Hi Steve. I have been absent a while, so, will be binge watching your vids in the next fw weeks. You always bring awesome, concise excellent content, and I for one have learned a great deal from you. Thank you for all you do for those of us wishing to learn and develop - sharing your time and expertise is very much appreciated...Terry
Thanks Steve, very interesting. Have played a little with Snazzy Maps and it worked but it was a navigation to get it done for sure . Hello from the Annapolis Valley!!
Thanks. They are a great team of makers, so they understand what we need and are actively working on lots of great new features. I can't wait to see their improvements to topographical mapping.
Steve, thanks for keeping the video short and to the point. There are some laser folks on RUclips that have good content, but can't seem to keep their videos to less than 45 minutes or an hour! This appears to a good product and I look forward to giving it a try if they introduce a free trial. Over $100 yr for the most basic level is a high price considering that a full featured product like Lightburn is only $60 and after a 30 day free trial.
I try to keep videos under 10 minutes if I can - 12minutes tops. Wait a bit and I think LLM will create a better free tier. It was something I pushed on pretty hard. They of course need to find a balance between paying MapBox and Amazon for their cloud application, and how to host a service free to you that is costing them money everytime you generate a map. Tough problem to solve.
@@EaselCat Unfortunately that subscription model is taking hold. It really has nothing to do with Adobe. I guess it boils down to need. If you have a business and you need to generate lots of maps, then this is a great deal, but if you are a hobbyist just wanting to generate a map of your city to hang on the wall, you probably don't need this.
Thanks for the review. I tried making a map of an area of UK and it has flawed data, sadly. They have a free trial and their software, which is useful. Make a map of an area you are familiar with and check it in detail rather than assuming it will be right. Sadly I had to cancel for now as they can't correct the water data for UK, but loved how simple the software worked. Huge potential and I'll take another look in 6 months or so. Your walk through was really easy to follow & there's huge potential for this software in areas where the data is correct. Definitely worth a try.
I’ve seen a couple of places where the mapping data isn’t right. Not much they or you can do about this since it’s related to the mapping source. Hopefully the data providers eventually get all of these bugs cleaned up.
Thank you for the info! I was wondering how I could get into laser map production. I hope this will help me put what is in my head into an actual, functional design.
I have a BA and a Master's in GIS and discovering laser cut maps was better than any professional mapping I've ever done in 28 years!! Seems the market is flooded with them, though. Need to figure a way to take them to a whole new level! LOL Love your vids, as always!
I've been doing maps for a few years. I've been marketing them as custom gifts, instead of trying to sell specific cities on Etsy. I did a craft show a few Fridays ago. Had lots of interest in the maps. By the end of the weekend, I had 5 custom map jobs.
I didn't do any mask; however my roads on the green layer were a bit under-engraved and I think doing more would have created some char and ruin the paint. I'm tempt to use clear acrylic for this layer so I can engrave on the front and paint the back.
Hey Steve, I've been using SM for about three years without difficulty. I think once you get a process down, it's pretty straightforward. Does LMM do Bathymetric maps, that would be a momentous development. Thanks!
Hi Steve, thanks for this video and your effort you put into this. I run into this service two weeks ago and found it is a decent tool. But biggest downside aside their pricing is that buildings are not shown at a certain zoom level. Unfortunately same approach for snazzy maps and all google maps related services. So if you need the buildings in the map only way is to select a very tiny section 😞 Ot did you find a solution for this aside QGIS?
I think the building problem is kind of universal for all mapping tools. I don’t think there is much you can do about this since it is coming from the map data rather than the tools.
@marcojurgel1065 there is a map scaling tool in Laser Map Maker that can increase the amount of detail shown at higher zoom levels. It's currently tops out at 200% scale, but this quite significantly changes what you can see from a higher zoom. In the future we will allow even further scaling to enable those features only available typically at lower zoom levels.
It is definitely nicer than SnazzyMaps. Basically what they did was filter out a lot of the unnecessary noise in SM and clear up the user experience. While I was talking to Laser Map Maker about some changes I'd like, they dropped a new version of the code, so they are clearly eager to grow/improve their tool.
