Adding Circles to a Map

Circles are most commonly used by people who want to design a delivery charge map or a zonal map dependant on distance from a base or head office etc. The circles are often placed on a map at the desired settings and then the postcodes that appear within each circle are coloured accordingly. The circles are then removed, and the map is saved or exported in the conventional way. They can also be useful on their own without colouring the postcode areas.

Positioning the Circles

Adding emanating circles to a map is simple. Circles can be customised in a number of ways but only ONE set of circles can be shown on each map. It is possible to add multiple sets of circles to a map but this is slightly more complicated and covered in the Advanced Editing section of the support pages.

To add a set of circles, the fastest way is to flick the Position Circles toggle switch. This will automatically flick the Show Circles switch also. (It is not possible to position your circles on a map without first showing them). After clicking Position Circles, click anywhere on the map.

Number of Rings

After clicking on the map, a set of circles will appear with the default system generated values. The center point of th ecircles will be where you clicked. If you click somewhere else on the map while the Position Circles swith is flicked then the circles will reposition to wherever you click next.

If you want to drag the map to reposition it, be sure to toggle the position circles switch to off first otherwise the circles will reposition while dragging.

Positioning circles by entering a postcode is a useful way to set the centre of the circles. Simply enter your desired postcode in the box labelled Postcode and click the green GO button. The circles will relocate to that exact postcode on the map. Entering a different postcode and clicking the go button will reposition.

Circle Settings

Setting the number of circles you want to appear on the map is done using the dropdown menu. This can be done before or after positioning the circles and as soon as the setting has been changed, the number of circles on the map will change. They will be added with default values.

Setting the distance between each circle is done using the slider. The distances are approximate and shown in Miles. They are not exact due to the curviature of the earth (believe it or not!).

Sometime the circles are difficult to see when shown on top of a complicated map. It’s possible to set the thickness of the line of all the circles at once with this slider. Thickness is measured in map units.

The font size of the labels will instantly change the size of the labels. It’s not possible to change the size of each circles label independently, they all change at the same rate.

Changing Circle Colours

To change the colour of each circle independently simply click on the black square next to the label name of the circle. This will bring up a colour palette where you can select a different colour for each circle and label. The circle and the label will be coloured with the same colour. Be mindful of the colours selected as sometimes they become unreadable when placed over a fully coloured map.

Changing Circle Labels

Label names can be entered here. When an alternative label name has been entered it will change on the circles when the edit box loses focus (when you click anywhere outside of the edit box your working in.)