My client wants to see the change of noise level for each property but the pattern is very complicated and the colours aren't easy to distinguish.
The main ways of exporting a contour map are
- to do a screen grab (Ctrl+C) to export to clipboard
- export as a picture
- export as a DXF or Shapefile
- print the map
- export as a grid of values
Each has its merits.
A
screen grab is quick, but you need to paste the clipboard to a graphics or word processor to save the picture. Also, it only has the resolution of the window (display) containing the contour. It's fine for including a small illustration in a report.
Exporting as a picture lets you increase the resolution to whatever you wish, but it is stored as a bitmap, so you will probably want to paste into a graphics processor and save in a more efficient format. And it still has limited resolution.
Printing is an excellent way to export the map: you can print to PDF if you acquire a PDF printer, which is a software package that can be installed as a virtual printer in windows. There are some good ones for free or for a modest price. This means that you can print at whatever size you want. PDF maps can be zoomed and most people have the free Acrobat Reader on their PCs. This is a good option if you are producing a brochure of large-scale drawings or for display.
Exporting as a DXF is the most flexible. You do need a graphics package that can read it, such as AutoCAD or one of the cheaper viewing packages. The drawing can be zoomed to any scale and the different layers can be switched on and off. You can even change the colours used to display the contour fills, so you can select the display that suits you best, and of course you can print as needed.
Exporting the contour as a
grid of values is probably the best way if you wish to do post-processing such as calculating numbers of properties exposed to particular noise levels, or if you wish to import them into a CAD or GIS package. However, it does require suitable post-processing software so tends to be used by specialists working on large projects.
