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VERSAMAP (version 1.17) 16 March 1992 Copyright 1991, 1992 by Charles H. Culberson 8 Ritter Lane Newark, Delaware 19711 CONTENTS PAGE 1. Introduction 2 2. Computer Requirements for Running VERSAMAP 2 3. Disclaimer 3 4. Registration 3 5. Plotting the Default World Map 4 6. Finding your Way with Latitude and Longitude 5 7. Keys with Special Functions in VERSAMAP 6 a. Esc 6 b. Alt 6 c. Exit the program 6 d. Letter T 7 e. Letter B 7 f. Using a mouse 7 g. Moving around windows 7 8. Running VERSAMAP 8 a. VERSAMAP Defaults 8 b. VERSAMAP Pull-down Menus 8 1. Projection menu 9 2. Map Design menu 12 3. Input/Output menu 18 4. Run menu 25 9. Sources of Digital Map Data for use with VERSAMAP 25 a. World Data Bank I 26 b. Micro World Data Bank II 26 c. The World Digitized 27 d. Cartog 28 e. Importing Your Own Data into VERSAMAP 28 10. Use of VERSAMAP with Graphing Programs 29 11. Program Compatibility 30 12. Acknowledgements 32 13. Registration Form 33 14. Index 34 VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 1 1. Introduction Welcome to VERSAMAP! VERSAMAP is a versatile mapping program which can transform spherical latitude, longitude values into planar x,y map coordinates and plot them on a map projection of your choice. VERSAMAP can print the resulting map on the screen, on dot matrix or laser printers, and as .PCX, .PIC, or ASCII files for use with paint programs, word processors, and presentation or technical graphics programs. VERSAMAP is supplied with Courier and Helvetica fonts which allow text to be added to maps displayed on the screen. The VERSAMAP disk(s) should contain the following files: VMAPREAD.ME -- how to get started VMAP.EXE -- the mapping program VMAP.MAP -- digital map of the world (14,000 points) VMAPFAST.MAP -- small digital world map (3,000 points). Use this map if VMAP.MAP plots too slowly on your computer. VMAP.DOC -- instruction manual using only standard ASCII characters. VMAPUSER.PRN -- sample file in user supplied data record format. Use this input file to study the different symbols that can be plotted. VMAP_FIX.MPS -- a small file used to concatenate World Digitized binary map files VMAP_FIX.MP1 -- a small file used to concatenate World Digitized ASCII map files. REGISTER.DOC -- registration form MSHERC.COM -- driver for Hercules mono graphics COUR_CGA.FON -- fixed-space Courier font for CGA, MCGA COUR_EGA.FON -- fixed-space Courier font for EGA, Hercules COUR_VGA.FON -- fixed-space Courier font for VGA HELV_CGA.FON -- proportional Helvetica font for CGA, MCGA HELV_EGA.FON -- proportional Helvetica font for EGA, Hercules HELV_VGA.FON -- proportional Helvetica font for VGA Please make backup copies of these files before running the program. 2. Computer Requirements for Running VERSAMAP MS-DOS 3.0 or higher; CGA, MCGA, EGA, or VGA video display adapter and color monitor, or Hercules mono graphics and monochrome monitor; 640K memory; VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 2 a dot matrix or laser printer is optional; a Microsoft compatible mouse is optional; a math coprocessor is not required but VERSAMAP will run about 4 times faster if one is installed. VERSAMAP will not change your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS files, it will not change your keyboard settings, and it will not write any files to disk without your permission. 3. Disclaimer Users of VERSAMAP must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "VERSAMAP is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of VERSAMAP." 4. Registration Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. VERSAMAP is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. If you find this program useful and find that you continue to use VERSAMAP after a reasonable trial period, you must register the program. The registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Registration of the program is $15, for which you will receive a copy of the most recent version of the program plus 2 additional digital map files, MWDB5.ALL (4,000 points) and MWDB3.ALL (26,000 points). Registration entitles you to mail and telephone support concerning problems you encounter with VERSAMAP. A registration form is included in the file REGISTER.DOC, and also on page 33 of this manual. Please make payment in U.S. currency. Persons living outside the United States can register VERSAMAP by obtaining a Postal Money Order payable in U.S. dollars from their National Post Office. The registration form includes space for comments about the program. I would appreciate your comments about VERSAMAP even if you do not register your copy. You are encouraged to share a copy of VERSAMAP with your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find it useful. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 3 Anyone distributing VERSAMAP for any kind of remuneration must first contact Charles Culberson at the address on the registration form for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the Association of Shareware Professionals as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering VERSAMAP immediately. However Charles Culberson must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of VERSAMAP. This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. The Ombudsman may be contacted by FAX by sending to the ASP FAX number: (616) 788-2765. In communication with the Ombudsman please include a telephone number and/or FAX if available. 5. Plotting the Default World Map Before reading the rest of the manual, let's plot a map of the world on the screen. This will familiarize you with the operation of VERSAMAP. The rest of the manual should make more sense once you have actually used VERSAMAP. VERSAMAP has built in defaults which plot a world map, from 80 N to 80 S latitude, and from 180 W to 180 E longitude, on a Mercator projection. The default settings will not print any files to disk. To run VERSAMAP with the default settings: 1. place the VERSAMAP disk containing the files, VMAP.EXE and VMAP.MAP, in your disk drive 2. change to that drive 3. type VMAP 4. press the Enter key. A screen with a menu bar across the top will appear once the program has loaded. The pull-down menus are selected by pressing the Alt key, followed by the highlighted letter of the desired menu; or by pointing and clicking the left mouse button. To plot the world map: 1. press the Alt key, to access the menus 2. press R, to select the Run menu 3. press Enter, to select 'Size 100%' and begin the plot. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 4 To plot the default map, the map file, VMAP.MAP, must be in the current directory. When the map begins plotting, the top line of the screen will display (1) a reminder that pressing the Esc key will terminate plotting and return you to the menu bar; (2) the name of the map input file being read, VMAP.MAP in this case; and (3) the number of points which have been plotted. The menu bar will reappear when the map is finished plotting. The default map takes 32 seconds to plot on a 16MHz 386SX computer equipped with a math coprocessor; it takes 15 minutes to plot on an original 5MHz IBM PC without a math coprocessor. To exit the program and return to DOS: 1. press the Esc key, to halt plotting; 2. press the Alt key, to access the menus; 3. press P, to select the Projection menu; 4. press X from the Projection menu to exit the program. Pressing the Esc key halts program execution and returns you to the menu bar. Pressing Esc will not exit the program. Please read the rest of the instruction manual before attempting to plot maps which do not use the default parameters. If VMAP.MAP plots too slowly on your computer, try using the map file VMAPFAST.MAP. This file contains only 3,000 points. It takes 7 seconds to plot on a 16MHz 386SX computer, and 3.3 minutes on a 5MHz IBM PC. 6. Finding your Way with Latitude and Longitude To use this program you should be familiar with the concepts of latitude and longitude. Latitude is the angular distance (in degrees) of a point on the earth's surface north or south of the equator. The maximum values of latitude are 90 N (north pole) and 90 S (south pole). The equator is 0 N/S latitude. Longitude is the angular distance (in degrees) of a point on the earth's surface east or west of the meridian that passes through Greenwich, England. The maximum values of longitude are 180 W and 180 E (the international date line). The meridian passing through Greenwich is 0 E/W longitude. Latitude and longitude values in VERSAMAP are entered as degrees, minutes, seconds. There are 60 seconds in 1 minute, and 60 minutes in 1 degree. One minute of latitude is equal to 1 nautical mile (1 nautical mile = 6076 feet = 1.852 kilometers = 1.1508 statute miles). VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 5 If you are unfamiliar with the use of latitude and longitude to locate points on the surface of the earth, please consult an encyclopedia or an atlas. A easily understandable introduction to the theory of map projections is the book: Porter W. McDonnell. 1979. Introduction to Map Projections. Marcel Dekker, New York. A detailed discussion of the map projections used in this program, showing actual plots, is given in: John P. Snyder and Philip M. Voxland. 1989. An Album of Map Projections. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1453. U.S. Government Printing Office. 249 pages. $14. 