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@Team B Squared wrote:
Let me know if there are any other changes you would like to see, it is really no problem at all as it usually takes me longer to write the post than to make the changes to the maps.
I’m liking the tan/white, even if it is a little bland. But I’m probably not the best person to be making color/design/fashion type decisions, so if anyone has some suggestions please let us know.
I was planning on giving people the option to choose their fill color, so going with white would let them pick a wide range of fill colors and still have it look OK. (I figure Democrats will want a blue fill color, Republicans-red, ecologists-green, Geo-Pink and high school girls-pink, Johnny Cache-black, etc. :)) I’ll probably go with some shade of green as the default, again to match the site.
Could you make a tan/white Wisconsin map sized down a smidge? Probably just make it the same size as the example Wisconsin map from your gc.com profile.
I plan on trying out some auto-fills with the images tonight just to double check there won’t be any issues with them. And hopefully I’ll have something ready for prime time by the end of the upcoming weekend.
One other thing… what other file type options do we have? Could you export these files as TIFF or GIF image files, both of which could be “cleaner” than the JPG, resulting in better fills…
@jeremy wrote:
One other thing… what other file type options do we have? Could you export these files as TIFF or GIF image files, both of which could be “cleaner” than the JPG, resulting in better fills…
My profile map of Wisconsin is at 55 DPI, I can do that without any trouble. For purposes of posting here, I have just been uploading the images to my gc.com profile, making them all jpeg. Here is a list of file types that I can export to (I am not even sure what they all are)…
BMP
EMF
EPS
AI
PDF
SVG
BMP
JPEG
PNG
TIFF
GIFIf you let me know what you like, I can email you the files.
Brian
@Team B Squared wrote:
If you let me know what you like, I can email you the files.
TIFF files should work fine Brian. You can send them to jeremy wi-geocaching.com.
Thanks again for all your work on this!
The great maps that Team B Squared (Brian) made for us are finally in use on the WGA site.
Check out this news article for the details…
😆 Love the maps! Thanks Jeremy, and all others involved.
The maps look fantastic! Thanks for all the hard work…
Team B Squad
How’d you get the one with the counties marked in red, etc. ❓ I have the one for the states that I generate thru that route66 website.
“Fu”
Fu, I made my maps using ESRI Arc Map and shapefiles that I downloaded from the state of Wisconsin website. With this software I am able to run queries and pick out the states/counties that we have cached in. Unfortunately this software is pretty industry specific (and very expensive) to GIS (Geographic Information Systems), which is what I do for a living. The maps that I colored in red and blue are made from the same basemap that I made for the website. The nice thing about the software is that you can do whatever you like to the maps to jazz them up. Jeremy made it sound like eventually there is a possibility of editing the maps on the website however you would like, but I am sure he has more pressing matters right now. I’ve got to say, the new website is fantastic, and I wish I could get the Michigan Geocaching Organization to pick up some of the ideas like the mapping and the recent logs. I would suggest it over there, but I am not sure how much work that creates for the webmaster, and I hate to create extra work for other people. 😀 I hope I answered your question, and sorry I couldn’t offer a suggestion for you to do it yourself.
The maps are great Jeremy! Thanks. If anyone needs a “cheat” sheet listing cities and corresponding counties for WI, let me know via pm. I have it in an excel file. Also have upper IL, and the UP.
@cache_boppin_bunnyfufu wrote:
How’d you get the one with the counties marked in red, etc. ❓ I have the one for the states that I generate thru that route66 website.
Anne, I’d like people to start using the WGA maps instead of route66 maps, “Map-Maker” Utility (monarch.tamu.edu) maps, etc. in their geocaching.com profile. But I realize that I’ve got to provide some additional features so that the WGA maps “work” for most people… I’m just not sure what the critical features are.
So what do I have to do to get you to switch Anne? Provide custom colors (sounds like you like red :)), add the ability to put notes or text on the maps, plot out the location of cache finds, pay you :)?
If anyone else has ideas for improving the maps, please post them here.
I never met a map I didn’t like, but these are great! Good work! 😆
This has been discussed before – but I can’t seem to find it: How do you determine which Wisconsin counties you have found in?
@cachew wrote:
This has been discussed before – but I can’t seem to find it: How do you determine which Wisconsin counties you have found in?
Check out this topic.
John, you’ve got a couple options, all of which start with running a “My Finds” pocket query on geocaching.com (I’m assuming you know how to do this).
Option 1. Open your “My Finds” pocket query in a mapping program, like ExpertGPS or MapSource. From this graphical view, it is usually pretty easy to pick out the counties, especially if you’ve only cached in a few.
Option 2. Run your “My Finds” pocket query through the excellent CountyCount program. I (and others) have found it to be more than 99% accurate in determining what WI county a cache is located in.
Option 3. Wait for the “My Finds” pocket query parser I’m working on for the WGA site to be completed. I’ve got no ETA on when this might get done, but I’m guessing by the end of July.
Doug of abcdmCachers has graciously shared the source code for the CountyCount program, so the WGA parser will have the ability to determine WI county finds using some ideas “borrowed” from CountyCount. The advantage of the online PQ parser is that all the information, including the date of find, cache name, etc. for your county, state, and country finds will be automatically entered into the WGA database.
My suggestion would be to use the CountyCount to get a list of counties you’ve cached in and use our multiple entry form to enter them on the website. When the PQ parser is completed later, you can use it to easily fill in the details (date, cache, etc.) of your finds.
The maps look great!
Is it possible to add Washington DC to the list of states? (Or is it somewhere that I’m not seeing?)
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