Creating a property map

[gsganzer]

I want to create a picture of my 2700 acre deer lease and map and annotate fence lines, pasture names, boundries etc. Essentially take a photo off google maps or something and then draw in these features. I'll eventually want to print it fairly large and probably have it laminated. I'd then apply stickers for blind and feeder locations. Has anyone done this? What websites, programs, software did you use?

 

[TJ303]

I found this site while looking to do the same thing with my property but have not gotten around to doing anything.

HUNTERRA: Area of Interest

HUNTERRA is in the business of creating superior aerial map products. Our aerials are the most current, detailed, vivid available, and also show the topography of your land. From 40 to 40,000 acres, each map is designed by one of our cartographers, specifically for that property.

www.hunterra.com

 

[Fixastuff]

I like to use USTOPO app for mapping trails in the woods.

 

[dodge man]

Sometimes a county GIS has some of the features you want, also Google Earth.

I’m a retired land surveyor and we did that kind of thing but we used an Autocad product which is expensive and takes a lot to learn how to use it. How big do you want? We had a printer that would go as large as 36” by 48”.

 

[MossRoad]

I want to create a picture of my 2700 acre deer lease and map and annotate fence lines, pasture names, boundries etc. Essentially take a photo off google maps or something and then draw in these features. I'll eventually want to print it fairly large and probably have it laminated. I'd then apply stickers for blind and feeder locations. Has anyone done this? What websites, programs, software did you use?

I used to have access to a wide-format printer. 36" by infinity. But no longer. Very handy. My family tree print is 36" x about 8'.

You might want to contact Office Depot. They do large format printing. I have no idea of the prices, though.

 

[gsganzer]

If I can just make the photo, I'll have a local print shop print it. Not sure how big. I'm guessing something around 18 x 24 or 24 x 36. Depends on how good the resolution ends up.

 

[old and tired]

Photoshop if you can afford it; Do you have a "fast" computer? How fast is your internet??

24x36 is pretty small for 2700 acres... I was in charged of printing posters; 42" x 96" was common for me to print. 36 x 42 was the next common depending on the display...

Look at Google Earth. To see the whole area, the resolution will stink and to enlarge that would be a waste of time and paper. I would find a happy medium (cover enough ground with good resolution) and copy the screen (screen shot it) capture your whole land in a couple dozen photos then you can piece them together in the first 2 programs.

You don't want to scale the photos much larger (nor downsize them either). How is the land laid out? Square? long and thin?

 

[EddieWalker]

My neighbor went to the Tax Appraisers office for out county and got a very clear areal photo of his place. Mine is on the map too. I forget what he paid for it, or if he paid anything for it.

I think it would be easiest to just draw the lines on the map that you want it to have. Then type what you want on Word, and then cut it out and tape it to the map. Or glue it so you can't see the tape when you make a copy.

For my place, I just copied google maps, then opened the picture in Paint, and drew the lines I wanted that way. It's fine for me to figure out where everything is going to on an 8x10 sheet of paper, but not very good to blow up or display.

A fun site for figuring out hoe big an area is, or how far it is from one point to another is https://findlotsize.com/

I used it to figure out that my pond is 4.56 acres when full. I also used it when a friend of my wife was saying that her pond was 7 acres. It's 3.56 acres. LOL

But what I really used it for was in figuring out how big each of my pastures are going to be. I wanted them to be close in size. I'm between 12 to 14 acres for each pasture. Figure that the amount of trees is thicker in the bigger pastures, and the pond takes away from what they can eat, I'm pretty happy with what I came up with from using that website.

 

[newbury]

Dig around here: Search | U.S. Geological Survey

/edit - look here for example.
GloVis

You'll have to move around a bit, and it's slow to refresh, but it's paid for by tax dollars.
They used to have all the digital quads online.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I use Google Earth Pro to map out my property and plan my fencing. Under tools there is a line drawing tool that will do lines, paths and polygons, giving length for lines and paths, and perimeter plus area for polygons

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I fly my drone and take a picture.

 

[yanmars]

That lease is over 4 square miles. That would be huge where I live.

 

[airbiscuit]

Huntstand has pretty good features for what you are looking for.

 

[JamesHW]

Google Earth Pro can be useful, especially the desktop program that has a lot more functionality over the app. It even used to have property boundaries in our area, but that was removed years ago. My favorite map program for plotting stuff is the USGS National Map that has a lot useful layers including Lidar imagery and very accurate contours. Here is an example of an area where I intend to bridge a stream. I’ve overlaid the property line using a drawing program that allows layers and added the scale that is displayed on the map. The map also has a layer of streams & wetlands, but I found the data on streams, at least in our area, are a bit offset by about 40 foot from the Lidar terrain, so I did a layer tracing the stream so I could correct the error. A couple of other resources I use are the USDA Soil Map and the USGS Wetland Map.

The location where I am considering a bridge, or possibly a ford, is upper center of this image to the left of the scale.

 

[civilian]

Both of the above websites, Hunterra and Findlotsizes shows more recent aerials of our property during our 3 year house/out buildings construction. Google maps shows the area prior to dirt excavation. Wife found one on on ESRI's system that actually had the house excavation done along with the excavator in first parking spot. Thanks for the leads. Jon

 

[oosik]

I use Google Earth Pro. I've only ever drawn in the external property lines. I can see all my trails without graphic highlights. I print it out and put in a clear sheet protector.

My limitation - my printer will only go to - 8 1/2 by 11.

 

[MasseyFerg231]

Photoshop if you can afford it; Do you have a "fast" computer? How fast is your internet??

24x36 is pretty small for 2700 acres... I was in charged of printing posters; 42" x 96" was common for me to print. 36 x 42 was the next common depending on the display...

Look at Google Earth. To see the whole area, the resolution will stink and to enlarge that would be a waste of time and paper. I would find a happy medium (cover enough ground with good resolution) and copy the screen (screen shot it) capture your whole land in a couple dozen photos then you can piece them together in the first 2 programs.

You don't want to scale the photos much larger (nor downsize them either). How is the land laid out? Square? long and thin?

Google Earth works well. Where I live the county GIS website is more than capable as well.

 

[MasseyFerg231]

If you want a large printed copy, co tact a place that prints blueprints.

 

[gsganzer]

What's funny is if I go to google maps, google earth etc and look at the property, my truck is in the picture. I see it parked at the shooting range. The property is 4.5 hours away and I'm down there for a few days every 6 weeks or so. The timing was perfect!

I'm going to try what Eddie did. Capture a photo from google and then mark it up in paint.

BTW: when I went to Hunterra, their FAQ section recommended a map size of 40" x 60" for properties over 100 acres

 

[MossRoad]

What's funny is if I go to google maps, google earth etc and look at the property, my truck is in the picture. I see it parked at the shooting range. The property is 4.5 hours away and I'm down there for a few days every 6 weeks or so. The timing was perfect!

I'm going to try what Eddie did. Capture a photo from google and then mark it up in paint.

BTW: when I went to Hunterra, their FAQ section recommended a map size of 40" x 60" for properties over 100 acres

The problem you're going to run in to, is that when you do a screen capture it's only the size of your monitor. If you try and print it much larger than your screen size, you'll find you'll lose quite a bit of resolution.