Compilation of digital geologic maps and associated databases with ALACARTE, an easily used menu interface cast in geologic terms that controls ARC/INFO, a commercial geographic information system
ALACARTE offers a convenient way to compile geologic maps in the computer as spatial databases that can be used to prepare both cartographic images and analytic derivatives.
It is a menu-controlled shell, organized in geologic terms, that provides on-screen control of the program ARC/INFO, a commercial geographic information system (GIS).
Input can be from imported scans, digitizer tracing, or on-screen tracing or mapping with a mouse-controlled cursor over a digital topographic base, and interactive editing can be done on-screen using a broad suite of edit functions.
Compilations begun in other digital systems can be imported for completion as digital databases in ARC/INFO. The digital files that represent a geologic map can be used to prepare near-publication-quality color plots of the maps with full symbology or to create high-quality printing negatives. These files also constitute a digital database that can be used for computer-based query and analysis as well as for digital distribution of the map and associated data.
The original products were:
Open-File Report 91-587A
ALACARTE User Interface - AML Code and Demonstration Maps, Version 1.0
Todd T. Fitzgibbon and Carl M. Wentworth
This component is now represented by the Core Alacarte files (below).
Open-File Report 91-587B
ALACARTE Installation and System Manual, Version 1.0
Todd T. Fitzgibbon
Open-File Report 91-587C
ALACARTE User Manual, Version 1.0
Carl M. Wentworth
Both manuals are contained in the Manuals files (below).
ALACARTE 3.1 for ARC/INFO 7.x:
by Tau Rho Alpha, Joe F. Vigil, and Lauren Buchholz
Macintosh Hypercard stack (0.6MB BinHex download file, 0.44MB after conversion back to Macintosh binary format)
This guide briefly describes and illustrates the characteristics of 17 map projections commonly used to present thematic data. By means of simple sketches of the basic grid system of longitude and latitude known as the Earth's graticule, the guide shows examples of the following categories of map projections: planes (azimuthal), cones, cylinders, and miscellaneous. The text gives examples of thematic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey that use various projections. The guide was created as a HyperCard "stack" for use only on the Macintosh family of computers. The guide consists of descriptive material only and does not contain a program for creating map projections.
Return to WRGIS Home Page
The URL for this page is: http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/software/software.html