Best Mapping Software for Me?

[Redrobes]

The problem I think you will have is that you would want many pre made tiles which are quite specific and that would line up easily to make your floor plan. The problem that a developer would have in this case is that those tiles would appeal to a very slim section of the user base and most people would want to customize it a bit more than that.

The question I have is whether you would want to make up those tiles the slower way by adding a door and a cooker and a worktop and a chair etc to make up one tile and then the program could group all those together for you so that next time you could say, add kitchen.

If that is the case then I can provide with my app ViewingDale, see link in sig. It can group any number of bits together to make up a mapping icon that is complex - like a kitchen. You can go on to add a lounge, bathroom etc and make up another icon called house1 and it would have the kitchen in it which would have the cooker in it - all at the original resolutions of the component parts.

It can import images for icons and export them too to make a print from. It also has a grid with the usual "snap to grid" option to make placing stuff on the grid easy.

So what you want exists as a program but I don't think anyone would be able to get a full set of complete rooms all just the way you like them in 6x3 squares etc. You would have to make them up once.

If you wanted to use an app with complete tiles made up because you are not confident with mapping applications then I wont kid you in that my app is not too hard but also not entirely without some learning. I would say its easier to use than a paint package because its built to add icons, move, place and rotate them and also to group them together. On the other hand you cant paint with it - its comparing apples and oranges.

I honestly cant think of another app that can do what your asking unless you build a kitchen in a mapping app and then export that composite image and then re-import that image as a new icon in some other apps. The problem there is that you loose resolution of all the original bits in it and the ability to go back and move an original item about like the cooker for example.

Luckily for you there is a free demo of it on the sig link provided tho. If you need help with it then just mail me. There's some movies of it running here too. I can whoop up a movie of a kitchen and house thing if you want me to.

[jfrazierjr]

IF you are willing to spend the time to harvest the images for furniture and stuff, Fractal Mapper comes with some "ok" images that can be used and it's fairly user friendly. It does an ok job of overland mapping. I moved away from it to go to GIMP for overland maps because I wanted something a bit more artistic in some of my map stuff, but GIMP is a bit complex. Of course, there is nothing to say that you can't start with 1 program and then move on as your needs and skills change... Plus, Fractal Mapper does have a demo version available, so you can try before you buy, but I can't remember what limitations the program has for the demo version though.

If you are willing to invest the time, I would HIGHLY suggest GIMP and using the tutorials created here by RobA, and the community is more then willing to help provide constructive critisism to get you to a style that you like.