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ibycus

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Some here will be familiar with my Canadian Topo Maps. Well, on March 31st, the US Census Department released all kinds of fancy new data on to their website, including features like rivers, lakes, streams, roads (with names and address information), power lines, some trail information, etc.

 

Unlike the Canadian data source, there is no topo information on these maps. (While topo data is available for the US, I haven't found one that splits the data by county, which to do manually would be rather difficult).

 

Anyways, I've taken a 'first pass' at getting these maps on to a Garmin Unit. They seem to look fairly good to my eyes, but I have no idea how accurate the data is (Canadian Census data for the roads is ridiculously bad), but on the surface it looks like its not too bad (in many cases there appears to be more detail than what is no my City Navigator v7 maps, my dataset for Alabama that I've processed is ~50MB)

 

Before I go too far, I wanted to make sure that there is some interest.

 

There are a couple of deficiencies in my maps, some of which will be harder to address than others.

 

Weaknesses

There is no 'auto-routing' capability on these maps. Its also not likely that this will be there any time soon.

Addresses aren't included - these may eventually be included.

Data is split by county - this means lots of individual map tiles. This isn't likely to change.

Maptiles are named with an obscure numbering system (specifically according the FIPS # of the county if that means anything to you). Again, not likely to change

Given that the data is split by county, and counties have irregular boundaries, the map tiles overlap... this is fixable...don't know how big of a deal this is, but its something people would notice.

No street level addressing

No Topo Data - Not likely to change unless I can find a datasource that splits the data by county...or possibly create a seperate mapset to overlay on these maps.

 

Strengths

The amount of data seems to be pretty high. (50MB for Alabama)

The quality of the data at least seems good on the surface.

Probably relatively up to date data (brand new release)

Free.

 

Given the above, how useful would this data be to people? If there is no demand, I likely won't go too far with it. I've got Alabama done, and I've downloaded a few more states (a state takes me a couple of hours to fully process start to finish).

 

If there is interest, I can post my Alabama map tonight. If you're really interested in your home state, let me know, and I'll try to get the data for it downloaded, processed compiled and uploaded.

 

Dale

 

**edit to add link to the mapset

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe (future versions will likely be linked to under http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa, but there is nothing else there right now)

Edited by ibycus
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Given the above, how useful would this data be to people? If there is no demand, I likely won't go too far with it. I've got Alabama done, and I've downloaded a few more states (a state takes me a couple of hours to fully process start to finish).

 

If there is interest, I can post my Alabama map tonight. If you're really interested in your home state, let me know, and I'll try to get the data for it downloaded, processed compiled and uploaded.

 

Dale

 

I'd like to see it. Are you going in alphabetical order? asks Bill from Connecticut ;)

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If there is interest, I can post my Alabama map tonight. If you're really interested in your home state, let me know, and I'll try to get the data for it downloaded, processed compiled and uploaded.

 

Dale

 

I'd like to see it. Are you going in alphabetical order? asks Bill from Connecticut ;)

 

Is that a hint ;) I'll see if I can get the data for Connecticut downloading tonight.

 

Downloading the data is by *far* the most time consuming part of the whole process.

 

Dale

 

(p.s. for those of you who are interested, the source data is at ftp://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2007FE/ )

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I think alternating from the front to the back of the alphabet would be more fair. I would be very interested in seeing the project continue.

 

Allory (Wyoming)

 

Except for those in the middle of the alphabet

 

My download has currently stalled... Not sure why. Its possible the government may be involved somehow. ;)

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Without being able to see what maps look/act like in the field in advance, I think it's safe to say that you will find a lot of interest in your maps. I'd really like to see more data on my handheld when I'm caching . . . It's hard to justify spending the $120-170 on Garmin Maps that would be NICE have have vs. I NEED to have (which I don't - ;) ).

 

Probably need to post a reference in here someplace to a How To/Requirements . . . for those without MapSource, or experience in loading maps.

 

Sign me up for Missouri. Alternating with the beginning and end of the alphabet, with a jog in the middle. ;) I'd be happy to send you a dozen preforms (make nice micros) as a token of appreciation. ;)

 

Cache On!

 

JohnTee

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I'm currently uploading my map of Alabama. By the time you read this, it should be uploaded.

 

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe

 

For those of you without an existing mapsource product (including Trip and Waypoint Manager, which comes with many GPSrs), follow the instructions below to get a copy (I've spoken with a Garmin Employee, and they confirmed that this does not in fact violate their license agreement).

