Auto Font Size / Alignment for Labels?

[Jack Ling]

Hi All,


Really thankful to all who gave me advice; the clarifications on the
concept of annotation and label is particularly useful to person like
me, who is a starter in GIS and have to develop some works in GIS
project.

I got better understandings now. And I will need time to digest.

When I open the DXF format version (not the DGN version then) of the
set of maps in AutoCad, it looks fit for my case. Everything looks
fine. Anyone has some idea if I can have something exported from there
and be able to be used for MapServer? What a pity that MapServer
doesn't support DXF...

best regards,
jackling



On 11/17/05, Delfos, Jacob <jacob.delfos at maunsell.com> wrote:
> Hi Jack,
>
> I think it's important for you to understand the difference between an
> annotation and a label.
>
> A label is the value of an attribute. For example, in a shapefile, a
> street might have attributes "name", "length", "id". Displaying any of
> these values on the map would be a label. You could use " angle 'auto' "
> to rotate this label to the orientation of the feature it belongs to.
>
> An annotation is a text object, a graphic. It is an independent object
> that bears no relation to any other object. Its only relevant attribute
> is "text". The other attributes it has relate to things like font-size,
> colour, angle, etc. An annotation is not, and does not belong to, a
> geometry. An annotation can not align itself to the road automatically,
> because it does not have anything to do with the road. Any resemblance
> in rotation-angle was done manually by whom designed the DGN. It does
> not know that it should align itself to a particular feature.
>
> So in your case, the only way to get rotated items is if the rotation
> exists in the DGN. However, I am NOT sure how to get this rotation to
> show with "styleitem 'auto'". I believe you can use "labelangleitem
> 'ANGLE'" to get it, but I'm not sure. Also, annotations/labels can only
> be rotated for true-type, but it seems that "styleitem 'auto'" picks
> non-truetype fonts. So you may have to experiment with that. In the
> past, I have saved the annotation layers to point files (with angle),
> and then use labelangleitem to show them (in a separate layer).
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Jacob
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: UMN MapServer Users List
> > [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On Behalf Of Jack Ling
> > Sent: 15 November 2005 13:57
> > To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> > Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Auto Font Size / Alignment for Labels?
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> >
> > After you experts gave me advice so that my map could show the label
> > for the map (ie. oads/buildings etc.), I've been struggling to get the
> > display right for me.
> >
> > - 1st, the labels include things such as Street names, Street No,
> > Building Names etc. I would like the Street Nos to be smaller in font
> > size, while Building Names be bigger. However, since so far I put a
> > finite SIZE (e.g SIZE 14) for the Label layer, all labels have the
> > same font size. My DGN file only have one attribute named "TEXT" which
> > is utiltized as Label annotation. I don't how to have the Font Size of
> > various elements be displayed proportionally.? Anything auto adjusted?
> >
> > -also, the labels are aligned horizontally. I should expect the Labels
> > be aligned properly with the feature. e.g. align along the road
> > direction, building direction etc.
> >
> > - I have perfect display of the maps if I were to open the DXF format
> > version from AutoCad. But seems I can't use DXF as MapServer doesn't
> > support it? That pushes me to ask from my source for a DGN format
> > version of the maps. Now, with the DGN version, I've the
> > above-mentioned probelms....Furthermore, I don't have Microstation to
> > edit a DGN file. I have AutoCad to edit the maps (turn on / off
> > layers), but seems no way I can closely work with MapServer...? Any
> > change I can use AutoCad to do some thing for me?
> >
> > Thanks again.
> > jack ling
> >
>