Frequently Asked Question Document for MapPoint

At Wilfried Mestdagh's urging we are finally starting to put together a FAQ list for MapPoint. Want to contribute or have something to add? Post a reply to this topic and we'll edit/merge it into the FAQ list.

Thanks!

FAQ Content

Adding new streets
Coordinates (longitude / latitude) of a location or pushpin
Destroy all instances of mappoint
Delphi and 'interface not supported'
MapPoint Web Service
ObjectsFromPoint exception
MapPoint 2002/2004/2006 Color Codes

FAQ Detail

Adding new streets
I live in an area with a lot of new streets. Is it possible to add them to the map?

It is not possible to add new streets or do any modification to the maps. You have to wait for the next edition. Check also this thread: View topic - new streets?

Coordinates (longitude / latitude) of a location or pushpin
I like to compute longitude and latitude from a Location object or from PushPins, how to do that?

You will need some custom programming to compute the longitude and latitude. The following article shows you how:
A More Compact Method for Obtaining Lat/Long - MapPoint Articles - MP2K Magazine


Destroy all instances of MapPoint
While developing, program termination is not always graceful and sometimes you have a lot of mappoint.exe instances in memory. How to destroy them automatically?

For this you can create following console program witch terminates all mappoint.exe instances.

Code:

using System.Diagnostics;

namespace KillAllMappoints
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("MapPoint");
            foreach (Process proc in processes)
                proc.Kill();
        }
    }
}

Delphi and 'interface not supported'

To use the mappoint ActiveX control in Delphi you may want to check following thread: View topic - Got Mappoint ActiveX working in Delphi 5

MapPoint Web Service
What is the MapPoint Web Service?

MWS is a MS-hosted web service application for generating maps. Please see this thread for more information -
View topic - what exacly is the mappoint web service

ObjectsFromPoint exception

The Map.ObjectsFromPoint method sometimes creates an invalid FindResults object. The count of the results is larger than the actual number of found items

What are the color codes for the MapPoint fill and line colors?

Public Const mpBlack As Long = &H1&
Public Const mpBrown As Long = &H3399&
Public Const mpOliveGreen As Long = &H3333&
Public Const mpDarkGreen As Long = &H3300&
Public Const mpDarkTeal As Long = &H663300
Public Const mpDarkBlue As Long = &H800000
Public Const mpIndigo As Long = &H993333
Public Const mpGray80 As Long = &H333333
Public Const mpDarkRed As Long = &H80&
Public Const mpOrange As Long = &H66FF&
Public Const mpDarkYellow As Long = &H8080&
Public Const mpGreen As Long = &H8000&
Public Const mpTeal As Long = &H808000
Public Const mpBlue As Long = &HFF0000
Public Const mpBlueGray As Long = &H996666
Public Const mpGray50 As Long = &H808080
Public Const mpRed As Long = &HFF&
Public Const mpLightOrange As Long = &H99FF&
Public Const mpLime As Long = &HCC99&
Public Const mpSeaGreen As Long = &H669933
Public Const mpAqua As Long = &HCCCC33
Public Const mpLightBlue As Long = &HFF6633
Public Const mpViolet As Long = &H800080
Public Const mpGray40 As Long = &H969696
Public Const mpPink As Long = &HFF00FF
Public Const mpGold As Long = &HCCFF&
Public Const mpYellow As Long = &HFFFF&
Public Const mpBrightGreen As Long = &HFF00&
Public Const mpTurquoise As Long = &HFFFF00
Public Const mpSkyBlue As Long = &HFFCC00
Public Const mpPlum As Long = &H663399
Public Const mpGray25 As Long = &HC0C0C0
Public Const mpRose As Long = &HCC99FF
Public Const mpTan As Long = &H99CCFF
Public Const mpLightYellow As Long = &H99FFFF
Public Const mpLightGreen As Long = &HCCFFCC
Public Const mpLightTurquoise As Long = &HFFFFCC
Public Const mpPaleBlue As Long = &HFFCC99
Public Const mpLavender As Long = &HFF99CC
Public Const mpWhite As Long = &HFFFFFE



Todo

Why doesn't the Spatial Data Importer work with my files?
How can I make a map showing a single country (or state, or county)?
How do I find the name of a location from a set of longitude and latitude coordinates?
Why doesn't my GPS track align with the roads? Why does it appear to switch from one side to another?
How do I find the distances between lots of locations?


Maintainers:
Wilfried Mestdagh - W. Mestdagh

Why GetStreetAddress() function returns address as a result of FindNearby() in UK, but returns blank in Spain, France and Germany?

How can I get a route to avoid a point on a road, ie. low bridge?

Rik Temnik didn't know how, but somebody might have found a work-around, as the avoidance function currently just closes junctions.

I have successfully replaced the files in the Mappoint 2004 data folder with the files from streets & trips 2005 data folder, substantially increasing the number of imported addreses found. Not sure if this has already been discovered, but I thought it was a good nugget of info to pass on![/i]

Tell people they cannot show more than one route on the map at the same time (unless anyone has come up with a solution to this?).

Is MapPoint likely to be expanded to include data for the Asia Pacific region? If so, which countries / territories are likely to be covered and what level of detail can we expect?

Like Anthony, I need to know how to avoid (route around) the low weight bridges in my area. Any Suggestions?

Find for one point to start and many locations (without know final destination) what is the best route (optimized).

I think that I have a good question for the FAQ. I have worked a bit in VBA in Excel but I have not used VBA accross MS Office programs. I have a map that was created in Mappoint. I would like to be able to open this map via Excel and have the focus be on the map so that code can be executed in Mappoint rather than Excel. I tried to use the followhyperlink method but I couldn't get that to work. I also tried to modify the code in the 9/30/04 article to open a specific Mappoint map but that didn't work either. How can I do this?

If this FAQ is going to be geared toward the beginner, it seems as though it doesn't get any more basic than this question. I fit into the category of beginner so if you do have an answer, please post it.

Here is the answer to my previous posting. Look in the object model at the object application and the event open.