Map-Making Program

[Roadsguy]

I think I heard of a Google Maps feature that lets you make your own version of the map. Is this real?

If not, is there any other easy way to make a map, or am I stuck with click-'n-dragging to make lines in Paint.NET (or any other picture editor)?

[NYYPhil777]

I don't think you can do that on Google Maps... but you can make corrections to the routes.
MS Paint isn't the only way you can make maps, I've seen people use CAD to make maps.
Check out "Road-Related Illustrations."

[triplemultiplex]

If you can get your hands on Adobe Illustrator or some other vector-based graphics program, that's about the best thing in the world for making your own maps.  The ability to make nice smooth curves can't be overstated.  It's what I use in all my fictional maps that I occasionally post and those look pretty damn good, I'm told.

[NE2]

If you can figure out how to use Mapnik or Maperitive, you can make your own .osm file and render it.

[Scott5114]

If you really want to get into mapmaking, you could get into GIS (Geographic Information Systems). QGIS is fairly easy to use and free. But beware that it's much more complex than just doodling lines on a map...they have to mean something for GIS to take them. (On the upside if you start playing with GIS now by the time you're through college you will be ready for a career in cartography. Lots of places need a GIS tech; not just consumer map companies and DOTs, but tons of places like local governments, contractors, oil concerns...)

But if you're not wanting something quite so serious Inkscape/Illustrator (Inkscape is free, Illustrator is not) would probably be the best option, and can be used to draw great drawings of road signs to boot.

[NYYPhil777]

If you can get your hands on Adobe Illustrator or some other vector-based graphics program, that's about the best thing in the world for making your own maps.  The ability to make nice smooth curves can't be overstated.  It's what I use in all my fictional maps that I occasionally post and those look pretty damn good, I'm told.

If your illustrations look pretty d**n good, I'll have to see it to believe it.

[tdindy88]

The only thing I don't like about GIS is that you can't make fictional maps on them...I believe. To make a map on GIS you need data, and that data has to be real. I say this only because I like to draw maps of fictional cities and I have found Illustrator (Inkscape works as well) better for that task. I took a cartography class in college and we used Illustrator for that to create all our maps, real ones for the class, but I do the fictional on the side.

[Scott5114]

You can create fictional data in GIS. Each point just has to have a real-world set of coordinates associated with it. If you really wanted to you could start drawing a fake town with the intersection of Main and Broadway at 0°W 0°S (or however it is you handle the directions of that specific point) and build everything out from there. Of course in real life that would correspond with a point in the Atlantic Ocean, but as long as you didn't import a shoreline or ocean layer into the project GIS wouldn't know or care.

[Alex]

The only thing I don't like about GIS is that you can't make fictional maps on them...I believe. To make a map on GIS you need data, and that data has to be real. I say this only because I like to draw maps of fictional cities and I have found Illustrator (Inkscape works as well) better for that task. I took a cartography class in college and we used Illustrator for that to create all our maps, real ones for the class, but I do the fictional on the side.

GIS is capable of fictional maps, but it requires adding to or manipulating an existing shapefile or creating a shapefile with an existing map or geodatabase. Annotation, cartographic styling, etc. can be done within ArcGIS.

You also have a number of export options, which you can open with another graphical program if you want to size it down for display, etc. In about 15 minutes, I added a fictional I-610 toll road to my Gulf Coast Roads geodatabase with Arc and exported it as a .PNG, sizing it down with Photoshop for display here. All of the annotation was preset from the map I made for the main site and for the I-610 toll road, I left the labeling on my freeways shapefile to "on", which is why there is just the one shield. The second I-110 shield is a result of having that label field on as well.

[tdindy88]

Fair enough about the GIS and fictional maps. My experience with GIS has only been with real world data so I was a bit too hasty to say that you couldn't do fictional maps. I guess just making one on Illustrator is quicker than having to manipulate shapefiles or geodatabases.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I think I heard of a Google Maps feature that lets you make your own version of the map. Is this real?

Google Map Maker is actually for editing the actual map for corrections and details.

If you create an application that uses the API (need to have some basic knowledge of web development), you can change the colours used to render the map, but that's about it.

[Truvelo]

If not, is there any other easy way to make a map, or am I stuck with click-'n-dragging to make lines in Paint.NET (or any other picture editor)?

If you can get your hands on Adobe Illustrator or some other vector-based graphics program, that's about the best thing in the world for making your own maps.  The ability to make nice smooth curves can't be overstated.  It's what I use in all my fictional maps that I occasionally post and those look pretty damn good, I'm told.

I use MS Paint which produces nice smooth curves if you know what to do. The most important thing is to make it much bigger than the intended size to allow for downsampling. Downsizing is what makes curves smooth.

[Roadsguy]

It really would be nice to have a feature for Google users to take the map data and add their own roads and whatnot, though the roadgeek (and general map designing) population is probably too small.

[Dr Frankenstein]

OpenStreetMap allows you to download the data and run your own server (and customize your data at will), but we're talking about multi-gigabyte files and high system requirements. Plus the IT knowledge that's required to pull that off.

[vdeane]

Yeah, I looked at those two programs NE2 posted, but decided against trying them because the existing OSM data is 21 GB!  Even if I were to download it, I'd either have to have it on my external drive or save it as root since my /home partition doesn't have the space for that much data (and is nearly full in and of itself).

[NE2]

I thought we were talking about fictional maps here, not actual OSM data.

Incidentally, there are multiple ways of downloading small pieces of the data. For example http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API lets you download only motorways or railways in an area. Of course it's still rather borked after the 'redaction'.

[vdeane]

Depends on what you want I guess.  Fully fictional or adding fictional routes to the real world?

[webfil]

The «My Places» button of Google Maps lets you a relative freedom for personal mapmaking.

You can even import KML, KMZ and GeoRSS files.

[Roadsguy]

Like what? I saw some people with pictures with colored lines scribbled over the map. Is that it?

I generally want something that lets you add onto the real world. Like, say, finishing I-95 the right way.

[webfil]

Try and explore it, buddy.

It costs nothing, only time. But time is not a matter when roadgeeking, right?

If this is the kind of think you are looking to build with Google Maps, go ahead, it's still the easy option.

A free alternative to ArcGIS and PitneyBowes is qGIS. It is more elementary, much more intuitive.

You can add shapefiles you found here under the "State-wide data" topic, then overlay with your own creations.

[kphoger]

If this is the kind of think you are looking to build with Google Maps, go ahead, it's still the easy option.

I've used this feature to compare Google Maps distances with the sum of my own straight-line measurements.  It was especially handy back when I was measuring roads that weren't part of the Get Directions feature (foreign countries).

[vtk]

I took the time once to set up Mapnik at home to render a custom map of my Interstate 171 proposal.  I suppose I could offer rendering services to other roadgeeks who send me .osm files.  (Single-scale maps only; I don't have the time to render a million tiles and put together a working OpenLayers instance for every render request!)

If/when I offer such a service, I'll post a thread for people to make requests.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I should give "My Places" another try and see if it's as buggy as it was the last time I tried it.

I'll definitely look into QGIS too.

[Roadsguy]

Would it be possible to download only sections of the OSM map data? Like the PA area? If the whole thing is 21 gigs, then this must be nothing.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I can't access it from work, but try this: http://download.geofabrik.de/osm/