23 Oct: MasterMap Download Update

The MasterMap Download facility was restored at 12.30pm today. This facility is now fully functional.

If you were waiting to retrieve data which was ordered prior to the service outage, please collect it using the usual emailed link or code as soon as possible.

22 Oct: MasterMap Download

MasterMap Download has today fallen foul of a hardware problem. This facility was temporarily unavailable and restored by late morning. Around 4pm the problem recurred and the MasterMap Download facility is again unavailable.

EDINA staff are working to rectify the problem. Further updates will be posted here and within the Digimap service when available. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Digimap Performance

If you have logged in to Digimap recently you will be aware that the service, particularly the Ordnance Survey Collection, is suffering from performance issues. The biggest factor in this is the sheer number of users accessing the service during core hours.

The beginning of the autumn term is the busiest period for Digimap, while new users register and new courses get underway. This year the number of users registering for Digimap is exceptionally high, in the light of the changes to access and authentication systems which occurred in August. This means that a significant proportion of returning users are required to re-register using their new login credentials.

While siginificant work is underway to improve the performance of Digimap, there is no immediate solution. If you are having trouble using Digimap, please try again at a time when the service is less busy. Quieter periods are early in the mornings and later in the evenings. The busiest time is usually during weekday afternoons.

How globes are made

Did you ever wonder how globes are made? If so, here is a YouTube film to enlighten you! Fascinating stuff...

New Training Dates

EDINA are pleased to announce the following schedule of Digimap training courses, to take place in 2008-9. Courses are open to staff members (and postgraduates for the OS MasterMap courses) in UK higher and further education institutions, and cover the Ordnance Survey Collection, Historic Digimap, Marine Digimap and Geology Digimap.

Digimap Collections Training:

• 20-22 January 2009 - Newcastle University
• 31 March - 2 April 2009 - Leeds University
• 9-11 June 2009, Exeter University

OS MasterMap for Users Training:

• 19 November 2008 - Edinburgh University
• 25 February 2009 - Open University, Milton Keynes
• 22 April 2009 - York University

More details regarding course content and learning outcomes can be found with each course listing. You will find listings and booking forms (where booking is open) for these and all other EDINA training here.

We strongly encourage site representatives to attend an OS MasterMap course if they have not done so already. Other members of staff and postgraduate students from subscribing institutions are also welcome. However it is essential that all attendees be registered users of Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection in order to participate in the OS MasterMap training.

All courses are subject to a sufficient level of interest. If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please contact EDINA for advice at edina-training@ed.ac.uk. All EDINA training courses are FREE OF CHARGE. Regretfully, however, owing to the rise in non-attendance, EDINA will make a charge of £25.00 for each day of absence from a course for which EDINA is not notified in advance. Lunch will be provided for all full-day attendees and refreshments will be available throughout the day.

Logging Out

EDINA has identified a number of cases where one user has inadvertently registered with Digimap using another individual's login details. We believe that this may have occurred because the first user has finished using a public access machine but has left their web browser open. This means that the browser is still logged in to the UK Federation with that user's login credentials.

In order to log out of the UK Federation it is necessary to close ALL web browser windows. This is particularly important if the user is not required to log out of the machine they are using.

Site representatives and local support staff may wish to remind their local users of any local protocols for logging out of electronic systems.

2008 Data Update

Data Updates
The annual update to the contemporary Ordnance Survey data took place on Tuesday 2 September 2008. You can view the update dates of the new data in the Digimap Help pages and on the EDINA website here.

As per previous announcements on this blog and elsewhere, Land-Line.Plus is no longer available through the Digimap OS Collection. Ordnance Survey are withdrawing all licences and support for this product and therefore Digimap has ceased to deliver it also. This forms part of the transition to the OS MasterMap framework. If you require large-scale detailed data, please use the OS MasterMap Topography Layer, available through MasterMap Download.

Within Geology Digimap, the 1:50,000 scale data has been updated from version 3 to version 4. We have also made it possible to produce PDF maps from the Geology Mapper service. In order to do this, make sure you add your chosen map to the Map Chest, and then click the link to "Generate PDF" from there.

