topic Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location? in Mapping Questions

Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

fd — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 23:24:25 GMT

Hi,

I have a point shapefile with xy coordinates and have a lot of plots in pdf format (other format should be possible too, initially I have postscript files and conversion should be no problem). For data visualisation and analysis I would like to plot a map with the different plots connected to the location of the coordinates.

Does anyone have an idea how I could approach this in ArcGIS instead of doing it manually (I have about 200 plots to be added to coordinates and it would take me a long time to do this manually)?

Any help is kindly appreciated. Thank you!

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

OwenEarley — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 03:25:25 GMT

Do you mean link to the PDFs or georeference them and have them appear in the map?

To link the files you can use hyperlinks in your shapefile.

To georeference the files you are going to need more than one control point as the scale and orientation of each PDF plan may vary. I am not aware of any way to georeference data using only a single control point.

If you knew the map coordinates at the corners of each PDF plan you could possibly automate this.

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

fd — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 08:37:59 GMT

I mean that I have a background map with the point shapefile overlain. To everyone of these points a pdf plot (or other compatible format) should be linked and displayed (no georeferencing needed). The best would be something like this:

x <---------------[ pdf plot ]

x2 <----------------- [pdf plot2]

In this sketch x and x2 should define points and the pdf plots (in this case pdf plot and pdf plot2) I have should be connected by a line or arrow to that point but the plot should be displayed on the map. I could obviously do this in a program like Adobe Illustrator by adding the plots manually but before I do this which takes a lot of time, I wanted to ask if someone may have a solution for this?

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 08:49:44 GMT

There is no way to do this. A hyperlinks is your best option if you have a matching key field to provide the association

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

fd — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:24:40 GMT

ok thanks for the information. this is indeed what I have, the filenames contain a ID which is the same in the point shapefile's attribute table. I'll try to find a solution or at least a workaround which takes me less time than adding everything manually with hyperlink. Thanks again.

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:36:13 GMT

did you try to join the two files together based upon the common field?

Re: Adding graphics (pdfs) to a map defined by point location?

fd — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 09:50:09 GMT

The problem is that you can only join database/attribute features, but not files (e.g. pdfs) (correct me if I'm wrong!). My pdfs have a unique ID as filename which is the same in the attribute table of the point shapefile, I could link to the pdf in the attributes of the point shapefile by hyperlink, but to my understanding this will not help me to visualize the data, as a hyperlink is only a link but doesn't display graphics.