Archive for March 24th, 2010
Where can I download free vector maps?
www.flosm.de/ai/
This website offers detailed Illustrator maps of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Great Brittain and Ireland. All images are nicely layered as well.
www.openstreetmap.org
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. If you click the “Export” tab, you can export the map you are viewing as a .jpg , .png , .svg , .pdf or postscript file. The .svg , .pdf or postscript options all produce vector images. Unfortunately, all the images will only have one layer.
How do I open my Google Maps route in Adobe Illustrator?
In Google Maps, you have the “My maps” link. If you are logged in with your Google Account, this is the place where you can save your driving directions, or locations or routes you can create on Google maps.
For a project I was doing, I needed to export a route I had drawn in Google Maps to a path I could use in Illustrator. This is how I did it:
- Create your route in Google Maps.
- Save it in “My Maps”.
- Click on the “View in Google Earth” link (in the blue bar above the map right).
- You can now download your route as a .kml file.
- Surf to app.indiemapper.com
- Click on the “LAUNCH Indieprojector” button.
- Now open the downloaded .kml file.
- After successfully opening the .kml file, click on the “export” button (top right).
- Save the .svg file.
- Open the saved .svg file in Illustrator.
- Done!
Link: projector.indiemapper.com
Status: Tested it, works.