I want to look at/print out a map with my address in the center, and a circle with a 4 mile radius around it. Is there a site where I can do this without printing it out and getting out the ruler/compass?
Well, getting a map with your home in the center you can do at expedia or any other site. Then drawing a circle of any diameter you can easily do yourself using any graphics program…
The only problem with that is the following:
The 3 mile zoom map shows all the streets but is too small in size. The next zoom out is the 6 mile map which only has the main roads.
My google search for radius maps found no free sites.
The ruler/compass method may be a lot cheaper than shelling out several hundred books for a GIS software package.
Maptech has topographic maps online, and a print function. The 1:100,000 scale should be just about the right size for you (1:24,000 is default, but you can change it). All the streets show up at this scale, but only a few of them are likely to have their names printed. You can recenter the map, but I’m not sure if you can recenter it to exacly one spot. You’ll have to add the circle yourself.
well, when I want a large scale map I just download several adjacent sections and patch them together using any graphics program. I’ve done this with several maps and with some satelite photos of myt neighborhood.
Or you can buy Microsoft’s “Streets & Trips 2001” for $29.95. You can draw circles or other shapes and print the map.
You might also have some luck using:
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp
Click on your continent, country, state, region, locale, etc. until you get to your community (or enter the latitude and longitude for your house*) and then move in and out as needed. Depending on where you live, you will have available a USGS topographical map and possibly either a U.S. satellite photo of your house and neighborhood or a Russian satellite photo of your house and neighborhood or both).
*To get the latitude and longitude of your house, try http://www.mapsonus.com (registry required, but money is not) and look up your address. One map option is the latitude and longitude. Mapsonus provides the latitude/longitude in “decimal” format which Terraserver accepts. (From the Terraserver home page, click Advanced Search, then choose Decimal Latitude and Decimal Longitude on the lower right of the screen.)
An extra large map size might allow enough to be displayed for your purposes at the closer zoom.
With Maps On Us, click on “map settings” (under “tools”) to change the map size up to 800x700 pixels.
With MapBlast, click on “my MapBlast”/“preferences” to choose among different map widths and lengths up to 720x640 pixels.
With MapQuest you have two map sizes and can also display color aerial photography.
If none of this works, you might have to generate multiple maps at your zoom level and stitch them together with a graphics program. Tedious, but it’ll do the job.