Computer-Aid Cartography of Map Symbol Design

Taking the natural disaster map as an example, this paper discusses the three-dimensional design supported by Computer-aid Cartography (CAC). It tries to make full use of the unique height and facade visual variables of three-dimensional symbols to express more information, and takes the shadow of three-dimensional symbols as a visual variable to apply in disaster maps. The combined application of the size and the shadow of three-dimensional symbols can maximize the utilization of the optimum visual variable and enhance the readability of the map. Through the questionnaire survey, the paper designs a series of proportional circles suitable for the popular thematic atlas format, thus achieves the automatic size customization of map symbol supported by CAC and conducive to the automation of computer aided mapping.