ADI - Area of Dominant Influence
Media areas defined by the Arbitron Company, usually consisting of one or more whole counties.

Area Codes
Area Codes are made up of telephone exchange areas.

Assignment Layer
The cartography on which your sites or territories are based. For example, if each of your sales people has a territory that is made up of several counties, your assignment layer should be county.

Base Line
The base line of a projection refers to the period of population change that is being extrapolated.

Block
Small areas bounded on all sides by visible features such as streets, roads, streams and railroad tracks and by invisible boundaries such as cities, towns, townships, county limits and property lines. Blocks are numbered uniquely within each census tract or block numbering area. A Block is identified by a three-digit number, sometimes with a single alphabetical suffix.

BG - Block Group
A cluster of blocks having the same first digit of their three digit identifying numbers within a census tract of Block Numbering Area (BNA). Block Groups usually contain between 250 and 550 housing units. Geographic Block Groups never cross census tract or BNA boundaries.

BNA - Block Numbering Area
Small statistical subdivisions of a county for grouping and numbering blocks in non-metropolitan counties where local census statistical area committees have not established census tracts. BNAs do not cross county boundaries.

Cartography
1. The art of making maps.
2. The lines, points, and polygons that represent components of a map such as state boundaries, interstate highways, and cities. For example, Census Tract cartography consists of polygons that represent Census Tract boundaries.

CCD - Census County Division
Subdivisions of a county that are delineated by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CCD boundaries usually follow visible features, and, in most cases, coincide with census tracts or block numbering area boundaries. The name of the CCD is based on a place, county, or well-known local name that identifies its location. The 21 states that have CCDs are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

CDP - Census Designated Place
Delineated for the decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places. CDPs comprise densely settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name, but are not legally incorporated places.

Census Tract
Small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county with boundaries not crossing county boundaries. Census tracts usually have between 2,500 and 8,000 persons. Spatial size of Census Tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Census Tracts are delineated for all metropolitan areas (MAs) and other densely populated counties. Census Tracts are identified with a four-digit number and may have a two-digit suffix.

Centroid
The geographic center of a piece of geography. For example, a ZIP Code centroid is the point in the middle of a ZIP Code. Each polygon has one centroid.

CMA - Consolidated Metropolitan Area
Defined as the larger areas made up of Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas (PMSA).

CMSA - Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area
Contains tow or more Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas (PMSAs) that are considered as a single unit for statistical purposes due to their economic and social integration. To qualify as a CMSA, the metropolitan area must have a population of at lest one million.

County
The primary political division of most states are termed "counties". In Louisiana, these divisions are known as "parishes". Each county and county equivalent is assigned a three digit Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code that is unique within a state.

Dictionary
A file which contains items used by Tactician, and that points to files used by Tactician. The Tactician dictionary arranges all aspects of Tactician mapping and keeps track of information vital to your Tactician system, so that you can focus on your business. The dictionary includes the following categories of information: Color Sequences, Databases, Directories, Formulas, Icons, Layers, Libraries, Queries, Scripts, Symbol Sequences, Tables.

Directories Dictionary Category
The category in the dictionary in which entries hold pointers to directory files. Descriptions of entries in the Directories category of the dictionary appear when you use the Move > Jump To command.

Directory Files
Files which contain a location name and the coordinates of the location. You can create Directory files, with the Build Directory File command, from any file that contains coordinates and a name or description field. Directory files are referenced when you use the Jump To command, so when you build a Directory file, you are building your own Jump To method. For example, you if you built a directory file of each of your stores and each store's coordinates, you could jump to any store location just by typing in the name of the store.

DMA - Designated Market Area
Media areas defined by A.C.Nielsen, usually consists of one or more counties. This is a non-overlapping geography for planning, buying, and evaluating television audiences across various markets. DMA files give advertisers a computerized method for tracking the effectiveness of their television spot budgets.

Estimate
An estimate is based on real data that measure population change in the estimate year.

FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) Place Code
Codes, established by the federal government, which uniquely identify geographic areas and are used to code information for those areas such as congressional district, county, county subdivision, metropolitan area, place and state. Example: Each state is assigned a two digit FIPS code which uniquely identifies that state.

Forecasts
Forecasts are projections that represent the producer's best guess based upon an evaluation of past trends and techniques.

