GRATIC.

mbx
version 1.20 compiled with MapBasic 4.5
compatible with MI 5.5

Jacques PARIS jakesp@total.net

Installation and launching

GRATIC.mbx can be placed in any directory.

When launched, it becomes available as the GRATICULE menu in the menu bar (MI 4.1)
or as the GRATICULE item in the TOOLS menu (starting with MI 4.5).

It can be made "AutoLoad" thanks to the dialog of the Graticule / About Graticule menu
item for Mi versions starting with 4.5.

Main function

GRATIC produces tick marks along the four sides of a mapper, with their corresponding
coordinates.

As an output option, it can also produce cross-ticks in the body of the mapper
corresponding to the side ticks. Each one of the two lines forming these crosses carries
either the latitude or the longitude of the cross.

The mapper can be defined with longitude/latitude in degrees, as a projected map or as

a non-earth table (see "Non-earth mapper" for special details), the last two being defined
with any coordinate unit.

General procedures

1 - choose the options you want via Graticule / Options (See "Graticule options" for
details)

2 - select the mapper you want

3 - create graticule via Graticule / Draw graticule

confirm the choice of the tick spacing value (check the value and the kind of unit
in which it is displayed) or change it if not adequate.

4 - decide what to do with the output (See "Output options" for details)

If you decide to run several operations successively, the various option parameters are
kept active. If you go from a mapper in lon/lat to a projected map, you will have to reset
the tick spacing parameter (beforehand or as in 3 - above).
Non-earth mapper

As the program requires some information on "bounds" to build the work table, and as
the bounds are not part of a mapper definition but are found in the definitions of the
layers, GRATIC uses automatically the bounds of the upper layer. This is of course not a
constraint when the mapper holds only one layer.

There is a restriction applicable to all kinds of maps : no object can exist beyond their
bounds. It is rare that such a situation can occur with lon/lat or projected maps, but it is
more frequent with non-earth tables. If it happens then that graticule objects may appear
not exactly on the edge of the mapper, it would be a sure sign that some bounds have
forbidden their proper placing.

Graticule options

1 - Graticule object size.

The size of the lines forming the ticks and the cross-ticks is set to a fraction of the
mapper zoom. It is expressed in the coordinate units of the mapper and will vary
proportionately to the zoom when the window is resized.

Cross-ticks lines are half the length of side-ticks.

Three sizes are offered with a ratio of one to two between smallest and largest.

2 - Tick spacing

Tick spacing is expressed in the coordinates units of the mapper, most generally
degrees or meters, but also cm, yard ...

Ticks will be spaced by that distance but also will exist only for multiples of that
value.

3 - Inside ticks

If that option is chosen, the cross-ticks corresponding to the side-ticks with be

generated.

4 - Graticule style

These requesters allow the resetting of the line style for the tick objects, and of
the font style for the coordinates without having to use the icons/items of the MI
menu.

GRATIC generates objects with the current style settings. If the user changes the
styles with these requesters, the current styles prevailing before the changes are
kept in memory and will be restored when GRATIC is removed.
Output options

Once a graticule has been drawn, the user is prompted to know what he wants to do
with it. He has 3 choices:

1 - have the objects saved in a new table; he must provide a name for that new table via
a file requester.

2 - have the objects saved as part of a WorkSpace; he must also provide a name for
the .WOR but without the use of a file requester.

The .WOR file will be automatically saved in the same directory as the one where
the table forming the topmost layer of the mapper is located.

The information attached to the graticule objects, particularly the longitude or

latitude of the cross-tick lines, is entirely lost with this option.

3 - drop the graticule table.

I will appreciate any comments and suggestions to

improve the performance of the application, and the
text. To get in touch with me

jakesp@total.net

is a good alternate to my old

jacques.paris@umontreal.ca

June 1999