7. Keys with Special Functions in VERSAMAP Esc Pressing the Esc key halts program execution and returns you to the menu bar. Pressing Esc will not exit the program. If you are in the process of plotting or printing a map, the program checks the Esc key each time the record number or point, shown in the upper right corner of the screen, is updated. Consequently, the program may take several seconds to respond after Esc is pressed. There is one situation in which pressing Esc will not return you to the menu bar. If you are in the LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE LIMITS or SELECTION OF STANDARD PARALLELS windows, and have entered an incorrect latitude or longitude value, VERSAMAP will issue an error message and force you to enter a correct value before you can leave the window. Alt Pull-down menus are selected by pressing the Alt key, followed by the highlighted letter of the desired menu. Individual menu items are selected by pressing the highlighted letter of each item; by moving through the menu with the up or down cursor keys, and then pressing Enter to select the item; or by moving the mouse cursor over the desired item and pressing the left mouse button. Exit the program To exit the program and return to DOS: 1. press the Esc key, to halt plotting or erase the current window; 2. press the Alt key, to access the menus; 3. press P, to select the Projection menu; VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 6 4. press X from the Projection menu to exit the program. If a window is on the screen or a map is in the process of being drawn, you must press Esc before you can access the menus and exit the program. Letter T Pressing the letter T toggles the menu bar on and off; and replaces it with the name of the current projection, and the time taken to draw the current map. You must press T a second time, or press Esc, to redisplay the menu bar and reactivate the pull-down menus. Letter B Pressing the letter B erases the menu bar and changes the background color of the menu bar to the background color of the map (blue or black). This feature is useful if you use a screen capture program to print maps to disk or printer. You must press B a second time, or press Esc, to redisplay the menu bar and reactivate the pull-down menus. Using a mouse Most VERSAMAP features can be accessed by pointing and clicking the left mouse button. The only cases in which a mouse cannot be used are those requiring numerical or alphabetical input: such as the latitude/longitude boundaries of the map, or filename input. Windows and pull down menus can be closed by clicking the left mouse button when the mouse cursor is outside the window or menu box. Moving around windows The windows which pop up when menu selections are made contain several types of items: (1) input fields; (2) vertical list boxes; and (3) pushbuttons. Input fields allow numeric and alphabetic input into the program. An example of a window with numeric input fields is the LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE LIMITS window selected by pressing Alt, then M, then M. You can move within an input field with the right, left, Home, and End cursor keys. To enter data into an input field, type the correct characters from the keyboard. To exit an input field you must press Enter. Vertical list boxes allow one or more items in a list to be chosen. An example of a window with a vertical list box is the SELECT MICRO WORLD DATA BANK II FEATURES window selected by pressing Alt, then M, then F. Move through the list with the up and down cursor keys, and select the correct item(s) by pressing the Space Bar or Enter. The item(s) selected will be highlighted or indicated with a checkmark. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 7 If the number of items in the list is too large to fit inside the box, a scroll bar will appear along the right side of the box, allowing all items to be viewed. Pushbuttons, indicated by text inside brackets, such as < OK >, allow the user to control program execution. An example of a window with a pushbutton is the MAP PLACEMENT ON PAGE IN INCHES window selected by pressing Alt, then I, then P. The text inside the brackets indicates the action to be taken when the pushbutton is selected. The brackets of the currently active pushbutton are highlighted, and its text is shown in all capital letters. To select a pushbutton, tab to that button and press Enter. Use the Tab key to move between items when more than one list box or pushbutton occur in a window. 8. Running VERSAMAP VERSAMAP Defaults Each map projection in VERSAMAP has built in latitude/longitude defaults which are active the first time you access the projection during each session with VERSAMAP. These defaults allow you to plot maps using each map projection without getting error messages. The defaults are only active the first time you access a particular map projection. For instance, if you access the Mercator projection, then the Equirectangular projection, and finally return to the Mercator projection, the latitude limits of the grid will be those of the previous Equirectangular projection, 90 N/S, and you will get an error message if you attempt to plot a Mercator projection without changing the graticule. VERSAMAP Pull-down Menus The following paragraphs provide a detailed discussion of each VERSAMAP pull-down menu. For your first experience with VERSAMAP you should run the program with its default settings (see Section 5 above). When VERSAMAP is started, the following menu bar appears at the top of the screen. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Projection Map Design Input/Output Run ----------------------------------------------------------------- When you begin plotting a map, by selecting an option in the Run menu, the menu bar is replaced by the following line. This line is not a menu bar, it is for your information only. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 8 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Esc: goto menu Input file: Reading record: ----------------------------------------------------------------- While a map is plotting, the top line of the screen displays (1) a reminder that pressing the Esc key will terminate plotting and return you to the menu bar; (2) the name of the current map input file; and (3) the number of points which have been plotted. Once the map is completed, the menu bar reappears on the top line. Projection menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Projection Map Design Input/Output Run +---------------------------------------------------------------- | Mercator | | Equirectangular | | Equidistant conic | | Lambert conformal conic | | Albers equal-area | | Gnomonic | | Lambert azimuthal equal-area | | Hammer (-Aitoff) equal-area | |-------------------------------| | Exit | +-------------------------------+ This menu lists the map projections on which you can plot your map. The Gnomonic and Lambert azimuthal equal-area projections allow you to plot your data in polar or equatorial aspects. Mercator On this projection, meridians and parallels are parallel lines perpendicular to each other. Meridians are equally spaced, parallels are unequally spaced. The north and south poles cannot be plotted because they project to infinity. The scale is true along the equator, or along two parallels equidistant from the equator. Since the scale increases rapidly away from the equator, the areas of polar regions are greatly exaggerated compared to those of equatorial regions. The Mercator projection is commonly used for maps of the world, and is designed so that straight lines on the map are rhumb lines (lines of constant compass bearing). This is a useful property in navigation and many nautical charts use Mercator projections. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 9 Equirectangular Meridians and parallels are equally spaced parallel lines perpendicular to each other. The scale is true along the two standard parallels and along all meridians. The scale along parallels is too small between the equator and the standard parallels, and too large between the standard parallels and the poles. The map can be visualized as projected on a cylinder which intersects the globe at two standard parallels equidistant from the equator. VERSAMAP allows the user to select the latitude of the standard parallels. The fact that meridians and parallels are equally spaced makes interpolation easy. The projection is useful for maps of small regions, since distortion is not large if one of the standard parallels is chosen to bisect the region under consideration. Equidistant Conic Meridians are equally spaced lines converging at a point beyond one of the poles. Parallels are equally spaced circular arcs centered on the point where the meridians converge. The poles are circular arcs of infinite scale. Distortion on the projection is intermediate between that of equal-area and conformal conic projections. The scale is true along meridians and along two standard parallels. VERSAMAP allows the user to select the latitudes of the standard parallels. Lambert Conformal Conic Meridians are equally spaced lines converging at a point, which is one of the poles. Parallels are unequally spaced circular arcs centered on the point where the meridians converge. The pole opposite the point of convergence cannot be shown. The scale is true along two standard parallels, which VERSAMAP allows the user to select. The projection in conformal: the scale is the same in all directions at a given point. Albers Equal-Area Conic Meridians are equally spaced lines converging at a point beyond one of the poles. Parallels are unequally spaced circular arcs centered on the point where the meridians converge. The poles are shown as circular arcs of infinite scale. