I wanted to start a discussion on mapping, navigation, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to provide a space for questions and learning. I currently work as a GIS Analyst and did some map production while in college. I know that GIS stuff can sometimes be hard to learn, so I wanted to make a post offering up assistance. If anyone has any questions let me know and I can try to help you out. If you wanted to start getting into map production or preparing your own data for programs like ATAK, I would start by recommending QGIS on your desktop. It is free and open source, but also powerful enough that we still use it at work even with access to paid programs. I have used QGIS to prepare stream networks, roads, trails, and imagery for ATAK with good success in the past.
Thanks, Liam! I'll have to look into QGIS.
Thanks for be willing to share your knowledge Liam!
Thank you very much Liam for being willing to share your experience. I have a question - how do you export imagery for ATAK from QGIS?
Assuming you already have georeferenced imagery:
You will want to save the layer out, probably as a TIFF, to a local folder and then I plug my phone into my computer and transfer that TIFF into a folder that I have prepared. I then use the import manager in ATAK to import from local SD. When you import the TIFF, it should then show up under Maps & Favs in the Imagery section.
For images that are not georeferenced:
While you can use the Rubber Sheet tool to georeference an image, it may be preferred to do that in QGIS. When traveling I frequently take photos of trail maps or park maps, and then with a couple minutes in ATAK using the Rubber Sheet tool, you can import and line up that non-geographic image to the basemap in ATAK. This could also be achieved in QGIS using the Georeferencer tool; importing an image, georeferencing, and then saving out the file to TIFF or another format that can contain geographic information.
For finding/downloading imagery, in the past I have used the EarthExplorer website from USGS.