[mapserver-users] tolls for shapefile creation

[Alexander Shostko]

Dear Mapserver Users!

Thanks in advance for the help.

1. What are the best tools (if any) to quickly generate the 
shapefiles for points/symbols and annotations ? Let's say if 
labels need to be put at the center of the area, which consists 
of many shapes.

The annotations can be done by using the attributes for labels, 
but may be it is faster to create another layers with the 
shapefile.  Otherwise one has to introduce another attribute 
into dbf file for conditional labeling.

2. Also it is nice to scale up/down the labels while scaling 
the image.  It does to a certain extent, but it can be better. 
The advice on what is missing below is very much appreciated.

   class
     EXPRESSION (  [LEVEL] ge 9.0)
     color 255 0 0
     outlinecolor 72 61 139
     TEXT( [STATE], [LEVEL] )
    label
       position auto
       font arial
       minsize 4
       maxsize 30
        buffer 20
        force true
        color 100 34 100
    end
   end

Thanks again
Alexander Shostko
shostko at ureach.com