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 10 The scale is true along two standard parallels, which VERSAMAP allows the user to select. Since the projection is equal area, the scale at any point on a meridian is the reciprocal of the scale along a parallel at that point. Gnomonic The primary feature of gnomonic projections is that great circles plot as straight lines. Thus the shortest distance between two points on this map is the straight line connecting them. VERSAMAP allows the user to select either the POLAR or EQUATORIAL aspect of this projection. In the polar aspect, meridians are equally spaced straight lines converging at the pole. Parallels are unequally spaced circles centered on the pole. The equator and the opposite pole cannot be shown. In the equatorial aspect, meridians are unequally spaced parallel lines. Only meridians within 90 degrees of the central meridian can be shown. The equator is a straight line; other parallels are arcs concave toward the nearest pole. The poles cannot be shown. To allow more detail to be shown, VERSAMAP truncates the cusps of the equatorial gnomonic projection, and plots the map in the form of a rectangle. For maps which span the equator, the maximum and minimum latitudes of the grid are represented by points on the central meridian at the top and bottom margins of the plot. For maps which lie north of the equator, the maximum latitude is represented by a single point on the central meridian at the top of the plot. For maps lying south of the equator, the minimum latitude is represented by a single point on the central meridian at the bottom of the plot. The scale of the projection is only correct where the central parallel crosses the central meridian. Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area VERSAMAP allows the user to select either the POLAR or EQUATORIAL aspect of this projection. In the polar aspect, meridians are equally spaced straight lines converging at one of the poles. Parallels are unequally spaced circles centered on the pole. The opposite pole is a circle. In the equatorial aspect, the central meridian is a straight line. Other meridians are curves concave to the central meridian and intersecting at the poles. The equator is a straight line; other parallels are arcs concave toward the nearest pole. VERSAMAP VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 11 requires that the range of longitude for the equatorial aspect of this projection be no greater than 180 degrees (one hemisphere). The scale of the projection is only correct at the center of the projection. Hammer (-Aitoff) Equal-Area This projection is useful for equal area maps of the entire world. The central meridian is a straight line. Other meridians are curves concave to the central meridian and intersecting at the poles. The equator is a straight line; other parallels are arcs concave toward the nearest pole. The scale of the projection is only correct along the equator and the central meridian. Map Design menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Projection Map Design Input/Output Run ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Map Boundaries | | Standard Parallels | | Graticule Type | | Geographic Features | | Add Text to Map | | Select Font | | Display Previous Text | +-----------------------+ This menu allows you to define the boundaries of the map; to select the standard parallels, if any; to define the type of grid superimposed upon the map; to select the geographic features (shorelines, islands, rivers, political boundaries) that you wish to plot; and to add text to the map. Map Boundaries After selecting this item, a window appears in which the latitude and longitude limits of the map projection are entered. Data entered on this screen define the area to be plotted, and the spacing of latitude and longitude grid marks on the finished map. Once you have completed the entire screen, the program checks for errors in the latitude/longitude limits of your map projection, and for errors in grid spacing. If the program detects an error it prints an error message on the screen and requires you to correct the mistake. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 12 For instance, the program will not allow a Mercator projection to be plotted if the Northernmost latitude is 90 N (north pole) or if the Southernmost latitude is 90 S (south pole). Try entering 90 N as the Northernmost latitude limit for a Mercator projection. In this case, an error message will appear telling you to edit the data. VERSAMAP requires that the grid spacing you select yield equally spaced divisions between the northern- and southernmost latitudes, and between the western- and easternmost longitudes. You will get an error message, requiring you to edit the data, if the DEGREES BETWEEN GRID MARKS that you have chosen does not yield equally spaced divisions along the axes. If you get an error message, you must correct the error before you can leave the window! Standard Parallels After selecting this item, a window appears in which the latitudes of the standard parallels are entered. Conic Map Projections: The conic projections in this program (equidistant conic, Lambert conformal conic, Albers equal-area) require that you select 2 standard parallels of latitude. The scale of the map is true along the standard parallels; the spacing of the parallels determines the angle between meridians on the map. There are 2 constraints on selection of the standard parallels: 1. they must lie between the northern- and southernmost latitudes of your grid; and 2. they cannot be symmetrical about the equator. Standard parallels at 20 N and 20 S are not allowed. The program places default values for the standard parallels at 1/6 and 5/6 of the distance between the northern- and southernmost latitudes of the grid. When this screen appears, the cursor will be in the first position of the degrees column of the northernmost standard parallel. If the default values are acceptable, press Esc to continue. To change the values, enter a new value in the column being edited and press Enter. The cursor will skip to the next column. Enter a new value if desired and press Enter. Continue until you have edited the last value. When you press enter in the last column (the seconds column of the southernmost standard parallel), you will have the option of re-editing the screen. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 13 If you attempt to enter standard parallels which are equally spaced about the equator, the program will print an error message and force you to change the latitude of one or both of the parallels. Equirectangular Map Projection: This projection requires 2 standard parallels at equal distances north and south of the equator. You may only select the northern standard parallel. The other parallel is automatically placed in the southern hemisphere at an equal distance from the equator. The program places default values for the standard parallels at 1/2 the distance between the northern- and southernmost latitudes of the grid if the northern- and southernmost latitudes lie in the same hemisphere. If the northern- and southernmost latitudes of the grid lie in opposite hemispheres, then the standard parallels are placed at 1/2 the distance between the equator and whichever of the northern- or southernmost latitudes of the grid lies closest to a pole. When this screen appears, the cursor will be in the first position of the degrees column of the northernmost standard parallel. If the default values are acceptable, press Esc to continue. To change the values, enter a new value in the column being edited and press Enter. The cursor will skip to the next column. Enter a new value if desired and press Enter. Continue until you have edited the last value. When you press enter in the last column (the seconds column of the northernmost standard parallel), you will have the option of re-editing the screen. Graticule Type This window allows you to select the type of grid that you wish superimposed on your map. You have several choices, including plotting the graticule as points, or with the points connected by lines. The last menu item will plot your map without any latitude and longitude markings whatsoever. To get a quick view of the appearance of the different grid choices, select a grid type and then enter a null string (i.e. no file specification) for the map input file path name. In this case, the program will plot the graticule, but no map, on the screen. Geographic Features After selecting this item, a window appears which contains a list of geographic features (coastlines, islands, lakes, rivers, countries, states) which can be plotted by VERSAMAP. Move through the vertical list with the up and down cursor keys, and toggle the features on or VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 14 off with the space bar. Checkmarked features will be plotted. The defaults plot all features. Move to Proceed and press Enter to exit the window. Geographic features can only be plotted using input files from the Micro World Data Bank II database. The map files supplied with VERSAMAP come from Micro World Data Bank II and can be used to plot different features. Geographic features cannot be plotted using map files from other digital map databases, such as the World Digitized. Add Text to Map You may chose the size, color, orientation, and content of text to be entered on the map. When you select this option, a window appears containing 6 boxes labeled Text #, Size, Color, Angle, PIC Font, and Text. The use of each box is described below. Text #: VERSAMAP allows you to store 40 text strings (and their associated size, color, angle, PIC font, and position) in memory to be recalled later. The Text # box allows you to select the number of the text string to be entered. Size: This box allows you to select the point size of the text that will be written on the map. The fixed-space Courier font has 3 possible sizes: 8, 10, 12 point. The proportionally spaced Helvetica font has 6 sizes: 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, and 24 point. The height of the font in inches is equal to the point size divided by 72. A 24 point font has letters 1/3 inch high. Color: You may print text in 1 of 6 colors; white, green, cyan, red, magenta, or yellow. Angle: You may print text in 1 of 4 orientations. Selecting 0 prints the text horizontally from left to right; selecting 90 prints the text vertically with the first letter at the bottom; selecting 180 prints the text horizontally, upside down, from right to left; selecting 270 prints the text vertically with the first letter at the top. