Newbie needs some direction

[JeffD]

I have downloaded the free Arizona topo map from GPS File depot and I would like to customize it a little, by adding either to the map, or as an overlay, but creating a color coded map defining mineral claims so when I go out prospecting in an area, I will know just by the color of the screen if I am on a claim or not. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Where do I start? Any free software I can download?? Also any simple directions on what to do with it to get started would be greatly appreciated. I would want my color codes to control over the green/white areas shown on the existing map. It that means I would need to turn the other one off to use the new one I am going to create, I could live with it, but would be preferable to be able to do it without shutting off the topo base map.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone is willing to give me!
Jeff

[Boyd]

Well first you will need to do some detective work and find the data for those claims. Hopefully they are available as shapefiles (files with a .shp extension). There would be a variety of ways to use this data then. One simple approach would be to use Mapwel, which can import the shapefiles and let you change their color or pattern. It will also compile this into a transparent map with a few mouse clicks and load it onto your GPS.

One issue will be that polygons (the claims) cannot be made transparent, so if you overlaid them on another map, they would cover up any details below. One solution for this would be to make your claims map opaque but make the Arizona map transparent. There are various ways to do this, but we have been asked not to discuss ways to modify others' maps so I will leave that as an excercise for you.

Another approach would be to use a pattern of dots to fill the polygons instead of a solid color. That would allow details from the underlying map to show through between the dots. Mapwel makes it easy to do this with its user-defined styles. For more info see: http://www.mapwel.biz/

[-Oz-]

Boyd is spot on; I would make a series of semi-transparent polygons or dots similar to how I made this landcover map: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/43/

[JeffD]

Thanks, I appreciate the input! Can I make those shape files in other software?? I think I should be able to with Autocadd if nothing else... I have hard copy maps with the claims located, based on section lines, which I dont see on the Arizona Topo map.

That brings up another point, I think the boundaries of BLM/Forest and state lands are shifed off a little on the Arizona Topo map, is it possible they are off a little?? I know a couple times reading the USGS Topo quad map that I had plotted the boundaries onto, When I should have been on BLM my garmin still showed me on State trust land and vise versa.

I plotted these claims though mapsource just using the route tool so I could print them and be looking at a hard copy of the same map I was seeing on the garmin, but all I had for reference points were the countour lines and while they look right on a printed map, again where the whole claim should be on blm land, it shows up largely on state trust land.

I am new to the whole gps thing anyway, but I guess I could double check this with gps coordinates of section line intersections??

Thanks again
Jeff

[-Oz-]

It is possible they could be a little off; the data for the BLM and national forest lands was a nationwide file so based on curve of the earth and such it could be off.  It also may not be 1:24k national lands but closer to 1:100k.

[Boyd]

I don't use AutoCAD so I'm not sure what it can do.

If you scan your paper maps, Mapwel has tools to import and georeference them. You can try all this out in the free demo and see how you like it before purchasing.

Global Mapper is another fantastic program for this, but it can't compile the garmin maps, you need to export as a .mp file and use cgpsmapper to compile. And Global Mapper costs about $250.