+Corp Of Discovery Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I've been checking out USA Photomaps but DLing the photos is time consuming. Is there a better or another way to get them or use them? Quote Link to comment
+Timpat Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 The short answer is yes. Depends on your location within the US. I'm in New York State and we have a GIS Clearinghouse that offers free high quailty aerial photos for the entire state. Go to GIS State Links, or do a Google search for "GIS aerial photos" to see for your location. Then, you need to have the ability to view and work with them such as a good GIS software program like ArcView or MapInfo. ArcView offers a free GIS viewer call ArcExplorer. Quote Link to comment
+Redwoods Mtn Biker Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I've been checking out USA Photomaps but DLing the photos is time consuming. Is there a better or another way to get them or use them? The TopoFusion guys say that their program is optomized for fast download. Their images come from TerraServer, the same place USAPhotoMaps gets theirs. I don't know what the cache size limits are on TopoFusion, but everything you download via USAPhotoMaps resides on your hard drive, so even if you have a slow connection, it's only painful the first time you DL an area. Back when I was on dialup, I would run USAPhotoMaps at night and DL large parts of my stomping grounds. HTH Rich Owings www.MakeYourOwnMaps.com www.GPStracklog.com "We were desert mystics, my friends and I, poring over our maps as others do their holy books." - Edward Abbey Quote Link to comment
+geognerd Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 (edited) I'm a GIS professional in Illinois. CoD, check out this link to the Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. It's not as nice as NY's. The link has info about the upcoming availability of aerials that were flown in April of this year. Chicago area will get 1ft resolution color images. Typically aerials are compressed into a .sid or MrSid format. I've found the ArcExplorer 2.0 version can view some imagery. However, there is an issue with the ArcExplorer Java Edition and for some reason it can't show large images. ESRI, the software maker, is aware of the problem. You may also want to try GeoExpress Viewer from LizardTech, the company that makes MrSid compression software. I haven't used a SID viewer in a long time, because I always just load them into my GIS software. I couldn't find the SID viewer I was looking for, but I think GeoExpress view is a trial version of the successor. The info about the SIDs is good to know in case you come across them, but it looks like these 2005 images will be GeoTIFFs, or geographically-referenced TIF images. Lots of programs can view TIFs. The link I gave you to the IL data clearinghouse also can lead you to DOQs (digital orthophoto quadrangles) in SID format, but those are from like 2001, possibly as early as 1998. Also check out the DRGs (digital raster graphics), if that section ever works again. DRGs are scanned versions of 1:24000 topo maps, and usually in TIF format. And all this is free to you! Edited to explain some technobabble. Edited October 7, 2005 by geognerd Quote Link to comment
vagabond Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I have no problems with a cable connection using photomaps, if your on dialup its going to be slow doenloading no matter which program you use Quote Link to comment
+Jeeters Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 ExpertGPS also does downloading of satellite maps and allows printing. The software is free yet fully functional for the 1st 30 days of use so it's worth checking out. Their photos also come from terraserver i believe. Quote Link to comment
+Redwoods Mtn Biker Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I'm a GIS professional in Illinois. CoD, check out this link to the Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. It's not as nice as NY's. The link has info about the upcoming availability of aerials that were flown in April of this year. Chicago area will get 1ft resolution color images. Typically aerials are compressed into a .sid or MrSid format. OziExplorer can handle MrSID imagery. Rich Owings www.MakeYourOwnMaps.com www.GPStracklog.com “We were desert mystics, my friends and I, poring over our maps as others do their holy books.” – Edward Abbey Quote Link to comment
JDMC Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 If you select File -TerraFetcher -Region in USAPhotoMaps, you can select an area in USAPhotoMaps (obviously, the best way to see the area is to download 64 meters/pixel topos in USAPhotoMaps first), and then TerraFetcher can download the photos or topos of that area while you do something else. Select Help -Using for more details. Quote Link to comment
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