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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] I need software specific advice re. ArcView and GRASS |
| Date: |
03/21/2005 08:30:01 AM |
| From: |
Bill Thoen |
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On Sun, 20 Mar 2005, Paul E Condon wrote:
> I am interested in doing some map work on voting patterns in my county
> (Boulder, CO). The County uses ArcView and makes some maps of
> political boundaries available as 'shape' files. I do not have
> ArcView and have no money to purchase a license. But I do use Linux
> and have found some free software called GRASS. I have no experience
> or training in GIS. I expect a steep learning curve. My question: Is
> GRASS a realistic option for working on maps that come as 'shape'
> files? If so, where can I find help on the cross-platform issues that
> I think will arise? Or is the conversion of the files really trivial?
> Or is GRASS a really bad choise of software? Or ...?
Heheh... Here's the perfect example of product-specific questions that
DO belong on GISList! Bravo!
Anyway, did you have any luck with the GRASS documentation on v.in.ogr at
<http://grass.baylor.edu/grass60/manuals/html60_user/v.in.ogr.html>?
One of the very good things ESRI has done for the GIS community is to
create the shape file format and make it public. It's not perfect for
everyone's needs, but with ESRI's weight behind it and the fact that
it's an open format, the shape format is about as standard an interchange
format as there is. EVERY GIS package can support it, at least to the
extent that they can import it. I don't know if GRASS can export it too,
but if your end product needs to be a map, then you won't need that.
As an alternative, you might want to look at UMN MapServer (see
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/) MapServer is also open source, and it's big
feature is that it can produce maps via a web interface, but you can
certainly create maps on a single machine by setting up a local server.
MapServer can handle shape files and since it is considerably newer than
GRASS, I think it's got a better design. MapServer has a really good
mailing list too, and the community is pretty active.
- Bill Thoen
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