I Don't Want The World, Just Your Half

May 2, 2008 5:01 AM

Looking for guidance on using Google Maps, or a workalike, for a non-map (blueprints) application.

I'd like to use the basic UI of Google Maps (or some other free/open workalike) to web-ify some blueprints so that building stakeholders can annotate and add their own 'markers' and notes.

I have looked through Google's Maps API and many online tutorials and such, but all seem to be about adding functionality to the existing geo-models (layers, notes, vectors added to street maps, etc). I've also, yes, read the previous AskMes on related Maps issues, but they're all world-map-related.

The big difference is this: I don't need the Earth, here, or geographic "infrastructure" at all: just my own large flat graphics to be navigated, zoomed in/out, and annotated with little points of interest + notes. There are no corresponding real-world locations to "overlay" this onto. It would be nice if the visibility of these annotated points could be turned on/off, layers style, too, so that comments from different people/teams could be shown or hidden, so the blueprint graphics could be viewed "clean" or marked up in various ways.

I think I have seen this done with the Maps API before (a print catalog? magazine? something) but I can't find the example now, nor any tutorials or samples.

I need very basic Maps stuff: just navigation, zooming, and point/note adding.

Again, this could be via Google Maps in some way I don't quite grok. If so, I just need a shove in the right direction or a simple, studyable source example to learn from. Or it could be some other library that provides the basic functionality of nav/zoom/add-point/add-note.

I already have very large graphics of the blueprints in question, which I can convert to any format, and I'm competent with JavaScript. I refuse to believe I should write my own framework from scratch here.

What next?

posted by rokusan to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Some useful links.

http://www.aardvarkmap.net/
http://maplib.net/
http://mapki.com/index.php?title=Add_Your_Own_Custom_Map
http://econym.googlepages.com/custommap.htm
posted by missmagenta at 5:29 AM on May 2 [1 favorite]

I've never done this, but I believe if you go here and here it will get you on your way.

And here's an example in action. Even though he's added another map, there's no requirement that the new tiles be a map.
posted by ghostmanonsecond at 5:31 AM on May 2

This isn't a map, but If you're using Autocad, you could imageref the blueprint file into a CAD file, or if you have the original file use the CAD file directly and avoid the image, and use Autodesk's free markup software Design Review.
posted by one at 6:32 AM on May 2

take a look at ModestMaps. You'd probably have to add some of your own code to get it to do exactly what you want, but i believe it was built specifically to support custom tile sets.
posted by fishfucker at 10:19 AM on May 2