Map Plus

Before running out to a store to buy an “old” paper map to draw on and mark-up, I figured I’d check in the AppStore to see what kinds of maps were available to be marked up with unlimited “pins” and locations. After downloading a few apps and quickly becoming disappointed with them, and thus deleting them from my phone, I was leaning towards going with the “old” paper map purchase. I came across this app and wasn’t expecting much for what I wanted to use it for, which was the placing of unlimited travel destination “pins” all over the world, I downloaded it because it was free. I quickly came to the realization of how powerful this app is and decided to purchase the full-featured app, justifying the cost as being similar for the paper map idea I had. I have no clue of what most of the tools do, but for my purposes, this is absolutely perfect. Thank you for this open-ended map!!

I use this app principally to view georeferenced maps while out mapping in the field and can easily overlay Topo and geo maps, and while using my built in GPS unit on my IPad can precisely locate myself. Overall a great map for dropping pin locations and attach photos such that they are GPS referenced. However, my only complaint is the line drawing functionality. If developers could add a line drawing function that is more organic, such as using your finger to draw the line, that’d be a great add. If better line drawing functionality would be incorporated, it would make it such a great mapping app. As it stands, it is a great tool if you have referenced maps to use in the field or trying to plan transects without lugging around numerous paper maps.

For basic use this app works fairly well right out of the box. It includes a nice feature that reads the tags from your photos and plots them on your map. Where this app really shines though is in its more advanced features. It allows for layering of online maps and downloaded MBTiles while supporting various projections. GPX and shapefile layers are easy to add as well. It’s layering and drawing capabilities are more like a desktop app like QGIS than a mobile app. Nothing seems to be as powerful and stable. Out of the box Gaia has more maps available and its features are more accessible. However, if you need more control and have your own data sources this incredible app from China can’t be beat.

I was looking for an off line version of google maps that I could still draw on while off line. This app does it all. I use this for hinting and hiking. I love the fact that you ca also track your route as you go which is a bonus as google can’t do it. Their “no network needed” file transfer from phone to phone is great. Allow you to collaborate data collected without finding cell service first. The only upgrade I can think of would be to see your invited friends on the map when you have a data connection. Maybe establish the link when connecting wirelessly?

Professional note: When i found this 2 years ago we were stuck using google earth to read our offices .kmz files. Now all field personnel use this. Its become an invaluable tool to get our work done. Also being able to create and send your own .kmz to the office helps explain difficult terrain or situations. Personal note: I use this when we go camping and off-roading creating my own road map through the wild so to speak, using the trip recorder. I pretend to use my compass when we need to find our way back to base camp but no one knows ;)