Any free map making suggestions?

Flo1919

Member
I'm looking to print some aerial maps that I can mark up. I've tried Bing and Google but, they're not very good. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
The "Google-My Map" app/ program is exactly what you are looking for. This is a different program than Google maps, it is very simple, but very customizable. Satellite view, I have all our property lines on one layer, buck kills on another layer, doe kills on another layer, treestand on another layer etc. You can open on your smartphone or pc, but you can only change icons and line colors on pc. Download the app on smartphone and you can enter data offsite or enter pins on exact location if you have service.
 
Huntstand and several others do the same thing, just about the identical program. Huntstands disadvantages are more complicated and a lot of ads, their advantage is some adjacent property lines and owners names.
 
I would highly suggest Google Earth Pro. It’s free and has very high quality aerials with topo layer you can plug in for free.
 
Yes. I tried My Maps, but it won't install on a Mac and I do not have anything to do with Android.
If you're talking PC's then you can just screen shot a topo (save it in paint) and insert the layer into GEP. You will likely have to shrink it to size and move it around but you can pretty much tell where things go using roads, rivers, fields, etc. to line it all up.

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I would highly suggest Google Earth Pro. It’s free and has very high quality aerials with topo layer you can plug in for free.
I have this but where do you access the topo you speak of.? Looked last night and couldn't find that. Also very accurate on measuring food plots and such.
 
I have this but where do you access the topo you speak of.? Looked last night and couldn't find that. Also very accurate on measuring food plots and such.
Dogghr...see my comments above. The button is called "insert overlay" and looks like this...
google earth overlay.JPG
 
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Here is what it will look like once you have everything lined up. You can make it more or less opaque if you want see more of the satellite imagery features.
google earth overlay 2.JPG
 
I use an active layer in Google Earth. You literally just check/uncheck it to turn the topo layer on/off. Please see attached for the .kmz file (in a zip file). Just download it to your computer/extract and open the kmz in in Google Earth then drag it to 'My Places'. Check it if you want to see topo lines, uncheck it if you don't. You can also play with the transparency of the layer if you want to see the aerial with it.
 

Attachments

  • Topo Overlay.zip
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Here are two examples. One with the layer on and one with the layer off. There's quite a bit going on underneath those trees :).

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To the OP...I keep saying layers, which really isn't accurate. I have them organized in folders. This allows me to quickly hide things I'm not interested in seeing at the moment (past season scouting for example). I can simply uncheck the folder.

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You mentioned the need to mark them up and I assume you are trying to get some ideas down. To do this, I create a folder and do all my markups in Google Earth. You can quickly copy/delete/move/save everything. You could also project it on a whiteboard (or some other surface you can write on) if you'd rather do that. Taking a screenshot and printing it is also an option.
 
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