[Xastir] Making better looking maps

Lee Bengston lee.bengston at gmail.com
Wed Aug 15 00:30:45 EDT 2007


On 8/13/07, Lee Bengston <lee.bengston at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 8/10/07, Stephen - K1LNX <k1lnx at k1lnx.net > wrote:
> >
> > That looks pretty good and gives me an idea of what to start with.
> >
> > I do have one question on the downloaded Tiger data. When I unzipped
> > Tennessee for example, it created two directories, Polygons and
> > Polylines.
> > In the corresponding directories I see (I'll use my home county as an
> > example):
> >
> > /usr/local/share/xastir/maps/static_maps/TN/Polygons
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1352805 2007-05-08 15:06 Carter_County.dbf
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1276956 2007-05-08 15:06 Carter_County.shp
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   25156 2007-05-08 15:06 Carter_County.shx
> >
> > /usr/local/share/xastir/maps/static_maps/TN/Polylines
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  2534921 2007-05-08 15:04 Carter_County.dbf
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root      143 2007-05-08 15:04 Carter_County.prj
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1709364 2007-05-08 15:04 Carter_County.shp
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   104580 2007-05-08 15:04 Carter_County.shx
> >
> > What is the difference between the Polygons and Polylines directory, if
> > any?
> > What file or files do I edit to start customizing colors, line widths,
> > etc?
> >
>
> Polylines make up the linear data - roads, borders, etc.
> Polygons are the bodies of water, parks, golf courses, etc.
>
> The files to edit are actually the dbfawk files in the
> /usr/local/share/xastir/config directory as opposed to the files in the maps
> directories.  See HowTo:DBFAWK<http://www.xastir.org/wiki/index.php/HowTo:DBFAWK>in the Xastir Wiki.  As to which dbfawk files correlate to the Tiger 2006_SE
> maps, I haven't had a chance to dig in and figure that out yet.  There's one
> file named tgr2shppoly_2006.dbfawk, but since it's possible to download
> either Tiger2006 or Tiger2006_SE maps, I don't know which map set uses it
> based on just the file name.  Also I was expecting separate dbfawk files for
> the polylines and polygons, but I can't tell from the naming if that is the
> case.  Anyway, I'm thinking using dbfinfo on the dbf files for the polylines
> and polygons will help figure out what patterns match up with which existing
> dbfawk files.  If someone on the list knows which dbfawk file(s)
> applies/apply to the Tiger2006_SE maps, that would speed things up.
>
> Lee - K5DAT
> Murphy, TX


Fyi, after taking a look at the tgr2shppoly_2006.dbfawk file details, it
definitely applies to the polygons for the Tiger2006_SE maps.  The dbfinfo
line matches the pattern in the dbf file for one of the county maps in the
polygons folder, and the comments in the file make it kind of obvious that
it applies to polygons.  Also, I was able to change the color of bodies of
water in the Tiger2006_SE maps by tweaking the file.  I don't think it will
be that difficult to figure out which dbfawk file corresponds to the
Polylines - I'm just short on time tonight.

Lee - K5DAT
Murphy, TX



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