Free NOAA RNC - raster nautical chart - downloads

I noticed on one of the commercial data repositories, you know, those resources that resell free (public domain) data... one place is trying to hock NOAA RNC data for about $150... Ouch! As a gift to you here's where you can grab these data for yourself - http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/mcd/Raster/download.htm - enjoy! About these data - The NOAA RNCs™ distributed here are geo-referenced, full-color images of NOAA’s paper nautical charts, published by NOAA in the .BSB format. NOAA updates the RNCs for Notices to Mariners on a weekly basis. They are an official product of NOAA, and meet the S-61 Standard, “Raster Navigational Charts”, of the International Hydrographic Organization. Think GeoTIFF charts!

Free NOAA RNC - raster nautical chart - downloads

ACME labs mashup with Google maps, USGS DRGs, DOQs, and more

Got a tip off (thanks Jim!) about a clever mashup from ACME labs.. I think I actually saw this a while back but its cool to revisit! According to the developers, ACME Mapper 2.0 is a high-precision general purpose mapping application, based on Google Maps with a bunch of things added on. At first glance it looks like the vanilla google maps but look deeper and there's much more... In the upper right corner are some buttons that let you change the type of map. ACME Mapper adds the Topo and DOQ types, which are not in standard Google Maps. These come from TerraServer's Web Services. In the lower right corner you can optionally have an overview map widget. In the lower right you have the Control Panel. This lets you do all sorts of stuff. All the controls have 'tooltips', so one way to find out what something does is to move your mouse over that item - a short description will pop up. So, users can easily view a Google map of any area, a hybrid nashup, USGS topo sheet, USGS DOQ, or a color aerial photo mosaic... SWEET! See http://mapper.acme.com/

USGS topo sheet, Fort Collins, CO

USGS DOQ

ACME labs mashup with Google maps, USGS DRGs, DOQs, and more

Topo maps for use in Google eArth

The following links provide topographic map overlays for several countries

• Canadian topographic series and Canadian Geographic Names
• United States topographic map series and aerial photographs
• New Zealand topographic series
• US Topo maps (source of KML - GEarth Blog)
  

Topo maps for use in Google eArth

SDTS2DXF utility - available on the USGS FTP server

One of the most common data translation utilities floating around on the web is the SDTS2DXF translator. Users are commonly sent to resources (like the datadepot) to access this translation tool, however, isn't this a USGS developed tool?? See ftp://ftp.blm.gov/pub/gis/sdts/dlg/ to grab SDTS2DXF 2MIF and others

SDTS2DXF utility - available on the USGS FTP server

Free Outline maps

A couple of news web resaources I wasn't familiar with until recently... http://www.mapresources.com offers up digital vector maps and PDF format outlines maps, and much more. Also, free outline maps galore are available from http://www.presentationmall.com/free-maps/

Free Outline maps

Question: Where can I get Vmap data?

This is a common one.. today I got a common request from a reader.. "where can I obtain VMap data? My response which may help some of you asking the same thing:

See the following:
VMAP1 and other global datasets are available from the NGA Raster Roam -http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
To access VMAP1 data see http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/vmap1_legend.html

see also these useful help docs:
Free Download of VMAP1 - Vector Smart Map FTP links http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/5535/

the search on GISuser yields some good results and you can try this custom Google GIS Data search DB that I developed


I would urge you to be careful buying this data online as most commercial resellers simply download from these FTP sites, cut to a CD / DVD and send to you.. save your $$

Question: Where can I get Vmap data?

USGS topo layer for Google earth - sweet!

I spent this morning flying around Northern Colorado looking for a place to swim in the Poudre River near Fort Collins (any ideas??) - I then had a need to add a USGS topo layer to my Google Earth session - enter good old Frank Taylor (aka. Google Earth Blog founder) and a solution! A great add-on for Google Earth from a company called 3D solar was found, enabling you to view USGS topos for your area of interest was located easily seaching his blog. Simply add the layer, wait a few seconds and the topo will appear.. toggle off when you don't need it... I'd love to see the ability to swipe the topo in/out with the google earth scene! Developed by 3D solar and KMZ streamed from the Google earth blog - here's the USGS topo layer KMZ.. enjoy! http://www.gearthblog.com/kmfiles/topomaps.kmz

USGS topo layer for Google earth - sweet!

ACME labs mashup with Google maps, USGS DRGs, DOQs, and more

Got a tip off (thanks Jim!) about a clever mashup from ACME labs.. I think I actually saw this a while back but its cool to revisit! According to the developers, ACME Mapper 2.0 is a high-precision general purpose mapping application, based on Google Maps with a bunch of things added on. At first glance it looks like the vanilla google maps but look deeper and there's much more... In the upper right corner are some buttons that let you change the type of map. ACME Mapper adds the Topo and DOQ types, which are not in standard Google Maps. These come from TerraServer's Web Services. In the lower right corner you can optionally have an overview map widget. In the lower right you have the Control Panel. This lets you do all sorts of stuff. All the controls have 'tooltips', so one way to find out what something does is to move your mouse over that item - a short description will pop up. So, users can easily view a Google map of any area, a hybrid nashup, USGS topo sheet, USGS DOQ, or a color aerial photo mosaic... SWEET! See http://mapper.acme.com/


USGS topo sheet, Fort Collins, CO

USGS DOQ

ACME labs mashup with Google maps, USGS DRGs, DOQs, and more