Map-making and all it's fun :)

[Ivan Rapkinov]

I'm trying to see about making ATF maps.

currently the hang up I'm having is in the conversion of SDtS USGS DDF maps to standard DEM, and then getting ATF to recognise it as a DEM. Once I finish converting the DEM to XDM and create a new elevation map, the displayed image is a blank box.

also, for those without access to expensive DEM converters, it's possible to create a DEM from a normal paper topo map - go to http://www.terrainmap.com and use the Blackart tool, in conjunction with WinTopo Pro (you can either save the rastor vector image or just save it as a bitmap and then use Blackart to create your own DEM)

it's finnicky, nasty, but probably the only way you'll get a DEM of some areas.

Question to CPT Proctor: does the Toolkit use the SDTS or NED USGS DEM standards when converting to a XDM? And why does it ask whether it was converted by a particular program? (Trilo-something)

cheers :)

[Pat Proctor]

Here is a link to the standard for the DEM that ATF uses. It is the USGS standard DEM:

http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/nmpstds/acrodocs/dem/1DEM0897.PDF

We use the 1 degree X 1 degree DEM's, at 3 arc-second resolution, with data arrayed in arc-second (rather than UTM) format.

I am not very familiar with either of the formats you mention, but I believe that USGS uses STDS for these DEM's. But I WILL tell you that there are literally hundreds of formats. That is why we ask the question about Trilobyte DEM converter. This is the converter WE use to convert from other formats to USGS DEM's, and IT does not conform with the USGS standard.

We have posted several XDM's in the Map section here at WarfareHQ to get you started. We have more to post, but right now, due to problems beyond Don's control, his server will not take files larger than 2MB. The Shrapnel Gameboard has been unable to accept files as well.

[John Osborne]

We have posted several XDM's in the Map section here at WarfareHQ to get you started. We have more to post, but right now, due to problems beyond Don's control, his server will not take files larger than 2MB. The Shrapnel Gameboard has been unable to accept files as well.Well hell Capt :D Send them to me. I can receive up to 10MB. My email can handle it :D

[kbluck]

Until you find a way to get them to Don's server, I'll be glad to host them and you can just put the http link on the board here. I have unlimited access to a capacious web server with plenty of storage and a T-1 connection to the outside world. Plenty of spare bandwidth, might as well use it!

Same offer goes for anybody else here who wants to upload something large and ATF-related but you find yourself denied by the upload limits.

--- Kevin

[kbluck]

Question to CPT Proctor: does the Toolkit use the SDTS or NED USGS DEM standards when converting to a XDM? And why does it ask whether it was converted by a particular program? (Trilo-something)

In one of their many inexplicable spasms of data refactoring, USGS decided to store all their data in the hideously complicated SDTS format. Then, just to remind us all who's the boss, they changed it a few times, apparently to ensure that any software that actually managed to read STDS would break.

ATF Power Tools only understands "raw" DEMs, and then only of the specific type Pat mentions. When you first download from USGS, it will be all mooshed together in that SDTS monstrosity. You need a utility to convert it back to a raw DEM before you can use it. Most GIS software will do it; there is also a utility to do it here:

http://www.cs.arizona.edu/topovista/sdts2dem/

BTW, I have a theory: the reason Power Tools handles the specific DEM format it does is because that was the data USGS was giving away for free at the time it was written. Am I close? :)

--- Kevin

[John Osborne]

Until you find a way to get them to Don's server, I'll be glad to host them and you can just put the http link on the board here. I have unlimited access to a capacious web server with plenty of storage and a T-1 connection to the outside world. Plenty of spare bandwidth, might as well use it!

Same offer goes for anybody else here who wants to upload something large and ATF-related but you find yourself denied by the upload limits.

--- Kevin
Hi Kevin,

Capt Proctor sent me those map files. If you want I can send them to you. Map 2 is 2MB and Map 4 is 2.6MB in size.

Just let me know and I will send them. So that other players can get to them.

--- John

[Pat Proctor]

BTW, I have a theory: the reason Power Tools handles the specific DEM format it does is because that was the data USGS was giving away for free at the time it was written. Am I close?

That was definitely one contributing factor ;-)

The other was that, when I first started working on BCT, in 97, is was the only format I could find on the internet.