GIS for the rest of us

gjackson

FRGS
I have always wanted a GIS package, but have been unwilling to pay for a professional system. But I just found Quantum GIS which is under the GNU license and can be compiled for Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. And it's free!

So far with a little playing on my Mac I find the GUI a bit KDE/Gnome like, but it isn't hard to use. And it's free!

:wings:

http://download.qgis.org/downloads.rhtml

So now I'm going to spend time stitching all the Russian topos of Africa into a single map. :)

cheers
 

GeoRoss

Adventurer
Thanks,

I will give this a try. I sure hope it is better than Grass. That GIS alternative sucked 100X ESRI.
 

jh504

Explorer
Thanks for the link! I have ArcGIS but it is pretty complicated and I havnt had the time to really teach myself all the basics. I will give this a shot!
 

gjackson

FRGS
So I have to say I'm not as impressed as I'd hoped to be. QGIS won't handle ECW files, which most of mine are, without a complete recompile. I think for file formats it supports it is fine, but not supporting ECW is a pretty large omission IMO.

Still testing . . .

cheers
 

craig

Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
QGIS gets it's raster/imagery support from GDAL. GDAL requires an SDK from ER Mapper. You should be able to compile the ER Mapper SDK and just drop the ECW lib into the same directory as the other GDAL dependencies.

http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/ECW
 

craig

Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
It's generally not useful for the average person. GIS packages are used to compile geographic data from various sources into maps, perform spatial analysis and geospatial modeling.

If you need to somehow manipulate a geographic file (reproject it, overlay roads data onto a GEOTIF, and save the resultant map) then it might be useful.

Generally speaking though, most end-users don't want to learn the technical details necessary to operate a GIS.

Craig
 

gjackson

FRGS
QGIS gets it's raster/imagery support from GDAL. GDAL requires an SDK from ER Mapper. You should be able to compile the ER Mapper SDK and just drop the ECW lib into the same directory as the other GDAL dependencies.

http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/ECW

I'm working on it, but I want this to be pretty clean. Apple does not use DLLs in OSX, so a recompile has to have the correct GDAL components attached to QGIS. Running into issues with SQlite3 which is already installed on OSX, but the GDAL package doesn't find it. Still working. :)

Thanks for the input.

cheers
 

jg45

Member
I manage a GIS department in a small company for a living. We use MapInfo, ARCGIS and, Manifold. If you are looking for a reasonably priced GIS package that is very functional and can handle almost any file type, take a look at Manifold.net. While we have access to the two major packages, we do most of our work in Manifold using MID/MIF or shp files for interoperability. The reason is that Manifold is native 64 bit and that alone removes a lot of restrictions with some of the files we see. I have been able to proces files in Manifold that MapInfo just crashed when trying to open because they were so large.
 

gjackson

FRGS
Manifold does look pretty cool, and at $400 is a very well priced pro system. Unfortunately I'm solidly in the Mac camp and they only write for Windows.

cheers
 

DavidG

Adventurer
...very functional and can handle almost any file type, take a look at Manifold.net.

I have not tinkered with Manifold in some time, but our impression years ago was the same. It could read/write a wide variety file types and was a great value. I'll second what Craig said regarding Mrstang1's question, you're right, the average non-GIS person would not get much of a return on the time invested to learn the basics. I work with ESRI products every day (for nearly 10 years now) and I'm always learning new stuff.

If you need a hand with the occasional, basic GIS task I would try pestering a local college or university with an established GIS program. You may be able to convince a student to lend you a hand for next to nothing. Also, try contacting the GIS department in a local/regional/state Gov't agency. I work for a regional planning agency and I get all sorts of oddball requests not at all related to planning. I often help people new to GIS, or with absolutely no GIS experience, accomplish basic data tasks. Without taxpayers, I wouldn't be employed...it's the least I can do :)
 

chrismc

Adventurer
I am not a GIS guy by any means, just a techie that likes geography, mapping, and the outdoors. I've been making my own maps for quite some time, both for print and for my Garmin GPS. I've been steadily climbing up the GIS software ladder. I love the ability to pull in the raw source data from various places (USGS, State DNR, Google, etc...) and then lay it out and present it exactly the way you plan to use it.

My most recent acquisition was Manifold, and it is SWEET. Another great "bargain" GIS software gem is Global Mapper (http://www.globalmapper.com/). It is what I was using until I discovered Manifold, and it is slightly cheaper for the same functionality (Manifold requires their "Surface tools" add-on to get the same feature set as GM). Manifold is a bit more powerful, however, as well as more streamlined. Both softwares have a great feature set, are relatively easy to use, and work very well with GPS receivers. Both packages also have AMAZING developers that listen to customer feedback, and have extremely responsive support (see the GM Yahoo Group @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/global_mapper).

If you don't mind paying a few bucks for your software, either of these two GIS packages will give you a world of possibilities for a fraction of the price of "enterprise" GIS software (Arc*), and are far easier to use.

FWIW, I too am a Mac-preferenced user. My main desktop PC as well as my notebook are Macs, but I have a Windows workstation just to run decent GIS software. There is nothing even remotely comparable for Macs. The open-source GIS packages (GRASS, etc...) use extremely dated methodologies and are nothing more than an exercise in frustration (I've tried). They will do nothing except make you hate GIS.
 

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