Most geospatial features contain multiple properties and attributes within each feature definition.  Each of these instances can be categorized together with like-features and stylized using colors, line weights, transparency densities, and line styles; thematically.  For example, a BUILDING may be a church, office, fire station, or home.  Bentley Map provides the ability to create a Thematic Map of the buildings in the Map Manager.  You can categorize each ‘theme’ and show them on the map with similar colors and styles.

Here is an example:

To accomplish this with Bentley Map, use the Symbology menu item.  Here is another example showing some of the 13 states in Malaysia.

This sample shows the same data in the Bentley Map Data Browser.  The states are defined in the NAME_1 column.

And the same data in the Map Model without Thematic Symbology:

To create a Thematic Map on the NAME_1 column, so that each state is shown in a unique color, follow these steps:

1.  Open Map Manager and create a Map Definition and Map Model

2.  Right-click on the Feature Name and select the Symbology… menu item

3.  Click on the Thematic Definition Set to User defined 1

4.  Select the Generate Classes… icon

5.  Change the property to NAME_1

6.  Select the Add Values button

7.  Select the Add All button, and OK

8.  Select the Generate Classes button, and OK

This will produce a Thematic Map showing all thirteen states in a color-ramp from blue to red, as-shown here (not to scale)

To alter the colors, use the Random Colors option on the Symbology dialog.  You can pick and choose colors for outline, fill, transparency and other settings in the Thematic Classes lists.

You can view this Video to see the process in real-time: 

Or download these instructions as a PDF file

The Thematic Map Data for this instruction is available for download from this link.