GIS software advice and importing from FreeHand

Hello!

Several years ago, a map of a city was created for publishing on paper.
It was created using Macromedia FreeHand, basically using squares for
city blocks, lines for streets, and so on. Now the project is to be
moved online, sort of a Google Maps service where one can find a
certain street on the map, enter To/From and be given directions, etc.
For this, I'm planning on migrating from a regular vector graphics
software (FreeHand) to a GIS, where streets are actually recognized as
streets and not just lines with labels over them.

Here come my questions:

First, what GIS software would you recommend for city mapping? The
finished product should enable us to do a Google Maps-like service,
where one can get directions, find nearby ATMs, hotels, and stuff like
that (I realize the web interface would be a different software).

Second, is there a way of importing the maps from FreeHand? I'm sure
that things like street names, numbering, etc. would be lost, but at
least importing the basic street layout, lakes, etc. would save tons of
work.

Any advice is appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Diego

Diego,

correo@ironcito.com wrote:

One with a web interface: there are several, but not all GIS support web
mapping. There are open source tools through to commercial packages,
such as ESRI's ArcIMS. If this is a city project, or on behalf of the
city, it might be useful to discover what their corporate GIS package is
... it may be that their existing license will cover your requirements.

This is where things get more difficult. You have said above that the
Freehand diagram is a geometric, rather than geographic, representation
- it sounds closer to what GIS people might call a 'cartogram'. The GIS
will give you the opportunity to tell a user how far they have to go, as
well as directions: this can be very helpful. As a result, a GIS
solution would work best if it had 'proper' georgaphic, or map, data,
rather than a cartogram for its base data. You give no indication for
where this project is to be delivered - in the US, for example, such
base data is often in the public domain, whilst in most of Europe it is
a charged for product. This may affect the extent to which you can use
it for your solution, but should not be insuperable. Again, your city
authority is likely to have the data required in a suitable form
already, for its coprorate GIS: if you can tap into this, there may be
considerable mutual benefits.

Something we have done here, for a public participation project, was to
overlay map data onto a satellite image or aerial photograph: this gave
people unused to maps and plans an instant recognition of the overall
context - for example, they are very familiar with the cathedral in the
centre of town, seeing a recognisable image helped many to 'get their
bearings' on the display. There are a lot of people who cannot 'read' maps.

Best wishes,

Peter
(University of York)

Hello Peter!

Thank you very much for your reply.



Right now I'm focusing on finding the "editor" part of the software,
which I assume will most likely not be the same software/brand as the
web interface. I think the safest choice would be to choose the most
open map format possible, so as to be able to switch the editor/
interface software in the future if a better one comes along. Are
there any standards for GIS data, or does each software have its own
incompatible format?
As for the city, I doubt they have any GIS software... or any mapping
at all, for that matter. This is a commercial project, and any help
the city could provide was already explored when these maps were
originally made.



You're right, that's why we are going ahead with the conversion. Right
now we have a drawing that looks like a map. The computer doesn't
recognize streets or anything, it's just lines, squares, and so on. We
want to switch to a proper mapping software so as to enable us to give
directions and all those kinds of services normally found in online
maps. The project is here in Argentina, and there are no sources of
data comparable to what we already have. I've checked with several map
data providers and I've checked "competing" online maps services. Only
one of them has any data available for this city, and it is very
limited.



It is a good advice. However, those kinds of things we will think
about when we get to creating the user interface. Right now we need to
find an editor and probably spend months re-creating the maps. What
I'm trying to find out is which software/format is best, and if we can
import at least the basic data for the maps from the FreeHand
"drawings".




I hope I'm explaining what I need clearly. I'm new to mapping software
so I don't know how things work. Thanks again :-)

Diego