Hi - I’m not sure if this forum is the best place to ask about this, but I thought it could be a good start…
I want to know how to present data as a colour shaded contour map.
Does anyone know how to do this / what software is easiest to use?
Thanks for your help.
Wilf
Well there may not really be anything “easy” about contour maps and the kind of data to which they’re a good fit. If you Google “how to make a contour map in excel” you’ll get some good foundational info.
It really depends on what you’re trying to do and why. So depending on that, there’s a technique using Google Earth and Sketchup that can produce some interesting results. Just Google Sketchup terrain map or Sketchup topo map and follow some of the links. There are quite a few YouTube videos on it.
Do you have an example of what you are after? That would really help us out 
Yep, something like this…
a contour map of violin plate thickness…
Cheers
Weill it’s totally depends upon that what you are trying to achieve the there is way in the Google Sketchup terrain map