Posted by Frans on Jul 04, 2011; 12:08pm
URL: https://forum.librecad.org/LibreCAD-for-mapping-tp4549798.html

Ries, Firstly congratulations on a very good program.
I am working for Department of Agriculture (Soil Conservation services) in South Africa and I want to try something different with LibreCAD. My job is doing and teaching ranch/farm planning for farmers, which entails the drawing of a map of the ranch with the existing infrastructure (fences, paddocks, pipelines, roads, etc.) and then also draw new proposed improvements on the map.
How I am doing it at the moment is:
I identify the farm on Google Earth. Then I add placemarks as reference points on the GE image and I measure the horizontal- and vertical distances between the points and then save the bitmap image.
Then I go to my CAD program (I am using AllyCad), I load the bitmap as a background image. I measure the distances between the reference points that I added on the picture and then scale the size of the bitmap, untill the distances between the reference points are correct. Then I draw my map on top of the background image. It is important to be able to measure the sizes of the different camps/paddocks, lands, etc. on the map.
If this can be done by using LibreCAD it will enable many farmers to draw their own affordable farm maps instead of paying consultants to develope it for them.
Do you think it will be possible to do this in LibreCAD?
I do not see the function for measuring an area in hectares or sq meters.
Can I load a bitmap image and draw on top of it?
I am using Windows XP and the Help file does not work on it.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

Frans