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1

Well it might be an newbie question but I can't find it

In my project I need the paths in a campus but these paths are inexistents so I'm going to walk around and mapping (I don't know if it's the correct term) the points to build the correspondent paths, so my question is if exists an easy way to do it or how do you think I can accomplished the work, please write all yours thoughts..

Thanks in advance..

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Hand digitizing the paths in ArcMap 10 may be easier than walking around every path on campus with a GPS. A really quick and easy way to accomplish your task is as follows:

  1. Open ArcMap 10
  2. Right click on a folder within the Catalog and select New > Shapefile
  3. Click your new shapefile and select feature type "polyline"
  4. Add a basemap (File > add data > add basemap > bing maps aerial)
  5. Open editor (Customize > toolbars > editor)
  6. Start editing and select your new shapefile in the create features window that pops up.
  7. At the bottom of the create features pane select "line"
  8. Begin selecting the vertices of your paths
  9. When you are done select "save edits

That's it, you have your trails as a .shp file. Best of luck!

enter image description here

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This is amazing .. but it works under windows and I'm using linux.. but think I'm going to steal someone's computer for a while.. tnks – figuedmundo Jun 27 '12 at 20:26
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You can do the same in QGIS which will run on Linux. – underdark♦ Jun 27 '12 at 20:29
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Obviously doing it directly in a GIS is ideal but if that's an issue, just digitize the route in Google itself and save it as a KML. You can then import it into almost any GIS on any operating system or just use the KML as is if you don't need any further editing. – MappaGnosis Jun 28 '12 at 8:36
up vote 5 down vote

I presume you intend to use a GPS (possibly on your iPhone) for this. Have a look at the excellent Open Street Map (OSM) project. There is a guide on how to do exactly this here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide_1.1.

This should get you started.

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+1 for OpenStreetMap. Great project, deserves recognition. – Rob Quincey Jun 28 '12 at 8:47

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