OS MasterMap background maps

OS MasterMap data is now available to download in a rasterised (image) format from Digimap's Data Download facility. If you need an image of OS MasterMap data (for example, as a backdrop map) but don't need the complexity of the original vector data, this new stuff is for you.

OS MasterMap – detailed but complex

OS MasterMap is the most detailed product offered by Ordnance Survey. Maps made with with OS MasterMap have been available through Digimap's mapping facilities since 2007, but if you wanted to use OS MasterMap as background for a customised map by overlaying your own data in a GIS you needed to download and convert the raw GML data. If all you want is a detailed colour background image, this seems like a significant investment of time.

Rasterised OS MasterMap - images not data

Digimap now offers OS MasterMap as .tif images at two scales: 1:1000 and 1:2000 through the usual Data Download facility. This saves you having to download, convert and import the data using specialist GIS software.

Where do I get the OS MasterMap raster background maps?

Log in to Digimap's OS Collection, go to Data Download and select which scale of OS MasterMap image you want from the list of products. The images are tiled in 1km square tiles, so you can select your area of interest, and the tiles covering it, in the same way as other tiled datasets.

The scales are determined according to the distance on the ground represented by each pixel. The larger scale images are based on a measurement of 0.3125m per pixel. The smaller scale images are based on a measurement of 0.625m per pixel. These equate to approximate scales of 1:1000 and 1:2000 respectively, although these are dependent on the screen resolution of your monitor. You can easily display the maps at other scales, but some loss of image quality may occur if you do.

Ordnance Survey request help on data usability

EDINA has been asked to post the following request for assistance from Ordnance Survey regarding the usability of particular datasets. Please follow the links below if you can help.

You may remember a similar survey being conducted in June 2010. This latest survey refers to different datasets.

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Hello,

My name is Michael Brown and I work for the Ordnance Survey research department. My work includes the development and application of methods to improve the usability of OS products. I am currently exploring the use of questionnaires to evaluate the usability of our products and guide their further development. If you have any experience of the following Ordnance Survey products please follow the links provided and complete the questionnaire. Each should only take a few minutes to complete, and I would appreciate it if you could complete as many as you can.

OS MasterMap® Integrated Transport Network Layer™
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMM-ITN

OS MasterMap® Topography Layer
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMM-Topo

OS OpenData™ Boundary-Line™
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSOD-BL

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time.

Dr. Michael Brown
Usability Specialist
Research, L1F2, Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive, SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS
michael.brown@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

MasterMap Download: 4-7 February 2011

Work being undertaken by the University of Edinburgh will affect the availability of Digimap's MasterMap Download facility from Friday 4th to Monday 7th February 2011.

MasterMap Download will be unavailable from 4pm on Friday 4 February until 12 noon on Monday 7 February and will continue to be at risk for the remainder of Monday 7th. We would encourage anyone wishing to take data for use the following week to take it prior to Friday 4th February.

While the maintenance work may be completed over the weekend, there is further software maintenance to be undertaken by EDINA following the University's works. Currently it is difficult to estimate the length of time this will take, which is why MasterMap Download should be regarded as "at risk" for the remainder of Monday 7th February.

Data Usability - request for help

EDINA has been asked to post the following request for assistance regarding the usability of geographic information. Please follow the links below if you can help.

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Hey Everyone,

My name is Michael Brown; I'm working with the University of Nottingham in conjunction with Ordnance Survey to develop a set of User Centred Design Tools for use with Geographic Information.

As part of this I am currently working on a questionnaire for the measurement of the Usability of Geographic Information. The next stage of this process is to validate the questionnaire by getting people to complete it, focusing on a few specific products. This will allow me to calculate how well it differentiates between different GI data sets as well as providing useful information about the products that will be fed back to Ordnance Survey.

I'm focusing this validation on 3 products.

1. OS MasterMap- Topography: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMMtopo
2. OS MasterMap- Imagery: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OSMMimagery
3. OS 1:50,000 Scale Colour Raster: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/50kRaster

If you have any experience with any of these products, I'd appreciate your help. Please follow the relevant link(s) and complete the questionnaire(s). This version is fairly short and should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

Feel free to complete more than one of them and please forward this on to anyone you think might be able to help me collect responses. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at: michael.brown@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Thank you for the help

Michael

MasterMap Download: availability update

Following an unscheduled outage over the past 24 hours, MasterMap Download is now available again.

However, Topographic Layer orders are limited to 25sq.km and all orders may take longer than the advertised 2 days to process. Please be patient and do not resubmit your order.

