Re: Military Map Shapes [was Re: 2-D CAD/CAM]

[Ian Redfern <RedfernI logica com>]

On Fri, 2002-09-27 at 18:37, Alan Horkan wrote:
> 
> thanks for saying, i would hate to do redundant work.
> 
> Any chance of a quick explanation or overview of how pstoshape.pl works?
> (if not i will try and read the Perl myself at some point)

You first run the PDF through GhostScript (pdf2ps). The Perl script then
reads the PostScript produced and creates a display list of paths and
lines, together with their bounding boxes. It merges those that are
close enough to each other to make shapes, then spits out the Dia sheet
and shape files.

> Are you familiar with other programs that do this kind of thing?
> Collaboration perhaps?  Any plans to export to other file formats?
> Very cool by the way.

I was only interested in doing it for Dia, but SVG would not be hard. 

> 
> I notice from the cannon (historic site) symbol that the shape has empty
> gaps in the middle, so it should be possible to somehow do the donut shape
> i was previously unable figure out how to do.

Alas this is done by overlaying white-filled shapes - which is what the
original PDF file did, I think. In PostScript (and I presume SVG) you
can have discontiguous paths which are filled using a winding number
rule, so it's possible to have objects with holes - I haven't tried it
though.

> I assume the Autoroute and road Shield are not supposed to have any
> number on it and that users put the numbers on themselves?

Yes. Plus Dia 0.90 is not great at embedding text into shapes.

> 
> If i see any PDFs i will definately take you up on that generous offer.

There's usually some manual cleanup required - this PDF file had various
logos for the Quebec tourist authority, for example, which had to be
removed - but it only took a couple of hours to do. 

> 
> just in case anyone else was going to i did most of the military shapes
> last night, i want to clean them up and make nice icons before i put them
> up tho'.  Rather than using the icons Dia autogenerates I prefer to hand
> edit the icons i produce and to make them square and add in transparencey
> where appriate.  If you look at my previous work i think you will agree it
> makes a difference.
> http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~horkana/dia/screenshots/dia_toolbox_AssortedShapesbyAlanHorkan002.png
> hopefully i will get it done soon.
> 
> I have already mentioned several timems that i am worried about sensible
> groupings of large amounts of shapes and i am wondering if any of these
> Map shapes are not Generic, ie Canadian or American specific.  If so
> perhaps the sheet should be labelled Canadian or North American Map
> Symbols or something.  I was planning on labelling my shapes as Military
> or Military Map symbols.

I'm fairly certain that the trans-Canada highway icon is not generic.
Certainly UK Ordnance Survey map symbols don't look like this. The
military ones might also be South Korean.

> As for grouping of shapes we would most likely want to group the map
> shapes together somehow but at the same time i dont think having huge
> amounts of shapes on the one sheet is a great idea.
> 
> Are there any plans or guidelines on how best to do this?
> I dont think i am explaining this very well but anyway.
> 
> Sincerely
> Alan Horkan
> 
> On 27 Sep 2002, Ian Redfern wrote:
> 
> > Date: 27 Sep 2002 13:25:27 +0100
> > From: Ian Redfern <RedfernI@logica.com>
> > Reply-To: dia-list@gnome.org
> > To: dia-list@gnome.org
> > Subject: Re: 2-D CAD/CAM
> >
> > I have done the Canadian map symbols PDF, because translating PDFs into
> > SVG is pretty painless. I haven't done the road colours, because without
> > arbitrary rotation they seem a bit useless, but I've included the shield
> > symbols.
> >
> > It's at http://public.logica.com/~redferni/dia/
> >
> > If anyone has any other PDFs they would like translating into Dia
> > shapes, let me know.
> >
> > Ian Redfern.
> 
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-- 
Ian Redfern
Consultant
Telecoms Solutions
Logica UK
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7446 1686
Email: RedfernI@logica.com
www.logica.com


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