@@SteveMakesEverything awesome def going to check it out i do a lot of laser maps on slate and cutting boards I do agree the price is a bit much so sick of everything being a subscription but if the user experience is better the lowest one may work for me and selling just one would cover the subscription
You can still use LLM. Create the land layer and either cut out the water or not, then create a road layer and engrave it onto the same pice of material. Just one layer overall. If you can't figure this out let me know and I can do a quick follow-up video.
I started a free 2 week trial although that pretty much means 1 map and then you have to update. It seemed okay but sometimes I prefer scored lower level roads but I do not see a way to do that with LMM and I have not received any support from them/him. I hate to invest a years worth of maps up front and find this is someone hosting on a home server that closes down soon.
@@SteveMakesEverything It appears I have a different version than you, i do not have "low" or "case" roads. I do have outlines so I remove that but it still imports to lightburn as a 2 line fill not single line score. not horrible but i'd like that option., thanks for your response sir.
@@cluanardavidson9214 If you have them selected in one of your map layers then they won't show up in the list. Try try start a new blank map, add a layer and then start adding roads to it. You should see a bunch that end with the word "Case"
The price for this is too much of a barrier. Hobby level gives you 18 credits, and each layer is a credit, so the map Steve created here cost him 3 credits. If you create a map with 4 or 5 layers, that is 4 or 5 credits. You only get 18 credits per month for $120/yr. It's a nice service, and looks great, but that is pretty steep.
I would buy it but...... paying (and quite much) for every map you create and export? Come on... Charge a price for the package, could be even a FAIR yearly subscription. But pay per extract..... not my money they're taking.
For everyone complaining about the price, just do the $9.99 option. You get 216 credits. Sign up, get all the maps you could want for those credits and cancel. Sell some and then come back and do more if you need. $9.99 for something you’re going to sell isn’t bad. Quit being freeloaders
Well having worked with both cloud services and MapBox myself in the past, I know that they wouldn’t make money at $3/map and that’s actually more than they charge for the number of maps you could build with their $10 plan. I have no influence of their pricing, but they are a business, so free for the good of humanity isn’t an option. When you make a map for someone, are you going to give it away? If you made one map and sold it, you would earn more than enough to pay for a month of subscription. In short if it was free, it wouldn’t exist. To be clear, SnazzyMaps isn’t free either. I will point to the terms of use for SnazzyMap and while it’s free for personal use, you need a business licence to sell anything you make with it. Guess what, it’s $10/month too.
Seems like some people want a free map service so that they can cut maps and sell them, If you use someone's product to create yours, you have a responsibility to share the profit, otherwise the creator of the software goes belly-up and you no longer have great software A rising tide lifts all boats.
This is a common-sense insight. Definitely, if you are making maps to sell, you would easily pay for any subscription for this - probably on the first map you sell.
They just need a tier where you get one free every few months for hobbyists. The developer will get their money back in RUclips vids of hobbies and word of mouth. The Free trial is nice and works, but will be one and done or you will find a way to abuse that.
I watched this then tried out Laser Map Maker. Its really bad and i wasted over 8 hrs. With a paid service and no customer service too. I think it's easier to use snazzy maps and if you want it even more crisp, edit roads on your ipad
If you're willing to climb the Snazzy Maps learning curve, there's nothing wrong with it. Laser Map Maker is just easier to use, especially for new users.
Yes, there are several free options, but ease of use has a price too. As Laser Map Maker has evolved, it can also do things that many of the free mapping tools can't - at least not in a single tool (e.g. Bathymetry and even segmented map). At the end of the day, use whatever tool suits your needs.
Yup, it does cost money and I don't set the prices of things. This one does have capabilities that Snazzy Maps doesn't and it's easier to use. In the end use the tools you are comfortable with.
I don't set the prices. I can only comment on what the tool can do. If you're getting Photoshop for $10/month, please tell me where you're buying it - I would certainly buy into it for that.
Hey, I'm a maker as well, so I feel the financial pain too. A big part of my discussion with LLM was about a free tier that would allow someone making a map or two to do something useful. Keep in mind, for you to build a free map, LLM is paying for MapBox and Amazon AWS, so I'm sure even the hobby tier is pretty much cost recovery.
