way but without regard for any other text on the map (apart from any preset labels present). After they have been placed, they are locked in place.

Label exclusion switch—Applies to area features only and specifies that labels must not overlap the area.

Maximum label angle—Specifies the maximum angle allowed for a label that is placed at an angle when following a feature.

Stacking Parameters

These parameters control how a label is stacked.

Label stacking switch—Enables label stacking and specifies the type of label stacking.

Min. stacked label length—Specifies the minimum number of characters that must be in the shorter part of a stacked label.

Max. stacked label length—Specifies the maximum number of characters in a label before stacking will definitely occur.

Max. label stacking level—Specifies the maximum number of lines that Maplex will use to stack a label.

Stacked label separators—These are characters that mark the label splitting points in a label. Typical separator characters are the space character, hyphens, and slashes.

Stacked label inclusion switches—This is a string of six digits (0–5) separated by spaces. Each value relates to the corresponding stacked label separator and governs whether or not it is displayed in the label.

Stacked label justification—Specifies the justification of stacked label parts relative to the first part.

Multilabel Parameters

Label extraction refers to the process of extracting sublabels from the input label.

Label extraction switch—Turns on label extraction and specifies whether one label is to be extracted from the input label or whether all of the label components are to be extracted.

Multilabel alignment style—Turns on multilabel extraction and specifies the alignment style within the multilabel.

Label extraction separators—Marks the points at which the label is broken into component parts. There are two forms of extraction based on the number of separators present in the label, single and paired.

Second component feature class—Specifies the feature class of the second component label.

Third component feature class—Specifies the feature class of the third component label.

Fourth component feature class—Specifies the feature class of the fourth component label.

Multilabel line spacing—Specifies the line spacing in a stacked multilabel. It applies to the second and subsequent parts of the multilabel and controls the space above the label part for which it is set.

Street Labeling Parameters

These parameters control the placement of labels on street features.

End of street clearance—Specifies the amount of clear space between the name and either end of the street.

Min. end of street clearance—The minimum amount of space between the beginning or end of a label and the end of the street.

Min. word spacing—This is the smallest acceptable amount of clear space between the words in a street name.

Max. word spacing—When Maplex is placing a street name along a long street or road, then it may expand the word spacing up to this limit.

Deletion Parameters

These parameters control the deletion of labels.

Min. feature size for inclusion—Specifies a minimum size for line or area features to be included on the map.

Min. feature size for labeling—Specifies a minimum size for line or area features for its label to be included on the map.

Max. line overhang—Determines what happens when a line label is longer than its line. The default (0.0) is to delete the label. Other values are the maximum distance at either end of the line to which the label will be allowed to extend.

Label deletion priority—Specifies the order (64 first, 1 last) of deletion of overlapping labels.

Feature deletion switch—Specifies whether a feature is to be deleted if Maplex had to delete its label.

Export Parameters

Export parameters control file output.

Illustrator feature layer name—Assigns a layer name to the feature in the Illustrator output file.

Illustrator label layer name—Assigns a layer name to the label in the Illustrator output file.

Illustrator overprint switch—The value of this parameter is passed through Maplex as an attribute to the Illustrator output file.

IFF label feature class—This is the feature code to be used in the IFF file.

IFF box 1–6 feature class—These are the feature codes to be used in the IFF file for label box symbols.