converting adobe illustrator maps to arcmap format

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Converting Adobe Illustrator Maps to ArcMap FormatByJenniferMauldin

NevadaBureauofMinesandGeologyUniversityofNevada

MailStop178Reno,NV89557

Telephone:(775)682-8759Fax:(775)784-1709

e-mail:mauldin@unr.edu

BACKGROUND

TheNevadaBureauofMinesandGeologyhasdevelopedanewcartographicproductionsystemforcompletionofgeologicmaps.Underthisnewsystem,allnewmapswillbecompletedusingESR�’s(Environmen-talSystemsResearch�nstitute)ArcG�SDesktopsoftwarepackage––from initial digitization of lines through final layoutdesign.Previously,acombinationofsoftwareapplicationswereused,whichincludedAdobe�llustra-tor,ESR�ArcView3.x,ESR�Arc�nfo,Canvas,MicrosoftExcel,andAvenzaMapPublisher.Sincethenewcarto-graphicproductionsystemisusedfornewmaps,mostgeologicmapspresentlyavailableattheNevadaBureauofMinesandGeologyareinAdobe�llustratorformatandneedtobeconvertedtoArcMapformat.

VariousfactorshelpustodeterminewhetheramapwillbeconvertedtoArcMapformat.Wetakeintoconsid-eration time, effort, difficulty, and cost. For example, if an �llustratormaphasbeenreleasedasanOpen-FileReport(and therefore does not have a full office or field review), and a geologist decides to finalize the map for publica-tion(fullreview)withminimalchangestothegeology,we will opt to finalize in Illustrator rather than make the conversion.�ninstances,however,wherefundingforconversionisavailableorarequestforconversionissub-mittedbygeologistsmappinginaparticularareawhereaG�S(geographicinformationsystem)versionwillbebeneficial, conversion of those maps under consideration willneedtobeimplemented.

After a map is converted to ArcMap, final file types includeanArcMapdocument(.mxd),ageodatabase(.mdb), a topographic base map (.tif), and the digital file usedforpublication(.pdf).Withtheexceptionofthepublication digital file, which is used for web and sales purposesatouragency,allthoselistedabovearecommonGIS file formats for use with current versions of ArcMap. Other file types can be exported from these formats, which allows us to meet specific project requirements and providedigitaldatatothosewhosesoftwareapplicationsarenotcompatiblewiththeformatswetypicallyprovide.

There are substantial benefits to using the geoda-tabaseformatbecauseallinformationinthatformatisbundledtogetherasopposedtocomprisingacollectionofshapefiles, coverages, dxfs, linked text documents, vari-ous projection files, etc., that make up the final map files. Although some of these files are generated as intermediate stepsduringtheconversionprocess,theynolongerneedto be included in our final files after a map has been fully converted. The final digital files are few in number, orga-nized, and pre-defined, which results in easy data transfer andviewingbetweencolleagues,clients,andcustomers.

HOW THE ILLUSTRATOR MAPS COMPARE WITH THE ARCMAP MAPS

WehaveworkedhardtomakeourArcMapmapsmatchthecartographicqualityofour�llustratormaps.�mprovementsovertheyearstotheESR�softwaresuite’scartographicfunctionalityandpresentationhavemadeitpossibletocompletehigh-endcartographicproductsen-tirely in ArcGIS. Specific tools such as the Endpoint-Arc toolinArcMapallowsmoothdigitizingoflines,whilegeneralimprovementsinthesymbologyoptionshelptoproducemuchmorevisuallyappealingproductsusingESR�software.

Specific cartographic differences we have observed between�llustratorandArcMapmapsincludecolordis-play, font use, labeling methods, and difficulty in format-tingthemaplayoutinArcMap.Wehavealsodealtwithdifferencesbetweenprinterdriversafterupgradingourlarge-formatprinterduringtransitiontoournewcarto-graphicproductionsystem.