Within Marine Digimap, the Hydrospatial data available has been updated to the June 2008 version. There are no updates to the Charted Raster data.

Tell us what else you would like!
Negotiations for the new Ordnance Survey licence agreement (covering August 2009 onwards) will begin very shortly. If there are issues you would like addressed in the new licence, or additional datasets you would like to see included, we need to hear about these AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Please email edina@ed.ac.uk with details. Proven demand from service users carries far greater weight than EDINA's voice in effecting change to both licence agreements and in the acquisition of additional data. We need to hear from you!

GML data translation from Dotted Eyes

Dotted Eyes, a well established digital mapping solution provider, has produced an edition of their InterpOSe GML translator specifically for EDINA Digimap users.

The Digimap Edition of InterpOSe will translate OS MasterMap GML data from Digimap's MasterMap Download facility and convert it to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF. InterpOSe deals with both Topography and ITN layers, and is tailored specifically for data from Digimap.

InterpOSe (the Digimap Edition) is free for Digimap users upon registration with Dotted Eyes. Please visit their website for more information and to download a copy of InterpOSe:

http://www.dottedeyes.co.uk/spatial_data_loading/interpose/digimap.php

Publication dates for historic maps

Question: How do I find out what 'Publish Year Start' and 'Publish Year End' dates means for the maps in Historic Digimap?


Answer: The publishing date range of a map in the Map Details tab from the Main Map View in Historic Digimap. This is achieved by using the View Map Details tool (an i symbol) and clicking on the historic map at the point of interest.

The maps shown on the screen are created from the National Grid "cookie cut" files - images which have been rectified and clipped to create a national grid based "tiled" dataset akin to those available for the contemporary Ordnance Survey data. However, the National Grid does not match up with the County Series maps, because the County Series were created on a per County, rather than a national, basis. It is therefore likely that one "cookie cut" National Grid tile comprises parts of more than one County Series map sheet, each of which could have a different publishing date.

The metadata for the National Grid "cookie cuts" often does not contain one publishing date but the range (from, to) of publishing dates of the Orginal mapsheets which make up that national grid cookie cut tile. It is this range which is reported under the Map Details tab.

Unfortunately, EDINA does not have any survey dates for the maps in the Historic Digimap. Landmark Information Group who provided the maps did not capture the survey dates when the maps were digitised (scanned). This is because the maps were originally digitsed for a specific purpose which did not require the information held in the marginalia of each map sheet. During the digitisation process the marginalia was trimmed from the resultant files, meaning that it was never captured in digital form.

A solution to this is to visit a library which holds historic maps; many university libraries have historic map collections with specialised cartographers and support staff. The map details taken from Historic Digimap can be used to search for and locate the map(s) corresponding to your area of interest. Once found, it is in a map's marginalia where you can find the recorded survey dates.

More detailed information about historic maps and Historic Digimap can be found in the Help pages.

Britain from Above - Land Use Maps

You may have seen a recent episode of Andrew Marr's BBC programme Britain from Above which featured the Land Utilisation maps created by Dudley Stamp in the 1930s. You can watch the relevant section again on the BBC website here.

Land Use Viewer interface

These maps are available through Historic Digimap under the Land Use Viewer. You need to have a subscription to Historic Digimap in order to gain access, but there is no individual user registration.

Sample of Dudley Stamp's land use maps

ESRI- CHEST Community Event

A significant number of Digimap users have access to GIS software from ESRI (e.g. ArcGIS, Productivity Suite, MapManager...). ESRI software is available at discounted rates for UK academics via Chest.

On 18th September 2008, ESRI and Chest are holding a joint community event at the University of Leeds. All users of ESRI software within the Chest licence agreement are invited and encouraged to attend.

The event is free, and more details including a programme can be found on the ESRI website. We look forward to seeing you there.

Annual Data Update

On Tuesday 2 September EDINA will be making the annual data update to various datasets offered through the Digimap Collections. This means that all the Collections will be unavailable between 17.30 and 20.00 hours.

