You can try Manifold viewer for free (https://manifold.net/viewer.shtml) . It's the same full featured program as the paid version, you just can't save or export any files. It is specifically coded to run as a multi-processor multi GPU (NVIDIA Only) video core product, so the speed is noticeable. It is very easy to do what you are describing. IT's pretty easy to also use multiple aerial image sources from the internet such that you find the best aerial images that suit your needs to be drawing or tracing over. The same is true about the map background tiles, there are hundreds if not thousands you can use from the likes of Open Street Maps, to Google, to Mapbox and others.
To get started you should watch this 23 minute video that goes through the basics of the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ_i6XR2of4 Here are all the videos on their YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy4F7Bgf5tyHQK4PoIamF-w/videos Thank you, Brian Webster www.wirelessmapping.com -----Original Message----- From: AF [mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chris Fabien Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 9:22 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group Subject: Re: [AFMUG] GIS Cameron, I'm curious how you feel manifold compares to mapinfo. I use mapinfo to do our fiber plans, mainly just drawing lines/points/text on aerial photo and parcel data layers and exporting to PDF via layout one sheet at a time. It's slow and cumbersome, but it's paid for and I know it. Would Manifold give me the same abilities and be faster/easier? Thanks for your input! On Mon, Feb 7, 2022 at 8:36 PM Cameron Crum <cc...@murcevilo.com> wrote: > > I second Brian's recommendations on QGIS and Manifold. If you want really powerful GIS functions, Manifold is the best system, hands down. I would never use Arc or MapInfo again after using manifold and I used to be a MapInfo trainer. Both QGIS and Manifold can link to external SQL DBs so you could probably build layers of customer point data with pop-up labels that contain customer info or create thematic maps based on certain values, etc, if you are looking for quick visuals. > > On Mon, Feb 7, 2022 at 6:31 PM Steve Jones <thatoneguyst...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> i use qgis and love it, its dolt friendly and will even render. albeit slowly on my laptop >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 7, 2022 at 5:58 PM Chuck McCown via AF <af@af.afmug.com> wrote: >>> >>> Are there samples/examples that will help me not have to learn too much? Like a map with data that I can splice in my map and data. I am a lazy man. >>> >>> From: Forrest Christian (List Account) >>> Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 4:54 PM >>> To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group >>> Cc: Chuck McCown >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] GIS >>> >>> I use qgis (open source). A bit of a learning curve but it's amazingly functional. >>> >>> There is also manifold which is dirt cheap as far as GIS is concerned. >>> >>> On Mon, Feb 7, 2022, 4:44 PM Chuck McCown via AF <af@af.afmug.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Anyone here use GIS? Thinking of a blend of a map and customer info. Too cheap for ESRI. Are there alternates? >>>> -- >>>> AF mailing list >>>> AF@af.afmug.com >>>> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >>> >>> -- >>> AF mailing list >>> AF@af.afmug.com >>> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
