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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | Re: GISList: Information for a real neophyte |
| Date: |
08/27/2002 05:22:43 PM |
| From: |
Robert Heitzman |
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>I have been reading everything that has come to our
>list for a long time. I am very new to GIS and
>would like to purchase some software that would
>enable me to "get my feet wet" with GIS and be able
>to learn something as I go. Possibly to start being
>able to locate with Lat/Long and add information to
>maps that I might be able to produce.
I searched about and got most of the demos from the GIS vendors a ways back
and I wound up with Manifold 4.5. It has since evolved into Manifold 5 and
it is now a very full featured GIS at a reasonable price - $245 (with a 30
day return if you just want to try it out). There are several good reasons
to go with Manifold Enterprise at $375 (I think) but the standard version
would be fine for your case.
I have access to ArcView 3.2 at work and have evaluated ArcGIS and I would
definitely still recommend Manifold 5.
ESRI's ArcXXXX is obviously the leader in the industry, and if you were just
starting from college picking up ArcXXX skills (it is a very difficult
product to use IMO but has few peers if your needs are complex enough) would
be a good idea. But if you are just into learning fundamental GIS Manifold
is the way to go.
There are some ESRI classes that include a version of ArcXXX (probably
ArcGIS but it could be ArcView) at a steep discount. I'm not sure of its
long term capabilities.
If you don't have trouble dealing with software that goes its own way as to
interface and program design you may want to check out the freeware
MicroDEM. MicroDEM supports most of the GIS concepts although I wouldn't
really consider it to be a GIS. It began its life providing mapping support
to the military.
You can learn a lot and make some very nice maps using MicroDEM. It has
some very nice 3D terrain fly through support these days that from most
vendors would cost you thousands of dollars (Manifold has some of the same
features). MicroDEM is designed around the free USGS and Census data so that
is a plus as well.
Manifold and MicroDEM have pretty friendly user groups. ESRI has its own
newsgroup where you may be able to get some answers. Do a google.com search
for Manifold-L for their discussion list and after you install MicroDEM (why
not) you can reach their group via the Help menu.
I hope you have a fast Internet connection as your GIS experience will be
very limited if you can't go out onto the net and take advantage of all the
free data out there.
I can't speak to the other dozen or so GIS packages out there. Most are
likely out of your budget range anyway.
BTW If they don't list there prices on the web you can pretty much be
assured they are too expensive.
>I would be using Professional XP with a Pentium III
>and 526 megs of RAM. I've researched ESRI, and many
>of the others being discussed in the past few days.
>I'm really confused now and I would like to get the
>best "Bang For The Buck". This will be my own money
>and not a company's.
>
>I'm about to retire and GPS is something I really
>want to do. ( I think )
I assume you meant GIS, although the two can be used together in many cases.
GPS is a fun hobby too!
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