@@SteveMakesEverything I understand that Steve, but I’ve never been a fan of subscription services. If you make software sell the software and be done with it. When you’re at the intro level like I am, nine dollars a month may not sound like much, but to me it is, especially when I’m paying $277 a month for stupid cell phone service
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi Steve. I have been absent a while, so, will be binge watching your vids in the next fw weeks. You always bring awesome, concise excellent content, and I for one have learned a great deal from you. Thank you for all you do for those of us wishing to learn and develop - sharing your time and expertise is very much appreciated...Terry
Welcome back Terry!
Thanks Steve, very interesting. Have played a little with Snazzy Maps and it worked but it was a navigation to get it done for sure . Hello from the Annapolis Valley!!
Ha, it was in the Annapolis valley today.
LMM has certainly come a long way and its good to see a video showing their application in action. Thanks
Thanks. They are a great team of makers, so they understand what we need and are actively working on lots of great new features. I can't wait to see their improvements to topographical mapping.
Steve, thanks for keeping the video short and to the point. There are some laser folks on RUclips that have good content, but can't seem to keep their videos to less than 45 minutes or an hour! This appears to a good product and I look forward to giving it a try if they introduce a free trial. Over $100 yr for the most basic level is a high price considering that a full featured product like Lightburn is only $60 and after a 30 day free trial.
I try to keep videos under 10 minutes if I can - 12minutes tops.
Wait a bit and I think LLM will create a better free tier. It was something I pushed on pretty hard. They of course need to find a balance between paying MapBox and Amazon for their cloud application, and how to host a service free to you that is costing them money everytime you generate a map. Tough problem to solve.
When I say they were doing the Adobe style pricing Im out.
@@EaselCat Unfortunately that subscription model is taking hold. It really has nothing to do with Adobe. I guess it boils down to need. If you have a business and you need to generate lots of maps, then this is a great deal, but if you are a hobbyist just wanting to generate a map of your city to hang on the wall, you probably don't need this.
Thanks for the review. I tried making a map of an area of UK and it has flawed data, sadly. They have a free trial and their software, which is useful. Make a map of an area you are familiar with and check it in detail rather than assuming it will be right. Sadly I had to cancel for now as they can't correct the water data for UK, but loved how simple the software worked. Huge potential and I'll take another look in 6 months or so.
Your walk through was really easy to follow & there's huge potential for this software in areas where the data is correct. Definitely worth a try.
I’ve seen a couple of places where the mapping data isn’t right. Not much they or you can do about this since it’s related to the mapping source. Hopefully the data providers eventually get all of these bugs cleaned up.
Just signed up for this amazing service! Thanks so much Steve (used your YT link)
Glad it is helpful
Thanks, Steve! You're a fountain of knowledge.
Happy to help!
This is excellent, soooo helpful, thank you for your explanation!!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for the info! I was wondering how I could get into laser map production. I hope this will help me put what is in my head into an actual, functional design.
Glad it was helpful! Good luck on your quest and shout if there is content you’d like to see covered
Thanks for the intro!
Glad you liked this.
I have a BA and a Master's in GIS and discovering laser cut maps was better than any professional mapping I've ever done in 28 years!! Seems the market is flooded with them, though. Need to figure a way to take them to a whole new level! LOL
Love your vids, as always!
I've been doing maps for a few years. I've been marketing them as custom gifts, instead of trying to sell specific cities on Etsy. I did a craft show a few Fridays ago. Had lots of interest in the maps. By the end of the weekend, I had 5 custom map jobs.
I was pushing on LLM to expand Topographical map support as quickly as possible because lots of people seem willing to pay for that.
This is awesome! People do seem willing to pay for maps. LLM claimed that they add arbitrary labelling support too. They have a lot of work to do 😁
You mentioned contoured maps, did they mention depth maps for water too?
Yes, it was something I specifically asked for. They are moving pretty fast on this.
Thanks! Cool tool. Question for you...after you prepainted, did you mask then cut? Or no mask?
I didn't do any mask; however my roads on the green layer were a bit under-engraved and I think doing more would have created some char and ruin the paint. I'm tempt to use clear acrylic for this layer so I can engrave on the front and paint the back.
