Week 4- Adobe Illustrator & GIS What a pair!

When it comes to designing maps, the addition of Adobe Illustrator to the tool box is gigantic.  Once again we are on the journey of learning yet another software program.   It will be the sport of the year to watch our leaps and bounds in real productivity visual progression.   With this one I had some issues from the start.  I've added a few screen shots to show what happened.   

Opps its too small. 

1.      Process Summary Description

1)      Opened ArcCatalog tree to Intro, Week2- Own Your Map, opened each layer file cntbnd_jun11 and cities_feb04 to obtain metadata.  Copied each of these in ArcMap in new map from Intro, Week2 to new folder Cart file, week4_AdobeILL  for lab.

2)      In ArcMap, new map with two layers as new map. Save new map as Week4CART_AdobeILL_kfm4. Renamed both layers: Cities, County Boundary. Changed size of City to #3. Changed shape of county boundary to rounded corner rectangle.  

3)      Inserted Neatline with gap of 10.  Zoomed to Full extent to spread map out.

4)      Inserted scale bar, graphic and inserted scale.  Saved, viewed 100% to see that scale bar was in even numbers.

5)      Inserted Legend with wizard, deleted name Legend, added border, changed size of county shape to 15:7.5 ratio, gap of 5, chose background.

6)      Inserted North Arrow style.

7)      In layout view repositioned map elements to good location. 

8)      Saved map again, as AI, file, exported to S:drive  in Cart/week4/Week4CART_AdobeILL_kfm4.  Closed ArcMap.

9)      Opened Adobe Illustrator, error message was there as anticipated, chose update.

Map opened.  Found fit to screen resized map. 

10)   Opened Layers, initially did not see that I did not have “other 3” layer. Carried on lab plan without it not knowing the consequences ahead. Changed “other” to Neatline. 

11)  Added layer for legend & North Arrow, renamed layers as they appeared. Here is where I began to open and study the structure of the layers with their <group> and clipping path designations.  My layers did not look the same. I moved the layers box off of my map area and saw that the cities were sitting out in the ocean area not on land.  Decided the two issues of missing layers and floating cities were too much. Saved, closed and proceeded to start over with a new map in ArcMap.

12)  Went through the same procedures again with steps 1-9 above.  Second try still did not have “other 3” layer. 

13)  Opened up each layer and the sublayer components to study the structure. 

14)   My “other 2” contained the legend, scale and scale bar without the group and clipping path stuff. On my first map setting up the layers, I did not know that this mattered.   

15)  Added sublayers under “other 2” for North Arrow and scale.  (Found out later, one thing can not be a group). Moved North Arrow element into its layer. Moved scale into its layer. I recolored these layers and locked them.

16)   After all is said and done with the layers, I eventually added a layer, for the scale bar, moving each individual part of the scale bar into it. The subparts of the scale bar did not have a group/clipping path designation.  At the time of this typing, I’ve not been successful at creating a <group> for the scale bar elements. I named a sublayer group but not sure that was the way to handle it.   For this assignment it will remain hanging. However, it’s a “thing” to be conquered which shall not remain untamed.

17)  Here is my screen shot of the converted layers each time I moved a map from ArcMap into AdobeIllustrator.

18) 

19)   I learned to minimize the layer box which helped later.

20)   Inserted a new layer for the legend, recolored it. Moved all the parts into the new layer. Clicked on the circle, the layer was selected. Used the select tool and direct select tool. Bounded boxes came on legend. I was able to move it to the other side of my map.  Somehow, I clicked the wrong direction moving it and it became rotated.  I was able to get it nearly straight.

21)  Selected the text tool from toolbar. Used character top menu to enlarge title words “Florida Cities”.  They were across the map. Made layer for Title, put words into layer, then clicked select circle to make words move around.  Found angle dialog box, moved to 60* (This actually took some trial & error for final results).

22) 

23)   Made sublayer for Name-date-data source. Used text tool & paragraph from top menu to wrap information.  Selected layer to move into place on map.

24)  Went back to layer issue. Cities were not showing up. Moved cities up above counties, they appeared.

25)  Attempting to click and select to see if counties, cities and scalebar were in right place I lost a county and have a city highlighted.  Was not able to backtrace steps to correct.

26)   Found that once I fixed something it was advisable to lock it. Keeps from making errors.

27)   Found object on top menu, tried to make group fixes. Not quite successful. Will conquer this one soon.