| WHY
“Map Maker Pro”?
I am often asked how the software Map Maker Pro 3.5 compares with other GIS/ Mapping
software.
This is my usual response:
1-
No commercial interest
First of all let me state
quite clearly that I have NO commercial interest or link with Map Maker Ltd. (other than
that I have paid for my licence and yes, I do earn a living and am able to pay of my
mortgage using the software).
I maintain this “MM Support” web-site with a spark of idealism, as a courtesy to
my clients and naturally hope to gain some new clients through it as well.
2-
My background
Just so as to put some
perspective to this epistle:
I am a Dutch Cartographer working and living in Dartmoor in the UK. I was the
founder and head of the digital cartography department of the mapping
division of KLM (KLM Aerocarto) . When I left the firm (to live in the UK) I was also responsible for all foreign
mapping projects. We had three aircraft taking aerial photography and produced a vast
range of maps and datasets for various National mapping agencies and high –end users.
These mapping projects were cross-disciplinary, incorporating Land Surveys, GPS surveys, Photogrammetry,
Cartographic and GIS techniques.
I now trade as 'Latitude Cartography Ltd.' and
produce maps and set up mapping systems for (e.g.) Local Authorities, Forestry firms
& Estates and present courses in digital mapping and the use of aerialphotography.
In my KLM days I had to investigate a lot
of ‘mapping’ software. All the big names: Microstation, MapInfo, ArcInfo,
ArcView etc. All of them start with a single license of around $2700, and
than annual licence fees on top of that. And of course for an office license it is
shockingly more. On top of that we found we needed all sorts of extra modules (at great
expense) to deal with 3D, data manipulation and other quite common tasks in digital
mapping. These packages are highly complex and some of them -I was advised- need at least
a year (if not two) full time training if you want to get the most out of it.
I have managed staff and have quite a
number of clients using software such as for example MapInfo & ArcInfo : they all
find it good, but extremely complex and muddled software. Often they are frustrated as
they can not get out of the system the maps and data they want themselves.....
When I started my firm, a friend showed
me a mapping package which he had found on the net after he had bought MapInfo and
followed a course and realised this was too complex for him. It was "Map Maker
Pro".
I was literally bowled over by its
functionality! Got into contact with the developer and since then voluntarily been
“Beta-Testing” the software.
I found it extremely user-friendly and
the software offers more in this one package than most of the big boys with all their
additional modules. Furthermore, it has some unique tools, absolutely essential in
digital mapping, which the others don't even have.....
And the good news is that it is free. Or ,if
you want the professional version (which has got even more sensible functionality), it
will only cost you $400 and an office licence $1600.
Had I known Map Maker before, KLM would now be
using it and I would have recommended it to all our international clients.
I am deliberately trying to avoid techno-jargon
in this epistle do contact me if you would like to hear some precise examples and
technical explanations. I know this sounds all very much like 'sales talk', but I
still like to think I am an independent, objective user,
an enthusiastic cartographer, a map maker.
I don’t care where you spend your
money. I can only explain what my findings are and why I can strongly recommend Map Maker
Pro.
3-
Made in Scotland
I do have good contact with
the developers. They used to work in the development world and realised these folk needed
maps and good tools to make maps. They are idealists and produced several software modules
to help them in their work, eventually wrapping it up in the software now called 'Map
Maker Pro', now produced and developed on a remote Scottish peninsula. That is why it is
so inexpensive, user-friendly and so multifunctional. They aim the software at
‘professionals’ (in its broadest sense) and thus the interface has to be
user-friendly.
4-
Disclaimer
The developers don’t
(or hardly) advertise, nor do they proclaim or boast about the merits of this software.
They just develop it and maintain it. As said, they have a specific target audience
(developing world) in mind, and that’s it.
The software is particularly developed to MAKE maps as opposed to typical GIS
functionality to analysing data or managing (bulk) data. However, as mentioned above, the
software is in actual fact so good that it ( I think) allows you to do about 95% of
what all other software can do in this “GEO” mapping” world. It is
professionals like myself who get all wired up about its potential and end up
‘spreading the word’ and use and push the functionality of MM further than that
it was designed for in the first place. But still, the software delivers.
