NAVTEQ & Andes Northern Ireland maps get full street-level detail

NAVTEQ street-level digital map data for Northern Ireland is now available with the same amount of detail as comparable mapping for Great Britain. The data, which previously only included detailed mapping for major towns and cities, now offers street-level mapping across the whole of Northern Ireland.

This means users sourcing map data from MapMechanics, the specialist in geographic information systems, can benefit from the same data preparation and formatting expertise offered with NAVTEQ datasets for Great Britain, as well as the same flexible pricing plans.

Equally important, users needing detailed street-level map data for the whole UK can now choose NAVTEQ for their entire requirement, rather than having to augment NAVTEQ data for Great Britain with some other dataset for Northern Ireland.

Now MapMechanics is not only offering the Northern Ireland detailed NAVTEQ vector data, but also the Andes raster equivalents. In order to synchronise the launch with the vector version, MapMechanics has arranged for Andes to specially being forward the release of its latest update, which otherwise would not have come until the turn of the year.

NAVTEQ vector data is ideal for routing, scheduling, drive time catchment creation, tracking applications where location statements are generated from vehicle positions, and other systems where the data is used to calculate or analyse. The vector data is also well suited to applications in which the user requires a high level of control over which features to display at each zoom level and how each type of road should be coloured and styled.

The Andes raster data is made up of bitmap images derived from the NAVTEQ vector data. It provides a professionally styled “picture” of the map at given scales which look much more like traditional printed maps. This type of mapping is ideal for use as a background map for territory creation, location mapping, presentation of performance analysis and similar applications for which the “look” of the map is paramount. Advanced anti-aliasing techniques have been used to allow the data to be displayed over a range of zooms without loss of clarity.

NAVTEQ digital map data is obtained from detailed on-the-ground surveys mounted by NAVTEQ’s own team of field engineers, and is constantly updated. It is available for most of Europe, North America and other countries. It was developed originally for use in on-vehicle and personal navigation systems, but is now also used extensively by third-party customers in a wide range of geographic information systems. These include vehicle routing and scheduling, marketing planning and analysis, and vehicle location and tracking systems.

MapMechanics is a key supplier of NAVTEQ and Andes map data and specialises in preparing and configuring it to suit the user’s software. MapMechanics can also supply partial datasets covering specific areas requested by users, keeping costs down, and offers flexible terms for special uses such as in tracking systems and online.