Importing Shapefiles

Other World Mapper mapping tutorials.

Moderator: Kyete

Post Reply
User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Importing Shapefiles

Post by Kanchou » Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:30 pm

We are (finally) creating tutorials! We are aiming to have one a week.

This is the first one, a tutorial on importing cartographic data into Other World Mapper so you can use real maps as the base for your fantasy map.

https://www.otherworldmapper.com/blog/t ... -data-shp/

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

User avatar
Big Mac
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Big Mac » Mon Jan 01, 2018 1:55 pm

That looks great!

There are a ton of people that do tabletop games with "alternative Earth" themes. Being able to start with the real world and then move borders to create a "Steampunk Roman Empire" or somesuch, is going to really save them time.

It it also going to be possible to generate SHP files from Other World Mapper?
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
(A Spelljammer fan hoping to user Other World Mapper to make lots of maps of planets.)
You can see more of me over at The Piazza campaign settings forums

User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Kanchou » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:34 pm

Big Mac wrote:That looks great!

There are a ton of people that do tabletop games with "alternative Earth" themes. Being able to start with the real world and then move borders to create a "Steampunk Roman Empire" or somesuch, is going to really save them time.

It it also going to be possible to generate SHP files from Other World Mapper?
Yep :). That's what we had in mind, but SHP file support was started via a suggestion way back at the beginning of the Kickstarter campaign by a land surveyor from across the pond that wanted to use real data as basis for maps. He helped us out implementing it too with info and suggestions.

Have I mentioned how much I love how much of Other World Mapper came from suggestions from all of you? I think it's really awesome :D

On your question, it wouldn't be too difficult to add that. Do you think it would be useful? Anna (Meyer) asked for exporting of SVG vector data - which we added - so there is one vector format we can export as.

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

User avatar
Big Mac
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Big Mac » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:29 pm

Kanchou wrote:
Big Mac wrote:That looks great!

There are a ton of people that do tabletop games with "alternative Earth" themes. Being able to start with the real world and then move borders to create a "Steampunk Roman Empire" or somesuch, is going to really save them time.

It it also going to be possible to generate SHP files from Other World Mapper?
Yep :). That's what we had in mind, but SHP file support was started via a suggestion way back at the beginning of the Kickstarter campaign by a land surveyor from across the pond that wanted to use real data as basis for maps. He helped us out implementing it too with info and suggestions.

Have I mentioned how much I love how much of Other World Mapper came from suggestions from all of you? I think it's really awesome :D
I didn't know this was a backer suggestion. That's great. I know you listened to me with my cartographic problem with broken poles.

It's great that you listen to us.

Maybe you should be called "Three And A Bit Minds Software". ;)
Kanchou wrote:On your question, it wouldn't be too difficult to add that. Do you think it would be useful? Anna (Meyer) asked for exporting of SVG vector data - which we added - so there is one vector format we can export as.

- Alejandro
I'm afraid I don't have enough experience to know how useful that would be yet. I'm still learning with the cartography.

But I guess that, from a business point of view, it would be an idea to see what formats rival cartographic software can import and export and see if OWM can do the same thing.

If you can do what other software does and also have an easier to use interface, that should hopefully expand the OWM userbase.
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
(A Spelljammer fan hoping to user Other World Mapper to make lots of maps of planets.)
You can see more of me over at The Piazza campaign settings forums

Phantom77
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2019 8:14 pm
Location: Santa Clara, California

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Phantom77 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 2:21 pm

I read the tutorial on importing maps, and found myself excited about the possibilities offered, with this feature! :)

However, when I went to visit Natural Earth website, my McAfee warned me that the website was trying to upload script from an unauthenticated source.

Is it safe to override this warning from McAfee, and allow the unauthenticated script to upload? Thank you, for anyone who responds to this.
Andrew

User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Kanchou » Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:38 pm

Phantom77 wrote:I read the tutorial on importing maps, and found myself excited about the possibilities offered, with this feature! :)

However, when I went to visit Natural Earth website, my McAfee warned me that the website was trying to upload script from an unauthenticated source.

Is it safe to override this warning from McAfee, and allow the unauthenticated script to upload? Thank you, for anyone who responds to this.
Webroot doesn't show any issues and McAfee is known for false positives, so I think It's fine considering they they have an SSL certificate and are a pretty well known org. However, I can't be 100% sure.

There are other sources of SHP maps, but they are about the most reputable ones.

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Phantom77
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2019 8:14 pm
Location: Santa Clara, California

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Phantom77 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 8:46 pm

Kanchou wrote:
Phantom77 wrote:I read the tutorial on importing maps, and found myself excited about the possibilities offered, with this feature! :)

However, when I went to visit Natural Earth website, my McAfee warned me that the website was trying to upload script from an unauthenticated source.

Is it safe to override this warning from McAfee, and allow the unauthenticated script to upload? Thank you, for anyone who responds to this.
Webroot doesn't show any issues and McAfee is known for false positives, so I think It's fine considering they they have an SSL certificate and are a pretty well known org. However, I can't be 100% sure.

There are other sources of SHP maps, but they are about the most reputable ones.

- Alejandro
Thank you, Alejandro. And thank you so much for helping me resolve my issue with Pen Tools, via our email correspondence. :)
Andrew

User avatar
Kanchou
Site Admin
Posts: 1021
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 2:23 pm

Re: Importing Shapefiles

Post by Kanchou » Fri Dec 20, 2019 12:45 am

Phantom77 wrote:Thank you, Alejandro. And thank you so much for helping me resolve my issue with Pen Tools, via our email correspondence. :)
Always! Glad I could be of help :)

- Alejandro
Alejandro S. Canosa
Three Minds Software

Post Reply