Decent resolution images have not been available to Google Maps users, despite their availability elsewhere. Desert regions had better coverage. I wonder why? The new images aren’t so up to the minute, but never mind. The earlier ones were so bad that any improvement is welcome. Thanks again Google!

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Google Maps Poor Dunbar

Poor aerial coverage over parts of East Lothian continues to be a problem with Google Maps.  Some deserts have higher quality imagery available.

It’s almost useless at low resolutions and not available at high in and around Dunbar. Recent good quality imagery exists and is licensed by the folks at Bing, so why hasn’t Google bothered to update?

Having tried different channels to report poor coverage, recently – yesterday to be precise – came across this:

https://earth.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=data

Hopefully reports don’t go into a black hole.  We’ll see.

MMpostcode is located in Map Utilities (alongside the Map Data).

You may need to re-import the postcode data occasionally, but it should be retained from one session to the next.

The data is kept in Map Data > Code-Point Open > data

Choose from the UK data set CSV or EH Post Codes.

Enter the postcode and click Go To.

Post codes are represented as Markers, which can be saved as a .dra file (Menu > Markers > Save markers as … ).

OS Open Data

Here’s what they say on the website:

OS OpenData will support digital innovation, democratic accountability and social engagement, and will enable business, government, communities and individuals to benefit from easier access to the use of Geographic Information (GI).

There is a specific licence that covers the use of the OS OpenData products.

Changes: (1) there is NO charge for OS OpenData products and (2) we will have much greater re-use rights under the new licence terms than were previously available for 1:50 000 Gazetteer data.

Check this link out to find out about the new licence regimes, including the Public Viewing Service Licence.

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/opendata/licence/index.html

Arc Explorer is Easy to Learn

Each workstation is currently configured independently, but with a similar setup:

• Map Maker I is the main community facility
• Map Maker II is being used by Sue, use the Map Maker profile.

Viewing maps or selecting a view to copy into a presentation or publish to a website is quite easy.

Printing good quality basic maps is quite easy.

Creating basic maps with your data is quite easy, but requires considerable discipline.

Using other people’s data, querying and customising views can be difficult.

Making maps of publication quality, with keys can be quite  difficult.

Start by reading View Maps with Arc Explorer (Java version) .

MapWindow GIS Open Source Software (New!)

Update Tatuk Viewer (much improved!)

Update Mapmaker (Now With Postcode Finder!)

ArcGis Explorer Update (Minor Improvements, incl. Bing Underlay)

OGR2OGR / FWTools (a utility to get shape files into kml and vice versa)

Updated base projects with some of the following new data sets from Ordnance Survey:

1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer – GB | Data type: Point Data | CSV

MiniScale – GB | Data type: Raster | TIFF-LZW (With or without GRid with or without relief)

OS Street View – NT | Data type: Raster | TIFF-LZW

OS VectorMap District – NT | Data type: Raster | TIFF-LZW

OS VectorMap District – NT | Data type: Vector | ESRI Shape

1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster – GB | Data type: Raster | TIFF-LZW

OS Locator – GB | Data type: Point Data | ASCII text, Colon separated

Code-Point Open – GB | Data type: Point Data | CSV (Post Code Data)

Have fun!

Download info is available here.  FWTools is available on Windows, Mac, Linux.

OGR can also reproject the data.

ogr2ogr -f “KML” -s_srs “EPSG:27700″ -t_srs EPSG:4326 OutputFile.kml InputFile.shp

will take the UK OS and make it work on Google Maps (e.g. above) or Google Earth.

First of all we create a a polygon extract and save this as a .dra file.

Then we employ a Utility to Extract the data from the database that it was originally associated with.

Select and save .dra

To extract polygon data you can use the query tool, except that this will require there to be an underlying database.

Make sure that you have selected the Default tab as an On-Hit option, in the data Link tab in the Project Manager.

Options for selection (CTRL Q to select – other options go to tools select Query options):

• to create a box selection, click and drag
• to create a circle, hold down the C key and click and drag
• to create a linear selection, hold down the CTRL key and click and drag

Now copy to the active layer, delete anything you don’t need and then save with a memorable new file name.

Alternatively copy everything to the Live Layer and use the Selection Tool to select your polygons, as above, or use the Selection Manager to create more complex queries. “Save selection” rather than whole Live layer and continue with the second half of the process.

Make a database extract

From the Utilities menu, select under the first item Make database extract for .dra and follow the steps carefully:

1. Select the .dra file you’ve just created
2. Link to the old database
3. Chose the link column (a unique id)
4. Save to a database extract with the same name as your .dra

If all is well, you can now edit your .dbf file and edit or export to some other format.

Database before: using the basic labels

Although this is not difficult, it can be headache to prepare your data.

There are a few steps:

1. Create a database file with attribute data in Excel
2. The first column should be named ‘ID’ corresponding to the ID in Map Maker.
3. The database id must match ONLY one label in the .dra file (remember you can edit the .dbf file from the Project Manager Data link menu or Utilities, Edit Database).
4. The spreadsheet can ONLY have as many rows (ex the title row) as there are mapping units (lines, polygons which are best not mixed!).
5. Also, the ID column must be text format and any formulas converted to values.
6. There should be no empty values (remember to use the default -99 for missing values)
7. Save this file as an .dbf (or .xls file, though this can be problematical)
8. When this is done, you can import into MapMaker.
9. This is done through the Project Manager, and the layer that you wish to link to (chose .xls from the drop down).

Database after: a new database has been attached and different columns show

This process is by no means simple, especially if your database and polygon files are complex and reference to the Map Maker manual is highly advisable.

Create Database Column

Now that we have a database, certain query options become available.  Before you can query the database, with the data tool, you need to check that the database is hit-able.  To check this option, go the layer submenu and you can click make hit-able, or do the same in the database subtab in the Project Manager.

Now when you click a polygon you’ll get a simple pop up of the underlying information as it relates to the selected feature.

Also in the project manager, note the Link Column.  In most cases it will be the first column or ID.

The On Hit tab has an option to make the database Read Only, including a variety of other useful options that will be explained later.

It is possible now to edit the database in Excel, remembering only that each row MUST correspond to an id in our polygon file.  However we can add further columns, remembering here that all we need to do is to add a descriptive title.

There is an option, within Map Maker itself, to add rows and columns, provide a column heading or title, set the default format, move columns to the left or the right and rows up and down.  Advanced options are available here too.

Query Database

You can add data on a per record basis, but remember that the built in tools can give a number errors.  Adding columns can shunt data around unpredictably, so always it carefully or preferably stick to Excel.

Now when we use the query tool, you can see the new column Description is viewable.