[OSGeo-Discuss] Is there an Open Source softwareapplicationthatwill draw a graticule on a map?

[Brent Fraser]

Dave,

  Good point.  My intent was to see if anyone else was
interested Topo map style output and to gather any
easily-transfered knowledge (and I got some great pointers,
thank you everone!) about the Open Source projects out
there.  The lack of graticule implementation is just a
curious hole in Open Source GUI GIS space, and it prevents
me from un-installing ArcView 3.1.  Sad, but not really a
problem.  I hope I didn't mislead anyone...

Implementers,

  Please don't fire up the debuggers on my account, but if
you've got some spare time and an interest in cartography,
you can download Canadian topo data from the Geogratis
site(http://geogratis.cgdi.gc.ca/),  Here are links to my
favorite topo, 082H04, Waterton Lakes, in a few formats:

Shape:
http://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/pub/canvec/50k_shp/082/h/canvec_082h04_shp.zip
GML:
http://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/pub/canvec/50k_gml/082/h/canvec_082h04_gml.zip
and the scanned paper, GeoTiff:
http://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/pub/canmatrix/50k_300dpi/082/h/canmatrix_082h04_tif.zip

And FYI, as Dave points out, it's not possible to exactly
replicate printed Topo map from the vectors (mostly due to
annotation?), but it's fun to try.  They even have rotation
angles as an attribute in the buildings point layer!

Thanks to all...
Brent Fraser
GeoAnalytic Inc.
Calgary, Alberta

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Patton" <davep at confluence.org>
To: "OSGeo Discussions" <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Is there an Open Source
softwareapplicationthatwill draw a graticule on a map?


> Brent Fraser wrote:
>
> >   So to focus my investigation I started the week with a
> > question: Using the Canadian federal government CanVec
> > topographic vectors, how close to creating a printed
> > National Topographic Map could I get using an Open
Source
> > GUI-based desktop GIS application?
> >
> >   The answers:
> >         From a programmer:    Pretty close. Look, the
> > contours are brown!
> >         From a cartographer:  Not close at all.  Where's
the
> > graticule?!
> >
> > (no offense meant to programmers or cartographers!)
>
> If you want to focus other people on your problem,
> why not point them to some free public data that
> illustrates the issues?
>
> Pick a Canadian NTS mapsheet, and give them the
> URIs to:
> - the CanMatrix product (a raster image made by
>    scanning the front of the paper Canadian topo maps)
> - the CanVec Canadian National Topographic Database
>    data that you want to use to produce 'the same' map
>
> P.S.
> You and I both know that the result of using that
> CanVec data won't exactly be the same as the CanMatrix
> product, but at least it will be a concrete example
> that people can use to 'get their hands dirty'.
> If people think they have a solution, they can even
> buy the actual paper map, and print their map made
> from the vector data, at the same size, and compare.
>
> -- 
> Dave Patton
>
> Degree Confluence Project:
> Canadian Coordinator
> Technical Coordinator
> http://www.confluence.org/
>
> FOSS4G2007:
> Workshop Committee
> Conference Committee
> http://www.foss4g2007.org/
>
> Personal website:
> Maps, GPS, etc.
> http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/
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