Color: RGB vs. CMYK

ArcMapand�llustratormapsdifferincolordisplaybothonscreenandinprint.ArcMapdisplayscolorsinRGB(red,green,blue)eventhoughCMYK(cyan,ma-genta,yellow,black)colorslidersmaybeusedtoenterthesamepercentagesforeachcolorvalueasusedinthe�llustratorCMYKcolorpalette.TheArcMapCMYK

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colorsliderssimplyallowausertospecifycolorvaluesusingtheCMYKmethod,butdonotactuallydisplaythemapinCMYKcolor.Whencomparingamapprintedfrom�llustratorwithaversionofthatsamemapprintedfromArcMap,itmayappearthatcompletelydifferentcolorswerechosentoproducethetwomaps,eventhough�llustratorandArcMapusethesameCMYKcolorvalues.ThisisbecausetheArcMapmapisactuallydisplayinginRGBand,therefore,isprintedinRGBeventhoughtheprintermaybesettoprintusingCMYK.

Fonts: Arial vs. Helvetica

SincetheHelveticafontisnotautomaticallyinstalledonthemajorityofourgeologists’computers,wedecidedtouseArialasthedefaultfontwhichdoescomeautomati-cally installed. This is due to the frequent file sharing with geologistsandothercartographersatouragencywhoworkdirectlyfromourmapdocuments.WeuseHelvetica,however,onmapswedecidetoleavein�llustratorandespeciallythosethatcartographicallybeganonaMacin-tosh.Often,�llustratormapsatouragencythathavebeenstartedinpreviousyearsandarenownearingpublica-tion are Macintosh-based and were first created using the Helveticafont.

Labeling: Floating Text vs. Annotation

Labelinggeologicunitsin�llustratorissimple;however,thelabelsarenotgeoreferencedandarestand-alonetextelementsthatarenotlinkedtoaG�Sattributetable.Toaddalabel,oneneedsonlytotypenewtext,orcopyandpasteanexistinglabelandmoveitontopofitscorrespondinggeologicunit.LabelinginArcMapisnotthateasy.Firstofall,thelabelsaregeneratedfromthegeologicunitattributetable,ratherthanbeingtypedas“floating” text labels directly onto the map. After defin-ing a label field in the symbology and turning on the label featuresoption,themapislabeledbutthelabelsarestaticandunselectable.Tomaintaincontroloverlabelplace-ments,weconvertourlabelstoannotationafterturningonthelabelfeaturesoption.Thiscreatesafeatureclassthatisaddedtothemapdocumentasalayer.Thefeatureclasshasitsownsetofattributesinatable,andthefea-turescanbemovedaroundonthemapineditingmode.

Dealingwithsuperscriptsandsubscriptswithinlabelsisalsoachallenge.Beforeconvertinglabelstoannotation,labelclassesaresetupinthelabelproperties,whichallowVBScriptexpressionstobeusedforspecifyingsuper-scriptsandsubscripts.Settingtheseexpressionscanbetimeconsumingwhenmanylabelclassescontainsuper-scriptsandsubscripts.Oncelabelclassesaresetupandlabelshavebeenconvertedtoannotation,properplace-mentofeachlabelisneeded.Duetotheirregular-shaped

geologicalunitsonageologicmap,annotationlabelsarenotalwaysplacedinthebestcartographiclocationandneedtobemanuallymovedtoabetterlocation.Addition-ally,somelabelsrequireleaderlinesandalsoneedtobemanuallymovedwithaleaderlineassigned.

Layout: Graphical Interface vs. Technical Interface

To avoid using multiple applications for layout final-ization,wenowuseArcMap’sLayoutViewratherthan�llustrator.Thisnotonlyallowsthemaptobecompletedinonedocument,butalsoenablesaninteractiveviewofthegeoreferenceddatainthedocument’sDataViewbyaclick of a button. When Illustrator was used for final map layout,aseparateapplication,forexampleArcView3.x,hadtobeopenedinordertoviewthedatainteractivelywhiledisplayedinitspropercoordinatesystem.