 

Step 1:

Download and Install "Garmin Training Center"

http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection....ct=999-99999-04

 

Step 2:

Download and Install the latest Mapsource Update

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209

 

This will give you a working mapsource install with a basic world basemap (very low detail)

 

Step 3:

Download and install my mapset

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/IbycusUSA.exe

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Thought I'd provide you with a sample of the detail level for a random area.

My map

ibycususadetail.JPG

 

City Navigator North America v7

CNNA7detail.JPG

 

I've downloaded your maps....and they are beautiful. Is there any way for you to add cities?

 

BTW I look forward to your Wisconsin maps!

 

Don

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indyjpr is already working on a topo/detailed map of arizona.

 

Also, is this data updated since the 2000 census or just easier to use. A lot of roads have changed since 2000 thats why I'm wondering. My Arizona map is compiling but if this data is better I'd release it then redo the roads (I have detailed water data already).

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indyjpr is already working on a topo/detailed map of arizona.

 

Also, is this data updated since the 2000 census or just easier to use. A lot of roads have changed since 2000 thats why I'm wondering. My Arizona map is compiling but if this data is better I'd release it then redo the roads (I have detailed water data already).

 

This is fresh data, released on the 31st. Pretty sure its newer than the 2000 census data.

 

I happend to already have the data for Arizona downloaded, so I compiled that one too. (no topo though).

 

If you give me some lat/lons with some recent changes, I can send you a screen shot. (haven't uploaded it yet)

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Some here will be familiar with my Canadian Topo Maps. Well, on March 31st, the US Census Department released all kinds of fancy new data on to their website, including features like rivers, lakes, streams, roads (with names and address information), power lines, some trail information, etc.

 

Not new data. Census has had a semiannual release for TIGER data for many years. What is new is that it is in .shp format (also files for Census tracks, block groups, etc.)

 

Anyways, I've taken a 'first pass' at getting these maps on to a Garmin Unit. They seem to look fairly good to my eyes, but I have no idea how accurate the data is (Canadian Census data for the roads is ridiculously bad), but on the surface it looks like its not too bad (in many cases there appears to be more detail than what is no my City Navigator v7 maps, my dataset for Alabama that I've processed is ~50MB)

 

Downloaded some states, myself. My local county had the roads (+) realigned with this release (over 1/3 of the counties still need this done). The roads are now right on their photo locations. Point spacing on curves seems to indicate equal to 1:24,000 scale. Census says the next edition (now to be at yearly intervals) will improve road/street names (some highways in a city now keep the highway number with no indication of the actual street name. Hydo appears to equal (or be) the new NHD24k. Since this was just completed in late summer 2007 this might not apply to all areas. Need to do more checking on this. Railroads are more up to date than BTS's 2007 offering (sometimes out of date by over 30 years). Need to do more checking on this too. After a few quick looks using GlobalMapper, I am going to rethink what data sources I will use for various layers, but I think the Census data could now be used for many.

 

Before I go too far, I wanted to make sure that there is some interest.

I would say there would be a lot of interest. IndyJpr, Oz, +others? are doing the 11 western states.

 

The amount of data seems to be pretty high. (50MB for Alabama)

The quality of the data at least seems good on the surface.

Probably relatively up to date data (brand new release)

Free.

 

Given the above, how useful would this data be to people?

 

Agree, agree, agree, and there is always a demand for free.

What has not been realized (at least mentioned) is that contours at a comprable scale would increase the data size by 4-9 times, or more.

 

BTW My downloads have also been crashing ever so often.

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Very interesting work. I'd be interested in checking out California when you get to it. We have nice huge counties so overlap won't be as much of an issue in most cases.

 

Thanks!

 

Downloading California (I'd already started... just getting it going again).

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Some here will be familiar with my Canadian Topo Maps. Well, on March 31st, the US Census Department released all kinds of fancy new data on to their website, including features like rivers, lakes, streams, roads (with names and address information), power lines, some trail information, etc.

 

Not new data. Census has had a semiannual release for TIGER data for many years. What is new is that it is in .shp format (also files for Census tracks, block groups, etc.)

 

Yeah, but this is in a format I can use. I tried interpreting those older Tiger/Line files, wasn't worth the effort (and the conversion programs I found to work with them didn't do such a good job) .

As I've got routines to read SHPs already this makes the proceedure *much* more efficient (from downloaded files, to completed map of Alabama is took me an afternoon. Arizona took me about 1hr to complete)

 

Downloaded some states, myself. My local county had the roads (+) realigned with this release (over 1/3 of the counties still need this done).

 

Are you sure about that number (the 1/3). I recall seeing a list just recently of counties yet to be done. There didn't seem to be that many of them (mostly in Texas), but the names meant nothing to me, so you could very well be right.

