What's new in cartography for ESRI Production Mapping

With this latest release, several new enhancements have been included and major bugs have been addressed. One of the major changes is that MPS-Atlas will no longer be available as a separate product, but its capabilities are included in ESRI Production Mapping. Also, the product library has been enhanced to better support cartographic functionality. The Elements tab has been enhanced and renamed to the Layout window to provide centralized page layout and element management. Some of the Grid Manager tools that were previously available in MPS-Atlas are now part of ArcGIS. The Grid and Graticule Designer, used to create the grid XMLs, is available only within ESRI Production Mapping. Several new geoprocessing and layout tools have also been added.

MPS-Atlas

In the current release, MPS-Atlas functionality is available within ESRI Production Mapping. There is no additional functionality in MPS-Atlas. However, the following changes have been made to some of the user interfaces:

• The MPS-Atlas tab in the ArcMap table of contents is now a dockable window.

• MPS-Atlas commands and elements are no longer available from menus. They are now accessible via the MPS Atlas toolbar or from Customize, under the MPS Atlas category.

Product library

Several enhancements have been made to the product library to better support cartography and map production:

• The Product Library tab is now a dockable window in ArcMap that can be accessed from either one of the following:

  • Customize menu > Production > Product Library

  • Production Cartography toolbar

• Template instructions have been introduced, which provide the ability to configure and store cartographic behavior, such as data frame rules, layout rules, and Python scripts associated with a product in the product library. Custom Python scripts can be executed when the product is checked out and opened.

• You can store Data Driven Pages MXDs within the product library to manage versions and control the map documents in a document management system.

• You can set product library and data workspaces to empty.

• You can batch manage products by checking them in or out in a batch mode.

• There are improved status icons to clearly show products that are checked out or checked in and products that are shared or single.

Grids and graticules

PLTS Grid Manager is now part of ArcGIS in the form of Grids and Graticules Layers geoprocessing tools. Additional grid management tools are available within ESRI Production Mapping and have been enhanced to better meet user needs.

• The Grids and Graticules Designer (formerly known as Grid Designer) provides the ability to create and design the grid template XMLs. It is now a dockable window with standard tree view behavior such as renaming, expand/collapse, and the ability to drag and drop items. You can also find and replace symbols, coordinate systems, and text across grids and create an individual component as opposed to the entire grid.

• Grid XMLs created using previous versions of Grid Manager are compatible with 10. The symbology is stored in the XML as representations.
• All grids will now be displayed as feature class representations.
• A new description property has been added to the XML that allows users to better describe the XML.
• Behavioral properties have also been added to the XMLs so you can automatically set the origin to lower left and set scale, rotation, spatial reference, and neatline zone clipping properties.

Cartographic data creation

Additional cartographic data creation tools are available within ESRI Production Mapping.

• A new Layer Snapshot geoprocessing toolset is available to keep track of data and cartographic changes from one map edition to the next. Users are not required to be in a versioned environment (ArcSDE) to run this tool.

  • The Calculate Layer Snapshot geoprocessing tool allows you to take a snapshot of the geometry and symbology of features at a certain point in time and compare them against the current geometry and symbology.

  • The Compare Layer To Snapshot geoprocessing tool returns a selected set of changed features from the last snapshot.

• The Bands From Features geoprocessing tool allows users to create polygons from a series of grouped isolines (hypsometric tinting).

• The Calculate Maximum Elevation Figures geoprocessing tool calculates a value representing the highest elevation found on the ground over a given extent.

• The Offset Markers and Thin Markers geoprocessing tools have been replaced with ArcGIS generalization tools.

Symbology

• The visual specifications advanced view can now show just the selected specifications (one or more) for better management of many specifications.
• The visual specifications expression parser now honors coded value/subtype descriptions.
• With views, you can apply and honor the new editing feature templates.

Page layout and elements

• The Elements tab is now a dockable window and is called the Layout window. It is designed to be the central tool for managing the page layout.
• There are several key enhancements to the layout window:
  • You can change the drawing order of elements by dragging and dropping them in the list.
  • You can search for elements by name.
  • You can now toggle the draft mode of individual elements.
  • It's easy to access measure layout, data frame, and layout rules commands.
  • Icons for unique element types have been improved.
• The Insert menu now lists only the surround elements installed with the software. The surround elements previously available within the Mapping Agency Solution are now available within ESRI Production Mapping.
• The database elements have been extended to support metadata for elements.
• Data frame rules allow you to set the scale and extent, rotation, buffer, and coordinate system of the data frame. These rules are not stored as part of the .mxd. They can be distributed as XML files and stored in the product library. Data frame rules are not tied to the map sheets but are loosely coupled, meaning they can be used with the product library and any ArcMap data frame. The data frame needs to be refreshed to view any changes applied.
• Layout rules allow you to set relative placement rules for elements and automatically adjust the page size based on the surround elements on the map. These rules are not stored as part of the .mxd. They can be distributed as XML files and stored in the product library. Layout rules are not tied to the map sheets but are loosely coupled, meaning they can be used with the product library and ArcMap layouts.

Other changes to cartography

The following functionality has been deprecated at the current release of ArcGIS 10:

• Valid value tables (VVTs) used to store symbology are no longer supported in this release. Visual specifications are used for symbolizing data.

• The PLTS Map Gallery used to store and reapply map properties is no longer supported at ArcGIS 10. Views are recommended to store and reapply data frame and layer settings.

• All nonrepresentation geoprocessing tools on the PLTS Carto Editing toolbar have been removed.

• All surround elements that are dependent on Project Management Catalog (PMC) or Map Production System—Atlas have been removed or replaced.