Spatial Data Import + Conversion to Territories

Hello,

I'm testing MapPoint for some of my GIS-users. I'm working with "heavy" GIS software (ArcInfo9), but my users want to have a "light" tool for instant mapping of analysis results.

The main issue before purchasing some MapPoint licenses, is that we should be able to use our NUTS Region shapefiles in MapPoint. I already tested the MapPoint Spatial Data Import COM Add-in, but then you get graphic/drawing elements that cannot be used for thematic maps.

Is it very difficult to write a VB tool to complete the spatial data import with a conversion to territories? Or could we buy an existing tool that manages this conversion (I didn't find any on thet net)? Or did you see already some sample scripts for the conversion to territory on this forum?

I found on this forum (for example here (http://www.mp2kmag.com/mappoint/discussion/viewtopic.asp?t=5685) and here (http://www.mp2kmag.com/mappoint/discussion/viewtopic.asp?t=4318)) that many users are asking for solutions to use imported shapefile or mif data for mapping. I think it's not possible that nobody has created such a solution yet...

kind regards
tim

MapPoint territories are restricted to groups of pre-defined areas (eg. zipcodes).

What kind of analysis do you want to perform with your territories? It might be possible to write an add-in that performs this analysis on the territories in a the "drawing element" form.


Richard

Hello Richard,
Thanks for the quick response.

We are trying to visualise statistical data on NUTS Regions level. Compare it with mapping population density, but our data are agricultural statistics and our geographical units are NUTS regions. Thematic mapping in other words.

NUTS Regions (the standard European statistical geographical units) are sometimes based upon adminsitrative boundaries (see this article (http://www.mp2kmag.com/a111--import.standard.geographic.codes.mappoint.html#mpi mport_topic4) for example), but most of them are different. Using zip codes as basis could be a solution, but for Europe only 10 countries have zip codes available in MapPoint. And we have now already 25 countries to map. On top of that, NUTS regions tend to change every now and then, and also we should be able to map 3 different NUTS levels.

kind regards
tim

So you are trying to do the comparisons between the NUTS data and the demographic data supplied with MapPoint (some of which is the same NUTS, but much of it isn't)?

Could be difficult unless you have all your data with the same regions.


Richard

No, no... I didn't make myself clear...
We are trying to map our own data based on our own NUTS regions, with the help of MapPoint. I managed to import the NUTS shapefile to MapPoint, I managed to import/link the attribute data that are in an Excel file, but I don't manage to map the attribute data with the NUTS... :(

As soon as I can define the NUTS regions as territories, I'm saved!

kind regards
tim