A Better Way To Make Laser Maps - Laser Map Maker Interview

[@user-mr1pn7zh7t]

I am excited to hear from you of course but I always love hearing Daryl Aspin speak. Can’t wait, all signed up!

[@timaginations3769]

Yup, that’s my boy 👍

[@jamesbenny8716]

I signed up for the trial that first night after the show. I’m planning on keeping it because of all the maps I’m thinking about making.

[@gregparker5732]

Still needs some refinements, features, better documentation and lower pricing. A good start; I will probably wait it out to see how it develops and if the pricing becomes more affordable for a hobby map maker.

[@justinthompson7407]

I'm a GIS professional looking to make wooden maps. This looks like a cool piece of software to use if you have no GIS experience or software.

[@hinddee]

Yes. I have a degree in GIS, but other than interning I never found a job sadly. This is very interesting.

[@EB3D_Customs]

Awesome video. Thank you for sharing!!

[@EricPaul007]

Great, cool interview

[@matthewshultz24]

That is rad!!

[@namegoeshere6923]

Great interview!

[@johnanthony9923]

"Every layer costs a credit." And it's a subscription service with a very limited number of credits per year. If you're not willing to sell actual software, either charge a monthly fee *OR* charge per credit. The cheapest plan comes out to over 50 cents per layer....but only if you pay for an entire year. Am I seriously the only person tired of these garbage subscription scams for mediocre "software" that barely has a single function?

[@joh1717]

Agree 😢!

[@KlutchDecals]

Thats dopee

[@conniq1585]

Just started my trial. It was pretty easy to figure out

[@LaserEngraving911]

Nice, I found it takes some poking around but after a few minute you figure it out quick!

[@SunePedersen88]

I see circular maps on the table there. However the software seems not to support anything but square and rectangular output...

[@LaserEngraving911]

You can make the map first then use lightburn to make your own circle border

[@joh1717]

Just make it cheaper. I would buy it right away

[@evalopez6414]

This is AWESOME!

[@lastlight05]

When nobody gets on board with their sub plan they'll hopefully change or a competitor will emerge.

[@GeorgeGraves]

Video unavailable Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner Watch on KZbin

[@LaserEngraving911]

Thanks for commenting! Sorry about that. The video is working fine on my end - are you in a country where it's blocked, maybe?

[@GeorgeGraves]

@@LaserEngraving911 USA. Seattle, WA

[@t.Mooney]

Very cool, but I hate their credit system. Makes things so much more confusing and complicated.

[@LollipopWoodworksNWA]

Exactly why I won't pay for this service. It has an extremely greedy subscription model.

[@LaserMapMaker]

@@LollipopWoodworksNWA we hear you. We have a limitation in our system where our costs are directly tied to the number of layers exported. We are working on how we can remove this limitation that makes it cost prohibitive to offer unlimited exports per plan. Our goal is to make this affordable and accessible to everyone, as well as build a sustainable business that can continue to expand and develop the software platform with new features and bug fixes.

[@JackBirdbath]

@@LollipopWoodworksNWA”extremely greedy”? I haven’t used this service but I looked at their website and you can start at under $10/month, and doesn’t go above $30/month. I’ll be looking at this when I make my first map later this year, but if it saves me any time, it looks like a good value to me. If your time is worth nothing, continue to perform all the steps manually and save your $10.

[@spetsdod]

@@LaserMapMaker The primary reason I haven't signed up is the cost. $10 / mo for the Hobby plan realistically only nets you 6 maps per month if they have 3 layers. I suppose that isn't terrible, but the thing that sticks for me is the per layer charge. If there was a way to have something along the lines of X number of maps per month with Y layers, for $Z would be more appealing, assuming that your engine supports more than 3 layers. The tiled map mode would be a big help though. One very problematic limitation of Snazzy Maps is the export size and the scale limit. You have to be zoomed in pretty far to get the small roads, and at that size you need to export like 25 tiles just to get a decent sized map.

[@BobBob-eh5sb]

Assuming you have to get the map from google or some other place, are there still possible copyright restrictions?

[@jamesbenny8716]

The software had a map program with a global map. My first map was for a gift to my father in law who grew up in Italy.

[@johnanthony9923]

I am getting *REALLY* tired of these laser KZbinrs pushing any random product or scam for a buck without even the slightest regard for their subscribers. This product is a *WAY* overpriced piece of garbage. Regardless, look at which comments he responded to or liked. He IGNORED your question but went out of his way to like the reply just talking about a personal project. If you look, he also ignored any comments asking questions or saying anything even remotely critical of the product he's getting paid to push.

[@BobBob-eh5sb]

@@johnanthony9923 Yeah. I think I did hear him say later that the maps come with the program. But that still doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t a copyright infringement somewhere. I don’t really know that much about it other than you have to be careful about what you copy, especially if selling it. Some companies can get pretty indigent about it.

[@QuixoticEnt]

@@BobBob-eh5sb Seriously people, you can not copyright map or geographic data. You can copyright the style in which that data is presented, but not the data itself.

[@torowazup1]

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎

[@LaserEngraving911]

Thanks for watching!

[@j.4941]

I have a subscritption and tried this web service for many many hours now. But frankly: It is BY FAR not as good as you guys make it sound here. Yes, it takes some iteration (in total maybe a few hours) to get the settings in the tool right. But that's not all at all: Once you have your export files you need to spend HEAVY SERIOUS LONG time to sanitize them. The problem is that while the layers / files may look nice on first glance, when you zoom in you see that roads / rivers / whatever may not be a single shape or line but in fact dozens to hundreds of small, not connected mini-shapes. You will have to manually go in and delete points / delete small shapes and enlarge larger / and in fact you many have to manually hand-redraw complete sections of roads. Up to now I have finished ONE map and that one map took me (with several iterations and re-start from scratch) about 10h of work on the files. And that is ON TOP of the settings in the online-tool, 10h only for the offline sanitizing of the files. So, in summary: This is the best tool for map-makers that I have ever seen. But it is definitely NOT a "fire and forget" thing that allows you to get a map done in a fingersnip. You might get faster with practice over time, but basically: account for ~10h of sanitazing for each individual map you make. Also I have to criticize the montetisiation options: You get a number of credits each month and you can neither buy more nor carry them over into the next month. In my case: I may make 3-4 maps per year. But now with the first one I used like 10 or so credits in the process (because I had to start from scracht multiple times). So I had to switch to a higher plan.... but then I have to throw away all my remaining credits at the end of the month and cancel it until, say, september or whatevern when I want to do the next map. What a nuisance. I am all for paying people for their work, but this system is crap. Please allow me to buy whatever 20 credits or so and then make them valid for say 2 years. And if I run out I buy new. The way it is right now is just a scam.

[@kernow-alan]

Wow. How much!.. just use qgis, export, edit, cut. = Free plus loads more options and flexibility. Also qgis you can creat any type of map for free I would hardly call your software affordable, competitive and unique. Plus your mapmaker KZbin channel is terrible, in 2024 your using 360 460 video format, at least take some time and do a proper tutorial in at least 1080p. Just my personal input. 😮