What's New with MapInfo
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Raster Translucency
MapInfo Professional 6.5 has added raster and grid images to be displayed with translucency. That is, you can partially "see through" the raster image to the map layers below. With this option, you can set the translucency of the top raster map to partially see a secondary raster map or grid file.
The translucency of a raster image can be set anywhere between 0-100%. A completely opaque image has a 0% translucency. This completely opaque raster is the only type of available display in previous versions of MapInfo. A 100% translucent raster image would be completely transparent or invisible.
The example to the right shows a grid file underneath a transparent raster aerial photo. The grid might represent some type of environmental hazard while the overlaying raster shows what kind of ground features are located in the hot spots. In this example, the transparency of the raster image was set to 40%.
MapInfo 6.5 adds the ability to adjust the display style for a raster image on a per layer basis. Raster images are adjusted using the Table > Raster Adjust Images Styles dialog. Grid images are adjusted using the grid thematic adjustment dialog.
The dialog on the left shows the added translucency control for modifying raster images. The user has control over the contrast, brightness, and translucency of any raster image displayed in a map window.
There are some limitations with Windows 9x operating systems that cause problems when printing translucent images. This is not expected to work due to the operating system limitations.
MapObjects
In the early days, MapInfo was a desktop only tool and was used mostly for display and analyze data. As the user base grows, more people want to use the same display tool to build their datasets. Over the last several MapInfo Professional releases, we have seen more growth in the tools needed to create high quality map data. With this 6.5 release we see some additional object editing capabilities as well as a couple of new object types.
New Object Editing Capabilities
The Check Regions functionality has been enhanced to look for gaps between regions as well as self-intersections and overlaps. The screen shot at the right shows this dialog and the default symbology used for marking the possible errors. The dialog allows the user to specify the minimum gap area to this new functional area.
When the check region function runs, the specified objects are used to mark these potential problems. These marking objects are added to the mappers currently editable table.
All new to 6.5 is an object clean function. Use Clean to fix data problems reported by Check. Self-intersects will automatically be removed, and overlaps and gaps can optionally be removed. The clean objects dialog is shown in the above illustration.
The automatic checking and cleaning tools will still not catch some types of region errors. For example, it will not detect a polygon that is entirely within another polygon. So careful data creation is still a must, but these enhanced tools will help catch errors that inadvertently sneak in.
A new Snap and Thinning function has been added to the Objects menu. The dialog for controlling this function can be seen at the left.
The Snap nodes function will snap together objects that are very close together. These very close together objects are the result of object creation or editing issues that have resulted in small overlaps or gaps between objects.
Thinning an object will reduce the number of nodes of an object while attempting to retain the general shape. As long as the detail is not needed for the particular application, thinning can reduce overhead in the display, manipulation, and storage of the object.
New Object Types
There are two new object types with MapInfo Professional 6.5. Maybe more appropriately described as two "grouping" type objects. Multipoint and Collection objects are the new object types.
The multipoint object combines a number of points into a single object. A multipoint object is created by using the Objects > Combine menu item. This new multipoint object will exist in a single browser record. Each point of the object will be displayed with the same symbol style, and the associated data will be an aggregation of the attributes.
The Collection object combines a number of points, and linear and closed objects into a single object. A collection object is also created by using the Objects > Combine menu item. This new collection object will exist in a single browser record. Each point of the object type will be displayed with the same symbol, line, or region style, and the associated data will be an aggregation of the attributes.
Enhancements were made to the combine and disaggregate functions to handle the building and un-building of these new object types.
