Can anyone recommend a good GIS app to help me survey a block of land that does not cost a fortune and can be used off line. Ideally I would like to build a 3d surface that can be exported from the iphone to Mapinfo and / or Google Earth Pro. X,Y,Z co-ords, distances, area and markers would be a good start as would being able to take pics and add notes from certain locations on the block. The block is in the middle of nowhere on the side of a hill and google earth resolution in the area is extremely poor.

Thanks.

It sounds like you don't need a GIS app? - You need a GPS app or just a GPS.

You don't have a hand held GPS to acquire your points and then import into GIS? You mention you already have MI?

You can get a personal / home use ArcGIS licence for $100. QGIS is freeware.

The GPS in your iPhone has poor sensitivity and doesn't have the capability to stack readings. Not good for data acquisition.

^^agree, its a gps you need. Iphone will give you a crude set of data and youd be wise to take many reading on each point and data average etc. If you know how to use mapinfo then that should be easy but youd still have a dataset suitable for personal use only. Personally Id hire equipment and do it properly with reference signal etc.

If you just want imagery, your council should have aerials which are usually fairly cheap.

Thanks fellas. Sadly I am out in the back blocks of Indonesia without access to a GPS or council imagery. I will bring back a GPS when I come back over in a few weeks. In the meantime I was just after a quick fix via an app (knowing it will not be as accurate as I need in the long run) that might help me out a bit. As SJB says stacking data is an issue with most of the apps I have played with. If you are after specific bike/run/hiking apps they are fine - but when you are off the grid and can only access extremely low res google earth imagery they are not functional.

I have played round with Theodolite which is great for individual points or measuring between two points - distances / angles etc but it does not seem to have decent polygon functionality. The block is not square - far from it. I would like to be able to look at 50 plus points and then export as one - with geo data attached. Having the ability to add photos - e.g. rocks / boulders and pics of the soil at various depths and locations would be great - whilst i have this capability with a couple of apps I have I am after something a bit more user friendly so when I link everything up it its nice and easy - rather than dealing with 50 plus screen shots of data.

Ah, now it makes more sense, have done similar with a data feed from a garmin gps fed into access db, i wonder if you could find something like that for the Iphone feed, it is years since I looked at the feed from an iphone and remember nothing of its formatting. Be interested if you do find something.

Try the motionX-GPS app. Not a bad app.