I'd have a really hard time not laughing out loud at them, then stopping, realize I was being slightly insensitive, then gufawing.
This is ONLY a growing problem....
We just provide the GIS parcels data and Mtext the major roads and that's all they get.
We're doing a survey. Not handholding you to every curb cut, mail box, alley bend etc.
If you need and want a fly through of the this site, let the planner and architect know so when collect we can scan it, recap it and package it up for your fancy Revit stuff and you're welcome.
Otherwise..
GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!
I use 7.5' USGS quadrangles. I'll clip out a 4" square and sketch my parcel on it or, if the parcel is very small, I'll make a nice bold circle around the area of the project. It must be at 1:2000 though because apparently some engineers (who review my work) either scale them to make sure or they don't like my note: NOT TO SCALE. I'm not sure how I feel about them. At this point, if a subdivision map doesn't have one on it I'm like, "Where's the location map?"
I guess we have to put something on the map for everyone so that anyone can look at the map and recognize something on it. Everyone can't be a surveyor or know what we know but we can help them out with small acts of kindness.
I use the County's GIS?ÿ Centerline and Parcel files.
We use USGS 250k 100k or 7.5 Quads, whatever looks the best.?ÿ
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/39.98/-100.06
?ÿ
If the survey is tied to the PLSS or easily recognisable road intersections and North is "up" there is no need for vicinity maps anymore, but there still is a need on remote surveys that aren't tied to anything that can be quickly googled by the map illiterate. Vicinity maps are not for us or GIS people, they are for layman that need to have some idea where this thing is.?ÿ
I??ve struggled with this lately, trying about everything that has been mentioned on this thread in an attempt to become more efficient. I hate spending the time I do on a vicinity map. My next move is to research the availability of CAD files from DOT of roads by county. Xref label, done. At least that??s the theory.?ÿ
If I'm working in one of the more remote areas or villages I'm not at all familiar with a vicinity map can be good to get a general area to begin my research. In the case of our larger towns, over my time here and with the use of GPS, all projects are now tied together so I've been creating base drawings of the whole area and add as new projects arise. I can then use this as a nice vicinity map. This is also beneficial in that I've drawn it once in CAD all the next person has to do is confirm what lines have or haven't changed over the years.
Most towns near me have pretty good GIS data. Sometimes I need to supplement with Google Maps to get the names of rivers and ponds that somehow got omitted in the GIS.
I use the GIS to get adjoining property owner's names and deed references anyway. Then I copy and paste from the screen to an image file, insert the image into the CAD program and trace it to get a vicinity map.
I am careful to state that the vicinity map is "not to scale" after having a spat with a lawyer who claimed my survey was wrong based on some assumption he made from one that I showed on a survey.
I've always just took a screenshot of the local GIS and then traced over the parcel boundary and hatched it.?ÿ I always scale mine to show a road or some other landmark.?ÿ I've noticed plenty of guys don't bother doing this which of course makes the vicinity map useless.?ÿ If you're going to do a crappy job on it, then yeah, don't even bother, imo.
Has anyone contacted Google about this? Arguments about copyrighted images have been going on for a long time. It has been argued, that if just one pixel of an original image has been altered, than it is not the original image.
?ÿit is not the original image.
I don't think that argument holds up. In literary material publishing somebody's work with changed character names and a few different details or an occasional paraphrase is still plagiarism and copyright violation.
The test is whether it is still substantially the same.
Has anyone contacted Google about this??ÿ
Their terms of service seem to put this on the fringe. They are mostly concerned with someone using large parts of their data to support a new service that in some way competes.
There is a requirement for attribution on permitted uses.
It is fairly common to find businesses using their maps on web sites to help customers find them. It isn't clear to me if that is permitted or just not actively enforced.
They give some guidance on customizing images that would seem to indicate this might be fair use.
https://about.google/brand-resource-center/products-and-services/geo-guidelines/
@andy-j?ÿ
I like vicinity maps because they give you a perspective of what's around your job site. The county I work for requires us to draw a site map in our field books for every project.
Well, google builds their GIS off of (among other things) our maps and I'm pretty sure we're not seeing a dime from them so... maybe they've decided it's wise to avoid biting the hand that feeds them. ????ÿ