We aim to restore full service early next week. Further information will be posted here when available. Apologies for the inconvenience.

MasterMap Download unavailable

Following some unsuccessful remedial work carried out on the database this morning, MasterMap Download continues to be unavailable.

At this time we do not know when the service might be restored. Engineers are working towards this, but a time estimate is not yet available.

Further information will be posted here when available. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

MasterMap Download now available

Following this afternoon's diagnostics test, MasterMap Download is now available but running under reduced capacity. Orders for Topography Layer are limited to 5 x 5 km (25 sq. km) as a temporary measure.

Between 07.30 and 09.30 hrs on Thursday 24 September, MasterMap Download will be unavailable to allow a fix to be applied. Further information on its success will be available thereafter.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

MasterMap Download temporarily withdrawn: 23.9.09

The MasterMap Download facility will be temporarily withdrawn at 14.00 hours today, Wednesday 23 September 2009.

Currently, significant software faults are causing most data orders to fail and the system is unstable. Withdrawing access will allow EDINA to undertake diagnostic work to identify a solution to the problem. External software suppliers are also involved.

As yet, we do not know how long the service will need to be unavailable, but futher information will be posted here and on the Digimap login page, as and when it is available.

Should you have an urgent data order, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk with details of the data you require. We cannot process orders immediately, but we may still have an opportunity to meet the advertised 2-day delivery schedule. This very much depends on the problem identified.

EDINA apologises for any inconvenience caused.

FAQs about Change-only Update

Why does my Order say that CoU is not available?

Check the date on which you created the original Order. If you created it after the last set of CoU was released but before the next set of CoU is released, then you already have the latest version of the data. If a release of CoU is imminent, you should wait until after the release date, and then check your data order for the availability of CoU.

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I have downloaded CoU for my area, but having applied it to my existing data holding, nothing looks different. Why is this?

Not every feature changes every time a Change-only Update is released. It may be that none of the features in your data holding have been updated this time. It is not possible for EDINA to determine exactly whose orders contain changed features.

You may also find that there are some small changes to the attributes for your data. These are harder to identify if you are simply looking for changes visible on a map. It isn't necessarily the geometry or position of a feature which has changed. When you plot the changes on a map, you may not see them, because the changes may relate to data in the attribue table.

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Why can't I have CoU for other datasets?

Only OS MasterMap data offers Change-only Update. This is because other datasets are not structured in a way which enables CoU to be identified and extracted separately. Other datasets are also not updated so frequently.

OS MasterMap: CoU release on 24 March

The next release of Change-only Update data for OS MasterMap will be put into service on Tuesday 24 March 2009. The currency date of the new data will be 20 January 2009.*

Change-only Update (CoU) applies only to the OS MasterMap data. It does not apply to any other data product.

EDINA collates all the data changes released by Ordnance Survey over a 6-month period, and makes these available through Digimap approximately every 6 months. The previous update was released in September 2008.

What is the point of Change-only Update?
Change-only Updates enable you to update your data holding without needing to store multiple copies or versions of the same data. By taking only the changes to the data you hold you can minimise the storage requirements for your data, while still maintaining an up-to-date dataset. This is particularly useful if you are studying changes to an area over time.

Most users will not need Change-only Update. CoU is only useful to you if you already have a full copy of the original data to which you can apply the changes.


How do I download CoU?
You can download Change-only Updates only for data orders you have already submitted within Digimap's Mastermap Download facility. Go to the Your Account page within Mastermap Download and scroll down to the table of Orders.

You will see a list of all your previous Orders, and in the final column you will see whether or not CoU is available for that Order.

If CoU is available, click the radio button in the far left column for the Order you require. Below this table, you will see two buttons in a blue box:

Click the first button to Order Change-only Update. The data file will be delivered in the usual way: you will receive one email to say your Order has been received and is being processed, and a second email to say your data is ready for collection.

If you submit a new order for OS MasterMap data, by defining the Layer, Themes and your chosen area, you will automatically receive the latest version of the data; this will include all the latest changes. Change-only Update will therefore not be available for such an Order until the next batch of CoU is released.

Example
You submit an Order for data on 20 March 2009. In the Orders table under Your Account, the Order details say that CoU is not available. This is because you already have the latest version of the data.

If you submit a second Order for data on 27 March 2009, you will also see that the order details say that CoU is not available. Again, you have the latest version of the data; it includes the changes which were released on 24 March.

