Looking for a way to overlay animal range maps over each other

[Giesela]

I guess this is more of a software application question maybe?

I'd like to be able to graphically overlay range maps over each other in such a way that I can pick and choose each overlay.

I'd like to see where certain animal ranges converge or come close to each as a way to pick vacation destinations, retirement locations, satisfy my curiousity etc.

[TN Tin Man]

The old school way is thick clear vinyl sheet.. making a binder with your maps in between the vinyl. Then use grease pens on the vinyl. Maybe you can use digital pins on a map Google Earth has that feature..

[harry chickpea]

Photoshop or photoshop clones can do that. Many times maps have to be re-sized, so a graphic editor is the place to start. The relative transparency of the layers can be adjusted, or layers stacked and made visible or invisible according to your needs.

[OwlKaMyst]

Yes- photoshop...each 'zone' or animal/territory you would make a new blank layer and can name it to identify the animal or territory that it is- you can have a line for the parameter, or a whole 'cloud' of color and then adjust the opacity for that layer. Once you have all your data in layers, you can pick and choose what ones to see by turning different layers off and on (visible)- what ever you do- always make a second layer that is a copy of your original map layer and work off that- and don't ever merge your layers.

[Giesela]

Photoshop is sort of expensive and complicated isn't it? Still, I appreciate the info, hearing Photoshop vs google earth or arcGIS is a surprise, never would have thought

Did a very quick google and found this but the downloads don't open. is .shp a photoshop extension?

http://www.natureserve.org/getData/mammalMaps.jsp

Usually if I've had the thought, someone somewhere has too, not sure yet though

[Giesela]

Googled shp - its a GIS shapefile extension so the nature serve stuff isnt available to me I guess

[OwlKaMyst]

There are photoshop clones that are cheaper.
And there is the 'complicated' aspect to photoshop. I do a whole lot with it and still have not even come close to using it to half of its potential.
All you need from what ever program you find is the ability to have separate layers, each layer can act as a transparent sheet as it was done in the old days.
Making layers is one of the easier things done in photoshop or similar programs

[Stubblejumper]

ESRI offers limited ArcGIS Explorer for free. I'm not sure what capabilities Explorer has and what it's missing, but it may be worth looking into.

[marigolds6]

PostGIS and Quantum GIS are two open source options, among several, for doing GIS work involving shapefiles.
You can also use Arc2Earth to convert the shapefiles to KML for use with google maps.