Mapping Tools?

[BlimeyCabrio]

Anyone have any good experience with web based (or inexpensive) route mapping tools that enable YOU to plan the route, road by road, then print it out? Versus what all the mapping services and my GPS do, which is decide on the route FOR me... I'd like to map and publish some of the routes I've worked up, but don't know a good easy way to do this. Any help appreciated.

[MidnightDave]

Paging Dan at Grassroots Garage! Not only does he know automobile computer chips, he knows a way to do this! ;-) He did it for our route from the winery to his shop, and believe me, no map generator would have made those dozen turns for us! ;-)

DAN? Oh DAN!

[oznogonzo]

Like this?

http://www.tarheelminis.org/gallery/data/500/thumbs/Route.jpg (http://www.tarheelminis.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2390&cat=500&ppuser=175)

What you see here is just basic cut & paste of google maps at 1"=2000' scale... the neat thing about it is the road names are always in the same place, so you just keep overlapping sections of the map in an editor like gimp or photoshop.

Once you get a map of the area at a good scale for you to work at, make a new layer in your editor. Paint your route in a nice color on that layer (a somewhat fuzzy brush works well, just make it cover the entire road) then set the opacity of the new layer to 70%-ish and you get what I have here.

The result is a 2768 x 3096 pixel image, that I can use again & again to set up new routes... if I need more areas I dont have, all I have to do is head back to google and grab those parts. Each new route can have its own layer, and even a different color, or other interesting points of intrest.

If you want a full resolution image of this, I can email it to you. Hosting it on the site here resized it quite a bit.

Scott

[BlimeyCabrio]

That's certainly one way to skin the cat!

I'll give that a shot in the absence of the magical perfect solution. ;)

Which would be some mapping program that lets you route interactively intersection-by-intersection, then output the section you want at the resolution you want. With the amount of detail you want.

Thanks Scott

[Mr. Magoo]

Try National Geographics Back Roads Explorer software. It is only $49. I think that may be what you are looking for.

[onefastmini]

Sorry to chime in so late, Yahoo maps has just put the beta version as primary. You can click on each turn you want, and it gives coordinates. You can copy and paste the driving directions, remove the coordinates and viola'
--Dan

[BlimeyCabrio]

Dan - awesome - just what I was looking for!

[Mr. Magoo]

Sorry to chime in so late, Yahoo maps has just put the beta version as primary. You can click on each turn you want, and it gives coordinates. You can copy and paste the driving directions, remove the coordinates and viola'
--Dan

Great to know also. I will try.

Merry Christmas Dan

[wmba]

I use Microsoft Mappoint. A less expensive version is called Streets And Trips.

I can easily click on a starting point and end point, and it will generate the quickest route for me like any other program. BUT.. if I then click a point somewhere else on the map, it will factor that point it as well. So you can do exactly what you are talking about... map out a specific route with the roads of your choice. I just click on all the points I want to hit, in the order I want to him them in, and it will map my exact route.

It is a very powerful program.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[BlimeyCabrio]

Since my original post, Google has updated Google Maps considerably - now it's quite easy to select start and end locations, and drag the route to the roads you want to take - what I was looking for originally. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot - it's easy, fun and FREE! :D