Spend my money!!!

[fishmasterdan]

Hello and thanks for all your efforts here. This is a great site.


A little history. I am a hunter/outdoorsmans and last year I had to pass on several big bucks because I was not sure if I was on priviate land or BLM land. I thought I was going to lose my mind waiting to be sure.What I am hoping to do is overlay the BLM land on a detailed maps.


I purchased a Garmin 530 HCX. (Its in the mail).
I am hoping there is some software I can get to overlay BLM land over detailed maps. If not I would like to hire someone to do this, I would like Washington, Montana and Idaho.

Before I waste a bunch of money on software, what should I buy??
Would this work??
http://www.maptrails.com/blmsedetails.html

Remeber I do not have any software what so ever, so I can get what we need!!!

Thanks
Dan




 

[fishmasterdan]

I have been doing a little research but I am not sure I understand eveything. Do I need to purchase mapsource or somthing like Ozi explorer??

I would really like to be able to scan my gazetter maps into my GPS what kind of software would I need for that??


Thanks for the link.

I will try and document my learning curve along the way.

[-Oz-]

I would check to see if shapefiles exist for the hunting regions you want; land usage or land ownership and the statename and shapefile sometimes yields good results.

If they exist life is good.

Another good search is "state gis clearinghouse" replace state with the name of the state you want.

[fishmasterdan]

Ok so alot of this is going over my head. I have read several tutorials and an starting to get some stuff.

Here is a link for people like me http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,149.0.html that talks about maps and memory cards.

So from what I gather here, the maps available for free are better than the ones you can purchase?? I was under the impression once you purchased a map these were add ons.

Once I understand what I am looking for I can search a little bit better. So why cant I make a map with the info on http://www.maptrails.com/blmsedetails.html?? Is that not realistic or unethical??

[fishmasterdan]

So I started on the Garmin Tutorial. It seems IDL is no longer available for a free D/L??  I cant believe I am hung up on the first thing I tried grrrr. It sucks getting old.

Anybody have the IDL program??

[fishmasterdan]

Well piss....

I tried another 10 times. I unregistered reregistered turned off pop up blockers spy ware firewalls nothing this is what I get.


I get to everything you posted but no cigar

Can you host the file by chance?? or email??
Dan

[leszekp]

I wouldn't get too hung up on this - IDL is only needed to run DEM2Topo, which you only need if you're trying to create topographic contours. For that matter, for what you want (property boundaries), the full Garmin tutorial on this site may be a bit much. I've got some links to other tutorials on this page:

http://freegeographytools.com/2008/make-your-own-topo-maps-for-a-garmin-gps-unit

[-Oz-]

Yea, skip that unless you need contours; even then you can use this program which I made: http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,104.0.html

[fishmasterdan]

Ok thanks for the tips.BTW I did confirm my registration it just hates me I am not going to waste anymore time on the IDL thing.

I am not really wanting to make any maps. I just want to understand how to edit them for my needs. Making a map from scratch appears to be something for the experts. I will mess around somemore. FYI I have almost every digital nautical chart on the west coast if anyone wants to do some horse trading?? I need tops'

[fishmasterdan]

http://forums.gpsfiledepot.com/index.php/topic,388.0.html

another useful post for a newbie like me

http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/mapmakers.htm a good read for beginners

[fishmasterdan]

I dont have any topos yet.I am after the pacific northwest stuff including montana. What is a good program to preview maps with??

[fishmasterdan]

As far as road/trail maps go. Are the purchased ones better than the free ones the can be D/L here?

I was hoping to get maps that is at the Gazeeter map level or better.

[Boyd]

Since you're inviting us to "spend your money".... it really isn't too hard to make your own map which shows the boundaries of wildlife management areas, etc. The first step is to find the data, which should be available at your state's GIS website. Try some google searches - you are looking for shapefiles, so something like "Montana WMA shapefiles" or similar queries will probably yield some hits. Alternately, start with the state's main website and look for the Geographic Survey, dept of natural resources, or similar agencies.

Once you have found the data it can be pretty simple, but here's where I'm going to spend your money. Buy a copy of Global Mapper: http://globalmapper.com/ You can play with the free demo first to see what you think. It should be able to open any shapefiles you find (files with a .shp) extension. It can even open files inside a .zip (compressed) archive... it's really quite easy to use (but also incredibly powerful).

After opening the file, just export it as "polish format" .mp file. You could use cgpsmapper to compile the result into a Garmin-compatible map, but if you want something easier to use.... spend some more of your money on Mapwel: http://www.mapwel.eu/ It can open the .mp file, display it on your computer where you can edit as desired, compile it as a map and even send it to your GPS.

[-Oz-]

As far as road/trail maps go. Are the purchased ones better than the free ones the can be D/L here?

I was hoping to get maps that is at the Gazeeter map level or better.

Road maps here don't autoroute.  The topo maps here are better than Garmin Topo 2008; on par with Topo 24k (lacks autorouting).

[fishmasterdan]

Thanks OZ


I am not much of a computer guy. I have been messing with mapwel for a few days and have yet to open any map!!! I dont think mapwel is in my future.