If you go back to look at your first Order (submitted on 20 March) on 2 April 2009, you will see that COU is now vailable for this Order. This is because the changes released on 24 March are now available; they were not available when you submitted the original order.

* Although the latest update is dated 20 January 2009, it takes time for Ordnance Survey to process and release these data, to send them out to EDINA and for EDINA to process and load the data into the database. This accounts for the time delay between the "freeze date" of the database (20 January 2009) and the release date (24 March 2009).

Training: booking now open

EDINA would like to announce that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, open to staff members (and postgraduates for the MasterMap courses) in UK higher and further education institutions:

• Digimap Collections: 31 March-2 April 2009 - Leeds University


• OS MasterMap for Users: 22 April 2009 - York University

The following courses will be offered this year, but booking is not yet open:

• Digimap Essentials: 4 June 2009 - Bilborough College, Nottingham


• Digimap Collections: 9-11 June 2009 - Exeter University

Further details of course content and learning objectives can be found on our website. You will also find listings and booking forms (where open) for these and all other EDINA training events here: http://edina.ac.uk/events/

This page contains details of all forthcoming EDINA courses and workshops which may interest staff within subscribing institutions, including multimedia services courses to be announced soon.
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 institutions which subscribe to Digimap are also welcome. Note that all attendees MUST be registered users of Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection in order to participate in the OS MasterMap training.

Running the courses is subject to a sufficient level of interest. If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please get in touch with EDINA for advice at edina-training@ed.ac.uk

All EDINA training courses are free of charge. Regretfully, however, we will charge £25.00 per person for each day of absence of which EDINA is not given prior notice. This is due to the increasing number of no-shows at courses.

Lunch will be provided for all full-day attendees and refreshments will be available throughout the day. If you have any questions about Digimap or these courses, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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.

OS MasterMap replaces Land-Line

Land-Line data is being withdrawn in August 2008. After 1 August 2008 you will need to use OS MasterMap Topography layer instead of Land-Line data. Land-Line is the most detailed data available through the Data Download facility within Digimap's OS Collection. It has been replaced by OS MasterMap Topography layer, which is equally detailed and available through the MasterMap Download facility.

Two OS MasterMap Layers, Topography and Integrated Transport Network, have been available from Digimap's OS Collection since September 2007. These layers are available through the MasterMap Download facility. You can read more about OS MasterMap data on our OS MasterMap website and within the Digimap Help pages. Look in the sections under MasterMap Download and Data Information.

There are several software packages available which make the process of loading and viewing the OS MasterMap in GIS applications quite simple, more simple than using Land-Line data, in fact. These are in addition to 'built-in' converters supplied with the most recent versions of ArcGIS (Productivity Suite), MapInfo and AutoCAD software.

Viewing data

If you wish to simply view the OS MasterMap data (rather than undertake any spatial analysis, querying or manipulation), there is a simple viewer produced by Snowflake Software. It is called the OS MasterMap Viewer and can be downloaded for free (upon registration) from the Snowflake website.

MapInfo

The following applications are free and will load OS MasterMap, fully represented, into MapInfo:

• OSM2MIF written by Nigel James at the Bodleian Library. This can be downloaded from the Bodleian Library Map Room website: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/translat.htm


• InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This is available free of charge on registration with Dotted Eyes. It includes full OS MasterMap styling, and will convert data to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF.

ArcGIS

The following applications are freely available:

• Productivity Suite 1.1. This is freely available to those licensed to use ArcGIS through Eduserv Chest. It contains MapManager and will convert OS MasterMap to Geodatabase format and comes complete with a number of layer files for representation (details can be found in the local installation folder of Productivity Suite). You will need a special Athens username and password to access the software download area. This should be available from your local Chest Representative or ESRI Technical Contact.


• InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This is available free of charge on registration with Dotted Eyes. It includes full OS MasterMap styling, and will convert data to various file formats, including Shape, TAB, mid/mif and DWG/DXF.

AutoCAD

• InterpOSe (Digimap Edition) from Dotted Eyes. This will convert OS MasterMap to DXF and DWG and has a template file (.DWT) for representing the data using OS style. InterpOSe can be downloaded for free from Dotted Eyes website on registration there.

There are other packages and resources available which are detailed on our OS MasterMap website. Ordnance Survey also provide information about software which will read OS MasterMap data.

Instructions on using MapManager 9.1 and InterpOSe are included in the Digimap Help pages. Look in the section labelled "Using Data with GIS". If you have any questions about the information provided here, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.