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 15 PIC Font: The PIC Font number has no effect on maps which are not exported as PIC files. The text that you enter on the map will be incorporated in any Lotus PIC graphics file that you export. Text in PIC files can be printed in 1 or 2 fonts. These Lotus fonts are not the same as the Courier and Helvetica fonts supplied with VERSAMAP. The PIC Font box allows you to select the font number, 1 or 2, with which you want the text string to be printed when you print your PIC file. For instance, the PrintGraph utility from Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.2 allows you to chose 2 fonts from a list of 11 possible fonts (block1, block2, bold, forum, italic1, italic2, Lotus, Roman1, Roman2, script1, script2). If you plan to export maps as PIC files, I recommend that you prepare a test map annotated with both the Courier and Helvetica fonts in all possible point sizes. Export this test map from VERSAMAP as a PIC file, import the file into your graphics program, and print the PIC file from within your graphics program. This will give you an idea of the appearance of each font in its various sizes. In my opinion the fixed-space Courier font works best on maps exported as a PIC files. Text: Type the text that you want printed on the map in the Text box, and press Enter to store the string. A degree sign, , can be printed by holding down the Alt key and typing the number 248 on the numeric keypad. Text strings can have a maximum length of 56 characters. With 12 point or larger text, you may not be able to fit 56 characters across the map. Positioning text on the map: After selecting the text parameters, tab to the < ok > button, and press Enter. The window will disappear, and the text string previously entered in the Text box will be printed in the upper left corner of the map. The mouse or the cursor keys are used to place the text string in the desired position on the map. The horizontal and vertical pixel position of the cursor is continuously updated in the upper right corner of the screen. The menu bar is erased when you press the < ok > button. It is replaced by a reminder that pressing Esc will restore the menus. To access the menus again you must press Esc or click the left mouse button on the top line of the screen. This will terminate text addition, and reactivate the menus. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 16 If you have a mouse, move the mouse cursor to the position at which you want the text to appear, then press the left mouse button. The mouse cursor represents the lower, left corner of the text string. The text string will appear in the new position. Pressing the left mouse button toggles the text string on and off. The program will beep if the position you have chosen is too near the edge of the map to print the full text string. You can use the up, down, right, and left cursor keys to position the text string if you do not have a mouse. The cursor position is represented by a plus sign, +. The plus sign is not visible until you press one of the cursor keys. The distance the cursor moves is controlled by pressing the numbers 3, 2, or 1. Pressing the number 3, causes the cursor to move 50 pixels each time a cursor key is pressed; pressing the number 2, causes the cursor to move 10 pixels each time a cursor key is pressed; and pressing the number 1, causes the cursor to move 1 pixel each time a cursor key is pressed. Once the cursor is in the correct position, press Enter. The center of the + represents the lower, left corner of the text string. Pressing Enter, toggles the text string on and off. The program will beep if the position you have chosen is too near the edge of the map to print the full text string. Once you have placed the text in the correct location, press Esc (or click the left mouse button on the top line of the screen) to terminate text addition, and reactivate the menus. To enter a second text string on the map, press Esc to activate the menus and select the Add Text to Map option in the Map Design menu. Place the highlight bar over the number 2 in the Text # box, and press Enter. Then proceed to modify the text parameters as necessary. The second text string will print in the upper left corner of the screen when the < OK > button is pressed; this string will overprint any text already present in the upper left corner. However, the original text will be restored when you move the second text string to a new location on the screen. Text that you enter on the map will be incorporated into maps that you print or save using the Print Map, Save as PCX, and Save as PIC options in the Input/Output menu. Text entered on maps is not incorporated into maps saved with the Save as ASCII option, since most technical and business graphing programs have the ability to annotate imported graphs. Select Font This option allows you to select the font used to print text on the screen. You may select a fixed-space Courier font or a proportionally spaced Helvetica font. The fonts used by VERSAMAP are stored in 6 files with the file extension .FON: VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 17 COUR_CGA.FON, COUR_EGA.FON, COUR_VGA.FON HELV_CGA.FON, HELV_EGA.FON, HELV_VGA.FON The program will select the correct font for your video adapter. The fonts labeled _CGA are for CGA and MCGA adapters, those labeled _EGA for EGA and Hercules adapters, and those labeled _VGA for VGA adapters. After making backup copies, you may delete the unnecessary font files to save disk space. The font files must be in the same directory as the VERSAMAP program. After selecting this option a window titled SELECT FONT appears. The default font is fixed-space Courier. If this is acceptable, press Enter. To select the Helvetica font, highlight Helvetica with the down arrow key, and press Enter. Display Previous Text This option allows you to redisplay, on the screen, all previously defined text strings. Once text is redisplayed it can only be erased by redrawing the map. Input/Output menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Projection Map Design Input/Output Run ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Map Input Filenames | | Report Map Parameters | | View Disk Directory | | Print Map | | Select Printer | | Save as PCX | | Save as PIC | | Save as ASCII | +-----------------------+ This menu allows you to enter filenames for input and output files, to display a report describing the currently selected map, to view the contents of any disk directory, to print the map on dot matrix and laser printers, and to save maps as disk files. You may export maps produced by VERSAMAP in 4 ways: (1) by copying the screen directly to your printer, (2) as PCX graphics files, (3) as Lotus PIC graphics files, and (4) as ASCII files. Maps exported by methods (1) and (2) are limited by the resolution of your monitor. Even with a VGA monitor, the screen resolution (640 pixels horizontally, 480 pixels vertically) is fairly coarse. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 18 Lotus PIC files are independent of monitor type and have much greater resolution (3200 dots horizontally, 2311 dots vertically) than PCX files. If you have a choice between PCX and PIC files, export your maps as PIC files. This is particularly true if you have a CGA or EGA monitor. Theoretically, the most detailed maps are obtained by saving them as ASCII files. The resolution of ASCII files produced by VERSAMAP is limited only by the resolution of the input map boundary files. As a practical matter, however, the detail shown on any exported map will be limited by the resolution of the printer on which it is finally printed. Map Input Filenames After selecting this item, a window appears in which the names of the input boundary files are entered. Up to 9 map boundary input filenames may be entered. The map boundary input files are the files which contain the latitude/longitude coordinates that you wish plotted on your map. The default file name for the first input file is VMAP.MAP in the current directory. VMAP.MAP is the world map included on the VERSAMAP disk. The default file names of the remaining 8 map input files are null strings (i.e. no file name). When the window is first displayed, the cursor is located at the end of the first input file name. Type in the correct path name and press Enter to accept the path name. Symbol type, color, and size: Once you enter a filename, a second window will appear which allows you to specify the symbol used to plot the points in that file. The symbol type determines whether your data is plotted as lines, as individual points, or as crosses, squares, diamonds, or triangles. If you select the symbol type Line, all points on a particular polyline will be connected by straight lines. This is the default symbol type for all files. The other symbol types (Point, Cross, Square, Diamond, and Triangle) allow you to superimpose individual latitude/longitude points on a map created from a digital map database. If you have a color monitor, VERSAMAP allows you to chose the color of the symbols used to plot each file. In addition, you may chose the size of the crosses, squares, diamonds, and triangles used to plot your data. The size that you enter is the radius of the symbol in pixels. The maximum size is 99 pixels. Size has no effect on the Line and Point symbol types, these two types are always 1 pixel wide. