-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Mapping Software
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:27:14 -0800
From: Edward Sullivan <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Mr. Verge makes many cogent points. However, he states, "The questioner
wanted to plot village names over a digital elevation model of China."
Actually, the original request is, "A genealogist friend of mine would
like to plot old place names on a shaded relief map of China. He is
looking for mapping software (preferably free or relatively inexpensive)
that would allow him to do this and that would be relatively easy to
use. Any suggestions?"
My answer, and others, addressed the 'free' and 'easy' preferences
stated, and didn't extrapolate a need for a DEM of China from 'shaded
relief map'. As a licensee of the latest versions of ArcGIS, MapInfo,
and Manifold GIS, a happy user of Google Earth Pro and Plain, of the
Open Source QGIS, and the late, lamented Atlas GIS, I don't have a dog
in the commercial platform fights (or rather, too many dogs to play
favorites*).
Fortunately, most or all of the software packages suggested have online
documentation and tutorials and examples of completed projects, so we
can encourage the genealogist to check them out, compare the likely
learning curves and capital outlays involved, certainly consider Mr.
Verge's valid concerns, and make a comfortable choice based on the
number and nature of old place name markers involved (will
placemarks/points suffice, or are polygonal boundaries really
necessary?) and the intended use/publication/distribution of the
finished maps.
Edward Sullivan/EPS
* And that's even before contemplating the KML import/export tools that
are increasingly used to exchange spatial data between Google
Earth/Virtual Earth and ArcGIS and MapInfo and QGIS and yes, even
Manifold GIS, for quite serious purposes
http://www.manifold.net/googleset.html
http://www.fargeo.com/start/mashups/
>>> [log in to unmask] 1/28/2008 10:37 AM >>>
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Mapping Software
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:54:05 -0000
From: Nicholas Verge <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
All,
Having used open source and cheap mapping software in a previous life,
I
would implore others wanting to do the same not to make the mistakes i
made by using it. At first sight and upon initial use freeware seems
like
a gift, but it is a false economy as during the couse of my work i ran
up
against three problems:
1. I found that as I gained experience and my project evolved (dont
discount this) the software was just not extensible and function enough
to
achieve what I wanted.
2. I found that it did not allow working with large volumes of data
3. It was bug-ridden and caused much work i had produced to be
irrevocably
corrupted (it could not handle complex vector drawing topologies)
Point 3 may have been unique to the software i used, but if you want
to
gaurantee as far as possible that such issues do not occur, then you
have
to use a professionally produced COTs product. Only those whose income
and
credibility is dependant on a reputation for bomb-proof programming
provide this guarantee.
The questioner wanted to plot village names over a digital elevation
model
of China. To do this will require sophisticated COTs software and
considerable computational horsepower. China is a huge country and
unless
the DEM to be used will be very low resolution, this project will
require
display of enormous elevation datasets (I assume that the DEM is
likely
SRTM3).
I recommended Manifold System GIS, because this was created to fill
the
market gap for a product that was both highly functional and affordable
to
the masses - unless you read the product help manual you wont
appreciate
just how much you are actually buying. You can have the functionality
of a
GIS costing upwards of 10 000USD for the less than Microsoft Office.
This
kind of a deal is known by the technical term of a "no-brainer" or
"ESRI-killer"
Manifold System is the only GIS that is 64-bit enabled so can take
advantage of up to a petabyte of RAM (if you could install it) - no
more
of the 2Gb memory limit that hobbles 32-bit systems. It is also able
to
harness CUDA, which if you have the right hardware installed, can
provide
you with what was until very recently computing power of the world's
100th
most powerful supercomputer and able to deliver several teraflops. You
only need a pair of the latest highend NVidia SLI Graphics cards for
such
computational capabilities.
Thus Manifold System is ideally suited to the questioners needs, since
by
leveraging NVIDIA's GGPU Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA
(TM))
technology to enable parallel processing, very large arrayed
infromation
sets such as DEMS and images can be very rapidly loaded and navigated
(by
large I mean 10'000s pixel rows and columns, eg a 90 000 x 90 000
pixel
image mosaic will load in under a minute on and this is not using
ecw/jp2).
The old chestnut of "why not use Google Earth" has arisen. There are
several fundamental reasons why you should not.
1. You do not have ownership of the content, even that which you may
upload. Larry and Sergei can do what they like with it.
2. The ability to do anything useful with your information is very
limited
and you certainly cannot do anything useful with the information
provided
by Google. Does Google earth provide advanced database querying
capabilities and scripting? No.
3. You do not have ownership of the software. You are the mercy of
Google.
You cannot run Google Earth on your own system. You need to be
connected
to the internet.
4. If the questioner is intending to commercialise their work or to
use
Google Earth for commercial purposes, then they will be infringing its
terms and conditions of use if they do not obtain a commercial license
from Google (expensive!)
Cheers
Nicholas
On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:16:25 -0000, Angie Cope <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: Mapping Software
> Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:20:16 -0800
> From: Edward Sullivan <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> Well, there's not much easier or less costly than Google Earth:
>
>
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/multilingual_global.html
>
>
>
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/882095/page/0/vc/1
>
>
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/438464/an/0/page/150
>
> http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Number/804601
>
> but the Open Source Quantum GIS desktop GIS (QGIS) would certainly
be
> capable of doing the job,
> and is available for all of the major desktop operating systems:
>
> http://www.qgis.org/
>
>
>
>
> Edward A. Sullivan, III
> Senior Technical Associate
> Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
> 2501 9th Street, Suite 200, Berkeley, CA, 94710-2515
> Voice: 510-841-9190 FAX: 510-841-9208
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Web site: www.epsys.com
>
> Due to the potential that information exchanged by
> electronic media can deteriorate, be damaged, lost
> or modified, intentionally or otherwise, use of this
> electronic data by anyone other than
> Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. shall be at the
> sole risk of such user and without liability or legal
> exposure to Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
>
> The recipient is responsible for verifying the accuracy
> of data against governing hard copy documentation.
> If there is a discrepancy between the hard copy and the
> electronic copy, the hard copy will govern. Recipient
> assumes all risks in the changing or modification of data
> and revisions or updating of hard copy documents.
>
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 1/25/2008 1:01 PM >>>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Mapping Software
> Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:48:24 -0800 (PST)
> From: Anita Oser <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> A genealogist friend of mine would like to plot old place names on a
> shaded relief map of China. He is looking for mapping software
> (preferably free or relatively inexpensive) that would allow him to
do
> this and that would be relatively easy to use. Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Anita
>
>
> Anita K. Oser
> Cullowhee, NC
> Phone: 828-293-5484
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicholas J. Verge BSc. FGS
Geologist and geological remote sensing/GIS consultant
CEO,
Earthscience Technologies,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK.
Voice: ++ 44 (0)1491 572022 (office hours 0900-2200UTC, Monday -
Saturday)
Email: [log in to unmask]
|
