Diagram Border Options

The Border layer is used to annotate the map or diagram with axis titles, axis lines and tick-marks, tick mark (coordinate) labels, and/or reference lines. Use the Border Options button, visible in all map menus under the Border heading, to access these settings.

! Note that these items can also be modified after the map is generated and displayed in RockPlot2D.

Menu Options

Northern Axis Title, Eastern Axis Title, Southern Axis Title, Western Axis Title: Use these check-marks in the graphic area to define which titles are to be included in the diagram. Checked items will be displayed in the output map; unchecked items will not. Note that you can define axis titles independently from plotting the axis lines themselves, below. For example, you could specify a North/Top title of "CONTOUR MAP" with no axis lines selected to generate a simple title for the map.
The actual text to be used for the titles is defined in the Axis Titles prompts, discussed below.
Plot Northern Axis, Plot Eastern Axis, Plot Southern Axis, Plot Western Axis: Use these check-marks in the graphic area to select which axis lines (with tick marks and labels) should be plotted. How these axes are to look is defined in the Colors and Dimensions section, as discussed below.
Plot Horizontal Dividers, Plot Vertical Dividers: Use these check-marks in the graphic area to specify whether divider lines will be plotted through the middle of the map or diagram. The appearance of these lines is set in the Colors and Dimensions section, described below.
Plot Perimeter: Use this check-box in the graphic area to determine if a solid line perimeter should surround the map.
Axis Titles: Use these prompts in the upper-right to enter the text for the axis titles. Only those axis titles which are actually turned on will be plotted, even if text is entered here.
- West: Type in the text, if any, to be used to label the left or west edge of the diagram or map. Examples: "Northing" or "UTM Feet" or "UTM Meters"
- East: Type in the text, if any, to be used to label the right or east edge of the diagram or map.
- South: Type in the text, if any, to be used to label the bottom or south edge of the diagram or map.
- North: Type in the text, if any, to be used to label the top or north edge of the diagram or map.
Colors & Dimensions: Use these settings to define the size, color, and other appearance settings for the annotation items.
! Be sure the components are activated (checked) in the graphic portion of the window, for the item to actually be included in the output map.
- Axes Color: Specify the color in which the axis lines and ticks are to be plotted. Use the Size setting to determine the tick size (default = 0.5).
- Tick-Mark Labels: Choose the color for the axis coordinate labels, and the label size (as a percent of the project size).
- Axis Titles: Choose the color for the axis title text, and the title size.
- Horizontal Dividers: Click on the line samples to choose the line style, thickness, and color for the major (left) and minor (right) divider lines which will extend horizontally across the map.
- Vertical Dividers: Click on the line samples to choose the line style, thickness, and color for the major (left) and minor (right) divider lines which will extend vertically across the map.
- Outer Perimeter: Click on the line sample to choose the line style, thickness, and color for the outside perimeter rectangle.
Tick Style: Choose the position for the tick-marks - inside the axis line, outside the line, spanning the line - or whether the ticks should be omitted altogether.
Manual Intervals: Check this box to define the sub-intervals manually. You can define these regardless of the Border Dimensions options you choose (described below).
- X Minor, X Major: Type in the interval, in your map units, at which the X axis labels and major vertical dividers will be plotted (if activated).
- Y Minor, Y Major: Type in the interval, in your map units, at which the Y axis labels and major horizontal divider lines will be plotted (if activated).
Hor. Margin: Use this setting to define how far outside the map edge the west and east axes should be placed, expressed as a percent of the diagram width. (Default = 2)
Vert. Margin: Use this setting to define how far outside the map edge the north and south axes should be placed. (Default = 2)
Manually Specify Decimals: Insert a check here if you wish to specify how many decimal places are to be displayed in the axis (tick-mark) labels, using the small prompt. Note that if your map coordinates are recorded in longtitude and latitude, you will need more decimal places (e.g. 6) than if they are recorded in UTM integers.
Border Dimensions: Use these options to define how the overall extents of the map borders are to be defined.

Output Dimensions: Choose this if the borders are to be plotted at the boundaries currently defined in the Output Dimensions.
- Adjust/Examine Output Dimensions: Click on this button to view and/or reset the project's output dimensions. These are the same settings you can access in the Output Dimensions section of the Project tab. Click here for more information.
Automatic: Choose this option for the program to determine the axis extents and divisions automatically, based on the overall dimensions of the current map or diagram.
Manual: Choose this to define the minimum and maximum extents of the border manually using the prompts that will be displayed.

Which to choose? Consider these points:

Dimensioning Method

Advantages

Disadvantages

Output Dimensions All maps will have the same border dimensions - useful when plotting different data sets that have different sample locations (e.g. surface geochemical sample sites based on outcrops versus drill hole locations). See Figure 1, below. Sample labels may extend beyond map borders. See Figure 2, below.

Automatic Map borders are automatically set based on the extents of the data. Map borders will be automatically increased to include sample labels. See Figure 3, below. Different data sets will have different map dimensions. See Figure 4, below.

Manual Map dimensions may be manually specified such that sample labels will be enclosed within map borders. Maps of different data sets will all be the same size. It's a hassle to manually specify the map dimensions.

Figure 1: Different data sets, same map dimensions.

Figure 2. Sample labels extending beyond map borders.

Figure 3. Map borders based on output dimensions versus map borders based on data range.

Figure 4. The two maps along the top were plotted using the automatic border dimensioning. The two maps along the bottom were plotting using the output-dimensions border option. Note how the maps along the base show the locations of the magnetic and gravity surveys relative to each other whereas the maps along the top are very misleading

See also: 2D Map Options Overview

RockWare home page

Dimensioning Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Output Dimensions	All maps will have the same border dimensions - useful when plotting different data sets that have different sample locations (e.g. surface geochemical sample sites based on outcrops versus drill hole locations). See Figure 1, below.	Sample labels may extend beyond map borders. See Figure 2, below.
Automatic	Map borders are automatically set based on the extents of the data. Map borders will be automatically increased to include sample labels. See Figure 3, below.	Different data sets will have different map dimensions. See Figure 4, below.
Manual	Map dimensions may be manually specified such that sample labels will be enclosed within map borders. Maps of different data sets will all be the same size.	It's a hassle to manually specify the map dimensions.