[Xastir] Mapping

[Curt, WE7U]

On Thu, 9 Nov 2006, Stephen Brown Jr wrote:

> I also have MapInfo data available to me as well as Precision Mapping and
> Street Atlas, as Darryl mentioned it would be useful if we could somehow use
> that data as well if xastir supports it?

MapInfo is a GIS program, right?  If it's vector data then Xastir
may support it.

This shows up when I start Xastir, with all of the map libraries
enabled:


  Built-in map types:
        gnis   USGS GNIS Datapoints
         map   APRSdos Maps
         map   WinAPRS/MacAPRS/X-APRS Maps
         pdb   PocketAPRS Maps

  Support for these additional map types has been compiled in:
         geo   Image Map (ImageMagick library, many formats allowed)
         geo   URL (Internet maps via libcurl library)
         shp   ESRI Shapefile Maps (Shapelib library)
         tif   USGS DRG Geotiff Topographic Maps (libgeotiff/libproj)
         xpm   X Pixmap Maps (XPM library)
         tab   MapInfo TAB
         mid   MapInfo MID
         mif   MapInfo MIF
         ddf   Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS)
         rt1   US Census Bureau TIGER/Line
         s57   International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S-57
         dgn   MicroStation DGN


"tab", "mid", and "mif" MapInfo types are listed as supported.  This
may not mean "fully" supported, but you should be able to see the
vectors on your screen.  It's whether labels are supported at all
and how the lines look (color, width) that you many not have much
control over.

Precision Mapping and Street Atlas are commercial map programs.  No,
we don't and won't support snagging their maps.  Their license
doesn't allow it.  Pretty much extend that statement to any
commercial maps.  Luckily there are maps available for most places
in various formats that we _can_ use.

That said, you _can_ use trails/routes/waypoints that National
Geographic Topo users have submitted to the mapXchange site, but
these are user-generated trails, not any of the topo maps
themselves.  Anyone needing to extract the user data from Topo,
please check out the latest-latest "gpsbabel" code.  It can extract
from version 2.x/3.x/4.x now.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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