[GRASSLIST:3718] Re: First time user - OSX - questions

[Ian MacMillan]

While GRASS seems scary at first, it is quite workable once you get 
over the initial hump of installing it.  Lorenzo Moretti has done a 
great job making mac installation easy.  I highly suggest going to his 
site here and downloading the two files you will need.  It is sometimes 
hard to log on to his ftp site (only 15 users at a time allowed), but 
it is worth the wait.

http://wwwamb.bologna.enea.it/forgrass/

One has all the libraries, the other has GRASS 5.3.  I have had really 
good luck with his packages so far.  5.3 is also a little more user 
friendly, check out the Display manager, it is like a layers palette 
(sort of) for Adobe Illustrator.

You might need to use the command line interface a little bit, but most 
of what you want to do should be possible via the GUI.  I have made 
tons of 3D maps on various macs (dual G4s, single G4s,  etc.) and it is 
very easy once you get the hang of it.  NVIZ is the program within 
GRASS that makes those maps, and it is very simple to use.

Good luck,
Ian



On Jun 18, 2004, at 11:21 AM, Steve Dorsey wrote:

> Hello
>
>   I am a GUI designer in San Jose, CA, and I am developing a DVD of 
> mountain bike trails
> which require maps. I have found a large collection of files at the 
> USGS archives which may
> come in handy for creation of 3D maps for illustrating some of my 
> trails.
>
>   I have a Dual 2GHz G5 which is running Mac OSX Panther 10.3.4 and 
> X11. I installed Grass
> GIS a while back and, after totally screwing up the settings, I 
> decided to uninstall it and re-
> install it to "start over". After following the uninstall directions, 
> I was left with an un-usable
> OS which would boot but not operate.
>
>   I re-installed the OS and now I'm scared to install Grass GIS. I'd 
> really like to take a look at
> it, but I'm worried that I may mess the settings up again and be left 
> with a useless Grass
> install - if not an OS that needs to me re-re-installed.
>
>   Questions:
>
> Do I need to me a "Unix guru" command-line junkie to use this app? How 
> much of the app is
> driven by the command line?
>
> My aim is to generate 3D maps. I think I remember seeing some 
> screenshots of 3D
> landscapes using Grass GIS. Is this possible, or should I look 
> elsewhere for this feature?
>
> Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance,
>
> --------------Steve
>
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