Reply With QuoteWell I don't think I can be of much help in what you are trying to do so I guess I'll just say... Welcome Aboard!
I'm sure someone with the appropriate knowledge will be by shortly to give you a hand.
Mapping Project
I have undertaken to create an accurate to scale map of the historic locations of watermills in a county. The maps I have seen here are beautiful and just the type of map I would like to create. I have shapefiles and point files for the county, and at 1:63360 the map would end up probably around 5 feet square. I want the map to look like it was created in the 18th century, and I know nothing about map making, so I need some advise on how to proceed, primarily what software package would be the best. I do have a lot of experience with software, so I am not concerned about the complexity. I would like to be able to import the shape and point files I have to use as a base and build from there. Could someone suggest the best way to proceed? I would appreciate any input.
Well I don't think I can be of much help in what you are trying to do so I guess I'll just say... Welcome Aboard!
I'm sure someone with the appropriate knowledge will be by shortly to give you a hand.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Thanks. I was happy to find this forum, I do love maps, and what I have seen here is incredible. I hope someone does come along to give me some guidance.
Browse around - esp the finished map section and find a few maps similar in style to what you want to achieve and tell us the link or the name of the map. Even with that description which was detailed it does leave a lot of room for possibilities.
I have a 19th century map that I would like to emulate, and I could send you a scan of it, but I would like to 'dress it up' some, based on the work in the current gallery. Maybe add a little 3d relief and have some symbols for the mills based on the type they were and when they were built. All of the maps in the gallery are so good I couldn't pick one particular map. I have no artistic talent at all, by the way. So I would need something that had a symbol library of some sort. From what I have seen here, what I want to end up with may be beyond my ability. This forum appears to be for map artists.
You would be surprised. Many of us here could barely draw stick figures well(and some still can't, me included), but have learned how to make some pretty decent looking maps regardless. With the right tools and a bit of help, you could fake it easily enough with some time and patience.Originally Posted by dougs
However, if you want to stick with symbol based tools, then Campaign Cartographer or Fractal Mapper are probably the way to go, though I have no idea if they have a wide enough variety of mill symbols. I don't know about CC, but Fractal Mapper may have one vector and one bmp version of a water mill in it's library. Of course, you might also be able to find some free or free for personal only use symbols around the internet that can expand your selection.
My Finished Maps
Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
My Tutorials:
Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
My company would be thrilled to take on this project. It's right up our alley, actually - artistically rendered maps that are geographically accurate and based on great data. Check out our website at http://www.xnrproductions.com for some samples, and if you like what you see please contact me via PM and we can give you a quote.
It sounds like a great project, and I would love to work on it. Depending on what you are willing to spend I am sure we could do something great for you.
-Rob
--I tried to send this via PM but dougs has that option disabled--
I have fixed the PM issue. Since I am one of those individuals doing this for the benefit of the 'public interest', there is no budget, but I do have plenty of time to devote to it. I will contact you anyway.
On the issue of drawing, I guess based on jfrazierjr I would not have to stick to symbol based software. That is really what I need to figure out first.
Hi,
I would sugest it an art work/Hand drawn map rather than a computer or digital map.
That is what I was thinking at first. I was hoping I could use a scaled tif image as a base and work from that by importing it into one of the packages used to create some of the maps I have seen on this forum.
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