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About geographical mapping software



Dear colleagues,

Some weeks ago I inquired on several list servers about graphical 
mapping software for PowerMacintoshs to plot and print worldwide 
geographical data.

The question was:
I am seeking for a graphical program which allows to plot and print 
worldwide geographical data (Latitude/Longitude, and an 
associated numerical value) on a Macintosh. The program should be 
capable of various projection types, an should run on one of the 
newer PowerPC Macs (Model 8500 or newer). It should have an 
ascii-type of interface for easy data exchange and entry.

Can anyone recommend me a program package, that is not too much 
expensive ? Is there eventually public software available, which 
can be downloaded from the web or from an ftp site ?


I obtained quite a number of replies, for which I wish to thank 
everybody. Since several persons were interested in the replies 
too, I place them back to this list.


Michael Knappertsbusch
Geology Department
Natural History Museum Basel
Augustinergasse 2
4001 Basel, Switzerland

Tel. No.: +41-61-266 55 64
Fax No.: +41-61-266 55 46
Email: Knappertsbus@ubaclu.unibas.ch

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Here they are:
Atlas 2 from WTC Scientific, 152 Buxton Road, Macclesfield, 
Cheshire SK10 1NG, U.K. (this is an old address; I don't know 
whether it is still correct).

Atlas 2 works only perfectly on PowerMacintoshes if a soft 
floating point emulator is installed. FPE are shareware and 
available from computer dealers. Software FPU from John Neil & 
Associates, P.O. Box 2156, Cupertino, Ca 95015, USA will do the 
job.


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From: Nelson Sherry <nsherry@unixg.ubc.ca>
I don't know of one for the Mac, but there is one that appears to fit 
your bill quite nicely for the PC and the gentleman (a helpful guy) 
that wrote the thing may well be able to help you find one for the 
Mac.  The program is widely available in the public domain and is 
called versamap or vmap.  It's quite flexible and reads in most 
standard ascii map file types.  A keyword search on the internet 
should turn up plenty of sources for this.

If you're really interested in what I just said and you strike out 
getting ahold of the guy, send me an email and I'll try to find my 
well barried correspondences with the guy.

Good luck,
Nelson

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From: Norman A Andresen <andresen@umich.edu>
Look at the program RangeMapper.
source:
Tundra Vole Software
Kenelm W. Philip
1590 North Becker Ridge Road
Fairbanks Alaska 99709-2705
e-mail    tvole@imagi,net
cost $459+shipping.
We have seen a demonstrtion of the program and it looks good.  It is 
being uesd in the UM museum and they like it.

Norman Andresen                           E-Mail: andresen@umich.edu
Center for Great Lakes & Aquatic Sciences CompuServe: 
70721,2564
University of Michigan
2200 Bonisteel Blvd.                      Telephone: 313-647-2734
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2099                  FAX:       313-647-2748


*****************************************************

From: KSchlei354@aol.com
I'm interested in getting good maps off the net.  From paleonet I 
heard:
>As a last resort, there's always the Xerox PARC Map viewer at:
>http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com:80/map but this is only for recent 
Earth maps

I've found http://www.mapquest.com to have more detailed maps 
and faster
response.

Does anyone know of sites that have geological or topo maps or 
areal photos?
Karl Schleicher
kschlei354@aol.com

*****************************************************

From: William Riedel 619-534-4386 <wriedel@ucsd.edu>

Hi, Michael:
I now notice that some of the replies I received on this topic
, so I copy them below.

                                        Bill R.


Dear Dr. Riedel,
may be you remember that, during your visit at the Alfred Wegener 
Institute last year, we gave you a short introduction of our 
information system for sediments called SEPAN (Sediment and 
Paleoclimate Data Network). There is a tool belonging to this 
system, called MacMap. It is designed to plot maps with
core locations together with the core label or even analytical data 
or what ever you want. The software is called by SEPAN after 
retrieval but also runs stand alone. You will find MacMap on our 
ftp-server (ftp.awi-bremerhaven.de; in the directory 
/pup/geo/sepan/macintosh/macmap). For the first it runs under
MacOS, a version for Win95 will soon be available. Sorry to say, but 
there is no manual right now. I am still writing on that. MacMap 
uses GEBCO-data to plot depth contours, the GEBCO-data you will 
find together with MacMap but only in three lower resolutions. The 
100% resolution is about 60MB. Hopefully MacMap is mostly self 
explaining. If you find it usefull, we can send you the GEBCO 100% 
resolution on CD. Also SEPAN will soon be available on CD to be
used as a stand alone version without analytical data but including 
all the famous Lamont-cores...
You should also try PolyPlot, which you may also find on our ftp-
site. It is a nice and simple plotting tool just to plot parameter 
verus depth or time, also designed as an appended tool to our 
information system. With my very best regards
Hannes Grobe