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 19 Once you have entered the symbol type, color, and size for the first input file, tab to the < ok > button and press Enter. The window disappears, and you are prompted for the name of the second map input file (if any). If you wish to input a second map boundary file, type its name and press Enter. Continue until you have entered all of your map input files. Once you have entered the symbol type of the last map input file that you wish plotted, press Enter on < ok > to move to the next filename. Erase the current path and then press Enter again. Entering a null filename stops further input of map boundary input files. The program does not require any input map boundary files. If you do not wish to input data, erase the default path name of the first input file and press Enter. In this case, only the map graticule (if any) will be plotted on the screen. VERSAMAP will accept map boundary input files from the following public domain, shareware, and commercial digital map databases: World Data Bank I, Micro World Data Bank II, The World Digitized, and Cartog. In addition, VERSAMAP will accept input in an ASCII text format. Section 9 contains a detailed discussion of the various map databases that VERSAMAP recognizes. VERSAMAP recognizes the various databases by their file name extensions. The file names that you enter on this screen must have one of the extensions given in Section 9. However, the names that you enter can have different extensions. For instance, your first file name could be from the CARTOG database with the extension BIN, your second file name could be from the WORLD DIGITIZED database with the extension MPS, and your third file name could be from the MICRO WORLD DATA BANK II database, with the extension, ALL. Report Map Parameters The Versamap parameter report lists various information about the map: the projection type; the grid type; the latitude/longitude limits of the map; the maximum/minimum values of the transformed x,y map coordinates; scale and area errors at selected points on the map; and the names of the map input files. The X-axis Length and Y-axis Length, listed under Relative Length of Axes, are used to scale maps produced by exporting the map output and map grid files to technical and business graphics programs. The use of these two parameters is described in Section 10. Use the up, down, Home, and End keys to scroll through the report. Press F1 to print the report, Esc to return to menu bar. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 20 View Disk Directory This window allows you to view the contents of any disk and directory. Disk drives are indicated by the letters <drive> to the right of the drive letter. To select a disk drive, move the highlight bar over the drive letter and press Enter. Directories are indicated by the letters <dir> to the right of the directory name. To select a directory, move the highlight bar over the directory and press Enter. The files in the directory are listed after the last directory listing. Print Map Maps displayed on the screen may be printed on dot-matrix or laser printers. When you select this item, a window titled MAP PLACEMENT ON PAGE IN INCHES appears, which allows you to define the dimensions and page placement of the printed map. This option copies the entire screen, except the menu bar, to the printer. The default settings place the map in the center of the page, and set the width (the entire screen width) at 6 inches. The width and height of the printed map are dependent. Adjusting the width automatically fixes the height. Any text displayed on the map will be printed. The grid spacing, and other information about the printed map that you need to annotate it, can be obtained from the Report Map Parameters option in the Input/Output menu. Use the Tab key to move between items. To print the map, tab to the < OK > button and press Enter. The map will begin printing immediately after you press the < OK > button. The Print Map option is slow! The default map takes 6.6 minutes to print on a 24-pin dot matrix printer from a 386SX computer with math coprocessor, and 80 minutes to print from a 5 MHz PC without a math coprocessor. Press Esc to exit a map that is currently being printed. Select Printer Before you print a map, you must select the type of printer which will print the map. When you select Select Printer, a window titled SELECT PRINTER TYPE AND PORT appears. You may select one of three printer types: Epson 9- or 24-pin dot matrix, or Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II. If your printer is not compatible with one of these printers, select None. You may also select the printer port. Lpt1 is the default. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 21 Save as PCX Before saving the map as a bit-mapped .PCX paint file, you must specify the filename and path of the file. After selecting this item, a window titled SELECT .PCX FILENAME appears. Type in the correct filename and press Enter. Since the .PCX file will be written immediately after you press Enter, the map you wish to save must be displayed on the screen. The menu bar is not saved as part of the file. Maps are exported as colored lines, symbols, or text on a blue or black background, just as they are displayed on the VERSAMAP screen. When you print these maps from within a paint program, you may want to print them as black lines on a white background. You can do this by using the color eraser (or color invert) tool of your paint program to change the line, symbol, and text colors to black, and the background to white. Any text displayed on the screen (except the menu bar) will be included in the .PCX file. If you do not want text to be included in the .PCX file, you must erase any previously defined text strings and redraw the map. The grid spacing, latitude/longitude limits, and other information that you may need to annotate the map, can be obtained from the Report Map Parameters option in the Input/Output menu. PCX files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into Microsoft Paintbrush and PC Paintbrush IV Plus. Save as PIC Before saving the map as a vector based Lotus .PIC graphics file, you must specify the filename and path of the file. After selecting this item, a window titled SELECT .PIC FILENAME appears. Type in the correct filename and press Enter. Since the .PIC file is written as the map is being plotted on the screen, you must select the .PIC filename before you plot the map. Once you have specified the .PIC filename, redisplay the map using the Size 100% or Size 70% options in the Run menu. The .PIC File will be written to disk as the map is drawn. The menu bar is not saved as part of the file. Any text strings which have been defined with the Add Text to Map option in the Map Design menu will be included in the .PIC file, even if the text strings are not displayed on the screen. If you do not want text to be included in the exported .PIC file, erase any previously defined text strings. To include text in the .PIC file, perform the following steps: (1) draw the map on the screen, (2) annotate the map using the 'Add Text to Map' option, VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 22 (3) select a name for the .PIC file using the 'Save as PIC' option, and (4) redraw the map using the same size option (Size 100% or Size 70%) that was used in step 1. The .PIC file will be written to disk as the map is drawn on the screen in step 4. Text added to the map in step 2 is not redisplayed on the screen when the map is redrawn in step 4; however, it is included in the .PIC file. Select the Display Previous Text option in the Map Design menu to redisplay text previously added to a map. The grid spacing, latitude/longitude limits, and other information that you may need to annotate the map, can be obtained from the Report Map Parameters option in the Input/Output menu. PIC files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into the PrintGraph utility of Lotus 1-2-3 (version 2.2), WordPerfect version 5.1, DrawPerfect, and Freelance Plus versions 2.0 and 3.0. Many PIC files produced by VERSAMAP are too large to import into Freelance, since Freelance will not import PIC files larger than 42K bytes. Save as ASCII After selecting this option, a window titled SELECT ASCII MAP OR GRID OUTPUT appears. This window allows you to chose one of two items: (1) Output map data in ASCII format, or (2) Output grid data in ASCII format. This option allows the transformed x,y map coordinates to be exported to technical or business graphing programs which can plot large data sets. See section 10 (Use of VERSAMAP with Graphing Programs). The Save as ASCII option does not export text defined with the Add Text to Map option. Text displayed on the screen is ignored when the x,y map data is written to disk. Output map data in ASCII format: After selecting this item, a window titled ENTER FILENAMES FOR MAP OUTPUT FILES appears in which the names of any ASCII output files that you wish to write to disk are entered. VERSAMAP will transform the latitude/longitude coordinates from the map boundary input files into planar x,y map coordinates and output them to disk in ASCII format. These output files can be imported into graphing programs for the production of publication quality maps. The use of the ASCII output map files in graphing programs is discussed in Section 10. