[sam_little]

I'm considering doing some contract trail mapping for folks around my area. They loved the idea, so I thought I would see if others might be into the idea. I use publically available base data, but need GPS tracks and waypoints for key features. Maps would be topo-style with 3D area maps and trail profiles in the legends.

Anyone think I could find a market for this?

 

[Zark]

Interesting that you should ask, I make maps and am planning some trail map projects in the future. What exactly I'll be doing I can't say

You could use GPS to plot your ride onto a map. Plotting that data onto a map is tricky and invoves alot of expensive hardware and software to do yourself, and knowledge. There are programs out there that let you do this for your own use, but won't be good enough for commercial use.

Software: ArcGIS 9 I think its $1500. This is tool you could use to do a lot of this stuff. Its a tough program to use, you should go to a college and take some courses on it.
Adobe Illustrator, a must for the vector based graphic elements to the maps.
Photoshop will also be needed to deal with the raster elements,the hill shaded relief mostly

You can make a trail profile relatively easily just by looking at a topo map and graphing the elevation. Take a look for what is available already though, there are LOTS of maps out there. Making maps is time consuming and requires a lot of knowledge on the software realm, I love it, it what I went to school for

Best of luck, let me know if I can help

Noah

 

[kidwoo]

I'm not sure if you want to use TOPO! or not but at about $100 an area it's pretty cheap if you're only doing one state. We use this for work and just upload routes from a handheld garmin. I've seen a bike shop in Colorado (Absolute Bikes in Salida) do this and sell the printouts. The program uses the latest 3.5 minute USGS maps.

 

[sam_little]

I am a geography graduate student proficient in all of the aforementioned software and tasks. I also have good access to it. All I would need are the waypoints and tracks.

 

[Zark]

I am a geography graduate student proficient in all of the aforementioned software and tasks. I also have good access to it. All I would need are the waypoints and tracks.

Get hiking then! It can be a real PIA in some places where tree cover and or deep canyons block satelite signal.

Another program you might find real helpful is Natural Scene Designer. Its pretty cheap and is great for generating relief, it can't do isolines (yet) but it can do oblique angles, so you can even do a fly by movie of your selected terrain! Way cool stuff.