GIS on Macs
Category: GIS; Category: Mac
Now, I'm no GIS expert. I say that upfront. I'm about as green as they come. But I see the usefulness of GIS and peer jealously over the shoulders of people using ArcGIS on Windows at work. Not too jealously, though, because the PCs in our lab keep seizing up running GIS because they're too cheap and nasty. I also haven't been impressed with the intuitiveness of the user interface of ArcGIS, despite its long list of functions (note that our work network is probably not running the latest version). All this means that I have wanted to get GIS going on my Mac for some time.
I started with ESRI’s ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education, a free program from the makers of ArcGIS. Running in Java, it allows me to open shape files and do a limited amount of manipulation to make maps. It is useful enough but is a bit clunky in its performance and user-interface. Plus, it can only export raster (pixellated) images (and even that doesn't seem to be working on OSX 10.4). If I'm building a figure for a publication, I'd really like to get a vector image out to edit further in my nemesis of unintuitiveness, Adobe Illustrator.
With all this in mind, I have started tinkering around with the monster of opensource GIS projects, GRASS on X11. So far so good, but it looks like it will take a serious committment on my part to learn enough to be proficient at it. I'm not certain yet whether I will use GRASSS frequently enough to keep all those details fresh in my head. I have a Mac mind afterall. I am supposed to be abe to push obvious buttons and see stuff just work.
I was pleased to discover earlier this week a program called QGIS (short for Quantum GIS), another opensource GIS project (qgis.org). It runs natively on OSX as well as most other operating systems, and appears to at least be the equal of ArcExplorer, from my limited playing. It can use data and layers from a wide range of formats and claims to play nicely with GRASS (I say "claims" only because I haven't had a chance to try this out).
I stumbled across QGIS after my frustration with being unable to get a vector image (or any image!) exported out of ArcExplorer. I was hopeful QGIS would allow me to do this, since QGIS includes SVG as a vector format for exporting maps (accessible in its print window). Alas, the vector lines in the resulting file were weird and chunky, like some vector version of a raster image. Maybe there is some way around this, although the online help is currently too limited to suggest anything. Still, this is not a criticism. The project has got a lot of primise. QGIS is at version 0.7.4 at the time of writing and looks like it is well worth keeping an eye on.
There's a useful review comparing QGIS with ArcExplorer Java Edition over at lordkingsquirrel.com/2006/04/12/desktop-mapping-software-qgis-v-arcexplorer-java-edition/.
Now, I'm no GIS expert. I say that upfront. I'm about as green as they come. But I see the usefulness of GIS and peer jealously over the shoulders of people using ArcGIS on Windows at work. Not too jealously, though, because the PCs in our lab keep seizing up running GIS because they're too cheap and nasty. I also haven't been impressed with the intuitiveness of the user interface of ArcGIS, despite its long list of functions (note that our work network is probably not running the latest version). All this means that I have wanted to get GIS going on my Mac for some time.
I started with ESRI’s ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education, a free program from the makers of ArcGIS. Running in Java, it allows me to open shape files and do a limited amount of manipulation to make maps. It is useful enough but is a bit clunky in its performance and user-interface. Plus, it can only export raster (pixellated) images (and even that doesn't seem to be working on OSX 10.4). If I'm building a figure for a publication, I'd really like to get a vector image out to edit further in my nemesis of unintuitiveness, Adobe Illustrator.
With all this in mind, I have started tinkering around with the monster of opensource GIS projects, GRASS on X11. So far so good, but it looks like it will take a serious committment on my part to learn enough to be proficient at it. I'm not certain yet whether I will use GRASSS frequently enough to keep all those details fresh in my head. I have a Mac mind afterall. I am supposed to be abe to push obvious buttons and see stuff just work.
I was pleased to discover earlier this week a program called QGIS (short for Quantum GIS), another opensource GIS project (qgis.org). It runs natively on OSX as well as most other operating systems, and appears to at least be the equal of ArcExplorer, from my limited playing. It can use data and layers from a wide range of formats and claims to play nicely with GRASS (I say "claims" only because I haven't had a chance to try this out).
I stumbled across QGIS after my frustration with being unable to get a vector image (or any image!) exported out of ArcExplorer. I was hopeful QGIS would allow me to do this, since QGIS includes SVG as a vector format for exporting maps (accessible in its print window). Alas, the vector lines in the resulting file were weird and chunky, like some vector version of a raster image. Maybe there is some way around this, although the online help is currently too limited to suggest anything. Still, this is not a criticism. The project has got a lot of primise. QGIS is at version 0.7.4 at the time of writing and looks like it is well worth keeping an eye on.
There's a useful review comparing QGIS with ArcExplorer Java Edition over at lordkingsquirrel.com/2006/04/12/desktop-mapping-software-qgis-v-arcexplorer-java-edition/.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home