Map Navigation Control Approach - .NET

Question

Hi,

I'd like to know what could be the best approach to develop a Windows desktop application that has a map navigability control - very similar to those in Google Maps and Live Maps, with drag and drop support and so on.

Initially, due to time restrictions, I was thinking about a WinForms solution - I think one future solution using WPF would be better, but I'd have to learn all that WPF stuff first.

With that in mind, what approach should I take to develop that? It could be a third part tool, or some simple implementation/algorithm that I could take some ideas from. To be honest, I'm kinda lost, so any idea would be helpful.

Thanks, have a great day

Answer 1

Hi Poco, take a look at this codeplex project. Reviewing the Source and downloading the sample project should be a good start.

GMap.Net @ Codeplex

Answer 2

I've already tried http://www.codeplex.com/SharpMap

Answer 3

There is open-source application Kosmos for browsing OpenStreetMap maps http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Kosmos

However it reads OSM data and renders it on the fly.

I guess you need some example which loads map tiles and put them in the right order. There is such an example for OpenStreetMap: project osmclient on the sourceforge (sorry cannot post a link, i am a newbie)

It can be simply redone to load other sources, even ArcGIS, but be sure if it is compatible with the Map Provider licence. E.g. you cannot choose Google Maps, because you must use Google Maps within their API.