Lost in Mapping software - need simple place to start

[japhyr]

Hi everyone,

I have researched mapping software and I get lost in all the possibilities. I think many of the programs are way more powerful than what I'm looking for.

What I want to do is simple. I help run a community garden, with about 50 plots. We have always assigned plots from a hand-drawn map. I would like to be able to input simple measurement data, and get out a simple map of the garden, drawn to scale. The measurement data would simply be lengths and angles - no GPS data to start.

Can anyone suggest a simple program to start with? I am a teacher, and would love to start using this kind of software with students as well.

[h4mx0r]

I really don't know anything about such things. However there is a program called "blender" that some people use for drawing 3 dimensional objects and well it might have some useful support for plotting such 2d things you work with.

I know there is google earth and nasa world wind for if you wanted a high view snapshot of the area for a realistic layout to then graph schemantics and other things over top of.

There are a lot of open source projects like this being done in some of the newer languages. If you google "linux mapping" for example there is a plethora of java and python related tools to manage maps.

Gimp is great for small touch ups and openoffice has some presentation software for showing off your reviews.

[Cheesehead]

You're right that 'mapping software' is much too powerful and specialized for your task at hand. I've used some of them; the basic point/line/polygon/label is all you need - and you get that with Inkscape and OO Draw.

In theory, you could use Inkscape with your current data. But using just measurement data (converting it into x/y coordinates in an XML/SVG file) is time-consuming and may not be worthwhile. If you want to try, look for how to create an SVG (XML) file.

Inkscape or OpenOffice Draw can be used to precisely place points and draw lines and polygons that match (snap to) the points. It might be faster to recreate the map using Inkscape.