@mappingtoolsEllipses, circles, radius circles, and rectangles are drawn by using the oval and rectangle buttons in the middle of the drawing toolbar:
The Drawing Toolbar
To draw any of these shapes, press the button for the shape. This will change the cursor into a ‘+’ cross. Then left-button click and drag the shape to the desired width and height. Here is a resulting rectangle:
Drawing a rectangle in MapPoint
The small squares indicate that the shape is selected. These can be (left-button) dragged with the mouse to change the rectangle’s size or proportions. Other parts of the shape can be dragged in order to move it.
The “oval” button (i.e. circle or ellipse) works in a very similar manner with the small white square control points in a rectangle that contains the ellipse:
Drawing an ellipse in MapPoint
It can be a little tricky to draw a perfect circle using this shape type. One solution is to use the radius circle. This is a circle with a displayed radius. It is ideal for marking distances from locations – e.g. finding all customers within a fixed distance.
The radius circle button has a circle with a radius line drawn in it. The final radius circle looks like this:
Drawing a radius circle with MapPoint
Radius circles are always circles – hence there are only four control squares. It is impossible to “flatten” or “stretch” a radius circle into an ellipse.
The distance (radius) remains visible when the shape is unselected. This can be hidden by right clicking on the shape and selecting Hide Size.
How far out can a radius be drawn (miles)? I.e., what is maximum distance?
Tnanks
Tom
I’ve just managed to draw one bigger than Earth! In practical terms, the radius of the Earth (i.e. 6400km).
Richard – is it possible to use mappoint to determine how many customers are within a set kilometer radius of a certain point or city and then export that list to excel? I am trying to show how many customers are within certain distance bands of different canadian cities. Thanks!
You can draw a circle of the required radius (use the radius circle to do this accurately). Select the circle, right click and select “Export to Excel”. This should export your customer pushpins.
Can I import the radius data from a spreadsheet?
Thank You,
Not directly know, but custom programming could be used to read circle centers and radii, and to draw them on a map. Such a program could also read and apply line and/or fill colors, and line thicknesses.
(yes we can be hired to do this if you wish)