Reminder: Land-Line Withdrawal

This is a further reminder that Land-Line.Plus data will no longer be available through Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection from 2 September 2008.

If you have existing holdings of Land-Line.Plus data, you may continue to use these until the end of the current licence period, that is, until 31 July 2009.

All Land-Line.Plus data must be deleted at the end of the current licence period. From 1 August 2009 Digimap users will no longer be licensed to use Land-Line.Plus data.

Land-Line.Plus replaced by OS MasterMap Topography Layer

Free GIS courses from ESRI

As of 4 August 2008, the following courses will be FREE. Previously they have only been available via a subscription to ESRI Virtual Campus.

1. Introduction to GIS Data ReViewer
2. Introduction to Map Production System-Atlas
3. Introduction to Map Production System-Atlas (for ArcGIS 9.0-9.1)

If you wish to take this training, visit the ESRI Training and Education website http://training.esri.com where you can enroll for free.

If you have previously accessed these courses through the ESRI Virtual Campus, you will continue to have access to the course. If you have any questions, please contact ESRI directly.

Access difficulties resolved: 1 August 13.00hrs

Access difficulties via the OpenAthens gateway have now been resolved.

Access difficulties: 1 August, 12.20hrs

There are currently difficulties connecting to electronic resources via the OpenAthens gateway. This includes access to Digimap for users at those institutions using OpenAthens. Trying to log in using this method may result in a message saying that your institution does not subscribe to this service.

Access to Digimap for those using their institution's own Identity Provider is unaffected.

Further information will be posted here and on the Digimap login page when available.

Emergency Maintenance - 29 July

Owing to a hardware failure over the weekend of 26/27 July, some emergency maintenance is required on Digimap's service machine.

All Digimap Collections will be unavailable betwen 09.00 and 14.00 hours on Tuesday 29 July 2008. This will allow engineers to fix the problem. Full service will be restored as quickly as possible. Further updates will be posted here and on the Digimap login page as and when available.

Update: 23 July emergency maintenance

Following a hardware failure yesterday evening, engineers have now identified the faulty machine part. This is scheduled for replacement tomorrow, Thursday 24 July.

As a consequence, all Digimap Collections will be unavailable between 10.00hrs and 13.00hrs.

While the faulty part remains in place, Digimap may become unavailable at short notice. EDINA staff are monitoring all services closely during office hours and will endeavour to maintain access as long as possible.

Thank you for your forebearance.

Emergency maintenance: 23 July

On the evening of Tuesday 22 July, the service machine which runs all Digimap facilities suffered a serious hardware failure. This meant that all services became unavailable and engineers were unable to access the machine. This morning, Wednesday 23 July, engineers have managed to identify the problem, and have temporarily restored full service capability.

However, until the faulty hardware is replaced, all Digimap Collections will remain unstable and may become unavailable at any time. Engineers are monitoring the service closely, and further information will be posted when available.

Replacing faulty hardware
Later today, it will be necessary to withdraw access to Digimap in order to replace the faulty hardware. As much notice of this as possible will be given, both here and on the Digimap login page.

Hardware failure is an unfortunate and unpredictable hazard; EDINA is doing as much as possible to mitigate the impact of such events and apologises for any inconvenience caused.

Withdrawal of Land-Line

Digimap will cease to deliver Land-Line.Plus data at the end of August 2008.

As a registered Digimap user you may continue to hold and use any Land-Line.Plus data you already have until 31 July 2009. Beyond this date, you will be required to delete any Land-Line.Plus data you hold, and will not be licensed to use it thereafter.

Land-Line map of urban area

Land-Line.Plus has been replaced by OS MasterMap Topography Layer. These data are available from Digimap's MasterMap Download facility, within the Ordnance Survey Collection. The OS MasterMap Topography Layer is as detailed as Land-Line.Plus but contains a much richer attribute set. It is also available in GML format, rather than NTF.

Corresponding OS MasterMap Topography Layer map of urban area

More information about OS MasterMap can be found within the Digimap Help pages.