Geocode
Geocodes uniquely identify a geographic location. Geocodes can be up to 12 characters long, and can contain alpha or numeric characters. The field which contains a geocode must always be a character type field. Geocodes can be zip codes, fips codes, and trade area boundaries or sales person's name.

Geocoding
The process of adding coordinates of locations on the earth surface, to a file of addresses. Geocoding software appends geographic coordinates to the addressed in your database. Once coordinates have been added to each address in a file, the addresses can be mapped.

Latitude
A distance North or South from the Equator, measured in degrees. Valid values are between -90 (the South Pole) and +90 (the North Pole). Northern latitudes are positive (0 to 90 degrees), southern latitudes are negative (0 to -90 degrees).

Layer
An entry in the dictionary which tells Tactician how to interpret a cartographic file. Each layer entry in the dictionary points to at least one cartographic file which can represent points, lines, streets, polygons, or sites on the map. Layers are referenced by overlays.

Lines Cartography
Cartography whose components are contours, such as highways, rivers and railroads.

Links File
A file supplied by Tactician Corporation that contains information on the roads making up a road network.

Longitude
A distance East or West from the Prime Meridian in Greenwich England, measured in degrees. Valid values are between -180 and +180. West longitudes (including most of the United States) are negative (0 to -180 degrees), and east longitudes are positive (0 to 180 degrees).

MA - Metropolitan Area
The general concept of a Metropolitan Area is one of a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of social and economic integration with that nucleus.

MCD - Minor Civil Division
The primary political or administrative division of a county. MCDs are legally defined subcounty areas such as towns and townships. The census bureau recognizes MCDs in the following states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

MSA - Metropolitan Statistical Area
A Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of a large population nucleus along with adjacent communities which have a high degree of economic and social integration with that nucleus. MSAs are identified by a 4-digit code and are not contiguous and cover only relevant portions of the U.S.

Nodes File
A file that contains information on the junctions in a road network.

Overlays
Items that enable you to display all types of cartographic layers on the map. In an overlay, you can control the color, classification method, data referenced, and the cartographic layer displayed. Any changes to the map display are made using overlays. To see a list of overlays on the map, select Map > Overlays.

PCR - Postal Carrier Routes
An area served by a single postal carrier, which typically encloses 300 to 500, households. In real life, PCRs do overlap sometimes. For clarity when displaying, PCR boundaries provided by Tactician are contiguous and nonoverlapping, regardless of the complexity of the carrier route.

Points Cartography
Cartography whose components are located at specific locations, such as cities, shopping malls, and customer locations.

Polygon and Polygon With Line Segments Cartography
Cartography whose components have a defined areas, such as counties, states, and postal districts.

PMSA - Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area
If an area that qualifies as a metropolitan area has more than one million persons, PMSAs may be defined within it. PMSAs consist of large urbanized county or cluster of counties that demonstrate very strong internal economic and social links.

Point ZIP Codes
ZIP Codes that represent large office buildings, post offices, military bases and other points that have their own ZIP Codes.

Projections
Base line extrapolations of a past trend.

Raster Cartography
Images in a format that can be displayed on the map. Raster images can display satellite images, air photos, or regular photographs on your map, and you can then place overlays on top of them. Valid formats for raster images are .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, TIF, .TGA, .PCX, and .DIB.

SCF - Sectional Center Facility
The three digit Sectional Center Facility (SCF) Code represents the postal installation through which the mail from 3 digit ZIP Code areas is routed. A three-digit ZIP Code area is the combined delivery area of all 5 digit ZIP Codes with the same first three digits.

Sites Cartography
Cartography whose components represents sites at specific locations, and can represent trade areas around each site. Sites cartography could be used to represent store locations and trade areas around each store.

Streets Cartography
Cartography whose components are streets. Streets files are separate from lines files because address information is stored in Streets files.

Thematic Map
A map that uses color to represent specific spatial distribution, themes or topics.

ZIP Centroids
Points at the geographic center of the polygonal ZIP Code.

ZIP Code
Administrative units established by the United Postal Service (USPS) for the distribution of mail. ZIP Codes serve addresses for the most efficient delivery of mail, and therefore do not respect political or census statistical boundaries. ZIP Codes are identified by five digit codes assigned by the USPS. The first three digits identify a major city or sectional distribution center, and the last two digits generally signify a specific post office's delivery area or point.

ZIP + 4
ZIP+4's are the five digit ZIP Code with an additional 4 digits appended after a hyphen. ZIP+4 address ranges are defined by the United States Postal Service.