 

I would say there would be a lot of interest. IndyJpr, Oz, +others? are doing the 11 western states.

 

My own goal is a country wide data set. Assuming the data quality from here isn't too bad, it should be feasible. Longest part is downloading the data.

 

Agree, agree, agree, and there is always a demand for free.

What has not been realized (at least mentioned) is that contours at a comprable scale would increase the data size by 4-9 times, or more.

 

My Canadian dataset is up to 2.3GB now, I figure I've got about 1/2 the country covered.

 

BTW My downloads have also been crashing ever so often.

 

Good to know its not just me the government is after :laughing:.

 

Actually I was a bit worried that the university might have killed it, as I'm downloading it to their servers, and then to my hardware (faster connection on their end, then I have a LAN line from their servers to me).

 

Dale

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I say we start in the middle of the alphabet with s state that has weather similar to yours...

 

I don't know, how about say... Minnesota? :laughing:

 

Was going to try something similar but it was just too much work for me, either that or I didn't understand it.

 

Tried this method:

http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm#1

 

That looks *way* too much like hard work. My own method is:

 

1. Download data.

2. Unzip data to a folder

3. Open my program (That I wrote)

4. Click a picture of a Tiger

5. Compile the output files with cgpsmapper (scripted)

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Currently:

Processing Arkansas (I had the data)

Downloading California and Montana (had a request for Montana on another board)

 

I have a number of the ones requested earlier (Misouri, Wyoming) downloaded to a fairly local server that I'll have good (high speed) access to on Friday, so I'll pull them off them then.

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Yeah, but this is in a format I can use. I tried interpreting those older Tiger/Line files, wasn't worth the effort (and the conversion programs I found to work with them didn't do such a good job).

Agree. GM does convert to shape, but glad to see Census finally went to shape files. Know the feeling of using a program your familiar and good with.

 

Are you sure about that number (the 1/3). I recall seeing a list just recently of counties yet to be done. There didn't seem to be that many of them (mostly in Texas), but the names meant nothing to me, so you could very well be right.

 

Did you use this Census file from 3/31 http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp...hp07nomtaip.txt

 

I believe I got over 1150 lines and we have 3200+ ? counties. Census intends for the contractor(s) to have the rest finished this year. Probably will show up in the 2009 edition, which would be out before the 2010 census counts.

 

My own goal is a country wide data set.

Assuming the data quality from here isn't too bad, it should be feasible.

Longest part is downloading the data.

My Canadian dataset is up to 2.3GB now, I figure I've got about 1/2 the country covered.

 

We thank you (Garmin may not).

It appears to be very good for the realigned counties.

You have your act together.

The Canada data is 1:50K, while the US may be 1:24K, that might be twice as many points in both the x and y directions and possibly features which might not be shown on the 1:50Ks. With contours, the US dataset could easily go over 10GB.

I have not download you previous version yet because the estimated download time is around 3 hours (with high speed DSL - most available in our neighborhood). Did you add Newfound/Labrador?

 

Actually I was a bit worried that the university might have killed it, as I'm downloading it to their servers, and then to my hardware (faster connection on their end, then I have a LAN line from their servers to me).

 

The Canadian site was also crashing for me this weekend. Must be nice to have the download speed a university connection offers. Takes me 1-2 hours per state(CA closer to 3) - but it is still much more reliable than obtaining 10mDEM's from USGS seamless.

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You should coordinate with IndyJpr to make sure you guys don't duplicate some states and miss others.

 

For instance he already had done Montana and California.

 

Here is the thread:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=185855

 

My goal is to cover the whole country in a single mapset, I'm also planning on eventually including address information (which I don't think IndyJpr is). In general, I'll probably stay away from areas he's done, but eventually, as I'd like a national mapset, I'll probably continue on in that direction anyways.

 

My processing seems to be a lot less labour intensive than his (mine takes a on the order of about 1hr/state, and the download can be automated. I get the impression his takes much longer).

 

His seem (from what I've seen) to be a bit more selective in the datasources though, so they do have some advantages.

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Yeah, but this is in a format I can use. I tried interpreting those older Tiger/Line files, wasn't worth the effort (and the conversion programs I found to work with them didn't do such a good job).

Agree. GM does convert to shape, but glad to see Census finally went to shape files. Know the feeling of using a program your familiar and good with.

 

Yeah, I was trying using a demo version of FME. I've never liked that program. Way too many settings. I just want to tell it Convert File A to format B. Apparently its not that easy.

