Thanks Stacho, -align fixes the declination induced problem perfectly, but it doesn't shift the text off to the side of the passage, it just aligns it from the point where it is inserted, which I am sure is what it's intended function is. Doing it this way means you have to be aware of the scale of the finished product at the time of drawing. Plot at much smaller scale, and the text will be far from the drawn feature, plot at a much larger scale and the text will tend to overwrite the cave map. Using -align I can almost get my desired effect by placing the text insertion points on the passage walls near the feature in the cave to be labelled. A good enough solution if there is no specific feature for this. Haven't tried the 'magic' code yet, but I'm sure it will come in handy. I notice the -context option (Pg 21 Therion Book) would complement it. Bruce -----Original Message----- From: therion-bounces@speleo.sk [mailto:therion-bounces@speleo.sk] On Behalf Of Stacho Mudrak Sent: Friday, 16 November 2007 11:14 p.m. To: therion@speleo.sk Subject: Re: [Therion] Scaling text and text orientation Quoting Bruce Mutton <bruce.mutton@paradise.net.nz>:
Is there a way to place a text label, say ON a pitch line, and tell therion, label this pitch "10 P" and left justify the text it out to the right-hand side, just beyond the displayed passage wall, so that it always displays just clear of the drawing?
If you are using line label - there is no possibility, but if you are using point label - you can use -align option as for any other point object. E.g. you may also place "stalactites" aligned left to passage wall.
Also I notice that text with orientation 0 degrees prints at an angle equal to the declination, which is 22 degrees here abouts these days. Is there a better way to straighten the text than give it all an orientation of 338 degrees to compensate?
Again - please use rather -align then orientation option. E.g.: point 0 0 label -text "label above some feature" -align top If map will be rotated due to orientation, this alignment should be automatically rotated also.
If I want to present two maps, say one at 1:500 scale, and one at 1:2000 scale, I would want many labels on the former and few labels on the latter. Can this be done with one set of scraps, or would I have to create duplicates and adjust the labels in one of the sets?
Currently, there is no straight way how to hadle this situation, but there exists workaround using generic attributes and a little bit of magic metapost code copied from "mpost/thText.mp" file and modified a little bit. 1. Make sure to add some label importance flag to all labels. E.g. point 0 0 label -text "Important label" -attr importance 1 point 123 456 label -text "Unimportant label" 2. Then use following magic :) code in 1:2000 layout: code metapost vardef p_label@#(expr txt,pos,rot,mode) = if ATTR_importance = 1: if (mode=1) or (mode=7): interim labeloffset:=(u/8) fi; lab:=thelabel@#(txt, pos); if mode>1: pickup PenD fi; if mode=1: pickup pencircle scaled (u/6); drawdot(pos); process_label(pos,0); elseif mode=2: process_uplabel; elseif mode=3: process_downlabel; elseif mode=4: process_updownlabel; elseif mode=5: process_circledlabel; elseif mode=6: process_boxedlabel; elseif mode=7: process_label(pos,rot); % station name elseif mode=8: process_filledlabel(pos, rot); else: process_label(pos,rot); fi; fi; enddef; endcode I hope this will help you. Regards, S. _______________________________________________ Therion mailing list Therion@speleo.sk http://www.speleo.sk/mailman/listinfo/therion