Gridding a Map

Using Tope Explorer! Colorado, overlay UTM grid lines. The program gives an option for size. I use 154 meters which is 500 feet on a 1:24,000 scale. Those that prefer tenths of a mile use 161 meters.

Then copy this map into Excel.



Draw lines along the grid lines and then delete the map. After that, group the lines. This process only has to be done once if you save the file and always use the same scale.

Rotate the gridlines the amount of variation. In this case, 8 degrees.

Then import the map without gridlines. Send the picture to the back and slide it so crossing lines are at the start.



Now you don't have to deal with variation because there is an easy way to orient MN overlay

That's pretty cool. Now, how do you do it with a full USPS map on a tiff file and then resize to zoom in and get the right scale?

I'm a little skeptical about this procedure. If I understand it right, you have shifted the TUM grid to align with MN, which is fine if you want to be aware of MN variation and dispense with all that math. This is certainly advantageous for a lot of uses.

However, you have just disoriented the UTM grid and any coordinates you have or might obtain are useless. This is very bad for other purposes. How would you give your location to SAR groups? How would you fix the position of an archaeological site (my particular usage)?....

If the file can be imported to Excel, it can be done. Use the scale to draw a grid in whatever scale it's in. Then use a program like Snipit to cut out the part you want. Then resize it to whatever zoom level you want.

The latitude and longitude are still along the side of the map for SAR. Plus they would get the 911 from my SPOT. Or I could read the location off my GPS.

For archeological finds, I could just read the distance from the start on the vertical and horizontal axis. As long as I remember the start point, I can find it with a magnetic grid.

I designed this for use navigating with a compass I described here. http://gramcracker-gershon.blogspot.com/2012/02/navigating-without-map.html

It is the same site I put up the other day.

Say I travel 075 for 500 feet. I've gone 485' north and 130 feet east. Then I go 070 for 400 feet. That leg is 376' north and 136 east. So I'm 861 feet north and 266 feet east.
As long as I keep a log of my vectors, when I take a break I can sum the movements and know exactly where I am. With that information, I can easily put a dot on the map.

Compare that to trying to orient the map on a windy day on a slope or using a protractor. Then trying to sum vectors using small movements. The last is pretty impossible. The first is simple, although time consuming. It's intended for bushwacking, not for trails.

Learning that now in GIS II. Its going to be a combo of raster and vector data. Probably a simple transparency raster map with a vector map with all your lines drawn.

I think you would be better off using ArcMap and utilizing the features they have to automatically align the maps perfectly by setting the grid size.