Hey Steve, I've been using SM for about three years without difficulty. I think once you get a process down, it's pretty straightforward. Does LMM do Bathymetric maps, that would be a momentous development.
Thanks!
I spoke to them about Bathymetric maps and they are working on it as part of their topo map improvements
@SteveMakesEverything Thanks Steve!
Hi Steve, thanks for this video and your effort you put into this. I run into this service two weeks ago and found it is a decent tool. But biggest downside aside their pricing is that buildings are not shown at a certain zoom level. Unfortunately same approach for snazzy maps and all google maps related services. So if you need the buildings in the map only way is to select a very tiny section 😞
Ot did you find a solution for this aside QGIS?
I think the building problem is kind of universal for all mapping tools. I don’t think there is much you can do about this since it is coming from the map data rather than the tools.
@@SteveMakesEverything Unfortunately true!
@marcojurgel1065 there is a map scaling tool in Laser Map Maker that can increase the amount of detail shown at higher zoom levels. It's currently tops out at 200% scale, but this quite significantly changes what you can see from a higher zoom. In the future we will allow even further scaling to enable those features only available typically at lower zoom levels.
@@isaiahgrey93 Thanks for your explanation.
I want to try this
Definitely give it a shot.
Interesting snazzy is challenging so that’s cool nice to have another option.
It is definitely nicer than SnazzyMaps. Basically what they did was filter out a lot of the unnecessary noise in SM and clear up the user experience. While I was talking to Laser Map Maker about some changes I'd like, they dropped a new version of the code, so they are clearly eager to grow/improve their tool.
@@SteveMakesEverything awesome def going to check it out i do a lot of laser maps on slate and cutting boards I do agree the price is a bit much so sick of everything being a subscription but if the user experience is better the lowest one may work for me and selling just one would cover the subscription
@@ALXSHARPEN Yep, it seems everything needs a subscription nowadays.
very interesting, thanks
Glad you think so!
This is great but I just want to laser engrave a city map on a piece of lwood, no 3D, just a flat map. What is the best way to do this? Thanks.
You can still use LLM. Create the land layer and either cut out the water or not, then create a road layer and engrave it onto the same pice of material. Just one layer overall. If you can't figure this out let me know and I can do a quick follow-up video.
Steve, what laser did you use?
This happened to be the Creality Falcon 2 Pro, but any laser capable of cutting and engraving your desired material will work fine.
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it
NICE VIDEO THANKS
Welcome 👍
I started a free 2 week trial although that pretty much means 1 map and then you have to update. It seemed okay but sometimes I prefer scored lower level roads but I do not see a way to do that with LMM and I have not received any support from them/him. I hate to invest a years worth of maps up front and find this is someone hosting on a home server that closes down soon.
Not sure I understand your issue with roads. You can create a layer and then put anything you want on it.
@@SteveMakesEverything Sorry, i mean a single line score lower road not a 2 line engraved road. I can always unfocus to make it a little bigger.
@@cluanardavidson9214 Make sure you don't have any of the "Case" road layers turned on. These are the outline layers and will generate 2 lines.
@@SteveMakesEverything It appears I have a different version than you, i do not have "low" or "case" roads. I do have outlines so I remove that but it still imports to lightburn as a 2 line fill not single line score. not horrible but i'd like that option., thanks for your response sir.
@@cluanardavidson9214 If you have them selected in one of your map layers then they won't show up in the list. Try try start a new blank map, add a layer and then start adding roads to it. You should see a bunch that end with the word "Case"
The price for this is too much of a barrier. Hobby level gives you 18 credits, and each layer is a credit, so the map Steve created here cost him 3 credits. If you create a map with 4 or 5 layers, that is 4 or 5 credits. You only get 18 credits per month for $120/yr. It's a nice service, and looks great, but that is pretty steep.
I had a similar comment during my conversations with LLM and they are working on it.
Yes I agree, much too expensive.
100% trying to act like Adobe is a mistake.
I would buy it but...... paying (and quite much) for every map you create and export? Come on... Charge a price for the package, could be even a FAIR yearly subscription. But pay per extract..... not my money they're taking.
