+JSWilson64 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 (edited) Long, long ago I took a GIS class in college. At that point I realized that I should have majored in Geography, but that's another thread. Anyway, I know it's pretty easy to do with some high-powered and high-priced software, to pick a set of points (geocache waypoints, e.g.) and throw an arbitrary radius around them (528 feet, e.g.) and then plot the areas that are outside those circles. Overlay with a public/private land designator, maybe even floodplain info, and you've got a map of areas you can start looking to place a cache, or maps of places you can't. Has anyone here done this? It's just the kind of geeky thing I'd probably get into. Might make it easier in densely-cached areas to place a new cache. Edited May 4, 2006 by SquirrelsWillRule Quote Link to comment
+Olar Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Most mapping software, including Garmin's Mapsource, will allow you to measure out in any direction from any point and create a waypoint. If you want to see a circle on the map some applications have a shape drawing feature. Draw a circle centred on a specific waypoint (cache) and sized to your radius. A quick and dirty way would be in Mapsource which allows you to create a track by freehand drawing. Draw a circle around the cache with a rough radius of 528 ft., save it as a track, download to your GPSr and head out to the actual location. Find a new cache hiding spot outside of the track displayed on your unit. When you've made your choice do a "find" on the cache close-by and verify you are outside the minimum distance. Allow yourself a 20 ft. margin of error just to be safe. Cheers, Olar Quote Link to comment
+JSWilson64 Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 Most mapping software, including Garmin's Mapsource, will allow you to measure out in any direction from any point and create a waypoint. If you want to see a circle on the map some applications have a shape drawing feature. Draw a circle centred on a specific waypoint (cache) and sized to your radius. A quick and dirty way would be in Mapsource which allows you to create a track by freehand drawing. Draw a circle around the cache with a rough radius of 528 ft., save it as a track, download to your GPSr and head out to the actual location. Find a new cache hiding spot outside of the track displayed on your unit. When you've made your choice do a "find" on the cache close-by and verify you are outside the minimum distance. Allow yourself a 20 ft. margin of error just to be safe. Cheers, Olar Thanks! That'd work for one or two caches, but would get old pretty quick. I'm looking more for a solution that would let me map all the "excluded" territory in a particular area. Quote Link to comment
+Night Stalker Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 When I get ready to hide a cache I create a custom pocket query listing all the cache in my area active or not. When I see a good spot I just look at the geocache page and see if I am far enough from the next closest cache. If course with that being said I forgot to do this on my last cache and found out afterward that it was 24 feet to close to an existing cache. As soon as the flood waters recede I will have to move it.\\ Quote Link to comment
+JSWilson64 Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 (edited) I've answered one of my questions. There's a free open-source GIS called GRASS, available at Baylor University's website. Check it out. If it's anything like the ESRI products I'm familiar with, the learning curve is pretty steep. Stay tuned for the other parts... -edit- Learning curve is even steeper than I thought, since it runs on Windows using Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/), some sort of Linux/Unix emulator or somesuch... Edited May 4, 2006 by SquirrelsWillRule Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.