5-
The manual
You will find the manual to
be most useful.
However, it is like a car manual. It will tell you where the spare wheel is and how to
change a fuse or tune the engine, it will only give you limited insights in how to MAKE
maps…. Don’t blame it on the manual.
Although the software is very user
friendly: you will find that ‘Digital Mapping’ and ‘GIS’ are complex
issues, by their very nature.
Having said that: most folk find their way into
the software without any help and now use Map Maker like any other normal
‘desktop tool’.
6-
Users
I have implemented this software now as a GIS in UK's leading Forestry firm (Fountains) and have
implemented it as a very efficient and cost effective estate management tool at
several estates here in the UK. Another nationwide consultancy firm
(semi-governmental) also had found their way to MM and I have been training regional staff
teams.
All of these users have had plenty of budget and R&D and eventually settled for Map
Maker Pro.....
Please contact me directly should you wish to receive some specific references.
Map Maker has got a large world-wide clientele
and has about 1000 downloads per months of the free GRATIS version.
Map Maker is used a lot in the
development world. Here in the western world, bigger organisations tended to shy
away from Map Maker since it is a relatively unknown package. With no apparent 24x7
support team -based in India-, and with such a small purchase fee, they
simply dare not break the mould and thus stick to their big
& expensive technology.
Fair enough: the big well known software
packages might be able to link on-line, wireless, all
utility services of a city so that anyone has got access to all up-to-date
details of the city’s underground infrastructure: mind bogglingly good and
impressive.
National Mapping agencies might wish to keep
records of every object in the map: when it was drawn, when it was changed and what the
old line looked like in 1975.
OK: these giants might be able to give the CIA
real-time satellite images allowing them to pin-point moving trucks transporting WMD.
But what do they offer us, mortals, in need of similar technology except not on such a
humongous scale (& associated price tag)....?
But than: I have made some big maps, dealing
with huge databases, and MM allowed me to do it. Perhaps not in record time, but fast
enough to be economically viable and not to get frustrated by it…..
I find (here in the UK) that even the bigger organisations are slowly
finding their way to Map Maker. I hear more and more, of
'mortals' who are out of favour with their corporate GIS chap -because
the poor soul is usually overloaded with work- and thus are not being served. They often
use 'GRATIS' (or purchase 'Pro' , slipping it in without lengthy budgetary bureaucratic
procedures, along with their weekly order of printer ink & paperclips), so that they
at least can get on with their work. And once done, convert the data to feed the corporate
database and keep the organisation happy.....
I have heard from clients who had spent
literally thousands on ArcInfo, and than ended up buying Map Maker only because of
its good import & export functionality (only to discover that MM would have been a
better tool for them all along ......)
7-
Functionality
Map Maker Pro is more than
just a 'map makers tool'. It can also be used as a proper GIS (Geographical Information
System). Some examples:
- One can simplify the interface or minimize it
altogether so that it can be used as a “viewer”, or “visitors information
system”
- Map Maker deals very efficiently with GPS input.
- Serving a world wide audience, it deals well with map projections and allows you to
alter the host of given standards if need be.
- Hidden away in one of the menus you will find very good 3D functionality. This is a very
useful and efficient tool for analysing and presenting information in 3D. It even allows
you to make 'flythroughs'. The last professional 3D analysis module I had a look at
which had similar (but less) functionality was just over $5000......
- Map Maker can read -amongst others- DXF, MapInfo and ArcInfo data, and can import
it into its native format if you need to amend and modify it. Similarly it can convert its
native files to most commonly known GIS formats.
- Unlike other software MM is not a 'black box' in which things happen. It is extremely
open and transparent and thus you are in full control of what is happing to your databases
& maps.
- It links in well with MS Word, Excel and Access. You either use your databases in these
packages or work with the data in dbf format within them MM environment.
