Mapping software 2

[Olly Betts]

On Sun, Apr 28, 2002 at 12:38:59PM +0200, Jos Burgers wrote:
> J Wood <John@peakdesign.co.uk> writes:
> > Do any of you have any recommendations for mapping software? What I would
> > like to be able to do is display vector information from a survey, and
> > overlay it onto scanned maps and sketches such as old OS maps, old mine
> > plans etc. So something that is reasonably competent at scaling, rotating
> > etc bitmap images, and combining that with a vector display in 3d.

> I think for the combination of vector and scanned maps (and also in 3D) you
> need professional software. [...] For realy good combination of vector and
> scans there are GIS-programs. Also almost not availabale as free/share-ware.

Take a look at http://www.freegis.org/ for free GIS related software and
resources - a quick search there suggests that GRASS might be worth a look,
though I've never used it.

For cave specific stuff, the (currently highly experimental) GL extensions to
aven (part of survex) are probably what you're after, though they're currently
a bit vapourware-ish.  If you attended the CUCC Austria talk at the BCRA
conference last year, you saw them in action.  They allow a scanned map or
photo to be draped over a terrain model, and viewed in 3d along with the cave
centreline surveys.

The major lacks at the moment are a way to import arbitrary terrain data, an
easy way to align the images (you need to be able to attach coordinates to
identifiable features on the map or photo), and clean integration with the
rest of the program.  Mark Shinwell's about to start working on it again in
a serious way - I'd guess it'll be ready for public consumption in a couple
of months, but if you fancy a play sooner, let me know.

Cheers,
Olly