The Easiest Way to Make Maps!

Maps are one of coolest things you make with a laser, plus they are a great item to sell! They just have been really hard to make in the past, this new tool might just change that.
Laser Map Maker (affiliate) - geni.us/laser-map-make
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:28 - Other Map Tools
01:48 - Tutorial

[@t.Mooney]

Very cool. But a one time fee would have been far more preferred. A subscription with a cap on usage is kind of predatory. Very sad. Maybe someone will make a better version.

[@makeorbreakshop]

I did an interview with them as well that I plan to release. It’s a 2 person brother team and they seem pretty awesome. I get the one time fee especially with things like Lightburn. One thing they mentioned that I hadn’t thought about is alot of the data they pull in they get charged on a per use basis, so some of that is flowing through.

[@EaselCat]

100% they are trying to do the Adobe thing, this approach will not work.

[@3DPrintedProps]

If you're a small business owner selling laser maps, this would save a ton of time. Will check it out for sure.

[@makeorbreakshop]

Yeh it makes a lot of sense if you are selling a final product. So you can factor in the cost of the subscription/design into the price of the map when it sells.

[@LindseyMuller12345]

Not worth it with the cap on every subscription level.

[@MakeSomething]

Wow, this is awesome.

[@makeorbreakshop]

The guys making it seem to be pretty great too, chatted with them earlier this week.

[@RDF-TV]

This looks very handy and user friendly. Im not a biiiiiig fan of a ‘credits’ system though

[@letoxique]

i also found no info on the site about what a credit is even used for. Is one complete export one credit? Or one layer? Or rendering one map? Also it doesn't look like you could take remaining credits to the next month. And 12$ per month also sounds a bit pricey to me. Which is a shame, because the tool itself looks really neat

[@t.Mooney]

​@@letoxique They say 1 credit is 1 layer export. So your looking at multiple credits per map.

[@makeorbreakshop]

1 credit per layer of export. But you can out as much as you want on one layer. The layers export as individual svg’s, but I bet you could change up the color on the different things and split it later.

[@onecarwood]

@@makeorbreakshopbut the that’s pretty much the best thing about it. Easy separate layers. You take that away and it’s really just like googles tool.

[@leowatley]

your pizza planet shirt makes me very happy.

[@RickPMandel]

It had me until I looked at the pricing plans. Maybe if all I did was make maps for a living, it would be nice. But, for someone who makes one every few months, no matter how good it is, it's not worth it. On the upside, this a very good, produced and edited video.

[@markferrick10]

Nice front-end to OpenMaps. You get the same output ( well almost ) as QGIS without the learning curve. But, I will stick with QGIS. Thanks for the video.

[@ThatTiredVulture]

This might not be the right video to ask this one but as someone who's trying to get into laser engravers as a hobby/potentionally starting a business, any recommendations regarding workspace? I personally dont have a lot of room to work with and would probably end up having to use a bedroom for the laser I'd end up purchasing, do you think it'd be fine to have a smaller C02 laser or a bigger diode in bedroom on a desk or something? Kinda concerned with needing stuff like chillers or other bits alongside something like a C02 laser.

[@bobbyramsey2694]

Are you able to choose specific roads to highlight or is it just all or nothing with main roads and secondary roads etc

[@makeorbreakshop]

you can't go individual roads, they all have to be the same type of road

[@jeweldey3699]

I make and sell laser engraved wooden and color printed maps, major cities, towns even area and streets, so they sell well. I have used quite a few different software programs to accomplish my goals. I used QGIS for when I needed buildings, Snazzy Maps for streets, roads and highways, finally Open Street Map for a little bit of both. Snazzy is the easiest but you can’t export SVG files for editing, nor does it do buildings at the resolution I need. QGIS and Open Street Map both do buildings but have Steeper leaning curves with multiple steps and that slows down my workflow. I would love to offer custom maps, but the time it takes me to design one map, to sell that one map, makes it a poor financial decision (time is money). I have other products that are far easier to make, and therefore more profitable. If Laser Map Maker is easier to use and can draw up buildings and exports SVG files, then I can make custom maps faster and make more money, then it is a good deal to me.

[@makeorbreakshop]

Pretty sure you are the exact right use case for it. I’ve used QGIS before and it takes awhile. Once you get your first map set up, all you have to do is change the location and export the files and bring into Lightburn, cuts the time way down.

[@jeweldey3699]

@@makeorbreakshop that sounds great! BTW, I learned how to make layered maps on QGIS from your video.

[@backyardbeesllc5691]

Very expensive and yet another subscription based program!

[@onecarwood]

Pretty expensive. At four layers a map you get about 5 maps in a month. Sure you could export combined layers but then that’s the best thing about the app without that it’s not worth much at all.

[@eliasgrey7480]

Curious have you ever made 4-5 maps per month? Or paid someone else to make 4-5 maps per month? It would cost 5 times the amount of one month at Laser Map Maker's subscription price if you are lucky. Not to mention the time you save! :)

[@onecarwood]

The point in racing to the bottom is valid.

