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Software for creating dive site maps?

7K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  Angrtrupcake 
#1 ·
After a bit of advice here....

Normally im drawing dive site maps with pencil (ok crayon) on a bit of paper and want to make the things a bit better and more accurate.

Im familiar with the site and have compass bearings from certain features to others and so on and a nice shoreline via google earth so that's accurate.
Normally in the UK i could draw this on graph paper and a protractor but since Egypt hasn't invented either of those yet im looking for another way to do it, ideally with a computer.

What im after is a programme where i can draw lines, actually put the features at the proper relative bearings from each other to get the layout correct and so on. Ive got access to the usual adobe, MS office suite and others but really no idea which to use or how to use it.

Any tips or ideas?
 
#14 ·
That would be my choice or something similar (I use Smart Draw). Dead easy to use. It isnt an admiralty chart so all you need is something pictorial.

If you havent used Autocad before then dont bother. If you dont spend hours trying to teach yourself then it will end up looking crap. I use it and Sketchup all the time and neither would be my choice (and yeah Sketchup does distance and bearings and if you get fancy with Sandbox then you can even do a decent bottom terrain map in it). You can get a free demo of Autocad good for 30 days but I really wouldnt bother.

Personally, anything like that at work I usually hand draw, scan and make pretty with text or colour in Photoshop or Corel Draw. Done in a quarter of the time that doing the full thing electronically would take.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
 
#7 ·
Daft though it might sound, powerpoint can do angles/set lengths and you already have it.
 
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