 

With the SHPs getting released, it means I can use routines I've had written for years now to interpret them, and bulk output them to mp files with minimal effort on my part.

 

Did you use this Census file from 3/31 http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp...hp07nomtaip.txt

 

I believe I got over 1150 lines and we have 3200+ ? counties. Census intends for the contractor(s) to have the rest finished this year. Probably will show up in the 2009 edition, which would be out before the 2010 census counts.

 

That does look like the one I saw, although I'm not sure.

 

We thank you (Garmin may not).

It appears to be very good for the realigned counties.

You have your act together.

The Canada data is 1:50K, while the US may be 1:24K, that might be twice as many points in both the x and y directions and possibly features which might not be shown on the 1:50Ks. With contours, the US dataset could easily go over 10GB.

 

I wonder how much of that would be 'necessary' information, and how much is just interpolating between the data. Way back, before I started on my Canada dataset, I was working on contouring areas manually from DEMs. I found my dataset just got ridiculously huge. The reason was I wasn't scaling back my contour interval sufficiently in steeper areas. I found when I went to using the pre-contoured data the government put out, they'd made that adjustment already, and the dataset was much smaller (and in fact I lost no real information even though I cut back the file size).

 

I have not download you previous version yet because the estimated download time is around 3 hours (with high speed DSL - most available in our neighborhood). Did you add Newfound/Labrador?

 

Yep, those are up. If I were you though, I'd use MapUpdate now to get the latest version (http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/MapUpdate.exe) You'll have to fake an existing install though first (just requires the registry settings and directories for the Maps to be present...you can find a sample at http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/regfix.reg, make sure you edit it as required)

 

Alternatively, you can download a subset area (you seem relatively technically minded, so it shouldn't be too tough) but downloading http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/download/filelist.lst, you can then download the individual IMGs from http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/download/

 

The Canadian site was also crashing for me this weekend. Must be nice to have the download speed a university connection offers. Takes me 1-2 hours per state(CA closer to 3) - but it is still much more reliable than obtaining 10mDEM's from USGS seamless.

 

I just hope they don't get annoyed with me :laughing:.

 

What are you using to download? I'm using wget which seems relatively reliable in most cases.

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Just noticed that the version I uploaded earlier is incompatible with my TopoMaps (I was silly, and forgot to change the productID). Anyways, I'm in the process of uploading an updated version, which will include Alabama, Arkansas, and Arizona.

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No Topo Data - Not likely to change unless I can find a datasource that splits the data by county...or possibly create a seperate mapset to overlay on these maps.

 

Too bad, sure would like to see that, especially since IndyJpr is ignoring all eastern states, even the one with the highest peak, highest waterfall and highest sheer rock face in eastern North America. ;-)

 

EDIT: That would be North Carolina. Thought I should add that since my new location isn't showing up in my user profile beside the post.

Edited by Redwoods Mtn Biker
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No Topo Data - Not likely to change unless I can find a datasource that splits the data by county...or possibly create a seperate mapset to overlay on these maps.

 

Too bad, sure would like to see that, especially since IndyJpr is ignoring all eastern states, even the one with the highest peak, highest waterfall and highest sheer rock face in eastern North America. ;-)

 

EDIT: That would be North Carolina. Thought I should add that since my new location isn't showing up in my user profile beside the post.

 

I'll think about it... I've learnt some things about 'irregular map bounds' that might make the process more feasible that I'd thought (everything outside the mapbounds element gets clipped automagically). Its still going to be a pain getting all the data. I'm going to have to see if I can automate that a bit.

For now, the focus is going to be on getting the TIGER data in a workable format. After that, who knows.

 

Dale

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No Topo Data - Not likely to change unless I can find a datasource that splits the data by county...or possibly create a seperate mapset to overlay on these maps.

 

Too bad, sure would like to see that, especially since IndyJpr is ignoring all eastern states, even the one with the highest peak, highest waterfall and highest sheer rock face in eastern North America. ;-)

 

EDIT: That would be North Carolina. Thought I should add that since my new location isn't showing up in my user profile beside the post.

 

I'll think about it... I've learnt some things about 'irregular map bounds' that might make the process more feasible that I'd thought (everything outside the mapbounds element gets clipped automagically). Its still going to be a pain getting all the data. I'm going to have to see if I can automate that a bit.

For now, the focus is going to be on getting the TIGER data in a workable format. After that, who knows.

 

Can't ask for more than that. Thanks for all the effort you're putting into this.

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Thought I'd provide you with a sample of the detail level for a random area.

