Street Map - Street maps and font effects

by Kell Gatherer


This program helps to produce parallel-line street maps from a skeleton Draw file, i.e. where streets are represented by two parallel lines. It
can also be used to create fancy font displays as described in this month's
Hints & Tips (page 58).

Powerful though it is, it is difficult to get Draw to produce a complicated set of parallel lines, such as you would find in a street map. This application automates one possible solution, by placing a set of white lines over slightly wider black lines.

Running the application opens the StreetMap window on the Desktop.

Use the program as follows: create your original map using single lines in Draw. The thickness of the lines is unimportant. Having the grid on and locked may make making your map easier. Certain areas may be filled, so a park might be highlighted in green for example. Drag the file into the StreetMap window and set the road width and line thickness as desired. Then drag the resulting Draw icon either to a Filer window or to another Draw window.

Suggested values for maps are as follows:

Road width		Line thickness
City map		6mm 3 points
Motorway		3mm 3 points
Country road	2mm 2 points

Only path objects are converted, so text and sprite objects are left untouched. Grouping of objects is ignored, so the finished file should be grouped as desired.

If accuracy is important, StreetMap also accepts text files in a particular format which is described in a file called Co-ords inside the !StreetMap.Examples directory (hold down Shift and double-click on the StreetMap icon to access this directory). Also inside the !StreetMap.Examples directory are two sample Draw files: Before is a skeleton file for input to StreetMap, and After is an example of the output from StreetMap.

Two directory displays will be opened when you run the application. The
Examples directory contains typical input files in both Draw
and text formats, as well as the result of running the Draw file
through the program.
This month's Hints & Tips contains a hint for creating fancy text styles
using StreetMap.
The FontEgs directory shows some decorative fonts that have been created
using the program.  These can be seen by loading the files into Draw.


 Copyright RISC User 1994