Sunday, May 25, 2008

USGS Map Locator and Downloader

In the course of work on a new project, a few months ago I discovered that topozone.com is no longer the topozone we knew, but a shoddy paid alternative. This really made me mad! It was great as it was (and free), why change it (other than greed). I tried their free trial, and it sucks.

The work I am doing, and will be doing over the next few months, requires me to use maps and topozone had been a good source in the past. I have been searching for an alternative and found the USGS Map Locator and Downloader yesterday. While I can't just enter UTM's and find a point on a map, its better than nothing*. If anyone out there can suggest a free alternative, it would be appreciated**.

USGS is also offering the GeoPDF Toolbar. "The free GeoPDF Toolbar turns Adobe Reader into a powerful geospatial application that gives users the ability to view, manipulate and update mapping data while leveraging Adobe collaboration capabilities to share information with others in the field and at home base. Geospatial professionals create a map with their GIS and then use Map2PDF to export the data to a GeoPDF file. GeoPDF files can be easily distributed and then viewed and used by anyone with Reader and the GeoPDF Toolbar, a free small-footprint plug-in." Read more here, and download the toolbar here.

*oops, you can after all! My mistake.
** Bill Parker points out TopoQuest.com which is a FREE Topozone alternative. Check it out!