Dr. Hannes Grobe
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
27515 Bremerhaven
Germany
Fon: ++49 471 4831 229
Fax: ++49 471 4831 149
grobe@awi-bremerhaven.de

----------------------------------------

Hello,
there is a map plotting software developped by Hannes Grobe, M. 
Diepenbrook and colleagues at AWI which is called "Macmap". You 
might want to inquire with Grobe (grobe@awi-bremerhaven.de) to 
receive a recent version. Another tool that I found particularly 
useful and smart is "Online Map Creation" by Martin Weinelt at 
Geomar (http://www.geomar.de/personal/mwein/omc_intro.html). 
It is perhaps not as detailed as MacMap, but fast and platform-
independent. Good luck.


 THOMAS PLETSCH
 Geologisch-Palaeontologisches Institut
 Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel
 Olshausenstr. 40-60
 D-24118 Kiel, FR Germany
 Phone: +49-431-880-2938
 Fax:   +49-431-880-4376
 email: tp@zaphod.gpi.uni-kiel.de

----------------------------------------------

Bill - The mapping software is at GEOMAR, linked to the ODSN, but 
it only plots geographic boundaries currently, not point/locations 
on the map. The URL is 
http://www.geomar.de/personal/mwein/omc_intro.html
I think they were working on adding data plotting.  Carla

From: bill@geomar.de (W.W. Hay)

Dear Bill,

Try this more complete address

http://www.aquarius.geomar.de/omc/omc_intro.html

Bill Hay

---------------------------------------

W. Riedel
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
UCSD
La Jolla, CA 92093-0220

wriedel@ucsd.edu
phone (619) 534-4386
fax   (619) 534-0784

*****************************************************


From: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (N. MacLeod)

There are two programs of which I am aware that should be able to 
do what you require elegantly and one somewhat klugey 
workaround. The first is a program by Malcom Ross' call the 
"Paleogeographic Information System" or PGIS. This is an update of 
the old Terra Mobilis program that includes lots of useful features 
lacking in the older version, one of which is the ability to submit a 
file of coordinate points and get the program to plot these on the 
appropriate paleogeographic reconstruction. The last I knew Ross 
was working at Rice University so you might check their web page 
for his e-mail.

[Note to Malcom: If you're still supporting the program and/or have
information you'd like to provide to the paleo. community about it 
I'd be happy to make that info. available on the PaleoNet Pages. Let 
me know].

The second atlas program with good plotting capability is the 
Electronic Arts 3D Atlas. This is a home-market interactive atlas 
that does lots of things professional and advanced student 
paleontologists won't be interested in. But it also does a few 
things they will be interested in, including being able to accurately 
plot points on a nice-looking color map of the physical Earth. The 
maps even have a limited zoom capability so that you can get maps 
of your field area in regional detail.

3D Atlas also does paleogeographic reconstructions, but I don't 
think the coordinate plotting function works in that part of the 
program. I'd like to know more about the reconstructions that the 
3D Atlas uses, but unfortunately they don't provide much 
documentation in their manual...other than to say that the 
paleogeographic map part of the program was done in
collaboration with University College London. If anyone over at UCL 
can find out any information about the data that was used for these
reconstructions, please post it.

My copy of the 3D Atlas came bundled with a new Mac I bought a 
year or so ago. They probably have a web page.

As a last resort, there's always the Xerox PARC Map viewer at:
http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com:80/map but this is only for recent 
Earth maps

Norm MacLeod

*****************************************************


From: "Dr. Michael S. Stekoll 907-465-6279" 
<jfmss@acad1.alaska.edu>

With respect to mapping programs.
The best I have found on the internet is at this address:
http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map. There also exists a program for 
PC's called MAPIT which has resolution to about 0.5 to 1 km.
I do not know if the program has been written for Mac's.  If you 
want I can find the contact address for the MAPIT program.  
I would be interested if you find something with higher resolution.

-Mike Stekoll
JCSFOS, U of Alaska
11120 Glacier Hwy
Juneau, AK  99801 USA
JFMSS@ACAD1.ALASKA.EDU
Phone:	(907)-465-6279
Fax:	(907) 465-6447


*****************************************************


From: Annette Olson <olsonam@u.washington.edu>

Have you checked out Map-II?  I understand that it's a raster-based
shareware package.  I don't where to get it, but  a web-search 
should turn
up an ftp site.

