gift for an urban planning guy

October 27, 2005 10:30 AM

Gifts for an uncle (in India) into urban planning? Software?

Posted for a friend who will be visiting India around Christmas time (she and her family are Indian):

"I've an uncle (in India) who's into urban planning and development. And the keywords of his work are materials management, city planning, city development, human resource management, infrastructure development for cities, that sort of thing. I was wondering if there was any software that would be useful to him in his work, and I don't know anything either about software or about urban planning."

She hasn't given me a price range (she's fairly gainfully employed). Any suggestions?

posted by amtho to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition. I love that game. From what I remember from the fan forums, where one finds mods and other stuff, there are many urban planners who enjoy the game too and actively participate in the community.
posted by riffola at 10:43 AM on October 27, 2005

It's not useful for work, but it'd be fun for him to play with it.
posted by riffola at 10:44 AM on October 27, 2005

Land Desktop, Civil, Raster Design, etc., from Autodesk are all quite expensive and useful.
Any GIS would probably be appreciated, ArcView, etc.
But really, we'd need to know what platform the uncle uses, what software he already has, etc.
posted by signal at 11:57 AM on October 27, 2005

computer parts are crazy expensive in india from what I understand (apparently they're taxed quite heavily when they come into the country).* Maybe she can smuggle in some RAM or something?

* Indians, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
posted by fishfucker at 12:54 PM on October 27, 2005

yay, another SimCity addict! I recommend that too. (and if they go that route, make sure they know about Simtropolis -- awesome website that has lots of great stuff for the game)
posted by evening at 1:39 PM on October 27, 2005