Northwest Washington GIS User Group Agenda
December 14, 2007

Skagit County Public Utility District No. 1, Aqua Room
1415 Freeway Drive , Mt. Vernon

(See Map; Directions & Abstracts below)

To change or add an email address for meeting announcements, contact stefan

9:00 – 9:45        Round Table

9:45 – 10:00      Break

10:00 – 10:45    Using ArcGIS to Plagiarize your way to an Atlas: Creating a Topographic Atlas of Skagit County
Josh Greenberg, Skagit County GIS

10:45 – 11:30    Creating Publication-Quality Maps in the King County GIS Center
Patrick Jankanish, King County GIS

11:30 – 12:00    Cartographic Round Table – Open to all
Share your Tips & Tricks, show off a recent map or symbol set, ask questions… (see notes below)

Wrap-up

        12:15                Optional Lunch at local restaurant (TBA)

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MAP / DIRECTIONS

o     Interstate 5 (North or South) to Exit 227, Mount Vernon; College Way

o     Take College Way west 1 block.

o     Take your first left (south) at the light on Freeway Drive

o     The PUD is about one block south, on the right (1415 Freeway Dr.)

o     Park in the lot behind the PUD building, entrance at rear of building

ABSTRACTS  

Using ArcGIS to plagiarize your way to an Atlas: Creating a topographic atlas of Skagit County
Josh Greenberg, Remote Sensing Senior Analyst, Skagit County GIS

Skagit county departments have expressed a desire to have general maps quickly available for search and rescue, emergency response, and even basic road navigation. Our goal was to provide an up to date atlas in a familiar format, and we chose to use the look and feel of the USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle maps. The new maps were created using existing data such as the National Land Cover Database for vegetation, county assessor data for residence locations, and our existing GIS data for roads and place names. The surrounding location grid was updated to include the National Grid coordinates (USNG). Some introduction pages contain detailed information such as the legend, explanations of how to use the USNG grid and disclaimers. There are 40 11x17 maps in the series produced using DS Mapbook and Maplex for labels and a road index. No annotation was used so the dynamic labeling allows future maps to be created at different scales and extents or updated with new data when needed.

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Creating Publication-Quality Maps in the King County GIS Center
Patrick Jankanish, Senior Cartographer, King County GIS Center

GIS software comprises an incredible range of tools for the management, processing, analysis, and display of spatial data. In the display arena, GIS-based cartography tools are varied, robust, and capable of generating a virtually infinite variety of maps. However, GIS software can still impose significant limits on the range of map products that a cartographer may choose to create. Also, it can be a challenge to reproduce GIS maps by certain methods, such as offset printing. The tools and capabilities of non-GIS graphics software can help cartographers and map designers circumvent the limitations of GIS-based cartography.

The King County GIS Center uses Adobe Illustrator as an adjunct to ESRI’s ArcMap to create map products that will be reproduced via offset printing, or that have graphic requirements that cannot be satisfied easily by ArcMap alone. This practice is fairly common and widespread, so this presentation will describe the specific aspects of the typical GIS-to-print workflow that the King County GIS Center employs for publication-quality map projects. It is a cartographic design and production process that ensures the proper handling of GIS data inputs, applies the most efficient tools from either the GIS or graphics environment to any given task, and results in spatially accurate, graphically sophisticated, print-ready digital artwork.

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Cartographic Round Table
Open to All

Something new for the NWWaGIS… This cartographic round table is intended as a chance to share your tips, tricks, favorite map or symbol set, ask questions… We’ll fit in as many as time allows (or leave early if we run out of topics). If you have something to share (1-5 min. each?), please email .ppt or other graphics to stefan ahead of time. Informal discussion topics welcome too.