User:Hellerick/Map-making with Inkscape and Geocart

Drawing in Inkscape
Inkscape can be used to draw a map or its elements. Preferably, so called “geographic projection” should be used — i.e. you should treat the vertical ruler as showing the degrees of latitude, and the horizontal ruler as showing the degrees of longitude, with the bottom left corner of the page being the central point of the map. All your map should be located between x=-180 and x=180, and between y=-90 and y=90.

Preferably, all your lines should contain no curves (they could become quite bothersome later). You can use Extension > Modify Path > Flatten Beziers to get rid of them.

A copy of your file should be saved as a DXF file: “Desktop Cutting Plotter (AutoCAD DXF R18) (*.dxf)”

Normally, one DXF file should contain only one kind of lines (nothing but coastlines, nothing but boundaries, nothing but rivers, etc.). Mark the checkbox “use LWPOLYLINE type of line output”, and select the same “Base unit” as was used in your rulers (if your map is 360 pixels wide, then you should choose “pixels”).

Converting the DXF file into a shapefile
It can be done with this online service. Go to the section “AutoCAD DXF and AutoCAD DWG to ESRI Shapefile or Google KML”, select the Output Format “ESRI Shapefile – POLYLINE”, choose your DXF file, and click convert file. The service is supposed to send you back a ZIPped shapefile. Make sure the file isn’t too small — it could mean that something went wrong, and the shapefile does not contain the information you need.

Decompress the ZIP archive into a folder. Despite its name, shapefile is rather a set of files, rather than one file — you need all of them.

Projecting the map in Geocart
The program Mapthematics Geocart can be downloaded here. The program isn’t free and its demo version has some restrictions. The instructions for cracking the program can be found — but please don’t, these guys deserve being paid.

After opening the program, you have to create a workspace (File > New). Then, you have to create a map (Map > new). The program should show you a sample world map.

While the map is selected (it’s highlighted with light pink and surrounded with a blue rectangle) chose Map > Databases… Originally is shows the only database (“Stylized World Topo 5400x2700.raw”) — it’s the same sample world map you have seen, you can remove or deactivate it.

Press the button “Add user database” and choose your shapefile (.dbf, .shp, or .shx file — it does not matter which of them you select). You can add any other shapefiles — either generated by you, provided by Geocart (the option “Add installed database”), or found on the web (Natural Earth provides nice free shapefiles like coastlines and national borders).

Options of the main menu can be used to select a map projection and to adjust it.

After the work is done, the file should be saved as a PDF (File > Export document).

Final touch in Inkscape
Open the PDF file in Inkscape.

Most likely you’ll need to separate the original shapefiles into different layers. It can be done with Edit > XML Editor, but unfortunately it can be quite tricky