General Map question

Latenightrob

New Member
Feb 13, 2004
3
0
south jersey
New to the forum and I have to say that there is so much information here, it is great! :bounce: Question is if I download some on those maps, is there a way to patch them together to make a bigger map or is there software that will do the trick? thanks for your time
 
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bach2yoga

Guest
Guy (teegate) or Ben (bruset) would be the one to ask that, or maybe Ken (NJVike)(who has been very quiet recently...you going Sunday?)...
Renee
 

Latenightrob

New Member
Feb 13, 2004
3
0
south jersey
No I am not going sunday, but I would like to create a more detailed map that i could put up on a peg board and start marking places off that I have been. I have a friend that is a printer and he may be able to print such a map if I can get it right first. If Guy or Ben knows the right direction for me to go, that would be greatly appreciated!
:p thanks
rob
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
26,004
8,769
Latenightrob said:
New to the forum and I have to say that there is so much information here, it is great! :bounce: Question is if I download some on those maps, is there a way to patch them together to make a bigger map or is there software that will do the trick? thanks for your time

You can do it manually with a paint program. I have done them but they don't line up completely perfect in many cases. But if you post a link or tell me the map you want, I will do it as best I can for you and upload it and post the link. In the meantime if I get a minute tonight I will pick one and post it.

Guy
 

Latenightrob

New Member
Feb 13, 2004
3
0
south jersey
I wasn't sure you can do that with how large the files are. I will give it a shot. I do appreciate your offer to help me!
I am not exactley sure what maps I need at the moment but I think I would like to piece together a map that would have the Atsion map in the center.
thanks again
Rob
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
26,004
8,769
I did it manually tonight and because each section of map is scanned individually, each section is slightly on a different angle from the others, causing a mismatch at either the bottom or the top. I have a program that stitches photo's together and when I used that they came out perfect. But even when I saved them as .tiff files, there was a loss of clarity that made the map look slightly fuzzy.

Unless you can come up with a program that will stich them together with minimal loss of clarity, you will have to manually do it and suffer with the mismatch.

So anyway here is my attempt at connecting them with my program. It is the 1949 Pemberton Quad and is 2.1MB

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/pemberton-1949.jpg.zip

Guy
 

njvike

Explorer
Jul 18, 2003
353
1
Sparta, NJ
home.earthlink.net
bach2yoga said:
Guy (teegate) or Ben (bruset) would be the one to ask that, or maybe Ken (NJVike)(who has been very quiet recently...you going Sunday?)...
Renee

Hello Renee and company. Still here but lurking as of late since I've been so busy. Help is on the way so I will be able to enjoy the weekends very soon.

As far as the maps, I would say it can be done but I agree with Guy about matching them. I have several software tools that can do the trick and I've had a lot of success editing photos and such.

I would recommend Adobe Photoshop but it's very expensive and has a big learning curve but you can do just about anything with it.

I also like Adobe Image Styler and Microsoft (duck!) Photodraw. They're less than $100, if they still have it, and you can do some pretty neat things with it.

I miss getting out with everyone but as we all know, this winter has been just horrible.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone real soon. I wanted to join you guys on Sunday but thats not really good for me since we have to travel quite a bit. If anyone goes out on a Saturday, we're in. This will give us a chance to rest at my in-laws and take off the next day.

Talk to you soon
 
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BarryC

Guest
Rob,
If the objective in all this is to have a paper map, then why not just buy one?
Directly from the USGS, http://www.usgs.gov/ they can be had for $6 each, plus $5 per order for postage and handling. Finding and ordering the maps from the USGS site is much more complicated than it needs to be, but they provide good service.
Of the maps I have, the ones I couldn't find locally were purchased online from them.
At this site, http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/usgs3/idxdown.htm , you can dowload the key map for all topographic maps of NJ. Looking at the key map you can decide on which ones you would want.
Of course these are only suggestions.
Barry
 
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bach2yoga

Guest
njvike said:
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone real soon. I wanted to join you guys on Sunday but thats not really good for me since we have to travel quite a bit. If anyone goes out on a Saturday, we're in. This will give us a chance to rest at my in-laws and take off the next day.

Talk to you soon

Unfortunately til the end of March my Saturdays are booked--
BUT...I do have March 20th open, if we want to plan ahead . My kids always enjoy it when your kids are there.
Since you don't get down here as much because of the distance, did you have somewhere in mind? Anyone, any ideas?

Renee
 

njvike

Explorer
Jul 18, 2003
353
1
Sparta, NJ
home.earthlink.net
bach2yoga said:
njvike said:
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone real soon. I wanted to join you guys on Sunday but thats not really good for me since we have to travel quite a bit. If anyone goes out on a Saturday, we're in. This will give us a chance to rest at my in-laws and take off the next day.

Talk to you soon

Unfortunately til the end of March my Saturdays are booked--
BUT...I do have March 20th open, if we want to plan ahead . My kids always enjoy it when your kids are there.
Since you don't get down here as much because of the distance, did you have somewhere in mind? Anyone, any ideas?