- Map Maker can produce high
quality map output as well, to be printed on your desktop printer or by you local offset
printer. It can print to ‘raster’ so that you can slot these images into your
word processor document and reports or publish it on the web.
On top of all this: Map Maker has got some very
efficient novel tools, essential to producing proper, sound digital maps and GIS data.
Tools that are not available in any other package.
8-
Bugs & Glitches
Software is complex stuff. I
learned the hard way how to avoid crashing my PC when using Photoshop and Word. I can have
Excel send automated e-mail “error
reports” with functionality that does not work. AutoCad has got ‘buttons’
that when you press them, nothing happens. And let’s face it: how often do you have
to reboot your PC in your normal ‘office work’?
Even Microsoft had to issue ‘security’ patches on their latest security
software (Oct 2004)!
Modern society has abandoned its trust in God,
and has chosen to put its trust in ‘technology’ instead. So we don’t like
it if that fails. It is our holy cow, it should not let us down.
We’d rather blame an airplane crash on ‘human error’ than on a leaking fuel
valve. What else can we cling to?
So we expect absolute perfection of technology
and software. But unlike the first, this will never be the case.And so it will be with Map
Maker.
Map Maker is constantly being updated and
improved and ‘slips of the pen’ do happen. Minor mishaps like that come and go.
Because Map Maker is such a transparent system and links in well with other Office
applications, it also depends on a good general performance of your PC.
8 out of the 10 emergency calls I get from
clients deal with the complexity of digital mapping in general (not Map Maker
‘problems’). 9 out of the 10 “bug” reports I get from clients can
usually be boiled down to an error in their PC’s configuration or peculiar MS-Windows
settings..
But on the whole, all in all: I do get very few such panic calls. Working
with it daily. There are no major glitches that I know of. There are some very minor ones
but I know the developer periodically sees to such minor issues.
I find MM very stable.
9-
Short comings
As a professional Cartographer and GIS consultant, of course I know of some shortcomings. There
are some menu structures which perhaps could be improved or altered. With some specific functionality, Map Maker
might perhaps not be the fastest tool around, just remember that it was designed to
operate on flimsy old PC’s. However, let me stress again: I as a professional,
commercially operating cartographer, using a normal medium spec’ed, off the shelf PC,
find Map Maker fast enough NOT to get irritated.
A few operations can be done more eloquently in
other packages, whereas in MM it might need a two staged approach. (But on the up side,
there are usually two or three ways of doing things in MM.)
Yes, I as a high end user can think of a
(short-ish) list of functionality which would be interesting to have (functionality which
I can find in very specialised, high-end,
and thus very expensive software). But for 90% of all ‘map makers’ I’d say
that Map Maker is good enough as it is.
10-
Unique features
Map Maker has got some very
unique functionality, which, to date can not be found in any other software. This
functionality could save big mapping companies (that I used to work for) a lot of time and
would increase the quality of their datasets: and that also counts for you.
In fact: Map Maker can put the world’s
leading National Mapping Agency (so they claim): the UK’s “Ordnance Survey”, to shame.
As much as I respect the impressive data range the OS maintains and the wonderful maps
they have produced in the past before they became a commercial company, the Ordnance
Survey is now slipping into dangerous waters. They are proudly are rolling out their
latest digital map product (the Mastermap). This deals with 100% polygon cover of the
landscape. Yet in the small print they mention that 5% errors (overlapping polygons) can
be found in it. And indeed the highest level I
have come across was 4%. Errors of which they ought to be ashamed. These errors are
unneccessarily and unacceptable in a national high-end dataset on which
grants are awarded and on which taxes are based.
Map Maker Pro has got the tools to trace these
and amend these.
11-
All rounder
I use three different image
processing applications because none of them have got all the functionality that I
regularly use. It is often the same with GIS and mapping software. You often need
additional software to push your data into a next stage or be able to achieve a particular
process.
I use Map Maker as my sole tool, that is
quite something.
