Small Scale Topographical maps

[Bradinn]

So in my ongoing quest for clear concise topographical maps that can be used with various moving map software, I think I have come up with a nice alternative to Toporama. Since I have started (which is fairly recently) I have found toporama to be a little too large in scale, the 1:50,000 maps are nice, especially the high res versions, however I have still needed something much closer for trail mapping and fine definition.

 

Since I haven't seen this anywhere else on the forums, I will post it (unless my search failed to turn it up - if I'm posting redundant information, my apologies).

 

Recently, the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario has posted an online browser for the Ontario Base Maps (OBM) which have most of Southern Ontario mapped at 1:10,000 and the rest at 1:20,000.

 

The link to the MNR Data Warehouse is here:

http://lioib.lio.mnr.gov.on.ca/lioib/uien/LIOIBSelectView.asp

 

When you access this page, there is a list of options for viewing different material. The last entry on this list is: "Topographic Features", this is the link to click on. It will take you to an online applet which allows you to browse and select areas to view. There are several pros and one major con to this site. The major con is that this site is SLOW!!! Well, actually the site is fast enough...the applet is VERY SLOW to redraw the maps. It is pulling all of the available layer information and organizing it into the map you request. One of the reasons for the speed is that the browser is completely customizeable as far as the details the map presents, you can add and remove any content to customize the view. (major Pro), as well, the viewer allows you to zoom in much closer than 1:10,000. In my playing I have found that 1:5,000 produces a nice image. The browser also allows you to "print" the screen as a digital image which can be saved.

 

As the Ministry does not put individual mapsheets online, and they are only sold as CAD format files at over $100.00 a shot (I have contacted most of the dealers in this area - if anyone knows anywhere to buy straight image files of the OBM sheets - please let me know!) this gives you a nice alternative, although it is tedious.

 

I have made a couple of maps now by taking a series of between 9 - 15 screenshots and piecing them together in photoshop, them importing the image and calibrating it with a little help from the location sensor in MS Streets and trips (one more con - no lat/long information). All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the final product turned out in Ozi Explorer. As I said, tedious, but you end up with a very nice highly detailed small scale moving map of the area you wish to map. This site covers Ontario only, but tere are links in the MNR site to other provinces land data.

 

I have been playing with this in my spare time, some of you may easily find more efficient ways to use it, if you do I'd love to hear about it!

 

Gord,

Team Bradinn

 

"When I was a young man, I journeyed to the West to find myself......it turns out I had the wrong coordinates."

[+mrcpu]

Awsome!!!!

 

One thing to note, the location under the cursor is displayed at top right in UTM and Ozi will let you calibrate in UTM. Save yourself some time!

 

Thanks for finding this!

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

[Bradinn]

Is that thing a coordinate display? In larger scale I saw a UTM coordinate display, but when I got down to 1:5,000 it changed to displays of individual meters. I have had no experience using UTM, so I wasn't sure if this was still a display of UTM or not......I'll try it though and see if it works! I've been meaning to spend the time to figure out this UTM thing anyway.

 

Thanks for the advice!

 

Gord,

Team Bradinn

 

"When I was a young man, I journeyed to the West to find myself......it turns out I had the wrong coordinates."