Create Thematic Map

A thematic map is designed to emphasize specific natural or socio-economic phenomena within a geographic area. In SuperMap, thematic maps essentially represent symbolic displays of map layers, using graphical rendering styles (size, color, linetype, fill patterns, etc.) to visualize specific characteristics of features. Vector data thematic maps enable data visualization based on attributes in attribute tables.

SuperMap supports creation of Unique Value Thematic Maps, Graduated Color Thematic Maps, Label Thematic Maps, Statistical Thematic Maps, Graduated Symbol Thematic Maps, Dot Density Thematic Maps, and Custom Thematic Maps. For this mapping project, we need to create Unique Value and Label Thematic Maps for the city boundary layer, and Label Thematic Maps for tourist attractions.

Steps

Create Uniform Style Thematic Maps for City Boundaries, Province_R, National Highways, Provincial Roads, and Expressways:
  1. Select the "City_Boundary_region@travel" layer in Layer Manager. Right-click and choose "Create Thematic Map..." from the context menu. In the dialog's left panel, select "Label Thematic Map", then choose "Uniform Style" from the style templates list on the right. Click OK to create a Uniform Style Label Thematic Map.
  2. The created thematic map will automatically add to the current map window, with the Thematic Map panel displaying default settings. Adjust these settings to optimize display styles.
  3. In the Properties tab of the Thematic Map panel, click the dropdown button next to Label Expression and select the "City_Boundary_region.NAME" field as the thematic variable for object labeling.
  4. Set Background Shape to "Default", meaning text labels won't have any background decoration.
  5. In the Style tab, set Font to Microsoft YaHei, font size to 9, and text color RGB values to 127,127,127.
  6. Repeat above steps to create Uniform Label Thematic Maps for other layers. The preview effect after creation is shown below:

Create Matrix Label Thematic Map for Tourist Attractions Layer

Matrix Label Thematic Maps display attraction information using both images and text. To create image labels: 1) The dataset attribute table must contain a field storing relative image paths; 2) Extract attractions with images into a separate point dataset for better display. This example uses this extracted dataset.
  1. Right-click the "Tourist Attractions" dataset in Workspace Manager and select Properties to open the Dataset Properties dialog.
  2. Under the Attribute Table node, click Add to create a new field. Set Field Name and Alias as "Path", Type as Text, Length as 50. Click Apply to save table structure changes.
  3. Input relative image paths in the Path field cells. Relative paths should reference the position relative to the dataset's datasource.
  4. Create a default Matrix Style Label Thematic Map for the tourist attractions layer. Optimize display effects through the Thematic Map panel.
  5. In the Thematic Map panel, click blank space in the sub-item list to set matrix columns to 1 and rows to 2. Set Background Shape to "Default" and enable "No Overlap" with "Avoid at Four Directions".
  6. Select the first matrix cell, choose "Picture Label" from the dropdown, set Picture Path to the "Path" field, and check "Keep Original Size".
    • In Properties tab, set Label Expression to the "Scenic Name" field with "Default" Background Shape.
    • In Style tab, set Font to Microsoft YaHei, size 10, black text color. Enable outline with background RGB 0,0,0.
  7. For overlapping labels, select labeled objects and use "Move Label" in the Labels group under Thematic Map tab to reposition labels.