In Search of Mapping Program

[MG3610]

I am in search of two things...one is the cheap/budget friendly way, the other would take advantage of technology but requires a larger investment.

First is a mapping program that can be used to create printed out maps to file into 3-ring binder type map books (budget friendly method of mapping). I would have to be able to add address numbers and hydrants to these maps prior to print.

Second would be a laptop based mapping program that we could use that has hydrants and other features on it.

I have reached out to "Onscene Xplorer" for info. Are there any others out therte you guys are using and if so how do you like them?

Thanks ahead of time.

[Halligan84]

Been using on scene xplorer for a few years. Works well and easy to use. I like the building profile on the map and the ability to click and get the pre plan. If your area is growing rapidly you may have to update with some sattelite shots to keep your profiles up.

[Eng34FF]

It's very labor intensive, but I've been using power-point to make our maps. I get screen captures from our GIS or Google maps and then trace over them and add house numbers and hydrant locations. I'm also able to add distances for long drives.

Like I said, it's very labor intensive and there is probably better software for doing this, but I already had the software, so all that it's costing me is time.

[Pelican631]

Similar to Eng34FF, I use Microsoft Visio to draw our maps. When I created them the first time I grabbed aerial shots and then drew the roads over them so everything was to scale.

We're going to try using Google Earth in one of our trucks to see how that works for electronic mapping. We won't have internet access in the truck, so we're going to have to cache the images of our District ahead of time, which is fairly easy to do using Google Earth Voyager. In Google Earth I've created "layers" that we can turn on and off for addresses, water sources, etc. I'm also linking our preplan documents to the addresses so we can just click to open preplans for a given address. Not sure how it will work out, but we wanted to try something free before spending money on a commercial system.

Andy

[firebuff880]

You should check out the Depiction offering --
http://www.depiction.com/

And the Open Streets Project.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/

[markhorwich]

The Hydrant and PrePlanning module in Fire Station have mapping capabilities. Check out http://www.firestationsoftware.com for screenshots. It is very affordable.

[ffmedcbk1]

go to the county or city or who ever runs GIS in the area. they will likely run maps off for you and they can usually send it in a pfd. the addresses and building footprints can be put in or taken out. in a pdf you can then insert the GPS of hydrants or manually put them in too.

hope that helps and cuts down on the time.

i am doing some thing right now in conjunction with that as we gear up towards ISO grading. i am searching out our potential rural water sources, and mapping them, then i will be getting them approved to hopefully lower or grade out in the rural areas.

pm me or post here if you have q's