[mapguide-users] Building symbols

[James H. Murphy]

George, 
This is what I have been doing for the past few months between support calls and demos. In Map3D I create Mtext using charmap and getting the fonts from the ESRI symbol library. Then I use the express tool text explode to turn those mtext objects into lines/plines. Then I run some of the map cleanup tools on those to get rid of the duplicate lines and so-on. Clean up what is left over and create blocks by-layer. It takes a while but that seems to work with the ESRI fonts to create symbols you can use in the FDO side of MAP 3D. Once I get "all" of them convert cataloged somehow, haven't gotten to that point yet they will be available for anyone that wants then.
Now whether they work in MGE or MGOS I don't know but for MAP3D they look good.

James Murphy
Applications Engineer
ALACAD
 (205)444-3100
 
Visit us at www.alacad.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:mapguide-users-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of George McLean
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 3:46 PM
To: MapGuide Users Mail List
Subject: [mapguide-users] Building symbols

Hello,

I am looking for suggestions for creating nice looking symbols for MGOS 
using Atuodesk Mapguide Studio. I have tried loading DWG files with 
blocks that I would like to use with some success but I am having 
trouble repeating this with other blocks and I am not sure why at this 
point. Unfortunately when I did get some blocks to create symbols I 
like, I did not save the load procedure so I can not remember what 
parameters I set on the load procedure form! Are there any guidelines 
for what settings to use in the load procedure for creating symbols from 
autocad blocks?

I would also be interested in any suggestions on other methods to create 
symbol libraries. I have tried to create fonts using FontCreater but 
have not been successful yet most likely due to not understanding what I 
am doing very well. I have tried to build a font library similar to the 
ESRI libraries but I must be missing some key steps. When I build a font 
and assign it to a position in the font table, I get the corresponding 
ascii character instead of my symbol.

I have also tried importing bmp files into symbol libraries. but have 
not had much luck here either. I can see the BMP in the symbol library 
but when I style a point with it I can not see it in the map, layer 
preview or when trying to set the reference point. Are there any 
guidelines for this procedure like how big the file should be etc?

Sorry for all the rambling but as you can see I am a bit lost on symbol 
creation.

Thanks,

George McLean
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