Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#21

Post by FreeGuessr » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 8:05 PM UTC

bouk wrote: post #14

FreeGuessr wrote: post #2

I built GeoUtil.com to provide a free, browser-based toolkit for geographic data analysis. It offers: - Interactive Map Tools: Measure distances and areas directly on the map. - Data Format Converters: Convert between TopoJSON and GeoJSON formats seamlessly. - Coordinate Utilities: Perform conversions and other coordinate-based operations. No sign-up required, and all tools run client-side for privacy and speed. Buil…

Could you how a decimal point in the distance measuring tool? I want to measure distances in my backyard from the satellite photo and the rounded number makes it hard to be accurate

Good idea, I will add it! I did that before for Area tool but it's missing in distance tool. Thank you for the feedback!

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#22

Post by FreeGuessr » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 8:07 PM UTC

eitau_1 wrote: post #8

FreeGuessr wrote: post #2

I built GeoUtil.com to provide a free, browser-based toolkit for geographic data analysis. It offers: - Interactive Map Tools: Measure distances and areas directly on the map. - Data Format Converters: Convert between TopoJSON and GeoJSON formats seamlessly. - Coordinate Utilities: Perform conversions and other coordinate-based operations. No sign-up required, and all tools run client-side for privacy and speed. Buil…

à propos the distance tool, please let the user: - type coordinate pairs by hand - copy coordinates entered by clicking otherwise, it's a great tool!

Thank you for the suggestion! I will add it.

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#23

Post by FreeGuessr » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 8:21 PM UTC

XnoiVeX wrote: post #16

FreeGuessr wrote: post #2

I built GeoUtil.com to provide a free, browser-based toolkit for geographic data analysis. It offers: - Interactive Map Tools: Measure distances and areas directly on the map. - Data Format Converters: Convert between TopoJSON and GeoJSON formats seamlessly. - Coordinate Utilities: Perform conversions and other coordinate-based operations. No sign-up required, and all tools run client-side for privacy and speed. Buil…

GPX file support would be a great addition! Thank you.

Adding to TODO list. Thank you for the suggestion

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#24

Post by FreeGuessr » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 8:27 PM UTC

cwmma wrote: post #7

bluber84 wrote: post #6

What are your future plans? Will you open source the code? Will deploy a library that everybody could implement it in their apps…etc??

If you read the about page it lists the open source tools it used to make it, primarily turf.js so a library for others to do it already exists.

Exactly. I didn't think about open-sourcing but it's interesting idea, allow others to add more e.g. file formats to convert etc.. code would be need to be cleaned up more thought :D

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#25

Post by FreeGuessr » Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 8:33 PM UTC

stocksinsmocks wrote: post #19

admaiora wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has a very strong AI code smell. Still it seems to be a decent turf.js wrapper for GIS professionals who don't have too much JS experience. Most should be able to use CLI tools at least for all of this.

I would expect GIS professionals to use ESRI or QGIS. This is an interesting showcase. It seems a little too simple given the variety of options for geographic projection. I’m not quite sure what the value proposition is, but it’s interesting.

The entire site is a result of me building different tools for geography guessing game, GuessWhereYouAre.com. At first, I needed them for myself (parsing JSONs, working a lot with Leaflet maps and Turf). Then I added some of them to the guide page in the game, and later I thought — why not create a dedicated site, polish the experience, and make them available as simple geography tools for people like me?

I’m not sure how useful they might be for professionals who use ESRI or QGIS, but I know I needed tools like that for the game’s development and couldn’t find anything easy to use and simple — at least not all in one place.

So technically, this site is a result of another project.

Re: Geoutil.com – Measure distances, areas, and convert geo data in the browser

#26

Post by elsjaako » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 3:53 PM UTC

FreeGuessr wrote: post #20

korkoros wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think adding something like (or awareness of datum transformations generally) would make the tool harder to use for its intended audience. If you need the level of precision where tectonic plate movement matters, then you need professional level tools.

Exactly unless I am not aware how much they move and it's significant number

The worst distances you can expect are around 1.5m (comparing australia in 2001 when gps accuracy was improved to now). But that number can be hard to figure out if you don't have a tool that allows you to set the time of conversion :)