[lug] Mapping Software

[Eric Hillmuth]

Tim;

The easiest solution I can think of is to use www.topozone.com. The site lets you 
search by place name, lat/long, map name etc. What you get is a map of the area. 
(really just a scanned version of USGS quad maps) In most browses when you 
move your cursor the map coordinates appear in the status bar at bottom of the 
browser. You could then enter these coordinates as waypoints. 

Your next option is to check out www.freegis.org. At this site there are links to a
number of tools which run on linux and would do what you want among these is GRASS. 
I use GRASS a fair amount for work and its kind of a heavy duty solution for 
your needs. I believe there are some basic data views on that site too though. However, even 
if you find a good data viewer, you still need data. The digital version of USGS 1:24,000
maps are .tiff images. Each images runs about 5 mb. There are 1881 1:24,000 map for 
Colorado. For this reason I suggest topozone.com. But, if you want to go this route for a few maps 
let me know and I'll show you where I usually download them. 

-- 
Eric Hillmuth
Principal
Digital Meridian
http://www.digitalmeridian.net
Phone: 303-809-8972
Fax: 303-443-9427


>Hi all,

>I am into hiking, and have a Garmin GPS.  Haven't used it in a while, 
>as
>it is fairly useless unless I program coordinates of the day's 
>activites
>before hand.  Well, it is usefull with out that, but not nearly so much
>as it could be.  I have an ancient map program for Winblows, with topo
>maps of selected parts of the state of CO.  It would allow one to
>position the cursor over the map, and give back fairly acurate latitude
>and longitude.  I would then program the important parts of the hike as
>waypoints into my Garmin, and could keep very careful track of the days
>hiking (especially usefull for winter 14ers, when time really counts).

>Finally, to the Linux part of my message.  Any tools to do something
>like this with my favorite OS?  I don't have a Windows machine any 
>more.
>I have looked at a tool called Drawmap, but have not had a chance to
>play with it yet.  I imagine GRASS GIS could do something like this,
>too.  I have wanted to play with that anyway.  Anyone have experience
>with this?  Where do I get the DEM and other needed files to create
>maps? =20

>Any pointers would be appreciated.

>Thanks

>Tim