Thegraphicalinterfaceof�llustratorcontributedto the efficiency of layout finalization in our previous cartographic production system. However, the benefits ofviewingspatialdatainonemapdocumentandtheef-ficiency and accuracy of making revisions to geology led us to finalize the map production in ArcMap. Even though ArcMap’sLayoutViewisnotasgraphicallyorientedas�llustratorandoftenrequiresmorestepstoperformsimilar tasks, the overall map finalization process is much easierandorganizedusingoneapplicationthatprovidesalldesiredfunctionality.

Print Drivers: PS vs. RTL

Asouragencymovedtowardournewconversionsystem,wepurchaseda42-inchHP5500DesignJetPS3large-formatprintertobeusedasourdraftplotter.Afterusingthe42-inchplotterforourdraftprintoutsandcomparingvarioussettingsused,aswellasprevi-ousdraftsfromoldplotters,wediscoveredthatusingtheRTL(rastertransferlanguage)drivercombinedwiththeappropriatesettings,insteadofthePostScriptdriver,producedcrisperlines,higherqualitybaseimages,andmoreaccuratecolor.

CURRENT CHALLENGES DURING CONVERSION

Clean Up of Illustrator Layers

�llustratordocumentsarenotalwayscleanbeforeconvertingtoArcMap.�tisnecessarytogothrougheachlayerandmakesuremapelementsareoncorrectlay-ers.Weusuallyhavetomovemisplacedelementsbacktotheirproperlayers.Often,smallelementssuchasunitlabels,leaderlines,strikeanddipsymbolsandothersmall

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symbolsareaccidentallyaddedtopolygon,line,andotherlayers.Havingmapelementsonincorrectlayerscancre-ateproblemswhenbringingthelayersintoG�S,suchascausingpolygontopologytofailtobuildandfeaturestoattributeincorrectly.

Preliminary Setup before Exporting

Therearemanystepsinvolvedinpreliminarysetupfor conversion. Before an Illustrator file is ready to be importedintoArcMap,theusermustaddanchorpointstothelines,simplifytheanchorpointsonthelinesusingthe straight lines option, and convert the file to a Draw-ingExchangeFile(.dxf)beforeconvertingtocoverageorshapefile. If these steps are not done properly, the cover-age, shapefile or even DXF file will appear broken apart whenviewedinArcMapandbeuseless.Additionally,theusermustmakesuretojointhe�llustratorattributes(thelayer names) with the coverage or shapefile so he or she canproperlysymbolizeourArcMaplayersbasedontheirattributes.

Line Clean Up, Building Polygons

Sincewerebuildthepolygonsduringconversionratherthanconvertingtheexisting�llustratorpolygons,wemustcleanthelinesandcheckforpotentialproblemsthatwouldcausethepolygonstobuildincorrectly.Unfor-tunately, as an Illustrator map moves closer to finalization, itismucheasiertomakeeditsdirectlyinthe�llustratordocument rather than going back to the original shapefiles orcoveragesthatwereusedtoimportintothe�llustratordocument. This means that those original shapefiles and coveragesbecomeobsolete.Rebuildingpolygonsfromour�llustratorlinelayerduringconversionensuresthatany edits made to the lines are reflected in the polygons, andourG�Sdataareaccurate.However,thisalsomeansthatwemustperformcleanupofovershoots,under-shoots,andothererrorsthatcouldcausethepolygonstobuildincorrectly.Todothis,weeitherusetheETGeoW-izardstools(http://www.ian-ko.com/),TopologyRulesinArcMap,ortheAdvancedEditingtoolsinArcMaptocleanupourlines.Oftenacombinationofmethodsisusedduringmapconversion.Thiscleanupcanrequiremultipleiterationsuntilalllineworkisproperlyclosedandallpolygonshaveproperlybuilt.

