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The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:47 pm
by Dave Exton
Hiya Folks,

Does anybody have any ideas as to how to add topography to our basic outline charts?

I have been quite lucky in terms of finding free Shapefile maps which I have used to great effect in terms of adding accuracy to the coastline and islands around the British Isles and Europe. I've even added the UK Shipping Forecast Areas to my maps using custom geography settings.

The main thing that's lacking now is simple shaded topography so that I can analise my charts bearing in mind the local 'ups and downs'.
There are some raster downloads available but I'm not really sure how or if I can use these. In any case, I'm really looking just to show simple shading rather than shadowed relief.

I hope this makes sense, and I'd be grateful if anybody could provide me with any info.

Here's hoping!

Thanks,
Dave Exton, UK.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:26 pm
by LaurierWilliams
Hi Dave, I may be missing something in your question, but can't you just use the Make Topography selection on the Map menu? This is pretty coarse at higher scales, but does at least give an idea of elevation. The only problem I have (which I don't remember being a problem in earlier incarnations of DA) is getting water bodies to infill blue after the elevation shading routine has finished. They stay green, which is the lowest elevation colour. Anyone know how to fix/overcome/fiddle this?

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:08 pm
by Dave Exton
Hi Laurier, You've hit the nail on the head sir!

My problem is that a green sea doesn't look very neat, coupled with the fact that the other contours have colours that dominate the map and are quite overbearing.

I'm looking for something a bit more subtle, so that the station plots show through and the ink drain is not too excessive when printing.

I have been in touch with Tim who's basically told me that at the moment the contouring can't be done. Tim's suggested that there are references on the forum that point to planetary maps, so, I'll keep a look-out for those.

Thanks for the reply anyway Laurier,
And take care.
Regards,
Dave.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:01 am
by Budgie
It's the planetary maps that I use and it is on the forum somewhere, but I forget where now.
They work well with contours, like pressure maps, but no so good if you're wanting something that uses the colour fill.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:38 am
by LaurierWilliams
Dave and Budgie, I've done a search on the forum for links to planetary maps, but they either give links that no longer work, or complain about links that no longer work :rolleyes: . A Google search provides many satellite images but none are workable - too much cloud or too small a scale. I have also searched for public domain orthographic or mercator projection maps that are not cluttered by text and are of a reasonable scale without success, though I haven't searched particularly deeply so maybe there is still something out there.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:10 am
by Dave Exton
Thanks Laurier and Budgie,

I had a feeling solving this one wasn't going to be straightforward.

Anyway, I guess we'll all keep looking until we find something, and somebody will, eventually.

I enjoy the challenge of playing with DA - trying to improve the appearance of my charts etc, and also the contacts I make on this forum!

Take care both,
If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Regards,
Dave.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:49 pm
by Budgie
See if anything on here will do, I think this is where I got mine from: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_set.p ... oryID=2364

Edit: Now I think it was here as this gives the months: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_set.p ... oryID=2363

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:49 pm
by Dave Exton
Many thanks Budgie, that's much appreciated!

I've successfully saved and imported one of the maps on the NASA site and am very pleased with the result.

I'll continue to look for something a little more transparent but in the meantime your links will be well used.

Once again,

Thanks.

Dave.

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:36 pm
by Budgie
Glad it worked, Dave.
Glad I got the URL correct as well. :mrgreen:

Re: The Hills are alive...(I wish)

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:20 am
by Peter
Sorry I haven't looked at the Forum for ages and didn't see your post.

I use NASA Blue Marble images and the URL sent by someone is fine

The Blue Marble images have one which is a 'cloudless' sky image worldwide.

When in use I change the isobar colour to red otherwise it is difficult to see on the picture.

Regards Peter