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Optimisation and mapping to power your business |
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Mapping data: vectors, rasters, speeds... |
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How to decide whether you need vector or raster maps...
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Raster File Size & Formats
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| Requires more storage space than the same data in vector format. Formats available include Tiff, Gif, BMP, PNG, Jpeg |
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Vector File Size & Formats
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| Relatively compact files (which can be made even smaller using MapMechanics’ fast compressed mapping technique). Formats available include ArcInfo (E00), ArcView Shape, Autocad DXF or DWG, GeoConcept, MapInfo (MIF/MID or TAB). |
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Raster Appearance
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Raster maps look like a printed map when displayed on screen.
A cartographer will have placed each label so the map is really clear and often has the familiar look and feel of paper products. |
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| MapMechanics can provide rasters with specified colours if required and some mapping software enables the user to change colours of specific areas. |
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Vector Appearance
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| Vector maps are completely flexible. Exclude or include individual features (towns, roads etc) as required. Use default styling (look similar to paper maps, but labeling usually less sophisticated) or adapt to suit your project. |
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| Easy to change colours and styles. Simply select objects in preferred software to colour and/or restyle. Thicken boundaries to emphasise your territories or remove clutter by excluding water features, for example. |
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Raster Zoom Capabilities
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| Each raster layer is best viewed at a specific scale, but many products such as the AA and Andes series offer a range of rasters suited for different levels of zoom. Modern rasters also include anti-aliasing which means they can be viewed at a much wider range of scales without undue loss of definition. |
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Vector Zoom Capabilities
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| Can be drawn at any scale without loss of definition. Intelligent mapping software can change the display of the data according to the zoom (e.g. make the roads wider when zoomed in and thinner with no labels when zoomed out). |
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Raster for Analysis
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| Commercial raster maps do not generally have attributes which are used for analysis such as population counts, speeds etc. |
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Vector Maps for Analysis
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| Each line, point or polygon in a vector map is a separate object and can have a wide range of additional attributes added by the supplier or by your own organisation. For example you may add the number of customers to each street, or you may purchase vector maps with details already added, for example, navigational restrictions such as one way streets, banned turns etc. |
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Vector Mapping for Analysis
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Drive times, Speeds, Routes
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| Creating drive-time catchments and calculating journey times to specific points are key to depot territory management, site location analysis, network planning, vehicle scheduling and gravity modeling. There are many ways to allocate speeds to road data sets>>> |
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| Speeds provided with the standard AA data reflect the DfT road classification (A road, B road etc) with reduced speeds in urban areas. NAVTEQ provides further refinements with more specific speed categories. For example, at Hangar Lane, the roundabout portion of the A406 is slower than the main road. |
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ITIS Real Vehicle Speeds
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Most available speed information provides off-peak journey times, but MapMechanics has worked together with traffic information specialists, ITIS, to establish the relative congestion both regionally and by time of day.
This ITIS attribute data is derived from over a billion sample points of moving vehicles throughout Great Britain. The GB speeds & GB Speeds Plus products provide different values on each link according to actual speed recorded. The data catalogue explains more details about this range of products including street level speed data and road level speed data. |
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Street level Census
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| MapMechanics specialise in processing data to make it easy and quick to use . Traditionally, population statistics are available at output area or postcode sector level. However, MapMechanics can now provided street level Census so you can quantify the daytime population within 5 minutes walk of your new sandwich bar... |
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