Map 'layer' software for plans?

[localzuk]

Does anyone know if a piece of software exists which allows a site map/plan to be imported, and then turned into a clickable map, with different layers of information which can be set to display.

 

eg. Fibre routes, projectors in rooms, network cabinet coverage, power board coverage, etc...

 

So, instead of having multiple files, you can have one file, and just click on things to pull up relevant info?

[Pete10141748]

No idea but am interested to see if such a thing does exist, it'd be a great tool to have handy........

[Pete10141748]

Thinking about it, one route could be to just use layers in something like Paint.net

 

Set the school map as the background image, then create a new layer for each different type of info you want (1 for network, 1 for power, 1 for projectors, and so forth) and then you can just choose which layers to show/hide when you need to?

[mounters]

You can use Visio to create layered diagrams. You can then turn layers on and off to display different levels of details. Lots of resources and tutorials for creating layered diagrams availalble on google and you tube.

[Arthur]

Adobe Illustrator? I've used it to create maps exactly like you are describing. Visio would be a good alternative though.

[GrumbleDook]

AutoCAD is your friend. An expensive friend though ...

[dhicks]

Does anyone know if a piece of software exists which allows a site map/plan to be imported, and then turned into a clickable map, with different layers of information which can be set to display.

 

I use Inkscape for exactly this - you can import scanned original plans as bitmaps and trace over them to turn them in to layered vectors. There's even a handy bitmap-to-vector tracing routine, although I've generally found it more useful to do the walls as a separate layer by hand, in small sections, as schools tend to change around their layouts every summer. All free, and in native SVG format so you should be able to view the resultant files directly in your web browser.

 

Also, Flash is a better vector drawing tool than most people realise - it's not just great for animations, its vector-based drawing model is very flexible, too. Any Flash-based drawing should be very easy to export to be a web-based widget of some sort.

[localzuk]

Interesting, I didn't think about using visio/illustrator. My school plan is already in illustrator, so that seems ideal. I will look at layers in that.

[CESIL]

I built this Untitled Document as a test for a project here...not really relevant I guess but I just wanted to show off

 

...and yes I know it loads a bit slowly but I didn't bother trying to vectorise the maps yet, it was hard enough just getting the maps to line up properly as they started at different scales...

[SYNACK]

I use Inkscape for exactly this - you can import scanned original plans as bitmaps and trace over them to turn them in to layered vectors.

 

+1, as SVG is open source and well documented I imagine that something like html5 or silverlight would be able to programaticly show/hide the layers in a web page with a bit of code.

[Arthur]

There's also an Illustrator plug-in which converts AI files into HTML5 canvas elements which should be faster than rendering SVG.

 

http://visitmix.com/labs/ai2canvas/

 

The Ai->Canvas plug-in enables Adobe Illustrator to export vector and bitmap artwork directly to an HTML5 canvas element that can be rendered in a canvas-enabled browser. The plug-in provides drawing, animation and coding options such as events so that you can build interactive, well-designed canvas-based web apps.