http://free-gis.com Breaking the GIS/GPS technology barrier, without breaking the bank. Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:07:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Utah's State Geographic Information Database (SGID) contains files and links to several different categories of data sets. Data presented for download on this site is considered to be in the public domain.  Data includes imagery and vector data that can be downloaded or they also have several data servers that ... http://free-gis.com/utah-gis-data-portal/39/ One of the big problems that the wind indusrty has run into in developing wind farms is that people do not want to see the towers.  You can use some very expensive software to do a viewshed analysis, but I have found a very afforable alternative.  Global Mapper has a ... http://free-gis.com/line-of-sight-analysis/42/ The National Map Seamless Server has a lot of useful GIS data.  One of the best aspects is that they have ortho imagery that you can download in various formats so that you do not have to convert images if you do not have the ability to view a specific ... http://free-gis.com/the-national-map-seamless-server/37/ If you ever have had a client say that they have data that they want you to incorporate into a mapping project but it is in KML format.  It is gettign easier to use these consumer formats, and convert them into shapefile for use in professional GIS software.  I recently ... http://free-gis.com/online-kml-to-shapefile-converter/35/ For a recent project I needed to get some Montana GIS data.  During the search I came across the Montana Geographic Information Clearinghouse.  The clearinghouse has GIS data sets that you can download for free, such as topo maps, digital elevation models, cadastral data, aerial photographs, and NRCS soil data.  ... http://free-gis.com/montana-gis-data/31/ I recently used the OSGEO4W installer to install qgis on a new laptop.  I was really surprised how easy it was to get qgis up and running with all the options that are fun to have.    Here is a desrciption of all it features from the qgis website. This is the ... http://free-gis.com/viewing-mrsid-imagery-with-qgis/27/ I do a lot of GIS work in Wyoming and have found that the there is a great amount of GIS data available for free.  The Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center is a great resource if you are looking for GIS data for the sate.  Their data services include the ... http://free-gis.com/free-wyoming-gis-data/22/ When looking for a easy way to update a clients google map, i ran into google's Spreadsheet Mapper.  It is a pretty crafty way of connecting a google spreadsheet with a google map.  It is a spreadsheet entry for creating a kml file that can be displayed in google maps ... http://free-gis.com/easy-web-map-updating-with-google-spreadsheet-mapper/21/ I just had the misfortune of having my laptop die on me, the result of having my 3 year old dump water on it. So I dug out the ArcView 9.3 install DVD and fired up the old desktop. It took a while but finally got things installed ... http://free-gis.com/arcview-reinstall-after-an-upgrade/20/ If you have been using KML in your GIS work flow then the new features of ArcView9.3 will have you jumping up and down. You will no longer have to jump through multiple steps to get your data in to a kml file. This allows you to share ... http://free-gis.com/arc-view-93-improved-kml-support/19/