[posthumanus]

hi all,

i'm looking to draw simple maps of base camps (inc. roads, bridges, trucks, tents, sheds, utilities ect.) ideally software that'd also include icons and allow me to overlay topographical lines. does anyone have a suggestion? will spend money, but not as much as inDesign costs.

thanx in advance

posthumanus

[Gareth Johnston]

As a Cartographer i'll tell you straight off, InDesign is totally the wrong package anyway. To do a decent job your looking at needing Illustrator or FreeHand. Personally I would say Illustrator, but that's only due to personal experience.

As it seems you don't want to spend a great amount of money, you could always try CorelDraw, it's not as good as the others, but from the information you gave above it may well be suitable for your needs.

Or as a third way you could hire a cartographer to do it.

[Thorzdad]

Gareth's right about InDesign being completely the wrong software for map-making.
I've used Illustrator for such jobs, but I'm guessing you'll have an issue with the cost of that, as well.

Does OmniGraffle still come bundled with Macs? It might do what you want. It's intended more for network diagramming, but I've seen people do other things with it. Illustrator would be easier to accomplish what you want, though.

[peeb]

Omnigraffle is cheap, versatile and great for basic stuff.

[posthumanus]

thank you

looks like omnigraffle is the way i'll go

posthumanus