View topic - Free Online Topographic Map Viewer

This thread stems from a previous thread concerning the Missing Canadian topographic Layer on the popular tool http://mapper.acme.com It seems that the owner of acme mapper has switched Map data providers to a source that does not provide Canadian data.

Over the Christmas holidays I have been searching for an alternate tool. A tool that is easy to use and requires no GIS expertise, fast to navigate or browse, searchable and offers the ability to create, edit and share maps with others.

I think I have found a very good source in the ArcGIS World Topographic Map. Source Maps or views can be topographic, terrain relief, Satellite view, road map, bathyometric etc... Canadian Data is provided by NRCanada among others down to a scale of 1:4000. You can create custom maps to include an almost unlimited amount of data. Campsites, portages, travel distances, GPS tracks etc. and this information is shareable.

This link provides more information on the tool

http://www.arcgisonline.com/home/item.h ... 828351ef0e

This service is also the default basemap used in the ArcGIS.com map viewer and ArcGIS Explorer Online. So you can also click one of those links to start viewing the World Topographic Map service now.

Does anyone else have a new or differnt on-line map tool that they find useful.

I can view the maps and save them as an HTML, but not an editable JPG, TIFF, BMAP etc.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

To take advantage of those maps, you'll have to take your iPad and satellite phone with you on the trip. Bummer isn't it?!

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“What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?” - Thoreau

Technology doesn't seem to make anything easy does it?

Here is some more Internet Mapping Gobbledygook. You can create a Canadian Toporama Map as a jpg and print it at any size, with route, way points and scale using this utility:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=jpg

In order for it to create the map image, you need GPS data to put into the tool. What if you don't have or use a GPS? I don't. There are a variety of sites/tools that let you create GPS data. The one most Non GPSers already use is Google Earth. Create a track in Google Earth and save it as a KMl or KMZ file. Or create a track using GPS Visualizers own drawing tool http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/draw/ and save it as a GPX or KML file. GPS Visualizers is handy because it has the newer Toporama data as one of its layers.

Then import the data into the jpg maps tool (linked first above) choose all you options and create your JPG.