php3-mapscript and symbology

[Stephen Lime]

Ok, here are some ideas:

- multiple symbols: I recently added the ability to overlay 2 symbols to the CVS version although
useful for building more complex symbols it's not what you want. In your case you need to draw
the layer mutiple times positioning the labels accordingly. Note I said labels. Symbols are always
centered on the label point and labels can have varied positions. I am adding symbol offset control
but it's not quite ready.

- dynamic symbols: What you describe is what I use annotation for. For example, in labeling road
shields I use a base symbol (GIF image) and drop text over the top. Same can be done in your
case. Use an annotation layer with a circle symbol. You'll have to experiment to find the symbol
and font sizes that look good together.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> "Doyon, Jean-Francois" <Jean-Francois.Doyon at CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca> 09/05/00 10:40AM >>>
Everyone,

Allright, I got the TTF Symbology going, turns out the .ttf file I was using
had some
problems with the encoding in it ... I had to switch it to Windows Unicode
from
Windows Symbol, abd boum, everything fell into place ! Took me long enough
to
figure that out though !

Now for some more advanced questions :

Can I have multiple symbols for one point ? I have a city let's say, but I
want
3 symbols around it ... Can this be done ?

How do I create dynamic symbols ? I would like to create circles that
contain
a number, only this number will vary (Number of hits from a search, I'm
mapping
search results here). I vaguely recall seeing talk about this on the list,
but I 
can't find anything about it anymore :) And can I use a TTF symbol to do
this ?
Or do I have to create independent symbols for each possiblity ?

Thanks !
J.F.


> ----------
> From: 	Doyon,
> Jean-Francois[SMTP:Jean-Francois.Doyon at CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca] 
> Sent: 	Thursday, August 31, 2000 4:43 PM
> To: 	mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu 
> Subject: 	php3-mapscript and TTF Symbology
> 
> Hello AGAIN :)
> 
> Allright, got the projection stuff going great, thanks again :)
> 
> Now I'm trying to get TTF Symbology working, and am running
> into some problems.
> 
> I'm using a file called "geosymb.ttf", no idea where it came from.
> 
> Then I define in marker.sym
> 
> Symbol
> Name 'capital'
> Type TrueType
> Filled
> Antialias
> Character "e"
> END
> 
> But nothing shows up ! Ever ! Even stranger, sometimes ALL my TTF stuff
> disappears off the chart (All city names and their symbols, which are
> vectors, I'm just
> trying to change the symbol on ONE city). In some instances, it seems that
> everything
> within a certain radius (the bigger the symbol size, the more disappears)
> of
> the said city
> disappears ! Things also seem to behave differently depending on
> extent/zoom
> level. 
> Basically, the minute I try to put a TTF symbol in there things go bezerk.
> 
> The Text (Labelling) is TTF, and that's been working fine all along.
> 
> I even tried using my arial.ttf file (Which I use for labeling) to do
> symbols, but ... same thing.
> 
> This is the TOP layer BTW, (i.e. the last one to be added) if that makes a
> difference.
> 
> Oh , an dI've of course tried a variety of "Character" ... Also, when
> windows says a character
> is "Alt+0168", how do I use that with a symbol file ???
> 
> Anybody have any problems with this ? Any idea what I'm doing wrong ?
> 
> Maybe I'll go try it with the Perl version if I have some time tomorrow
> ...
> 
> Thanks again, and again, and again ...
> 
> 
>