Extent Indicator with Rounded Corners

MitchellDrennan

Provide a setting to create an Extent Indicator with rounded corners.

In my example below, the Map Frame whose extent is being indicated has rounded corners* but the Extent Indicator is a rectangle with 90° corners.

I attached a screenshot of my Layout (see Layout.png). The shape in the bottom right corner is my INSET FRAME, and the rectangle in the middle is my Extent Indicator. I have "Frame" selected in the shape section of the Extent Indicator Properties, so it should be reflecting the shape of my INSET FRAME, right? See Extent Indicator Properties.png

Lastly, I attached a layout file (see Extent Indicator with Rounded Corners.pagx) so you can see my exact setup.

*In the INSET FRAME properties, I am limited to 50% for rounded corners. Is there a way to get values above 50% here? See attached image INSET FRAME Properties.png

AlfredBaldenweck

I agree.

In the mean time, here are two workaround you can use. The second one is better.

Both of them are time intensive to set up (again, highly suggest the second one over the first), so having Pro just do it for us would be better.

1) This effect sometimes be achieved by applying a positive offset to the border of the extent indicator, as well as a global negative offset to it of the same value Rounded extent indicator in red.

Unfortunately, this requires a LOT of fine-tuning, as changing the scale of the inset map will cause this to mess up the shape's proportions. If you're going to try it, I'd do it as one of the absolutely last steps.

My guess for why rounding isn't honored is because the vertices of the map frame are still in the rectangular shape

2) So another way to accomplish this would be to mess with the vertices, but this is even more time consuming because there isn't a way to set the vertices at set positions.

Best I could come up with was using guides and snapping to add vertices and make circular arcs by eyeballing the right extent of the arc.

Manually rounded in red, computer-rounding in black.

Tips for this:

Make a copy of the one with the rounding you want, then manually match the frame of the one you're editing to match
Set them up so that the lower left corner of each is at 0,0.
Use guides (repeating is helpful, or you can do the math if you want)
The general formula for guides is:
- (Rounding percent/2) * shorter side of the frame.
  - So, this map frame is 2.75"H x3.75"W
  - 50% rounding --> 25% (one quarter) of 2.75"--> Guides every 0.6875" up and across the page.

MitchellDrennan

@AlfredBaldenweck thank you for the workarounds! I agree, they are time consuming, but in some circumstances wouldn't need adjusting once they're set up.

Regarding #1, I messed with the Offset and Scale settings, but this process breaks down when using a dashed line on your Extent Indicator. It seems like the Scale setting just adjusts the size of your dashes and makes everything look wonky (see my discussion with @CameronRex1 in this community post)

Regarding #2, I was able to achieve my desired outcome using this method. It took me a while to figure out how you were able to create an arc on your rectangular Map Frame, so for those that are also looking for how to do this, below is my explanation:

Right click on the Map Frame which you want to have rounded corners and select Edit Vertices

Then you simply right click on the line segment you want changed to a circular arc, click Change Segment, and click To Circular Arc

If you want a rectangle with rounded corners, you'll have to add some extra vertices (again, by right clicking on the line segment to which you want the vertices added) and set up some guides using the steps discussed by @AlfredBaldenweck above.