Annette

Annette M. Olson, Asst. Prof.
School of Marine Affairs, Box 355685     Voice:  (206) 685-2499
University of Washington                   FAX:  (206) 543-1417
3707 Brooklyn Avenue N.E.               E-mail:  
olsonam@u.washington.edu
Seattle, WA  98105-6715


*****************************************************

From: C.Maggs@Queens-Belfast.AC.UK

You have probably received this from elsewhere by now.  Software 
is available
from Tundra Vole Software
tvole@imagi.net

*****************************************************

From: Rakesh_Mithal@odp.tamu.edu
The website for online map creation is:

    http://www.aquarius.geomar.de/omc/

It was developed by Martin Weinelt at GEOMAR.  He uses GMT 
software written by
Paul Wessel at Hawaii Inst. of Geophysics.  Warner Brckmann had 
informed me
about this website.

Rakesh.

*****************************************************

From: Patrizia Ziveri <zivp@geo.vu.nl>

Dear Michael, 
I have seen your message on the coccolithserver regarding 
geographical
program which allows to plot and print worldwide geographical 
data
(Latitude/Longitude, and an associated numerical value). I am 
working with
PC and I know that Lotus Map(Lotus123R5 1994) links data in your 
worksheet
to graphical	
representations of that data. Just as you would create a bar	
chart to illustrate a range of worksheet values, you can create	
a map that links data in a range to recognizable geographic	
regions such as states or countries. Probably the program is 
available also
for Mac.
Best Regards Patrizia
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Patrizia Ziveri
Geomarine Center
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
de Boelelaan, 1085
1081HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel. +31 20 4447325
fax  +31 20 6462457

*****************************************************


From: nstn3073@fox.nstn.ca (Michael S Henry)

Try going to :
http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map

It is a mapping program on the web that is fairly goos but not the 
best. Not bad for free!!

Michael Henry
Petite Riviere, Nova Scotia,
Canada


*****************************************************

From: wbrueckmann@geomar.de (Warner Brueckmann)

the web site you were thinking of is located at

http://www.aquarius.geomar.de/omc/

It was developed in our department at GEOMAR.
You may create maps interactively at this site.
Fill out the form, submit your entries and a page
with the desired map will be returned to your browser.
The maps are actually created by the "Generic Mapping
Tools" (GMT). This means that a PostScript* version is
drawn first which may be downloaded to your machine after
completion.
You can specify map boundaries, projection, and have
topographic information, bathymetry, DSDP and ODP sites
and plate tectonic features included in your map.

Check it out - it is really simple. We have more than 500
people using the site each day over the internet.

cheers
Warner


 ----------------------------------------------
    Warner Brueckmann (wbrueckmann@geomar.de)
      +49 (431) 600-2313 (tel) -2941 (fax)
 ----------------------------------------------
  if you dont get a response within a day or so
   send email to: W.Brueckmann@kiel.netsurf.de
 ----------------------------------------------

*****************************************************

From: j.young@nhm.ac.uk (Jeremy Young)

I think this may be soluble - information courtesy of Neale Monks 
(NHM), the EvangeList mailing list (evangelist@macway.com), and 
Kenelm W. Philip (Vole Software).....

Here's another Mac only application. It's a specialized application 
for museum biologists (and other scientists) who want to make 
species distribution maps, or any maps showing the location of 
field sites, etc.

RangeMapper 2.3 is a Macintosh program for species distribution 
mapping and similar tasks. It can plot maps in 7 projections, using
low-resolution mapping data files for the world, and higher-res 
files for North America (including Central America). Higher-res 
add-on mapping files are available for some areas outside North 
America (including Australia/New Zealand). Text files of 
latitude/longitude data may then be plotted to those maps as dots, 
lines, or 3-D bars whose heights are controlled by a third variable. 
RangeMapper is currently in use in 20 U.S. states, and 11 countries. 
In contrast to some other desktop mapping software, RangeMapper 
is fast, simple, and easy to use.

For more information, contact Tundra Vole Software 
<tvole@polarnet.com>. This is a one-man outfit--please do not 
inquire unless you have a serious interest in such a program, so the 
mailbox does not choke!

Dr. Jeremy R. Young           Tel: +44 (0)171 938 8996
Palaeontology Dept.           Fax: +44 (0)171 938 9277
The Natural History Museum    INTERNET: j.young@nhm.ac.uk
LONDON, SW7 5BD, UK           E-Mail Program used: Eudora

*****************************************************


From: echarter@vianet.on.ca

>GO TO MY WEBSITE..CLICK ON "GEOLOGY AND MINING LINKS" THEN 
SCROLL DOWN TO "FREE SOFTWARE AND DATA ON GEOLOGY AND 
GEOPHYSICS" THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING
THERE.. AND LEAVE A QUARTER BY THE WINDOW SILL..


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truth"
                     
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