[Mapserver-users] Can't seem to get the projection correct

[Daniel Morissette]

"Martin, Daniel" wrote:
> 
> Sorry to correct you, but that's not true - at least not since I've worked
> with MapInfo (version 5 through 7). That may be an optional configuration,
> but by default MapInfo doesn't change the aspect ratio of the data with the
> window.  By default, the data's horizontal extent stays the same as the
> window is resized, but the vertical changes to maintain the projection.
> 

You're correct, I was wrong on that, I should have checked first.  I
found the option that's causing this effect... open your lat/lon map,
then select Map/Options, the "Distance/Area Using:" radio box is set to
Spherical.  Change the projection to "Non-Earth", and the
"Distance/Area" will switch to cartesian, and then your map will look
exactly as it does in MapServer.  

I'm not sure what this spherical distance option does exactly but it
seems that MapInfo (and MapQuest) use this to adjust the x-scale of the
map to make it look better, that's why the map looks different, this is
not a projection effect, it's a map scaling effect.  Unfortunately at
this point MapServer supports only maps with x-scale == y-scale (or
square pixels if you like) so you won't be able to reproduce that unless
you can define a projection that produces a similar effect.

-- 
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 Daniel Morissette               morissette at dmsolutions.ca
 DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
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