Hi,

I am very new to Flex. I'd like to know if it can display map files, like
from ERSI, USGS, etc. (shape files) as a background screen to overlay data on.
I have seen from some examples that it can show data overlaid on a map, but I
don't know what map format was used. I want to augment specific road data in
an application with other information, like you can do in Google Maps, etc.
But need to be able to use latitude and longitude for the mapping coordinates.
Does anyone know if it can support shape or other mapping format files?

thanks!

'mark

How long it takes to learn Flex depends to a large extent on your past
experience with programming, design, web technologies.

Go through this FlexBuilder help sys topic and all sub-topics and you will
have a good foundation. I went through it twice and then got Flex certified:

"Adobe Flex 3 Help"

You can actually use both Flex and Google Maps using the Google Maps API for
Flex.

I'd say it takes three months to really understand Flex and be proficient at
it. Within a year, you can become an expert with some hardwork. The new Flex in
a week tutorials make it easy to get up to speed.