Ortelius (OS/2 cartography app) released

Ortelius released. Ortelius, OS/2 cartography application, by developer Christian Brezler, is shareware and can be downloaded in Pete Norloff's BBS (ORTL112E.ZIP 466K). It is useful for creating thematic maps easely. Maps may be exported or printed. Ortelius was developed using Speed-Pascal 1.5.Get Ortelius clicking here:

http://www.os2bbs.com


Ortelius is a Desktop-Mapping-Program for OS/2. It is useful for creating thematic maps that may be printed or exported. These are the typical steps while creating an ORTELIUS-Map:
- Import geometric data in one of the supported file formats (IDRISI4,
Atlas-BNA, AutoCad-DXF, ESRI-Ungenerate, MapInfo-Interchange and
PCMap ASCII).
- if neccessary, edit geometry: i.e. define layers, insert a map title,
add a scale of miles, north arrow ...
- read attribute data as dBase-III/IV-files.
- Join geometry and topical data using a numerical key (ID).
- Select/combine one of the following data-display options:
- Choroplethe-Map
- Charts
- scaled Symbols.
- Edit legend and map title
- Print (Printer, Plotter, OS/2-Metafile)
- if neccessary: Export geometry (Atlas-BNA, DXF...)

Installation

Before installing ORTELIUS you need to copy the files:
- ORTEL.001
- INST.DAT
- INSTORT.EXE
on a diskette.
Changing to the diskette drive afterwards, you start the installation program
with the command INSTORT. After entering the target path the INSTALL-Button
starts the installation process (copying of all of the program's files to the
target directory, inserting settings in OS2.INI and creating a WPS object).

Put the Diskette in a diskdrive, open an OS/2-commandline-window and select the
diskdrive (i.e. A:). Enter the command 'INSTORT'. In the installation-program
now select the target drive and directory for Installation (i.e. 'C:\ORTELIUS')
and click 'Install'. All program-files will be copied to the target directory
now, ORTELIUS-specific entries will be added to OS2.INI and a program-folder will
be created on the desktop.
If you want to remove this installation, just open the ORTELIUS-folder, start the
installation-program again and click on the 'Deinstall'-button.


 How to use the program

All procedures of this program will be found in the pull-down-menus. Please note
the context-sensitive hints in the statusbar. Some functions can be selected by
using buttons in the toolbar.
Online help is available by selecting a menu-item and pressing Alt+F1.

 Some Hints

Some elements of a map may be moved when holding down mousebutton 1 and may be edited when clicking on mousebutton 2 (title, legend, north arrow).
Map objects (polygons, lines, points) in the current layer can be selected when
clicking with mousebutton 1. Afterwards you will be able to
- get further information about this object or edit some attributes,
- delete the selected object or
- move the selected object into another map-layer using the
page-up/page-down-key.

The fillstyle-palette is a 'non-modal' dialog that may show up permanently if
desired. That way you pick up a fillstyle just when you need it without opening
the dialog again and again. All entries of a palette are editable by clicking
on a field in the set with mousebutton 2.

Layers have global attributes for all map-objects contained. These attributes
can be changed by clicking on a layer name in the layer-dialogs's listbox
with mousebutton 2.

You may select map-objects either by using their location defining a selection-circle with the mouse (this will select all objects fully encircled) or by attribute (i.e. ID from..to, layer, data value from..until). Such a selection can be exported (file menu), deleted (Del) or moved for one layer to top or bottom. Clicking mousebutton 2 opens a window with descriptive statistics for the selected objects. Statistics may be saved to a textfile.

Restrictions

No computer software is free of errors. Please note the license-terms, that you
will find in the online-documentation (F1).

Printing is not really WYSIWIG.

Importing PCMap-files you got to have an ASCII-version of the segment-file (*.PAL),
an ASCII-poly documentation (*.PIR) and a map description file (*.PII) that references the segment and area documentation files. Only the map-objects and their attributes are imported, no textobjects, legends or symbols.

When exporting an ORTELIUS-Map to Illustrator-format you will loose any pattern-
information of filled polygons other than solid or empty.


 COMMENTS TO
 a) Dipl.-Geogr. Christian Brezler
Liegnitzer Str. 15
D-10999 Berlin
Germany
b) christian=breszler@rz.hu-berlin.de
c) cbressl@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Copyright (C) Christian Brezler 1996..98. All rights reserved.

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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