2 replies to this topic

[slgimber]

I am looking for a mapping program, rather online or to purchase, that allows a person to do a search for a list of cities within a certain area of 2 points. For example I would like to find all cities less than 500 miles from Denver, CO and less than 500 Miles from St. Paul, MN. This would be used in relocation of people to cover wide areas of sales. Any help would be appreciated Thanks.

PS. If this was already posted I am sorry that I didn't find it, this is such a hard topic to do a search on.

[Martin Gamache]

slgimber

What you are looking to do is a simple buffer by distance query that any number of GIS software should be able to do. The trick is using an appropriate projection to get accurate buffers. You could then query the towns within the buffer for certain attributes (like population or housing unit density, or proximity to major airports for example).

Nick should be able to tell us if his former employer's product can do this. I do know that all the GIS software I have used such as MapInfo, ESRI's Arcmap/Arcview and Manifold can do this. There are a number of folks here that would probably be happy to help you. The resources tab at the top of the page can direct you to their services.

I'm unaware if Google Earth or Microsoft's new web mapping browser (or any other web based tools) can do this sort of query.

[Hans van der Maarel]

At first glance, MapPoint seems to be the most obvious choice. Not only can you create buffers, but also drivetime-zones. I'm not sure how it is on the query-side (I haven't gone too deep into it) but I think it's certainly worth a try.