Q: How do I import ShapeFiles created for a TAP field strength
study into Maptitude mapping software?
A: TAP systems on Maintenance Subscriptions in effect on or after June 15, 2003, and
updated to Build 908 or later, can
export Tile,
Radial, or Contour coverage calculations from TAP to ShapeFiles.
ShapeFiles can be used with several other software packages. A free
ShapeFile
viewer is available from ESRI. ShapeFiles from TAP can be combined
with other ShapeFiles (roads, building locations, etc.) available from numerous
sources on the internet.
March 2, 2011 Note: The shapefiles for a coverage
study are created automatically in TAP6 and do not need to be exported as
described above for earlier versions. The shapefile will be named with the
Task Description you entered when you created the Task in HDCoverage. The
file will be located in a folder with that same name, in the /MAPPING/MAP FILES"
folder where TAP is installed.
- Start by running Maptitude.
- Create a new Map, such as the
state you need.
- At the Maptitude menu, Click File then Open
- Under the Files of Type pull down menu select: ESRI Shape (*.shp)
- Find the ShapeFile you created from a TAP Field Strength study, the
default location will be the TAP ShapeFile folder (SWTAP\SHAPEFILES)
- Click Open.
- The "Import ESRI ShapeFile" form is displayed.
- Click the "Coordinates"
button.
- For "Coordinate System" be sure "Longitude, Latitude" is selected
and click OK
- On the "Import ESRI ShapeFile" form you can also edit the
layer name (the default is the file name).
- Click OK to close the "Import
ESRI ShapeFile" form.
- The Save As box will appear.
- Enter a file name for the Maptitude dbd file. This should be
a name you will use to identify the information in the file later. For
this example, you can use "My Coverage.dbd"
- There will be progress bars displayed showing
the status of building the new map of coverage information.
- The Map will open showing just the shapefile. Since no theme
information has been assigned to the file, all the locations will appear the
same.
- Select the state map by clicking your mouse
on the map.
- Go to the Map menu.
- Select the layers option.
- Select the add layer button.
- Select the "My Coverage.dbd file" or the file
name that you just created.
- Click open.
- Your file now shows up in the layer list.
- Be sure the coverage layer you added is highlighted in the list.
- Click
the Style button.
- On the Style form, for the "Border Style" select None.
(Otherwise each tile will be bordered. If the border color is different
from the fill color, the map will be very difficult to read.)
- Select the move up button and move your file
up in the list (the 2nd or 3rd layer is fine. You
can change the location later if your data is covered up or covers
up something else).
- Click close.
- The ShapeFile now shows on the map, but all the points look the same
because no Theme information has been added.
- Be sure that your coverage layer
you just added is shown in the Maptitude menu pulldown list.
- Next, select the Map menu and click the "Color Theme" item. You
can also click the Color Theme Map Wizard (This
is a button with three triangles on the Maptitude toolbar. You
can hold mouse the buttons to display the button function.)
- In the Field box, select DBU_FIELD.
This is the field (or column) in the ShapeFile that
contains the computed field strength value.
March 2, 2011 Note: For TAP TalkBack studies,
the field will be the "TALKBACK" field in the shapefile database. For
assigning a Color Theme for a TalkBack study, see the
section below. - Maptitude offers various ways to automatically classify the
data to be plotted., such as equal distribution of values, etc.
Since we are plotting field strength information to see particular
levels, we want to set the levels manually. Click the Manual
button. This will bring up the Manual Theme box.
- The program will read the values from the database.
- The map will be redrawn with default levels, usually assigned
as equal numbers of points in each level assigned by Maptitude.
- Usually, you will want to see field strength values computed
in TAP that relate to particular receiver hardware configurations.
- For example, suppose you use the TAP Required Field utility
to determine that the field strength necessary for a mobile receiver
unit is 39 dBu, and a handheld unit requires 50 dBu. (These numbers
are for this illustration only. You determine the actual values
for your system based on receiver manufacturers specifications,
system gains and losses, etc.)
- In this example, you will need to set up at three levels:
-9999 to 39, 39 to 50, and 50 to 99999.
- In the Number of Classes box, type in the number
of levels that you have (3 for example)
- In the Class Settings section, highlight each
line in the Classes list.
- You will make these changes in Class Settings
(as an example):
- First line: From -9999 (inclusive) to 39 (not inclusive).
This will plot all the points with a field strength value below
39 dBu. In our example, these would be points with values below
the minimum required field for any of the receivers under consideration.
- Second line: From 39 (inclusive) to 50 (not inclusive). This
will plot all the points at 39 dBu and above (adequate for our
sample mobile unit) but below 50 dBu (not enough for our sample
handheld radio).
- Third line: From 50 (inclusive) to 9999 (inclusive). This
will plot all the points at 50 dBu and above for service to the
handheld units.
- When you are finished setting the values, click the Styles
tab. This will allow us to set the graphical information
for each of the value ranges, or "classes".
- In the Styles box, you can select each of your
levels and give a name to each level to appear in a legend.
- When you highlight one of the levels, type
in a name for the legend. In the example, the legends could be:
- "No Service" for the 9999 to 39 range
- "Mobile Service" for the 39 to 50 range
- "Handheld Service" for the 50 to 9999 range.
- Then click the Style button.
- Select the color, icon, and size of the icon.
Click OK.
- Repeat the Style process with each of the levels until you
have the colors, icons, and legend names the way you want it.
- Once you have finished the style process, click on Apply.
- Click OK to close the Color Theme form.
- The ShapeFile of
coverage information should now be displayed in its own window with the theme
information applied.
- Your coverage study now shows on map.
- Your map and legend are now in a readable form.
TalkBack Studies in Maptitude
For TalkBack studies, instead of plotting ranges of field strength values as
described above, you will plot two or more categories, such as "No TalkBack
Service" and "My Mobile" where each talkback level computed is labeled with the
description of the Mobile Facility database record used for the talkback
calculation, such as "My Mobile" in this example.
For a TalkBack study in Maptitude, follow steps 1 to
31 as described above, then use this procedure to assign
properties (color, etc) to the TalkBack categories.
- On the Color Theme Layer form click the "Settings" tab.
- In the "Field" box, select the TALKBACK data field.
- In the "Method" box, select "List of Values"
- The "# Classes" value will be set automatically after you set the "Styles"
value.
- Click the "Styles" tab.
- You should see an entry for "No TalkBack Service" plus one entry for each
Mobile Facility used. (Ignore the "Other" item.)
- Select each of the entries and click the Style button to select the color
and fill pattern you want for each level.
- When you are done, click the OK button to display the TalkBack study on
the Maptitude map.
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