I have recently visited a “GIS/GEO”
trade show. And naturally the latest and the best was on show. Of all that was produced,
of all the software shown, I realised that I could match an extraordinarily large
proportion of all those marvels, using Map Maker Pro. OK some had special menus eloquent
wizards and dedicated buttons, but I could produce about the same using MM as my sole
tool.
Remember “Word Perfect”? It was a
very intuitive and a brilliant word processor. Now thanks to Windows the world can talk to
each other and we all have this wealth of software available: no complaints.But big money
was wheeled in and MS Word rules the waves along with “Auto-formatting” and
endless other functionality that just gets in the way. Not necessarily the best, but
MSWord is dominant.
And so it is with GIS/mapping software.
Big American defence money is behind some of the current market leaders, but they are not
necessarily the best.
Look at Word, Excel and Access. Word is a
typewriter, but they needed more sales and thought: “hey, we can do sums as
well”. Then they realised that their users were typing out a lot of addresses and
printing envelopes and offered them database functionality to manage their addresses.
Excel was initially designed to be a good calculator: it now can almost match the
functionality of Access.
What I am saying is this: Software starts at one end, and than gradually moves into a
centre field which captures the imagination of most/more clients.
So it was in the GEO software world.
CAD software (architect & engineering/design) saw the mapping clientele and extended
their core thing with modules and bolt-ons to attract map makers.
Graphic design packages realised that maps also dealt with lines and fill colours, so they
added on some modules so they could deal with projections and grid-reference systems.
Data crunchers, to analyse vast (GEO)datasets, realised they needed to have some out-put
functionality so moved toward the centre, to be able to actually make maps as well.
Around all of these one can find
“specialised” software that orbits around the main package, to be an aid in
specific tasks.
Map Maker Pro started in that centre, afresh, with targeted and lean functionality.
(You need a CD full of data to install the big boys: MM comes in a downloadable zip file
only 2.7Mb big. That is just by clever programming, for the big boys have become lazy. In
Map Maker you can convert an 18Mb digital map from AutoCad –DXF, into a 1 Mb MM file.
That is the difference in approach.
Map Maker is in the centre of all these big
packages, designed to be flexible and multifunctional. And as it developed that centre
circle expanded and now can do, well, 80%, 90%? of what all the pillars of the GEO society
and their orbitals can do.
Map Maker does not lose focus either. Over time
it has had some good functionality but taken it out later again for some of the
‘orbital’ software could do a better job.
Could MM be the “Linux” of the GEO
world?
12-
Support
The 24x7 support line of the
big boys, well, let's face it, you end up browsing through endless -useful- help web-site
pages or you get fully automated E-mail responses, which all in all just about miss the
point of what is troubling you.
With Map Maker you will find that if you call them, or E-mail them, you will often
actually talk to the developer himself. Although serving a world wide clientele, they get
surprisingly few E-mails and telephone requests. This also proves the point that the
software delivers.......
I hope , my “Map Maker Support Page”
will also be of help for Map Maker users, and
if you were to visit the “Forum” page you will observe that the developers
regularly login and monitors the forums,
dealing with the issues where required.
On my web-site, on the 'MM-Support' page you
will find -I think- some useful information that might help a bit in coming to terms with
the basics of Map Maker and complexities of Digital Mapping in general.
These aids might give you a good starting
point (although your work might be completely different.....).
For some ‘map’ examples of real work:
please visit my web-site: www.latitudecartography.co.uk ,
for more examples please visit our associated web-site: www.airphotointerpretation.com.
Concluding
You can spend much more
money, and look long and hard for other software, as an experienced and professional Cartographer & GIS consultant,
take my word for it:
Map Maker is designed for professionals who need to make and work with digital maps. It
has got a stunning functionality in map making and GIS, it is most user friendly,
it is inexpensive and does probably more than you will ever need.
Map Maker Pro delivers.
Kind regards,
Hanno Koch
Latitude Cartography Ltd.
Heatherway
Manaton, Newton Abbot
Devon TQ13 9UF
Tel/Fax: 01647 221482
www.latitudecartography.co.uk |
