Measuring positions on a map?

[selden]

What I started out with was a paper map illustrating a book(*). This map does not include the stars' "depths" (Z values). Their XY positions are available only by measuring the drawn positions of the stars on the map. I took a digital picture of the map to help do that. I wanted a way to digitize the stars' positions so I wouldn't have to type in their XY values by hand. I finally gave up and did the typing. There are somewhat more than 70 stars involved, so it just took a little patience.

The map includes some indications of the lengths of the trade routes (long, medium, short). From those route lengths, one can infer some of the stars' depths (Z values). My simplistic attempts to generate all of the Z values algorithmically didn't work, so I've resorted to placing the stars in Z by hand, using a 3D modeling program that I know reasonably well (Anim8or). That actually has gone reasonably quickly. At any rate, it's taken less time than I spent writing the failed program.

After I've moved all the stars to reasonable Z positions, I'll measure those, too. The values are available in Anim8or's 3D model file, but figuring out which ones are appropriate is more work than typing the Z values shown on the screen.

My goal is to eventually produce a 3D map drawn as an anaglyph so that the depth of the stars can be seen directly, similar to the other map I've been working on. I'll probably try to generate pairs of stereoscopic images, but getting the interocular distance small enough is an issue because of the widths of the maps and the amount of text involved in their labels.

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* - Chanur's Venture by C. J. Cherryh, star map drawn by David Cherry, her brother.