BC Basemap Viewer

[bstach]

Has anybody used the Fugawi software? I want similar quality to the 1:50,000 maps I can purchase at MEC. And the ability to select and print my area of interest.

 

I visited the website and it reads to me like a viewer is included in the $100 price. Does anybody out there have this? I'm wondering if it allows me to stitch maps together and print my area of interest (i hate it when the area I want to got to is at the edge of two maps). The Fugawi web site has a demo version of the advanced viewer for download. I guess what I am wondering is if the basic viewer will do what I want...I don't really need all the fancy GPS stuff in the advanced software.

Edited July 17, 2006 by bstach

[snoboy]

Sweet, I might just do that. I can check out maps free from the UW Library and use the on-campus large-format scanner, but it's probably better to plop down the money. My only hope would be that their data format isn't proprietary, i.e. I could convert and use the data for my own software.

 

I know at least one of the map sets available for BC uses .png files for the map - quite portable. They associate with a .map file that is proprietary - but it's plain text if you look at it. Sorry - I am not sure which brand this is.

[LeeLau]

The 1:50,000 maps are notoriously inaccurate. The TRIM data from the BC Basemaps are much more up-to-date/

 

A website I use to generate BIG maps of areas of interest is trail.brijn.nu. It extracts BC Basemap data and overlays it with GPS UTM grids in NAD83 format.

 

Only problem - no placenames or placenames are very small

 

Some examples of maps I've created are here. I marked up all the placenames myself with Photoshop Elements:

 

http://www.leelau.net/ns.htm

 

 

 

 

[G-spotter]

The BC Basemap access has changed significantly.

 

The portal is now through a federal website:

http://www.nric.ca/

 

The basemap data is now called "iMap BC".

 

Once you get to the actual basemap, it's mostly the same, but it is harder to find a link to turn the contours on. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to do it. You have to add basemap layers because contours are not in the options provided in the layers that are already turned on.

[yasmar]

At least for now, the good old basemap is still available with the direct link: http://maps.gov.bc.ca/imf50/imf.jsp?site=bc_basemap

 

There is another interface at http://openmaps.gov.bc.ca/

This is similar to the one G-spotter mentions, but it seems easier to get contours and less clutter. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to want to show contours on glaciated regions.

[PaulB]

Save yourself the effort, if not some $, and check out Fugawi. C$100 gets you every topo map in the province, and their software (C$150) lets you stitch them together seamlessly. Good for hours of trip planning fun!

In other mapping news, I recently discovered that you can download, for free, any Canadian 1:50k or 1:250k topo from Natural Resources Canada's GeoGratis website. The map images are in TIFF format and include geospatial data. They can be viewed with any imaging software that supports TIFF, or they can be imported into mapping/GPS software packages like OziExplorer or Fugawi.

 

I'm not sure how long this has been available, but it means you no longer need to buy maps from Etopo or Fugawi.

[LeeLau]

Google Earth just improved resolution for the Duffy area. For example you can now see Keith's hut

[oscari]

Apart from the iMapBC and GeoGratis sites for 1:50000 and BC TRIM 1:20000 topos, Geokov.com also has them along with Google maps/3D Earth. (http://geokov.com)

 

Once you are in a subregion page, from the top of Google maps you can choose from standard Google maps (terrain, satellite, etc.), Canada 1:50k, BC 1:20k and Google Earth 3D in your browser (need to download GE plugin). Can overlay lat/lon gridlines as well as UTM grids, however UTM look better in Google Earth since you see the numbers.

 

There are quite a few trails and links to conditions (and info exchange) and functionality for plotting a route on map as well.

 

For printing, the page where you can plot your route provides a larger map (but will be without the trails).

[snoboy]

Thanks oscari, that's some nice stuff!