Dred Pirat Dodd
Jr. Member
- Aug 1, 2008
- 49
- 1
Howdy all. If you've never used GIS then there are several ways to try it. Many counties have GIS sites these days (google your county name/ "GIS" or try another one with a major city in it), and basically it's just an interactive digital map. More specifically, a GIS viewer is tied into a data base so that information can be queried from said map, and layers of different sets of information (and different maps) may be superimposed over the base map for comparison.
This means you can have a base map (topo, nautical chart, hand drawn and scanned...) as the first layer and impose other layers of info on top. These layers can be a GPS track or waypoint set (imported as a GPX file), points of interest input by the user (which may also be queried by clicking on them), aerial photos etc....... And of course you can turn the layers on and off and print the map as big as your printer will handle. You can also tie the GPS in to plot in real time for navigation, but that's just fancy...
The hard part is when it comes to using different maps/photos in the same project. Each of the different geographical layers must be "geo-referenced", which means tied into the lat/lon grid within the program, AND they all have to be in the same projection/datum category or they won't line up...AT ALL. There is a conversion wizard in the program, but this part requires a little research to understand the concept (yes it's math, and actually analytical geometry with calculus to be specific, but don't be scared it's been converted to English). HOWEVER once you get them all there, you have a tool that is like no treasure map you've ever seen. Heck, when you move the mouse cursor anywhere over the map the coordinates are displayed in the bottom corner in real time...
I won't tell you it is simple to get started making maps this way, and in fact Digital Thematic Mapping is the only class I ever failed in college (too many classes at once and it was HARD), but it is getting easier with the ready availability of georeferenced data sets on the web.... Also, GIS programs can cost MUCH money, but I started using a free open source one in Linux, and now they have it for Windblows (sorry) and I think Mac. It is called QGIS, and it rocks. Look it up. It's truly free. No bs, and readily available documentation and even a community forum. Good luck and HH.
Oh, and I don't really monitor my posts, so questions posted here will never get answered. You can PM me if you must, but I learned all this on my own, so you can too.
This means you can have a base map (topo, nautical chart, hand drawn and scanned...) as the first layer and impose other layers of info on top. These layers can be a GPS track or waypoint set (imported as a GPX file), points of interest input by the user (which may also be queried by clicking on them), aerial photos etc....... And of course you can turn the layers on and off and print the map as big as your printer will handle. You can also tie the GPS in to plot in real time for navigation, but that's just fancy...
The hard part is when it comes to using different maps/photos in the same project. Each of the different geographical layers must be "geo-referenced", which means tied into the lat/lon grid within the program, AND they all have to be in the same projection/datum category or they won't line up...AT ALL. There is a conversion wizard in the program, but this part requires a little research to understand the concept (yes it's math, and actually analytical geometry with calculus to be specific, but don't be scared it's been converted to English). HOWEVER once you get them all there, you have a tool that is like no treasure map you've ever seen. Heck, when you move the mouse cursor anywhere over the map the coordinates are displayed in the bottom corner in real time...
I won't tell you it is simple to get started making maps this way, and in fact Digital Thematic Mapping is the only class I ever failed in college (too many classes at once and it was HARD), but it is getting easier with the ready availability of georeferenced data sets on the web.... Also, GIS programs can cost MUCH money, but I started using a free open source one in Linux, and now they have it for Windblows (sorry) and I think Mac. It is called QGIS, and it rocks. Look it up. It's truly free. No bs, and readily available documentation and even a community forum. Good luck and HH.
Oh, and I don't really monitor my posts, so questions posted here will never get answered. You can PM me if you must, but I learned all this on my own, so you can too.
