[Xastir] Mapping

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Nov 10, 2006 at 06:11:39AM -0800, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <archer at eskimo.com> flavor, containing:
> 
> 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.

I will also reiterate that iGage All Topo Maps V7 Pro has an "export to 
GeoTiff" option that produces geotiff files that are completely compatible
with Xastir --- right down to having usable .fgd files for collar clipping.
Given their special pricing for SAR members, I highly recommend this for
topo maps if you can't get free data (or if the free data you can get is
outdated) --- it is an extremely cost-effective way to get an entire state's
worth of topo maps.  The downside is that it's a Windows program, but they
claim that it works under Wine on Linux (I have tried it under Wine on BSD
and it does *not* work --- it'll run, but not actually display maps).  

Doesn't help if you're looking for road data, but for SAR work it is well 
worth the cash.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick