7 replies to this topic

[martinitolove]

Hello!

I'm rather new into mapping but have some experience in working with ArcGIS and creating maps. For hobbie reasons I'd like to create political and ethnic maps in oblique style. The interesting regions for me would be right now only Europe and Asia. It should look like the following example with rivers, water bodies and mountains. Can you please reccomend me a programm easy to use but sophisticated enough, with possibilities to load different layers and geo-reference picture files - all this for windows xp?



Thank you in advance and kind regards!

[Hans van der Maarel]

A couple come to mind:
Global Mapper, Natural Scene Designer, VNS (though price-wise that's probably going to be overkill)

Keep in mind that those would be able to drape a (georeferenced) image, i.e. a map, over a terrain model. You'll still need to make the map.

[martinitolove]

A couple come to mind:
Global Mapper, Natural Scene Designer, VNS (though price-wise that's probably going to be overkill)

Keep in mind that those would be able to drape a (georeferenced) image, i.e. a map, over a terrain model. You'll still need to make the map.

Thank you very much! But perhaps I should ask my question more precisely.

I'd like to have a nice terrain map with oblique option (very like the pick in the earlier post) for Europe and Asia (not build it myself). The main rivers and lakes should be there, too. In addition a layer of state and administrative borders should be possible to turn on and off. And a possibility to project georeferenced ethnic maps over it all.

If I'm not wrong, those programms seem all to be overkill for those tasks I have? And it doesn't matter how much a programm cost, I'll gladly pay it.

Thank you very much again for your further advice!

[Hans van der Maarel]

I'd like to have a nice terrain map with oblique option (very like the pick in the earlier post) for Europe and Asia (not build it myself). The main rivers and lakes should be there, too. In addition a layer of state and administrative borders should be possible to turn on and off. And a possibility to project georeferenced ethnic maps over it all.

If I'm not wrong, those programms seem all to be overkill for those tasks I have? And it doesn't matter how much a programm cost, I'll gladly pay it.

The thing is that most software (that I know of) that supports what you want to do with layers doesn't come with terrain data pre-loaded. The exception is Google Earth, but I think you're looking for a bit more in terms of output options.

I'm not very familiar with the ArcGIS line-up, but 3D Analyst comes to mind. Perhaps a more hard-core Arc user can chime in?

[Matthew Hampton]

ArcGlobe would be Esri's counterpoint to Google Earth, but you would still have the difficulty of finding a suitable thematic overlay. Neither of those options have the rendering quality of the sample image however.

I guess it's good to know there are still holes in the market for enterprising cartographers to build niche products. I don't think one like this exists yet?

[Michael Schmeling]

I am offering 3D models of a similar kind on the3dstudio.com, for example these:

3D Relief map of Europe
3D Relief map of France

martinitolove, if you are interested in a custom map like this, please contact me.

[martinitolove]

ArcGlobe would be Esri's counterpoint to Google Earth, but you would still have the difficulty of finding a suitable thematic overlay. Neither of those options have the rendering quality of the sample image however.

I guess it's good to know there are still holes in the market for enterprising cartographers to build niche products. I don't think one like this exists yet?

I see, so the programm I already use, ESRI's ArcMap with an ArcGlobe add-on would be fine, I'd just need a right overlay. Any ideas where I could find it for Eurasia?

Thank you all!

[frax]

You can start with checking how you find the stuff on ArcGIS Online - there are things as world wide topographic map, for instance. Also check out Natural Earth especially the terrain model (suitable for the scale you are interested in) as well as the topographic/hypsographic map backgrounds.

One note about ArcGlobe - it can only export to raster bitmap formats (png/jpg), so you might want to do labelling in a software like Illustrator.