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 23 The program will output up to 9 files, one for each of the map boundary input files. You may choose any path names for these files. Output files are not required by VERSAMAP. If you do not want to print a particular output file to disk, erase any characters in the file name, and press Enter. To enter an output file name, simply type in the path name and press Enter. The cursor will then move to the next output file name. Each output file corresponds to the input file of the same number. For instance, if you have 5 input files, the fifth output file will contain the transformed latitude/longitude coordinates from the fifth input file. If you decide to print a particular output file, you do not need to print the output files corresponding to the other input files. For instance, if you have 3 input files, you can print the output files corresponding to the first and third input files, but not the second input file. Input a null string for any output file that you do not want to print to disk (i.e. erase any characters in the file specification and press Enter). Data records in the ASCII map output files have the following format. X coordinate | space (ASCII 32) | Y coordinate | carriage return (ASCII 13) | line feed (ASCII 10) Data in most digital map databases is organized as polylines; each polyline corresponds to a series of points which can be connected by straight lines. In the map output files, the beginning of each new polyline is indicated by a dummy point in which the x coordinate is equal to 5.000000 (5 times the maximum x coordinate of 1.000000) and the y coordinate is 5 times the maximum y coordinate. In a map output file, any point with an x coordinate of 5.000000 is a dummy point which indicates the beginning of a new polyline, and which will plot outside the boundaries of the map. Output grid data in ASCII format: After selecting this item, a window titled ENTER FILENAMES FOR GRATICULE OUTPUT FILES appears in which the names of any ASCII output graticule files that you wish to write to disk are entered. VERSAMAP will transform the latitude/longitude coordinates of the grid type that you have selected into planar x,y map coordinates and output them to disk in ASCII format. These output grid files can be imported into graphing programs for the production of publication quality maps. The use of ASCII output grid files in graphing programs is discussed in Section 10. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 24 The program will output 1 or 2 grid files, depending on the graticule type that you chose. You may choose any path names for these files. Output grid files are not required by VERSAMAP. If you do not want to print a particular grid file to disk, erase any characters in the file name, and press Enter. To enter a grid file name, simply type in the path name and press Enter. The cursor will then move to the second grid file name (if there is one), or to the next screen. In most cases, a single grid file will be written to disk. The only exception, the OUTSIDE BOUNDARY PLUS INTERIOR POINTS grid type, writes two files to disk: the first file contains the interior points, the second the outside boundary. Grid files have the same record format as the map boundary files listed in the previous section. Run menu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Projection Map Design Input/Output Run ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Size 100% | | Size 70% | +-----------+ This menu contains 2 items. Selecting Size 100% will plot the largest possible map on the screen. Selecting Size 70% will plot a smaller map with margins around all sides. The Size 70% option allows you to add text in the margins of the map without writing over the map itself. Your map will begin plotting immediately after either item is selected. The program will cease plotting and return to the menu bar if Esc is pressed while the map is being drawn. 9. Sources of Digital Map Data for use with VERSAMAP VERSAMAP will generate maps from the following databases, available commercially, as shareware, or in the public domain. In addition, the program will accept input in a simple ASCII format. VERSAMAP recognizes the various databases by their file extensions. The two most complete databases are Micro World Data Bank II and the World Digitized, both of which are available from shareware disk vendors. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 25 World Data Bank I File extension DAT A database containing 79,000 latitude, longitude points. Data are stored as 20 character ASCII records on 5, 5.25 inch, 360K disks which are available from the National Technical Information Service, United States Department of Commerce, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. Micro World Data Bank II File extensions PNT, ALL, CCI, MAP A database in the public domain containing 178,068 latitude, longitude points. Latitude and longitude are rounded to the nearest minute and stored as six byte binary records. The complete database is available on 5, 5.25 inch, 360K disks from shareware disk vendors such as: Big Byte Software, P.O. Box 14008, Arlington, Texas 76094; Gemini Marketing, Inc., P.O. Box 640, Duvall, Washington 98019; and The Software Labs, 3767 Overland Ave. #112-115, Los Angeles, California 90034. VMAP.MAP and VMAPFAST.MAP, the digital map files on the VERSAMAP disk, and the map files, MWDB3.ALL and MWDB5.ALL, included with the registered version of VERSAMAP are part of Micro World Data Bank II (MWDB-II). VERSAMAP allows you to plot any of the following geographical features from MWDB-II: coastlines, islands, lakes, rivers, countries, states. MWDB-II contains two sets of digital map files. The first set has the file extension .ALL or .CCI. These files include data for all geographic features; they differ in the total number of latitude/longitude points included in each file. The second set of MWDB-II files has file extension .PNT. Each .PNT file contains points from only 1 geographic feature. Micro World Data Bank II Files Filename Size(bytes) # Points Comment MWDB1.ALL 1,068,408 178,068 The entire database MWDB2.ALL 652,428 108,738 MWDB3.ALL 156,960 26,160 MWDB4.ALL 82,080 13,680 MWDB5.ALL 25,890 4,315 MWDB5.CCI 17,988 2,998 COAST.PNT 449,802 74,967 Coastlines ISLAND.PNT 211,026 35,171 Islands LAKE.PNT 90,708 15,118 Lakes RIVER.PNT 169,164 28,194 Rivers VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 26 COUNTRY.PNT 134,154 22,359 Country borders STATE.PNT 13,554 2,259 U.S. state borders VERSAMAP allows individual files to be plotted in different colors. Consequently, if you import MWDB-II .PNT files into VERSAMAP, you can plot geographic features in different colors. The mapping programs, Expert Maps and Finger Maps, contain a digital map named WORLD.MAP. This map is a copy of the map file MWDB3.ALL from MWDB-II, and can be used in VERSAMAP. The World Digitized File extensions MPS, MP1 A shareware database containing 100,000 latitude, longitude points rounded to thousandths of a degree. The database is available on 3, 5.25 inch, 360K disks (in both binary and ASCII format) from shareware disk vendors. The World Digitized database is subdivided into directories, one directory for each continent. This useful feature reduces plotting time since the user can select only those areas he wishes to map. Each of the World Digitized directories contains 2 or more map files. If you wish to plot the entire World Digitized database from VERSAMAP, you will have to concatenate the individual .MPS(binary) or .MP1(ASCII) files, since VERSAMAP will not accept more than 9 input files. The VERSAMAP disks contain 2 files, VMAP_FIX.MPS and VMAP_FIX.MP1, which must be used to concatenate World Digitized files for use with VERSAMAP. These 2 files, VMAP_FIX.MPS and VMAP_FIX.MP1, force a line break at the end of each World Digitized file when it is concatenated. For example, to concatenate the World Digitized binary .MPS files in the Europe subdirectory for use with VERSAMAP, use the following form of the DOS copy command: COPY /B E0.MPS+VMAP_FIX.MPS+E1.MPS+VMAP_FIX.MPS+E2.MPS+ VMAP_FIX.MPS+E3.MPS EUROPE.MPS where EUROPE.MPS is the concatenated file. A similar procedure is used to concatenate the World Digitized ASCII .MP1 files for use with VERSAMAP: COPY E0.MP1+VMAP_FIX.MP1+E1.MP1+VMAP_FIX.MP1+E2.MP1+ VMAP_FIX.MP1+E3.MP1 EUROPE.MP1 Spurious diagonal lines will be plotted if you do not insert the VMAP_FIX.MPS or VMAP_FIX.MP1 files between the World Digitized files when they are concatenated for use with VERSAMAP. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 27 Cartog File extension BIN The mapping program CARTOG (Byte Magazine, page 329, December 1987) includes the database WORLDMED. This database contains 15,000 latitude, longitude points rounded to hundredths of a degree and stored as 6 byte binary records. The mapping program and the WORLDMED database are available on disk from Byte Magazine. The authors of CARTOG also sell a larger map database, WORLDBIG, which contains 95,000 points. Details and price are on the CARTOG disk. Importing Your Own Data into VERSAMAP File extension PRN In addition to the above file formats, VERSAMAP will also accept latitude, longitude values in the following ASCII format. The line header field is used to indicate the beginning of each new polyline; -1 indicates the beginning of a new polyline, 0 indicates subsequent points within the polyline. Latitude and longitude are given as decimal degrees; negative values represent South latitude or West longitude. Record Format for User Supplied Data field #1 - line header: -1 for new polyline 0 for point within polyline field separator: one or more spaces (ASCII 32) field #2 - latitude: decimal degrees, south latitude is negative field separator: one or more spaces (ASCII 32) field #3 - longitude: decimal degrees, west longitude is negative end of record: carriage return (ASCII 13), line feed (ASCII 10) Records with this format can be generated by most word processors and text editors. The file VMAPUSER.PRN on the VERSAMAP disk is a short file using the above ASCII format. The file contains 6 individual points in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans which plot as points; plus 5 points in the Indian Ocean which plot as a box when the points are connected by lines. You can use VMAPUSER.PRN to study the appearance of the different symbol shapes, sizes, and colors that VERSAMAP can plot. To plot the file, (1) select the Map Input Filenames option in the Input/Output menu; (2) erase the default map name, VMAP.MAP; (3) VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 28 type VMAPUSER.PRN for the filename; (4) and press Enter. When the window titled ENTER SYMBOL TYPE, COLOR, & SIZE appears, (1) select symbol type Open square; (2) the color yellow; (3) size 03 pixels; and (4) press Enter on the < OK > button. When asked for the next filename, erase the pathname and press Enter to end filename input. To display the file, select the Size 100% option in the Run menu. The screen will show 10 individual points, marked by yellow squares. The box in the Indian Ocean plotted as 4 individual points, because all symbol types, except Line, plot as points. To plot the Indian Ocean points as a box, repeat the above steps, but choose symbol type Line. In this case, the first six individual points plot as yellow dots, 1 pixel in size; but the last 5 points in the Indian Ocean are connected by lines, and plot as a rectangle. To view the contents of VMAPUSER.PRN, type the following command at the DOS prompt and press Enter (the word TYPE is part of the command). TYPE VMAPUSER.PRN Comments may be added to each line of the file after the last digit of longitude; however, the comment must not contain blank spaces or commas. 10. Use of VERSAMAP with Graphing Programs VERSAMAP can be used to prepare publication quality maps in conjunction with suitable graphing programs. To be useful in preparing maps, a graphing program should be able to: a) handle large data sets; b) use more than 1 data set per graph; c) physically separate the x and y axes, so that they do not show on the figure; d) connect individual points on the graph with lines; and e) exclude data which exceeds the X- and Y-axis limits. To print a map using a graphing program, import the map grid and the output map boundary files into the program. If there are two map grid files, the points in the first map grid file should be plotted as dots, and the points in the second map grid file should be connected by lines. If there is only one map grid file, you can connect the grid points by lines or not, depending on how you want the graticule to appear. The X- and Y-axes are scaled using the values of X-axis Length and Y-axis Length listed under Relative Length of Axes on the VERSAMAP Parameter Report. The relative X-axis Length is defined as 1.000000 for all maps; the relative Y-axis Length may be less than or greater than unity, depending on the projection and graticule chosen. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 29 Starting values of the X- and Y-axes should be set at 0. The ending values of the X- and Y-axes will depend on your graphing program, but in general they will one or both of the values listed under Relative Length of Axes on the VERSAMAP Parameter Report. You should configure the graphing program for data clipping (i.e. exclude points which lie outside the limits of the X- and Y-axes). This will prevent the dummy points (X = 5.000000), which indicate new polylines (see Section 8, Map Output Filenames), from being plotted. Map and grid output files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into the technical graphing programs, Grapher and SigmaPlot. For use with SigmaPlot, dummy points (X = 5.000000) which indicate line breaks in map output files must be converted to dashes (X = --------), indicating missing data, before the files are imported into SigmaPlot. Changing the dummy points from 5.000000 to -------- can be done using the replace command in Edlin or the search and replace command in a word processor. 11. Program Compatibility Compatibility With Other Software VERSAMAP has been tested successfully on computers running under DOS versions 3.00, 3.30, 4.01, and 5.00. PCX files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into Microsoft Paintbrush and PC Paintbrush IV Plus. PIC files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into the PrintGraph utility of Lotus 1-2-3 (versions 2.01 and 2.2), WordPerfect version 5.1, DrawPerfect, and Freelance Plus versions 2.0 and 3.0. Many PIC files produced by VERSAMAP are too large to import into Freelance, since Freelance will not import PIC files larger than 42K bytes. ASCII map and grid files produced by VERSAMAP have been successfully imported into the technical graphing programs, Grapher and SigmaPlot. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 30 Hardware Compatibility VERSAMAP has been tested successfully on the following computer systems. The last column gives the time required to plot the default world map, VMAP.MAP, on each system. Computer DOS CPU Monitor Disk Math Co- Time Version MHz Type processor (min) PC 3.30 4.8 CGA,Herc Floppy No 14.9 PC 3.00 4.8 CGA Floppy Yes 3.3 XT 3.30 4.8 EGA Hard Yes 3.1 PS/2 30 5.00 8 MCGA Floppy No 7.6 PS/2 50 5.00 10 VGA Hard Yes 0.79 286 3.30 12 EGA Hard Yes 0.58 386SX 4.01 16 VGA Hard Yes 0.54 PS/2 55SX 5.00 16 VGA Hard No 1.70 386 5.00 25 VGA Hard No 0.82 VERSAMAP runs successfully on systems with CGA, Hercules, EGA, MCGA, and VGA adapters and monitors. The program runs in high resolution CGA mode (640 x 200 pixels) on computers equipped with MCGA adapters. Several users have reported that previous versions of VERSAMAP will not run on computer systems equipped with both VGA and Hercules graphics adapters. The present version of VERSAMAP has been modified to run in EGA mode (640 x 350 pixels) when it detects the presence of both VGA and Hercules graphics adapters. This seems to fix the problem, but it is not clear if the problem occurs in all computers, or only some. If you have a computer with both VGA and Hercules graphics adapters installed, I will be glad to send you a version of VERSAMAP that runs in VGA mode when both adapters are present. Maps displayed by VERSAMAP have been printed successfully on the following printers with the Print Map option. 9-pin dot matrix: Brother M-1709, Okidata u93 Microline, IBM Proprinter, -Proprinter II. 24-pin dot matrix: Epson LQ-500, LQ-800. Laser: HP LaserJet-II, -IID, -III, -IIIsi. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 31 12. Acknowledgements Brother is a registered trademark of Brother Industries, Ltd. Epson is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc. Expert Maps is a trademark of Expert Software. Finger Maps is Copyrighted (c) by Poisson Technology. Grapher is a trademark of Golden Software, Inc. Hewlett-Packard is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company. Hercules is a registered trademark of Hercules Computer Technology. IBM and PS/2 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Lotus, 1-2-3, and Freelance are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. Microsoft is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation. Okidata is a registered trademark of Oki America Inc. PC Paintbrush is a registered trademark of ZSoft Corporation. SigmaPlot is a trademark of Jandel Corporation. WordPerfect and DrawPerfect are registered trademarks of WordPerfect Corporation. VERSAMAP uses the Hercules graphics driver, MSHERC.COM, and the font files, COURA.FON, COURB.FON, COURE.FON, HELVA.FON, HELVB.FON, HELVE.FON, supplied with Microsoft BASIC 7.0. Portions(C) 1982-1989 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. VERSAMAP uses routines from the PCX Programmer's Toolkit, Copyright (c) Genus Microprogramming, Inc. 1988-1990. VERSAMAP uses the QuickWindows Advanced User Interface Library which is Copyrighted 1990 by Software Interphase, Inc. The boundary files, VMAP.MAP and VMAPFAST.MAP, are the files MWDB4.ALL and MWDB5.CCI from the Micro World Data Bank II, a digital map database placed in the Public Domain by Fred Pospeschil and Antonio Riveria. VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 32 13. Registration and Comments VERSAMAP Version 1.17 Registration fee - $15 Make checks payable to Charles Culberson. Please make payment in U.S. currency. Persons living outside the United States can register VERSAMAP by obtaining a Postal Money Order payable in U.S. dollars from their National Post Office. Send registration or comments to: Charles Culberson 8 Ritter Lane Newark, DE 19711 USA ------------------------- Registration ------------------------- Date: __________________________________________________________ Your Name: _____________________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Please circle the floppy disk size that you would like the VERSAMAP files supplied on: 5.25" 360K 5.25" 1.2M 3.5" 720K 3.5" 1.4M --------------------------- Comments --------------------------- VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 33 14. Index Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 32 Add Text to Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 15, 17, 22, 23 Albers equal-area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 10, 13 Alt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 4-8, 16 ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 17-20, 23-28, 30 Aspect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11, 12 Association of Shareware Professionals. . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Boundary file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Cartog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 20, 28 CGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 18, 19, 31 Coastlines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 26 Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 7, 15, 19, 20, 22, 29 Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 30, 31 Conic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 10, 13 Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 26 Courier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 15-18 Data clipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Defaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 4, 8, 15 Digital map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3, 15, 19, 20, 24-27, 32 Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5, 18, 19, 21, 27 Disk directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 21 Display Previous Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 18, 23 DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 5, 6, 27, 29-31 Dot matrix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 3, 18, 21, 31 DrawPerfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 30, 32 EGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 18, 19, 31 Equal-area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13 Equatorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 11, 12 Equidistant conic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 10, 13 Equirectangular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10, 14 Error message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6, 8, 12-14 Esc . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 5-7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 25 Exit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 5-7, 9, 15, 21 Export. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18, 19, 23 F1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 19, 23, 24, 28, 30 FON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 17, 18, 32 Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 12, 15-18, 32 Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 20, 23-25, 27, 28 Freelance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 30, 32 Geographic Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 14, 15, 26, 27 Gnomonic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 11 Grapher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30, 32 Graphing programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 17, 23, 24, 29, 30 Graticule Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 14, 25 Grid file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25, 29 Grid type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 20, 24, 25 Hammer (-Aitoff) equal-area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 12 Helvetica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 15-18 Hercules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 18, 31, 32 VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 34 Import. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 23, 27, 29, 30 Input fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Input/Output menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 17, 18, 21-23, 28 Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 14, 26 Lakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 26 Lambert azimuthal equal-area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 11 Lambert conformal conic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 10, 13 Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 3, 18, 21, 31 Latitude. . . . . . . . . . 1, 2, 4-8, 10-14, 19, 20, 22-24, 26-28 Letter B. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 7 Letter T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 7 List box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 8 Longitude . . . . . . . . .1, 2, 4-8, 12, 14, 19, 20, 22-24, 26-29 Map Boundaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Map Design menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 12, 17, 22, 23 Map Input Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 19, 28 Math coprocessor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 5, 21 MCGA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 18, 31 Menu bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9, 16, 20-22, 25 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 4-8, 16, 17 Mercator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4, 8, 9, 13 Micro World Data Bank II. . . . . . . . . 1, 7, 15, 20, 25, 26, 32 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 16, 17 MP1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 27 MPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 20, 27 Ombudsman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Output file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Output grid data in ASCII format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 24 Output map data in ASCII format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Paintbrush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 30, 32 PCX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 17-19, 22, 30, 32 PIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 15-19, 22, 23, 30 PIC font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 16 Point size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Polar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9, 11 Polyline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 24, 28 Print Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 21, 31 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 3, 7, 18, 19, 21 Printer port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 PrintGraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 23, 30 PRN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 28, 29 Projection menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 5-7, 9 Pull-down menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 4, 6-8 Pushbutton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-4, 33 Report Map Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18, 20-23 Rivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 14, 26 Run menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 4, 8, 22, 25, 29 Save as ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 23 Save as PCX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 22 Save as PIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17, 18, 22, 23 Select Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 17, 18 Select Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 21 Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3, 4, 20, 25-27 VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 35 SigmaPlot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30, 32 Size 100% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4, 22, 23, 25, 29 Size 70%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 23, 25 Sources of digital map data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 25 Standard Parallel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13, 14 States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3, 14, 26, 33 Symbol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 20, 22, 28, 29 Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8, 16, 20, 21 Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 8, 12, 15-18, 20-23, 25, 28 Text #. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 17 User supplied data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 28 VGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 18, 31 View Disk Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18, 21 VMAPUSER.PRN. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2, 28, 29 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 6, 7 WordPerfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, 30, 32 World Data Bank I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 20, 26 World Digitized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 15, 20, 25, 27 X-axis Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 29 Y-axis Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 29 VMAP.DOC version 1.17 Page 36