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Maptitude P&E Tech Corner

What do I need to do before I enter the P&E Mgt-Settings?

There are a few things you will want to do to prepare you data prior to entering your P&E Settings. They are grouped below by the tab they correspond to.

Precincts Tab

  • Create a base map for P&E Mgt. The base map should include the most recent geography for your precincts. To make it easier to get started, we have designed a base map that uses many of the geographic layers. For more information about creating maps, see Chapter 3, Creating Maps, in the Maptitude User's Guide. 
  • The Precinct Layouts section allows you to identify the layouts for P&E. They are located in the Precinct directory where P&E is installed. The landscape layout is named Precinct_Landscape.lay; the portrait layout is named Precinct_Portrait.lay. You should open the layouts and change their properties to reflect the printer you will be using.

Streets Tab

  • Choose the street file for geocoding your voters. It can be the file we provided (ccstreet.cdf) or any street file that conforms to the guidelines set forth in the "Using a Different Street Layer" section of Chapter 12 in your Maptitude User's Guide.

    If you are using your own street layer, make sure it is in the Compact Streets File format. If it is not, you can create a Compact Streets File by choosing Tools-Export and changing the To drop-down list to Compact Street File. See the section "Converting between Standard and Compact Geographic File Formats" in Chapter 18 of your Maptitude User’s Guide for more information.

Voters Tab

  • The voter file requires an integer field that contains a unique record ID.  
  • The voter file also requires an integer field that indicates whether an address has been geocoded. Maptitude P&E puts a "1" in the field for each record it successfully locates. We suggest naming this field "Located."  
  • The voter file can also have a field for each district layer (e.g., congress, house, senate, county commission, etc.). Maptitude P&E will fill this field with the district name for each layer.

    For more information on adding a field to a layer, see "Modifying the Structure of a Table" in Chapter 9, Managing Data Tables, in the Maptitude User’s Guide. To incrementally fill in the record Ids, see "Filling a Range of Cells or Groups of Columns with Data" in Chapter 8 of your Maptitude User’s Guide.

Voter Counts Tab

  • Each layer in your base map must contain an integer field with the same name to store the counts. For example, you could add the field "Reg. Voters" to each layer.

    For more information on adding a field to a layer, see "Modifying the Structure of a Table" in Chapter 9, Managing Data Tables, in the Maptitude User’s Guide.

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