Keep an eye on their site because I believe they are going to add a free tier.
LMM is a credit based tool, and I absolutely will not pay for software that I don't get to own the license for.
Yes, if you are t doing this commercially it can be cost prohibitive.
For everyone complaining about the price, just do the $9.99 option. You get 216 credits. Sign up, get all the maps you could want for those credits and cancel. Sell some and then come back and do more if you need. $9.99 for something you’re going to sell isn’t bad. Quit being freeloaders
😁 Good information with some added humor.
If it was free I might use it instead of snazzymaps. 10$ per month noway. Pay per map would be better for me. Say 2-3$ per map?
Well having worked with both cloud services and MapBox myself in the past, I know that they wouldn’t make money at $3/map and that’s actually more than they charge for the number of maps you could build with their $10 plan. I have no influence of their pricing, but they are a business, so free for the good of humanity isn’t an option. When you make a map for someone, are you going to give it away? If you made one map and sold it, you would earn more than enough to pay for a month of subscription.
In short if it was free, it wouldn’t exist. To be clear, SnazzyMaps isn’t free either. I will point to the terms of use for SnazzyMap and while it’s free for personal use, you need a business licence to sell anything you make with it. Guess what, it’s $10/month too.
Seems like some people want a free map service so that they can cut maps and sell them, If you use someone's product to create yours, you have a responsibility to share the profit, otherwise the creator of the software goes belly-up and you no longer have great software A rising tide lifts all boats.
This is a common-sense insight. Definitely, if you are making maps to sell, you would easily pay for any subscription for this - probably on the first map you sell.
They just need a tier where you get one free every few months for hobbyists. The developer will get their money back in RUclips vids of hobbies and word of mouth.
The Free trial is nice and works, but will be one and done or you will find a way to abuse that.
I watched this then tried out Laser Map Maker. Its really bad and i wasted over 8 hrs. With a paid service and no customer service too. I think it's easier to use snazzy maps and if you want it even more crisp, edit roads on your ipad
In the end use what works. I Snazzy Maps does it for you, then stick with that.
after all that its a paid software.. thanks for nothing, I'll stick with free snazzy maps with a lot more options.
If you're willing to climb the Snazzy Maps learning curve, there's nothing wrong with it. Laser Map Maker is just easier to use, especially for new users.
they are far too expensive when the alternative is free. It doesnt save me enough time to justify it for what im doing
Yes, there are several free options, but ease of use has a price too. As Laser Map Maker has evolved, it can also do things that many of the free mapping tools can't - at least not in a single tool (e.g. Bathymetry and even segmented map).
At the end of the day, use whatever tool suits your needs.
Too expensive - obv diff between Snazzy maps and LMM - one is free the other $$$$$$.
Yup, it does cost money and I don't set the prices of things. This one does have capabilities that Snazzy Maps doesn't and it's easier to use. In the end use the tools you are comfortable with.
Really? They want to charge what I pay for Photoshop and Lightroom put together?
Way overpriced, no thanks!
I don't set the prices. I can only comment on what the tool can do.
If you're getting Photoshop for $10/month, please tell me where you're buying it - I would certainly buy into it for that.
@@SteveMakesEverything me also - photoshop for $10 a month would be a gift
FACTS
Yet another subscription based service that institutes limits unless you pay big bucks! No thanks!
Definitely! The lowest "hobby" price is $9.60 per month, ridiculous unless you are selling these.
Agreed! I’d rather stick with Snazzy, not that bad.
Hey, I'm a maker as well, so I feel the financial pain too. A big part of my discussion with LLM was about a free tier that would allow someone making a map or two to do something useful. Keep in mind, for you to build a free map, LLM is paying for MapBox and Amazon AWS, so I'm sure even the hobby tier is pretty much cost recovery.
@@jf6720 lol, its 12/month the 9.60 is if you get billed annually
@@SteveMakesEverything I understand that Steve, but I’ve never been a fan of subscription services. If you make software sell the software and be done with it. When you’re at the intro level like I am, nine dollars a month may not sound like much, but to me it is, especially when I’m paying $277 a month for stupid cell phone service