My map

 

Cut

 

City Navigator North America v7

 

Cut

 

 

ibycus, those look GREAT! Can't wait to play with Missouri. Thanks for your hard work. I'm serious about the preforms, if you would like them.

 

CamoStep01.jpg

 

Cache On!

 

JohnTee

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Now this is asilly question.... but my wife wants to know if these maps can use the DEM data (like on the Colorado 300 and 400t) to make the "pretty" shaded maps?? she doesn't care about the stuff, just how pretty it can look.

 

(I'm not gonna argue with her, because the "pretty" maps are the reason i finally got her talked into getting a Colorado)

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indyjpr is already working on a topo/detailed map of arizona.

 

Also, is this data updated since the 2000 census or just easier to use. A lot of roads have changed since 2000 thats why I'm wondering. My Arizona map is compiling but if this data is better I'd release it then redo the roads (I have detailed water data already).

 

This is fresh data, released on the 31st. Pretty sure its newer than the 2000 census data.

 

I happend to already have the data for Arizona downloaded, so I compiled that one too. (no topo though).

 

If you give me some lat/lons with some recent changes, I can send you a screen shot. (haven't uploaded it yet)

How about a screenshot of here:

N32.19489 W110.94645

 

I love that it took you just over an hour to compile the maps while it takes me over 1 day of computer time just to process the contours. Then another couple days to get the water and everything set. I think I've got my method set so I'll probably do Mississippi next (the AF is moving me there soon).

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ibycus, those look GREAT! Can't wait to play with Missouri. Thanks for your hard work. I'm serious about the preforms, if you would like them.

 

Hey, thanks for the offer. I'm not a big micro hider myself (actually I'm not caching much at the moment at all.. I've got 3 ammo cans stocked and ready to hide as soon as I find the right place).

 

Dale

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Now this is asilly question.... but my wife wants to know if these maps can use the DEM data (like on the Colorado 300 and 400t) to make the "pretty" shaded maps?? she doesn't care about the stuff, just how pretty it can look.

 

(I'm not gonna argue with her, because the "pretty" maps are the reason i finally got her talked into getting a Colorado)

 

At the moment... no. If the compiler I use starts to support them... who knows.

 

The 'pretty' maps are done using a DEM that underlays all the data. This is done with a slightly different format on the map file than these are done with.

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How about a screenshot of here:

N32.19489 W110.94645

 

detail1.JPG

 

I love that it took you just over an hour to compile the maps while it takes me over 1 day of computer time just to process the contours. Then another couple days to get the water and everything set. I think I've got my method set so I'll probably do Mississippi next (the AF is moving me there soon).

 

I'd never have the patience to do it your way :laughing:.

Edited by ibycus
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Well, it does appear to be more up to date. I guess I'll have to download the new streets :laughing:

 

I noticed that the railway lines are different from City Navigator. Any idea which is more up to date?

 

**edit --- currently compiling Montana

Edited by ibycus
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How are you quickly processing the data? I was gonna write more SQL queries but was wondering if you have anything faster.

 

You mean going from the SHPs to the mps?

 

I wrote a little app to do it. Its not bad, but it requires some registry edits to work, and is really taylored to a single datasource, so not really suitable for public consumption.

 

Other program I just finished is one where I can double click on it, and it will start compiling all mp files in a given directory. (e-mail me if that would be of any use to you).

 

Dale

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How about a screenshot of here:

N32.19489 W110.94645

 

detail1.JPG

 

I love that it took you just over an hour to compile the maps while it takes me over 1 day of computer time just to process the contours. Then another couple days to get the water and everything set. I think I've got my method set so I'll probably do Mississippi next (the AF is moving me there soon).

 

I'd never have the patience to do it your way :rolleyes:.

 

It looks like Tiger2000 Data to me. :laughing: Am I missing something?

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It looks like Tiger2000 Data to me. :laughing: Am I missing something?

 

Never spent any time working with the Tiger2000 data, so I don't know how different it is.

 

Advantage for me of this dataset (which is why I'm using it) is that its available in SHP files. (I know there were some sources that made SHPs available of the older datasets, but those typically had limits to how much you could download at once, so if you wanted to download an entire state, it would take forever.).

 

Dale

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I sent you an email.

 

I wish the data had a code for interstates. The old data I used (from my state) has codes for interstate, highway, arterial road, residential, unpaved roads, which is nice.

 

There is some coding information in there for this kind of thing (in the MTFCC code). Don't recall exactly how its split up. I was planning one of these days to add a little check in my code so that if the "NAME" field contains the right string (i.e. interstate) to add a little shield symbol or whatever.

 

Dale

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