Re-labeling the Map

Althoughwefoundaquickwaytoconvert�l-lustratorlabelstoArcMap,itstillrequirescleanupofduplicatelabelsorincorrectlabels,whichcanbetimeconsuming.Theprocessinvolvesexportingthe�llustra-tortextlabelstoapointfeatureclassthatmaybeusedto

attributepolygons,andthenfurtherconvertingthepointfeatureclasstoanannotationfeatureclass,whichrequiresmanualcartographicplacementoflabelsandleaders.Thealternativetothequickmethodofgeneratinglabelsistomanuallyselectpolygonsonthemap,attributethem,andgeneratelabels,whicharethenconvertedtoannotation.Thismethodisidealformapsthathavesimplegeology;however,forverydetailedmaps,ajudgmentcallshouldbe made as to which method is more efficient.

Redigitizing Strike and Dip Symbols as Points

Sinceweusestrikeanddipsymbolsaspointfeatureclasses,whicharesymbolizedandrotatedwithinthemapdocument, rather than graphical floating symbols as in �llustrator,thestrikeanddipsareredigitizedasapointfeatureclass.TheyarethensymbolizedasastrikeanddipcartographicmarkersymbolintheArcMapdocumentandrotatedusingtherotationtoolwiththegeographicrotationoption in the symbology window linked to the field in the attributetablethatwillstoretherotation.Asanalternativetoredigitizingpoints,wearecurrentlyexperimentingwithexportingstrikeanddipstopointstoincreaseproductivityofthestrikeanddipsymbolconversion.

However,symbolizingthestrikeanddippointfeatureclassintheArcMapdocumentleadstoanotherchallenge.When people request the files but are not capable of sup-porting our ArcGIS file types, they will only see the point featureclassasapoint,andnotthesymbolizedstrikeanddipsymbol,whentheybringthepointlayerintotheirmapdocuments.ThisisbecausethesymbolizationisstoredintheArcMapdocumentthatwesupply.Asacartographicsolution,weconvertstrikeanddipstolineswhenusingalternative file formats.

Althoughanentirenewmapcanbecompletedfromstart to finish in ArcMap, the conversion process of an existingmapfrom�llustratortoArcMapisnotasstraight-forward.Asfarasweareaware,ArcG�Ssimplydoesnothave the capabilities to import a raw Illustrator file and generateacompletelyattributedmapthatiscartographi-callyhighinquality.�nadditiontoanexperiencedcartog-rapher,theconversionprocessrequiresmultiplesoftwareapplications and file formats to get the job done.

OUR SUCCESS WITH CONVERSION

Althoughwehaveonlyconvertedahandfulofmapssincedevelopingoursystemforconversion,wehavebeensuccessfulingeneratingaccurateandcartographi-callypleasingproductsthatcloselymatchthe�llustratorversions.ThebalancebetweentheextrastepsinvolvedinmaintainingourhighqualitycartographicproductswhenusingArcMap,andtheabilitytohavegeoreferenced,

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attributeddataallinonedocument,isreasonable.Asthesoftwarecontinuestoimprove,ourlivesascartographerswillonlybecomeeasier,whichwillallowustoproduce

moreappealingmaps,moreaccurately.Thepositivesfaroutweighthechallengesthatwehaveencountered,andwewillcontinuetouseArcMapformapproduction.

APPENDIX A

Software used for conversion: Adobe�llustrator8,10AdobePhotoshop(minimaluse)7,CSCanvas(forlabelconversiononly)Arc�nfoWorkstation9.0,9.1ArcG�SDesktop9.0,9.1

Output devices currently used:HP5500DesignJetPS3(42-inch,dyeink)HP5500DesignJetPS3(60-inch,dyeink)HP5000DesignJetPS3(42-inch,dyeink)

Output devices previously used:HP2500DesignJetHP755DesignJet

Note:AvenzaMapPublisherandESR�ArcView3.xnotusedduringcurrentconversionprocess.