spmap -- how do I get rid of the outlines?

[ben earnhart]

I run the command:

spmap pctBA using tractsCoor1.dta, id(_ID) fcolor(Blues) osize(none ..)

Hoping to get a map of US Census tracts displaying color based on pctBA (% of population with a BA). But the darn outlines keep my map black, since, of course, some tracts are densely packed. I've been through the spmap help files, and "osize" was the option that seemed to be the right one. Runs fine, just keeps the outlines.

I could post the rest of my code if you think it would help (if I chop out labels, it's not too long), but this is the one critical piece that doesn't do what I want it to do.

Thanks! I'm usually pretty good about reading documentation, but I read it and re-read it, and have tried a variety of other options (mostly throwing errors, some just giving me the same map with the darn outlines).

ps. -spmap- is, of course, from SSC. Prepped my shapefiles with -shp2dta-. Running under Windows 7, Stata 13.1. Sorry for not mentioning originally.

[Maurizio Pisati]

Dear Ben,
did you take a look at the examples reported in the spmap help file? It seems to me that example 1.6 might be close to what you're looking for. As suggested by that example, the proper way to get rid of the polygon outlines is to specify option ocolor(none ..).
Best wishes,
Maurizio

[ben earnhart]

Yup, I did look at the examples, and since I posted, solved it with ocolor(none ..) just like you recommended. Seems a bit strange/counter-intuitive, though. Messing with the *color* I was expecting to have huge blank areas, since the outlines would still be there, just without color. But, the edges take on the color of the area, so it works. I need to do more homework, since next, I'd like to overlay state boundaries over the tract data (without tract boundaries), but I won't bug people with that until when and if I hit a brick wall.

Thanks for the reply! Awesome to hear from the original author. When I've spent enough time with spmap to get what somebody wants, it amazes people what it can do. But it can do so many, many things that sometimes it's a bit overwhelming.