Aerial Map Cutting for Large-Scale Terrain

[Claudio Branch]

I am looking for a piece of software that will allow me to cut aerial maps by entering geographically precise coordinates. The aerial cut then serves as a primary texture on my terrain model. I need the precision to handle large areas of terrain.

 

Anyone have any ideas or know anyone who does?

[colinsmith]

I had to cut up some UK DEM files a while back and did some hunting.

These looked useful to me, but I haven't used them for exactly what you need..... maybe a starting point anyhow.

Global Mapper

MicroDEM

 

I think you're more in the GIS/DEM world, and transfering info is not always the easiest... it might take some experimenting to find the easiest workflow.

The guy developing MicroDEM was very helpful to me though, and made an update specifically to deal with a new DEM format I was stuck with, so if it doesn't already do EXACTLY what you need, it's worth talking with him.

 

A friend of mine has been working with mapping aerial photos to digital maps, and trying to find software to remove lens/perspective distortions by geo-referencing known points..... he has had a lot of problems there too!

If you're going there.. I think it's going to be hard work.

[Claudio Branch]

Colin,

 

thanks for the info.

 

I appreciate your efforts. I am still learning about GIS and how to use it within large-scale terrains.

 

Claudio

[Hazdaz]

Doesn't Google offer something that you could use with it's Google Earth program? or is that not really usable?

[Claudio Branch]

Yes, but GoogleEarth doesn't seem to allow you to specify the map dimensions by geo-coordinates.

 

I could be wrong on that...

 

A package called GeoExpress will, but it requires more cost for the images since it uses SID files.

[Wilsonmetry]

Google Earth Has a Pro version $$$ that allows some other advanced stuff. Picking by lat/long might be included. Not sure.