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Subject:Using Google Satellite View 

ChrisM

12:05
Thursday
3-Jul-2008

Location:
Bedfordshire, UK

Phone Model:
Sony Ericsson W770i, Blackberry Playbook(?)

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been asked/answered, but if it has I can't find it...
If I use something like MapCapt to save a chunk of GoogleMaps satellite view, then use TMJ MapOrganiser to set the lat/long of the corners, will that work accurately, that is, am I likely to encounter any serious inaccuracies due to projection differences?

BTW, I understand why you can't issue a version of 'MapOrganiser' that will work with GoogleMaps, but would it be possible to issue a version that could be easily 'configured' by the end user so that they could choose/setup their choice of tileserver?? :-))

Regards,

Chris.
 

Stephen

18:56
Thursday
3-Jul-2008

Location:
Surrey, UK

Phone Model:
BB 9800 Torch
BlackBerry 8900
SE W910i
Nokia 5800

Hi Chris,

If the map is in the mercator projection (as used by Google Maps, Microsoft Live Maps, etc - I think Google Satellite images are the same too) then you can use the MapOrganiser Tools/Convert From Mercator Projection function which will stretch/distort the y-axis to convert the projection to rectangular, and it should then line up perfectly.

The 'manual tileserver configuration' issue is a tricky one. I have considered this - I guess in some ways it would get around the license issues from my point of view, but its still clearly designed to circumvent the mapping providers terms, and they might still argue a case to force me to remove the feature (or worse). At the moment I'd rather not take this risk - I realise that its frustrating from the users point of view, especially when there are other tools which do the same thing for other mapping programs. The proliferation of *apparantly* free mapping websites from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc actually gives a false impression that the maps are free to all, whereas in fact they are very heavily licensed (you can bet that these websites all pay a hell of a lot of money to the map data owners for their use).

I can only reiterate why everybody reading this should really try to make an effort to add even a small amount to the OpenStreetMap project - if everyone did, then in time there might be no need to use 'licensed' maps at all!!

Cheers,
Stephen

 
 

ChrisM

9:25
Friday
4-Jul-2008

Location:
Bedfordshire, UK

Phone Model:
Sony Ericsson W770i, Blackberry Playbook(?)

" I can only reiterate why everybody reading this should really try to make an effort to add even a small amount to the OpenStreetMap project - if everyone did, then in time there might be no need to use 'licensed' maps at all!! "

Certainly concur with this. I've spent a bit of time in OpenStreetMap and added a few roads, and corrected a couple of junctions and road positions in my local area, and my routes to/from work
I can say to anyone else that they should give it a go. It's actually quite fun, and also quite satisfying when you see changes/addition you have made updated into the 'master' map that could be used by anyone, anywhere in the world!!

Chris.
 

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