Renee

I would have like to but we will be returning from Disney that weekend. How's the following weekend?

As far as where to go, I'm really not sure. I always have this problem when I want to explore the area. If it slows down just even a tad at work, I may even catch you guys on a Sunday.

Here's are a few places that I had in mind but I'm always open to suggestions.

1) Howardsville
2) Bear Swamp Hill
3) Upton Station
4) Mt Misery
5) Heck, anywhere will do :)

My guys said to tell your guys: HELLO!!!!!

Also, I liked the pictures you took today and to have fun tomorrow.

Ken (NJ Vike)
 

KARL

Scout
Sep 7, 2003
61
0
BARNEGAT
Visit site
MAPS

HI ROB.........I HAD MUCH THE SAME PROBLEM . FOUND THAT TOPOZONE. COM ON THE WEB WILL MAKE UP SOME REALLY SPECIFIC MAPS FOR YOU............THEY TAKE THE USGS QUADS AND MAP ANY SPECIFIC AREA FROM THOSE...........RESULTS ARE GOOD..........THEY TEND TO BE EXPENSIVE , AS IN TEN TO FIFTEEN DOLLARS A MAP...........I ORDERED THEM ONLINE,AND GOT THEM WITHIN TWO OR THREE DAYS SO THEY ARE REPUTABLE........GOOD LUCK,KARL
 

Piney

New Member
Oct 10, 2003
4
0
Medford
As serious as you all seem to be about mapping, you might want to look into Terrain Navigator Professional 2.0. With it you have the option of running the USGS topo's from any location in the states. I have the data disc for New Jersey and also the disc for digital elevation data for the East Coast. This is a professional program, but it's invaluable if you need that type of data.
 

Ben Ruset

Administrator
Site Administrator
Oct 12, 2004
7,619
1,878
Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
I've had good luck with Fugawi and loading the USGS DRG maps I have on the site. Plus I can export them to my Garmin iQue 3600 and have handheld mapping on my PDA.

Fugawi is not without it's bugs, but it is pretty cool to see exactly where you are on a USGS topo map when you're in the woods.

One thing I will say, however, is that I'd be lost without my GPS. I really need to learn the basics of navigation and working with a compass.
 
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bach2yoga

Guest
BEHR655 said:
bruset said:
One thing I will say, however, is that I'd be lost without my GPS. I really need to learn the basics of navigation and working with a compass.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Moss grows on the north side of a tree. What more could you need? :D

How far east and west varies with the time of year and where you live...time to get out a stick and mark the shadows!
And rivers and streams flow....uh....which way was that again? :D
Laughs...it is nice, truly, to be able to get from point a on a map to point b and know that should electronics fail you that you will still be fine. Plus it's just plain fun to navigate. Orienteering is a sport of its own.
Imagine before electronics, you had to box the compass if you were on sea--32 points to the compass rose!
Renee
 
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BarryC

Guest
Well I've been exploring in South Jersey for 19 years. I've been navigating south Jersey with nothing but maps during the entire time. I love maps. Today I use the USGS topo quads, the county maps from Alfred B. Patton, and the DeLlorme atlas. Right now a GPS unit to me would be just something for added fun. I still need to get the one I have to give me a preliminary fix. The last time I tried was out in the middle of the yard here, away from the house and away from trees. It wouldn't pick up more than one or two satellites. I'm grateful to Renee for giving me it, but I still need to get it to do something for me. I'll try when the weather gets warmer. It will be interesting using it on a regular basis, and finding out what it does.
bruset said:
One thing I will say, however, is that I'd be lost without my GPS. I really need to learn the basics of navigation and working with a compass.
 
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bach2yoga

Guest
BarryC said:
Well I've been exploring in South Jersey for 19 years. I've been navigating south Jersey with nothing but maps during the entire time. I love maps. Today I use the USGS topo quads, the county maps from Alfred B. Patton, and the DeLlorme atlas. Right now a GPS unit to me would be just something for added fun. I still need to get the one I have to give me a preliminary fix. The last time I tried was out in the middle of the yard here, away from the house and away from trees. It wouldn't pick up more than one or two satellites. I'm grateful to Renee for giving me it, but I still need to get it to do something for me. I'll try when the weather gets warmer. It will be interesting using it on a regular basis, and finding out what it does.
bruset said:
One thing I will say, however, is that I'd be lost without my GPS. I really need to learn the basics of navigation and working with a compass.

Barry, try your house again on a clear sunny day, again in the middle of the yeard, and leave it out for a while then come back to it, or try it at a different location-maybe a big field like Dover Forge or Howardsville or something. I was able to get a fix here at my house with it, but the initial fix took quite a while since it was an older model. It may have taken ten or fifteen minutes. After your initial fix, it shouldn't take nearly as long, though it won't be as quick as the newer models with WAAS.

Renee
 
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