Can you create a round/circular layout frame in MapInfo?

[Watson]

I'm using MapInfo 10 and I would like to create a circular layout frame over the top of the main map to show a magnified area of the the main map. Is this possible?

Thanks,

Becky

[Bill Thoen]

There's no round frames in Mapaifo but the effect can be "faked."  In the picture below, the inset is really just a bitmap using a rectangular mask with an ellipse cut into it. The mask is colored with a solid color I'm not using anywhere else I user the raster tools to set it to transparent. The inset is in its own frame created at the publishing  scale and sized so that it is the size we want and the pixel resolution matches the background and then the picture is put in its own frame. The bitmap is then laid on top of the base map, its frame is made transparent, and the resuult is what you see.

[ICW Keith]

Another thing that could be done is to create a Region with a cirlce cut out of it(set target on a rectangle and erase with a circle, change region style resulting in aWhite Region and black boundary and overlay it on top of all other layers) when you add a frame to the layout window select the frame and set the boundary style to no line or an invisible frame.  The black boundary of a white Region with a hole in it will look like the round frame as long as you are printing on white paper.

[Watson]

Sorry for the delay in replying (I only work in this job on Fridays so I've just got back into this and probably won't get a chance to have a go at it today). Thanks for both of your suggestions. I like the look of baaigaee.png, that's exactly what I'm trying to do with my layout so I'll have a go with that.

Thanks again!

[Eric Blasenheim]

In any of the recent versions, with the support of translucency on the vector layers, this is much more straightforward method and you don't need a raster to do it. Very similar to what Keith mentioned, you can draw any shape for display (ellipse in this example) and a larger rectangular boundary, erase the ellipse out of the larger boundary making visible your highlighted area. Then play with the translucency of the "ellipse" layer so that you can see as much of what is outside the area as you wish. Example is attached. You can do this with or without a layout.

 

Eric Blasenheim

Pitney Bowes Software