needed: map with boundaries and points

I need to produce a map of our County which shows municipal boundaries
and with several hundred points mapped onto it. As is usually the
case, there is no budget associated with this request. I have been
investigating various data sources and open source GIS apps (notably
QGIS)... but frankly I have not been able to bring it all together...
there are so many file types and proprietary solutions.

Would someone help me identify the 'full set' of what's needed? That
is, the proper file types or components and a (free) tool that will
display them. I believe I can figure out how to produce a CSV file of
the locations I need to map, which I gather will need to be converted
from street addresses to lat/long pairs. But what, where, and how to
find the map image itself, and an overlay for municipal boundaries,
and match them... I'd very much appresiate some guidance. Thanks in
advance. --Gary

On Wed, 7 May 2008 07:17:49 -0700 (PDT), gwhit918@gmail.com wrote:


I'm afraid you may be out of luck with free data for municipal
boundaries. These data are copyright the Ordnance Survey, and are not
normally free. You may be able to get your local authority to let you
have the data, if you have a relationship with them, but otherwise you
probably need to pay.

Shapefiles are the most common way of getting data in to pretty much
any GIS; YMMV depending on what solution you choose.

One way forward that you might like to consider would be to use
GoogleEarth, which comes with most of the data you need. It is pretty
straightforward to convert your CSV data into a KML file; you could do
it manually or with a script in your editor probably. KML is pretty
straightforward.

Paul
------------ And now a word from our sponsor ------------------
Do your users want the best web-email gateway? Don't let your
customers drift off to free webmail services install your own
web gateway!
-- See http://netwinsite.com/sponsor/sponsor_webmail.htm ----

Thanks, Paul... I did start out with Google Earth; I'll give it
another go. -_Gary

gwhit918@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Gary,
Google should be your friend! ... there are lots of map layers available
online!
From your IP address, it seems your are in NY, Greene County. Have a
look here:
http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/gisdata/inventories/results.cfm?SWIS=19&sectorIDs=&themeIDs=1
especially entry #11
Download the shapefile
(https://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/secured/coop/fileserver/?DSID=927&file=civil_boundaries_shp.zip
)

Then open this file in QGis (or else), and voila!
The freeware "GVsig" might be easier to use...
http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=1731&L=2

To geocode your points, read your GIS manual:
for QGis:
http://gisalaska.com/qgis/doc/user_guide_en.pdf p105, section 11.4
for GVsig:
http://www.gvsig.gva.es/fileadmin/conselleria/images/Documentacion/descargas/manuales/gvSIG-1_1-man-v1-en.pdf
p100, section 5.8.1

You could also use http://ofb.net/%7Eegnor/google.html to extract the
coordinates from your street address.


Now, the beauty of a GIS (versus an image editor) is that your data is
georeferenced. It means that each point or polygons has coordinates in
it, which allows the program and the user to locate the dataset on the
globe. You can also display several layers of data, one on top of each
other. So, in your case, you would display the boundary, then overlay
your point data (and any other layer such as the road network etc), and
this will automagically create a map for you, with each item loacated at
the correct place!

Hope this help!
Jean

wrote:

IS=3D19...
.
x.php?id=3D1731&L=3D2
1.4
on/de...

Thanks SO much, Jean... That was precisely the sort of simple,
complete direction I needed. I've gotten the boundary shapefiles that
you pointed to (I do have access to that nygis data sharing coop) and
loaded them in QGIS just as you suggested. gvSIG is downloading as I
write this (and they have a native mac version!). It's Columbia
County, by the way.

I'm still a ways from any deliverable, but I'm not quite as *stuck* as
I was--and that is a breath of fresh air! Still to figure out: how to
get the layers to lay on top of one another--to be visible, so to
speak, rather than only the 'top' one. For instance, the town/city
boundaries on top of the County boundary on top of the county map
raster (with my points, once I get them in a shape file, on top of it
all)

That's all for tonight... thanks again! --Gary