New Drawing Wizard: Symbol Placement

I would like to design some symbols to be placed by the New Drawing Wizard in the corners of a new map. To do this I need to know how these symbols are scaled and placed relative to the borders of the template. This will affect the size and origin point in the symbol definition.
Dalton “who loves designing custom templates” Spence

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    The symbols should be placed 100 from the left/right edges of the map, 50 from the bottom, and 100 from the top. This value is then scaled with the drawing if the default scale is not used.
    The symbols are also scaled based on the scale of the map compared to the template. If it isn't scaled proportionally, the scale factor is based on the scaling applied to the height of the map (Y).

    Note that this applies to regular symbols. Scale bars get a slightly different treatment, among others to ensure they show proper round number, and not odd results like 73.4 miles
  • 8 days later
  • By "default scale" I assume you mean 1000x800? So a smaller template that imports such symbols from a larger one should scale them proportionally? Also, just out of curiosity, what does the New Drawing Wizard measure to get a template's default dimensions?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    No, by default scale, I refer to the actual size of the template itself. Most of them are (by convention) 1000x800, but not all of them are.

    It uses the extents of the MAP BORDER layer to determine size.
  • Sometimes the MAP BORDER layer is used for decorative borders with a non-zero width (although this usually occurs on the MAP BORDER sheet). Is there a specific sheet that the layer is tested on? I noticed that there are usually lines on this layer on the BACKGROUND sheet, but does the testing stop there?
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    No, sheets are completely ignored for this purpose.
    Basically, when making a template, I recommend NOT putting the decorative border on the MAP BORDER layer, but find/make another layer for it. There are other things that are dependant on the MAP BORDER layer too, such as the "stop at border" feature of drawing tools, so things work best when the MAP BORDER layer only includes the zero-width line border.
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