Lock selection rectangle ratio in Geographic area selection

[XioNoX]

Hi,

Thanks for this tool !

It would be very useful to be able to lock the dimensions ratio of the "select area" rectangle. For example if I know I want to print the map full-size on a A3 paper, I'd like to use as much as possible the available paper space. Locking the X/Y ratio either from a drop down pre-set list (A, letter, etc) or a custom field value, etc.

[hholzgra]

Problem is that the size of the map part can't really be predicted without knowing the layout details.

Whether there will be a title bar or not already changes the aspect ratio of the actual map part a bit, but especially having an index on the side or bottom can change it quite drastically, and the index size is even dynamic based on the number of index items found.

So even though e.g. all the Din A formats have an aspect ratio of 1:0.71 the actual map area may be closer to a 1:1 square with a max. size index area.

[XioNoX]

Thanks for your quick reply ! And good point. I guess there are multiple paths forward with multiple levels of complexity.

• Select the layout first (difficult, lots of changes)
• Add a layout that is only the map with no title or index + regular ratio
• Adapt the ratio to be compatible with the current full-page layout (with header+footer)

Just some ideas

[hholzgra]

Select the layout first (difficult, lots of changes)

not difficult, but IMHO more confusing to users

Add a layout that is only the map with no title or index + regular ratio

would essentially be the same as "single page, no indexes" plus later not entering a title in the last form step

Adapt the ratio to be compatible with the current full-page layout (with header+footer)

Well, both of them are dynamic, too.

The header is only there when a title text was given, looking over the data for the last year that only happened on about 60% of the render requests.

And the footer size depends on what base style, and what/how many overlays, were selected, as it contains all the individual copyright annotation strings.

So it is a "Catch 22"

[XioNoX]

That's fair, thanks for the details. I still think, even if not perfect due to the dynamic footer, being able to lock/customize a ratio would be useful in many cases. I didn't know it was possible to not enter a title :) that's nice!

[quite]

I for one would appreciate the possibility to generate a map with no header or footer boxes whatsoever. I guess that would simplify this issue... In general, I think I'm having a similar issue as @XioNoX. I know I want a particular size, like A3/A4, and find it hard to select the area I want for it. This website has a pretty neat solution for setting physical render size, and then selecting it on the map, including adjusting the scale. http://milvusmap.eu/ (but otherwise it is pretty outdated, and the result is not pretty imho)