[@MrStrosty]

So if I’m reading the pricing right. If I purchase the hobby plan I get 18 layers of download a month? So if I theoretically have 2 projects that have 9 layers a piece, that’s all I get?

[@derekwright2388]

Knowing the dev is watching this, quick question, is it USA only?

[@makeorbreakshop]

Not the dev, but can say it’s worldwide. The map I show at the end with the water is Norway, ha

[@EaselCat]

They must think they are Adobe with the pricing structure.

[@dannyboycalifornia]

ah yes... of course its a monthly subscription.

[@steveferguson1232]

What about a lake topography map

[@makeorbreakshop]

They can do ocean shelf data, but the crazier stuff is further down the line.

[@steveferguson1232]

@@makeorbreakshop you always do great detailed videos and this is what I love about your channel

[@makeorbreakshop]

Thanks!

[@Golfexpertbelieveme]

What is the deal with the credits I see on the pricing page? Also do you have a twin or did I just see you on a tv show I am watching?

[@neilphillips9163]

Nope. The subscription cost doesn’t make sense for a hobbyist, and is expensive for someone trying to make these to sell.

[@j.4941]

There’s a free trial month. So if you just want to do a few maps within one month you’re good.

[@onecarwood]

@@j.4941can you export them?

[@BluIndusrtiesLLC]

The esoftware runs from 12.00 a month for amateur hobby users, 24.00 a month for an upgraded semi pro plan, 36.00 a month for professional, top tier users. I don’t make a bunch of maps but the free alternatives take 3 - 5 times as long to make. 5 to 6 times slower when you have settings dialed. Without this you have to have a decent understanding of several free softwares, Ai or some similar program for dealing with image layers, a computer able to run your t😢software which soft 50.00 a month or hundreds of dollars upfront and weeks to learn the programs that will still work at maybe 20% of the speed this will. I guess what I am saying is when making things to sell we should not be worried about racing to the bottom on price. Non framed picture like this sell all day 12x12 for like 40.00. Sell them to couples as a first date, house, wedding, whatever. A sign made out of all wood painted in this size you should laser time + design time + paint time + finishing time. They can take an hour or so to make with about 5.00 worth of materials. The amount made off a basic non framed map of a city in 12x12 bass ply 1/8!inch thick on a layers and a backing. One sign a month would pay the pro membership and Ai interface to research the market.

[@j.4941]

@@BluIndusrtiesLLC i totally agree. If you’re a hobby DIY and want to do one map then the free trial is fair and plenty of what you need. And if you sell the maps then those plans are in your budget easily. Also don’t forget that you don’t need to use this tool every time you laser a map but only once you want to create a new one. If you’re (like me) doing stuff for a local audience then you might need 5 or 10 maps for the communities around you and once you have those downloaded you can quit the plan and sell the same thing as often as you want. For the amount of work that’s in this service and the size of the addressable market, the price is fair.

[@BluIndusrtiesLLC]

@@j.4941 yes. The first map I made in traditional software took me an hour and with this I can do it in 20 minutes The the pro plan Is uder 50 a month. I value my time at close to 75.00 an hour. That means this program pays for itself, in my time alone, cutting one map a month. 2 a pays all my software, 5 a month for marketing and ads. 5 a month isn’t hard even at 75.00. These things can sell for hundreds each if you put the finish time in them. Heck I sell a lot of stuff to stores who sell it. I still make a ton of money that way and have no real overhead. A couple of dollars in materials and my time. Once you get the ball rolling I the hard part is keeping up with it all. With the 20 minutes creation time, I use laser cut time to working on getting new orders and stuff while the laser runs. I only pay my laser 10.00 an hour. So I can paint, glue, finish, design, etc while I wait on it. Making money at this job is far more about time management than anything else, my opinion.

[@ddebuss]

I'd be willing to pay for this cause it seems great. A subscription that pays for credits that expire is where I have a problem. I get busy and focus on things for chunks of time. I'd be more excited if it were just a pure credit play, a subscription with credits that don't expire at the end of the month, or credits that maybe expire but after a couple months after they are received. Regardless I may give it a try.

[@makeorbreakshop]

Oh that’s a great idea

[@zack_anderson]

too expensive for me

[@VIPER35GP]

Ahhh nice, thx for this, wait gotta subscribe? Naa

[@Oggies100]

Credits that expire and a subscription is a rip-off, like gift cards that expire, they get my money and if I don't use it I lose it. Wouldn't deal with this type of model. It's not like its cheap to start with

[@robr6925]

Will not be paying for this one

[@StevenDavisPhoto]

looks like they're just using snazzy maps on the backend. anyone with a decent tech knowledge should be able to get this for free.

[@makeorbreakshop]

shoot me a link when you make it, would love to check it out!

[@jwhiting352]

I’ll stick with snazzy maps and affinity designer. No monthly cost. I don’t like subscriptions.

[@airwolf08]

Not worth the price

[@rope6307]

No, not paying for that.

[@reinniesing6289]

Too expensive for a hobbyist!!!