Enhancements Introduced with Maplex 3.4

Maplex 3.4 includes many user productivity improvements as well as refinements in the quality of label placement for U.S. street mapping and parcel mapping. Automatic street index generation, Guide to Numbered Features (for use with Vector Product Format data), symbology masking for overlaying text, direct read of MicroStation DGN files, and custom fill and line patterns are among the many key enhancements featured in Maplex 3.4. In addition to these user productivity improvements, the quality of placement has been refined for U.S. style street mapping and parcel mapping. The following is a list of major enhancements included in Maplex 3.4 along with a brief description.

• Index Generation and Key Numbering
  With Maplex 3.4, users can generate a street index or towns gazetteer including substituting key numbers for street labels that could not be placed.
• Guide to Numbered Features
  The Guide to Numbered Features is a list of important features that are identified by numbers on the map.
• TrueType Font Support
  Maplex 3.4 supports TrueType fonts allowing users to specify additional fonts to be used in their Maplex projects.
• Font Substitution Table
  Maplex 3.4 supports a font substitution table for the purpose of mapping one font name to another, depending on the output device.
• CADReader (includes DGN Import with database linkage)
  A (CAD) format has been added to the Data Manager Formats list. This addition allows users a greater flexibility with regard to the cartographic database they use.
• Multiple Leader Lines per Label
  The label editor has been enhanced to support multiple leader lines extending from a single label. This feature is useful for labeling a group of related features.
• Find Label (provides work list for label editing)
  The Find Label tool can be used to drive the label editing process.
• Masking (breaking features behind labels)
  Masking refers to the technique of breaking line features that lie under labels and is applied to improve the legibility of the map. For example, if black text overlies a black line, then you may break the line under the text to aid clarity.
• Label Editor Enhancements
  Maplex 3.4 features a single Save Labels option. This option saves all labels, including any edits the user makes, and allows any unplaced labels to be saved and carried over to the next session.
• Custom Symbols in Computer Graphics Metafile Format
  At Maplex 3.4, users can use the standard Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) format to describe custom symbols for point features, area features, and label boxes.
• Resizable Custom Point Symbols
  For point features, users of Maplex 3.4 can specify height and width values in the Rulebase symbol tab when a custom symbol file is used.
• Custom Symbols for Area Features
  Maplex 3.4 allows users to use a custom symbol file (either Illustrator or CGM format) to describe the symbology for an area feature.
• Pattern Fills
  Maplex 3.4 uses any raster fill pattern definitions in the custom symbol files in CGM or BMP format only.
• Custom Symbols for Line Features
  With Maplex 3.4, users can use a custom symbol file (either Illustrator or CGM format) to describe the symbology for a linear feature.
• New Built-in Line Styles
  Additional line styles are available at Maplex 3.4. Users can adjust the details of these line styles using parameters such as the period of the pattern (i.e., the interval between repetitions along the line).
• Annotation Export
  Maplex 3.4 includes significant changes to annotation export, which adds flexibility to editing Maplex-placed labels in ArcInfo.
• Map Rotation and Alignment to True North
  The Projection dialog has been enhanced to include parameters that enable the map to be rotated.
• Maplex Project List
  The Project Open dialog has been enhanced to include a list of Maplex projects. When users open a project in Maplex 3.4, the project folder is automatically added to the project list.
• Never Delete Label
  This new parameter is useful for situations where Maplex is producing the final map, without label editing, and particular labels must be placed on the map.
• Duplicate Label Thinning Distance
  A new parameter, called Duplicate Label Thinning Distance, has been added to the deletion tab in the Rulebase to allow users to remove duplicate labels from the map that lie within a specified distance of each other.
• Expression Builder Dialog
  When users click on the pulldown button in the Feature Class Code field in the Data Manager, Maplex 3.4 helps them compose a field expression instead of giving a list of field names.