KB10362 - I opened a MapInfo TAB file in the DK and the text labels from the TAB format data do not display? Why? What do I need to do to make the label information display?

The way that the tab format can contain text labels in the layers themselves is not conformant to OpenGIS standards, which require that the vector file geometry and the label and vector attribute (for colors, styles, etc.) information, be handled separately. OpenGIS standards demand that the text label and vector attribute information be recorded to record fields that are then associated with the vectors. TatukGIS products are designed to handle text labels and vector attribute information in conformance to OpenGIS guidelines.

(Note that, whereas the tab and mid/mif formats support text layers, the CAD orientated dxf, dgn, and dwg formats sometimes support both text and vector attribute information in the layers, in noncompliance with of OpenGIS standards. Alternatively, high-level object GIS formats, such as the shp format, store text labels and vector attributes only in conformance with OpenGIS standards, and do not support text layers.)

The benefits of the OpenGIS standards on this issue are i) better interoperability between data formats and difference GIS products and ii) greater flexibility in how the map data can be used. Relating to the second point, for instance, as long as the text information is recorded to separate record fields, and not in the layers themselves, a map with English language labels could quickly be converted into Japanese by running all the labels through a translator. Or a specific label name or identifier repeated thousands of times in a project could easily be changed or corrected (or fetched from the database) to another name, universally, with little effort. If the text information were contained in the layers themselves, such conversions become a real mess and very much work. You can read more about this topic at www.opengis.org.

Although the DK does not display the tab text labels, it does read them. You can make the text label information display in the DK viewer by placing the label information in any field record associated with a shape (vector). Then the text label information will be display in the appropriate place relative to the associated vector - point, line, or polygon. There are two ways to do this:

1) Create, using notepad for example, an *.ini or a project file (such as _mysfile.shp.ini), as follows:

[TatukGIS Layer]
Label.Field=TAB_LABEL

or

2) Programmatically, as follows:

Params.Labels.Field := 'label_field_name' ;

This guidance is applicable to similar situations involving the mid/mif, dxf, dgn or other CAD formats. And this guidance is applicable to the use of tab, mid/mif, dxf or dgn format data with TatukGIS Internet Server products.