Geo Data - USA

[mrscsi]

I've been using The National Map Seamless Server at http://seamless.usgs.gov/ and downloading geotiffs. Server seems to have gone down this last weekend and today it shows a long wait for data (since today is a federal holiday they probably haven't solved this weekends issue yet) Raster and Ortho data I get from within TranzDem. Vecter data for US rail and road can be had from TIGER at http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/ ... wnload.cfm and from the National Transportation Atlas Database at http://www.bts.gov/publications/nationa ... base/2010/

[dricketts]

I've read both manuals and went through Gisa's tutorials.

How do you import the Tiger data into Transdem? I'm assuming once the TIGER data is in Transdem it will paint route lines on the Trainz surveyor map to base where you lay the object splines.

[geophil]

TIGER in ESRI Shape format compatible with TransDEM can be downloaded here:
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/shape ... onal-files (2007, combined layer)
Or here:
http://www.esri.com/data/download/censu ... index.html (2000, separate layers)

However, I do not recommend this vector data source because of its rather low scale.

[dricketts]

If you are not recommending TIGER data where can we find vector data for the US?

[geophil]

USGS has published 1:24k DLG data ("Digital Line Graph"), somewhat cumbersome to use.

Tutorial DLG processing

That's for laying track splines in TransDEM. Keep in mind though that even in 1:24k double track and sidings will not be to scale.

An average project will probably be able to live without any prefabricated vector data. The TransDEM built-in Simple Route Editor allows you to quickly draw a few polylines to roughly peg-out a route, to serve as a filter of acquisition of map clippings (WMS, Map Tiles) or for generating Trainz baseboards during export. For this purpose you can also use National Atlas of course, the easy to handle singular file for the entire US. Scale of National Atlas is good enough to serve as a filter.

[geophil]

The 1:24,000 USGS topo map series, also known as DRG "Digial Raster Graph" is no longer available on Seamless Server. USGS have set up a new WMS which can be used as an alternative to MS Research Maps.

Copy the following code section into a text editor, save as an xml file and import into TransDEM with the Web Mapping Services Client.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>

<WmsServers version="1.0" globalScaleParam="10000.000000" >
  <ServerGroup name="USA / Canada" >
<Server name="USGS National Map" url="http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/DRG/TNM_Digital_Raster_Graphics/MapServer/WMSServer" url2="" user="" referer="" width="1600" height="1600" noBBox="0" background="0" transparent="0" >
      <Layer name="10" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="11" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="12" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="13" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="14" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="15" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="16" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="17" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="18" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="19" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="2" scale="14.142136" />
      <Layer name="20" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="24" scale="3.535534" />
      <Layer name="7" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="8" scale="4.242641" />
      <Layer name="9" scale="4.242641" />
    </Server>
  </ServerGroup>
</WmsServers>

The individual layers in the DRG_24k layer group denote the UTM zones.


(see here for the motive to look for it: http://forum.transdem.de/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=88)

[geophil]

USGS National Map WMS

As explained in the previous posting in August, the new USGS National Map WMS hosts the scanned topo maps 1:24k. It can been seen as an alternative to MS Research Maps WMS.

http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/se ... /WMSServer WMS only!

Unfortunately, using default methods of access, the USGS WMS only works for UTM zones 17 and up (East Coast). This can be blamed to an erroneous list of coordinate systems supported in the capabilities metadata, it's not a problem of the service itself. However, this error has not yet been corrected.

In TransDEM 2.2. I have added an override parameter. It allows you to bypass restrictions on coordinate systems. TransDEM will send any coordinate system to the server that has been selected in the WMS client, ignoring the server list. Internally, it's a bit more complicated because sometimes there are several codes or code families for a particular system. TransDEM must find a suitable code, a code it expects to be understood by the server, taking into account the (faulty) list of codes the server has provided.

This new parameter can be found in the extra settings for a WMS server. It must be enabled for the USGS WMS to access zones 10 to 16. Set the coordinate system to UTM/WGS84. The server will also reply to UTM/NAD27, but this involves additional transformation overhead in TransDEM.

You can also install the latest WMS sample configuration from my website which already includes this setup.

[Jerker]

G'day geophil,

Roland, have I told you recently that you, Sir, are "God sent"? This new feature has enabled me to continue with work on a route that had otherwise stalled (and never looked like being revived) because of serious alignment errors in the standard USGS (Microsoft Resource Maps) 'releases'...

...from the bottom of my heart, I thank you, immeasurably...

Jerker {:)}

[geophil]

Before publishing the new version I routinely checked the WMS sample configurations and found out that the USGS National Map WMS still didn't work. I dug into it to find a way around the problem and wrote this hack ("a piece of computer code which performs some function, especially an unofficial alternative or addition to a program").

[backyard]

I simply imported the latest WMS Settings (Nov 11?) into the WMS Import dialogue, deleted everything except MS-Research Maps. MSR Maps settings includes both URLs.

The topo maps are constantly updated (by rouge gnomes...), and for the most part give a great view in game at a scale of 1:20000 and a Global Scale Factor of 1:10000; Map size 2000x2000-pixels.

Some topo maps I have found may be shifted, such as southeast Atlanta, GA, US-America, also most of Los Angeles, California...this is at a low altitude setting, the best resolution maps.

Back to work!