GIS for Apple computers

[Clark]

I use an Apple computer and am needing a more robust GIS platform than what the free version of Google Earth can offer me.  Realistically I don't need "much" from a GIS program.  Base imagery, ability to measure distances/areas, create polygons, print basic maps with text would probably do 90% of what I need.  Transferring to/from a GPS unit would be nice too but I do have other programs that I already do that with.

Does anyone have experience running any GIS software on an Apple computer?  I'd love to hear from you; what works, what doesn't and what would you do next time?

Clark

[Atlantic Trader]

 Clark
Iam interested in the responses you receive, iam looking for something similiar...

[SwampDonkey]

The first time I saw ESRI's ArcInfo/View was on a Mac, but that was running Unix. I don't think they ever supported the MacOS.

I think you can use Apple's Boot Camp to run Windows natively if you have a copy of the OS to run the GIS programs available.

The only folks I recall using Macs were professors in the forestry faculty. But in the laboratory exercises it was all PC's. You couldn't even buy one in these parts, no one sells them. And no one sells the software. There simply no commercial GIS support for Mac. There may be some hack GIS software out there, that as far as I know have never really been all that robust from what I've read about.

This might be something for $500:

http://www.macgis.com

[clearcut]

I suggest you look at Quantum GIS (QGIS), free, open source, and available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android.

     http://qgis.org/

I have used the Mac version for some simple projects.

Wikipedia compares GIS software for many platforms.

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_geographic_information_systems_software

[Clark]

I have done some searching and did find both QGIS and MacGIS before posting here.  From what I can tell they offer far more features than I would ever use, which isn't bad.  The problem comes when I want to do something simple and now a simple process has become quite involved.  I installed QGIS on my computer and cannot figure out how to get it to retrieve base-layer imagery from Google or other servers.  There are ways to do it but most of the information I found was for older versions of the program. 

I need a program that is simple, intuitive and doesn't suck my time in trying to figure out how to use the software.  QGIS failed in that regard.  Anyone have experience running Google Earth Pro on an Apple product?

Clark

[SwampDonkey]

Clark,

Is there in option in those programs that says something like 'Add data from server'? ArcPad, and probably ArcView, uses this method to load the data in as a layer and it comes up in the legend. This way, when data is changed on the remote server your local map on your computer is also updated. Just hitting the redraw or when you reload the Map/Project it will refresh/load the map with the changes on your machine. You will need to know the URL to the data on the remote server. Sometimes you have the root name and you can browse the server for the layer or image to add.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm not sure if any freebies are gonna be easy or trouble free on the Mac. There is a freebie a lot of people use on the PC called fGIS from Wisconsin DNR. It is now commercial and has gone through a name change, but the old version is still out there, but no support. It is simple and gets the job done for most folks.

[dgdrls]

http://grass.osgeo.org/

Mac OS able

DGDrls

[SwampDonkey]

Unless Grass has matured a bit since I last tried it, you will be met with frustration and lack of implemented features and a Unix wedge that needs installed to access some features. A mess.  :

[Clark]

I'm not sure if any freebies are gonna be easy or trouble free on the Mac.

Amen to that!

After spending the last two weeks working with, and around, different programs for the Mac I have some definite opinions and some very marginal solutions.

Google Earth Pro is the program that would work very well for me.  The one thing it doesn't do (or I don't know how to do) is load up "projects" or files with certain data on it.  The program is designed to load all data that you used in previous sessions which after working on one or two properties will made the program slow down.  You can work around that though, it's just a minor bug. The only real problem is the $400 annual license.

I tried using qGIS and it does work.  Every time I needed to do something "new" I had to look online and slowly figure it out.  There were some things I simply could not figure out or get them to work. Like most other GIS programs it was asking too much from a user who doesn't want to get involved in the lingo and programming of the program.

For now I can pull images off the MN DNR data deli and import them to Google Earth if needed.  Using the Google Planimeter I can calculate acerage.  My wife is in graphic design so we have enough paid for programs that I can make any map I need.  If I knew it would save me oodles of time I would probably go ahead and buy Google Earth Pro for one year just to see how it works for me.  Until I know that I will work on this shoe-string budget, hodge-podged method of making maps and using GIS.

Clark