Summit
10-07-2003, 06:31 AM
USAPhotoMaps (http://jdmcox.com/) by Doug Cox
http://jdmcox.com/
This tiny app is one of the coolest ways to plan a backcountry trek or to see where you have been. Use it to plan routes, see avvy danger, calculate slope angle and vertical. Plan hikes and camping as well.
I've been using this program for nine months and it absolutely kicks butt. It's very small, very simple, and best of all its free. Ok... I'm sounding like an ad, but it is true. There is no installation or registry b/s... just unzip and run.
It's a simple app that allows you to download areal photo maps (up to 1m resolution!) free from terraserver as well as topographic maps for the entire US (this includes Alaska!) (there are a few holes in the photo maps in some spots (South of Aspen, CO for example) but there are topomaps for everything. I've downloaded over 700MB of mapping and elevation data (be sure to get the elevation data).
You can also download SDTS evelevation data (very very cool) and you can move your mouse pointer wherever you want on a map and it will give you the exact elevation. The program also shows location coordinates in a variety of formats.
The maps can be zoomed in and out and you press T or P to switch from photo to topo. You can create routes (the program shows you the distances) and landmarks and download them to your GPS if you have one. You can also upload tracks, routes, and landmarks from your GPS to the program.
You can use another small app that the guy wrote to create large JPGs from the photo or topo maps and then print them out... print out several pages, tape them together, take them to Kinkos and laminate them, or just do a single page.
Anyhow... it's really damned cool and it's free. I highly reccomend it.
http://jdmcox.com/
Here is everything you need to download:The mapping program (http://jdmcox.com/USAPhotoMaps.exe) (this url is for the lates version at time of post... go to the page if the link doesn't work)
The bigJPEG maker for printing maps (http://jdmcox.com/BigJpeg.zip)
The SDTS elevation data converter (http://jdmcox.com/ConvertSDTSData.zip)
Oh... and you can paypal him some $$$ if you like and it gets rid of the nag screen when you close the program (it's pretty rare an author is nice enough to put the nag screen at the end instead of the beginning... and all you ahve to do is click OK... i forgot it was there).
BE SURE TO READ THE SHORT README FILE OR READ ADVANCED HELP IN THE PROGRAM! IT IS VERY USEFULL! IT WILL ALSO TELL YOU WHERE TO GET THE ELEVATION DATA
http://jdmcox.com/
This tiny app is one of the coolest ways to plan a backcountry trek or to see where you have been. Use it to plan routes, see avvy danger, calculate slope angle and vertical. Plan hikes and camping as well.
I've been using this program for nine months and it absolutely kicks butt. It's very small, very simple, and best of all its free. Ok... I'm sounding like an ad, but it is true. There is no installation or registry b/s... just unzip and run.
It's a simple app that allows you to download areal photo maps (up to 1m resolution!) free from terraserver as well as topographic maps for the entire US (this includes Alaska!) (there are a few holes in the photo maps in some spots (South of Aspen, CO for example) but there are topomaps for everything. I've downloaded over 700MB of mapping and elevation data (be sure to get the elevation data).
You can also download SDTS evelevation data (very very cool) and you can move your mouse pointer wherever you want on a map and it will give you the exact elevation. The program also shows location coordinates in a variety of formats.
The maps can be zoomed in and out and you press T or P to switch from photo to topo. You can create routes (the program shows you the distances) and landmarks and download them to your GPS if you have one. You can also upload tracks, routes, and landmarks from your GPS to the program.
You can use another small app that the guy wrote to create large JPGs from the photo or topo maps and then print them out... print out several pages, tape them together, take them to Kinkos and laminate them, or just do a single page.
Anyhow... it's really damned cool and it's free. I highly reccomend it.
http://jdmcox.com/
Here is everything you need to download:The mapping program (http://jdmcox.com/USAPhotoMaps.exe) (this url is for the lates version at time of post... go to the page if the link doesn't work)
The bigJPEG maker for printing maps (http://jdmcox.com/BigJpeg.zip)
The SDTS elevation data converter (http://jdmcox.com/ConvertSDTSData.zip)
Oh... and you can paypal him some $$$ if you like and it gets rid of the nag screen when you close the program (it's pretty rare an author is nice enough to put the nag screen at the end instead of the beginning... and all you ahve to do is click OK... i forgot it was there).
BE SURE TO READ THE SHORT README FILE OR READ ADVANCED HELP IN THE PROGRAM! IT IS VERY USEFULL! IT WILL ALSO TELL YOU WHERE TO GET THE ELEVATION DATA