Historic Download - new service

Launched as a BETA service on 20 April 2010, Historic Download is an entirely new facility allowing users to select and download larger quantities of historical map data.


The facility offers the capability to browse contemporary maps of the UK which have been shaded blue to indicate the coverage of historical maps of each series and edition. Areas of historical maps can be selected for download by clicking on the appropriate shaded polygons or by dragging a box to select multiple map sheets.

The interface has been designed to improve selection and retrieval of larger quantities of data for research projects. Build up a list of the data you need, choosing maps from different editions of a given product and take up to 200 maps in a single download.

EDINA welcomes feedback on this BETA service. You can contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.

Launching Ancient Roam

Ancient Roam is a new mapping facility within Historic Digimap. It is based upon the Roam mapping client available from Digimap's OS Collection and includes the standard features such as fixed scale map views, 'slippy maps', searching by place name, postcode and grid reference, easy to use zooming and comprehensive help.



Key features specific to Ancient Roam include the ability to select historical maps from any decade (depending on map coverage and availability) using the Timeline along the top of the map window. Ancient Roam also offers an easier means of identifying and selecting maps in areas where County Series overlap at County boundaries. A single click on the map will also query maps to display the year the map shown was published along with other information about the map.

New Town Plan Maps
The large scale Town Plans are now available to view in Ancient Roam and download from Historic Download. The Town Plans are the largest scale historical maps available from Digimap offering great detail at 1:500, 1:528 and 1:1056 scales. The coverage of these maps is limited in that only settlements with a population greater than 4000 at the time of surveying were mapped. It is interesting to see what were regarded, then, as "urban" areas. The detail captured is enlightening; individual trees are marked in parkland and many industrial and commercial uses of land and buildings are noted.



Beta Service
Currently available as a BETA service, Ancient Roam will continue to undergo development over the coming weeks. Proposed additional functions include:

• PDF map creation for printing


• My Maps, to enable bookmarking screen maps for future reference


• Multiple historical map views, to enable comparison of maps of different dates


• Map fade slider, to show transition between maps of different dates


• The ability to download the original Map sheet data which makes up your current on-screen map view

EDINA would welcome feedback on the service and on these proposed developments. Please contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302

New Webinar Dates - online training

Some new webinars about Digimap have been posted on the EDINA events page:

http://edina.ac.uk/events/

These short sessions are available to any Digimap user, whether staff,
student or researcher.

Should the session times or content not be quite right for you, we will
happily set-up some alternative sessions.

You can contact us to discuss your training needs via the EDINA Helpdesk or you can call our Training Officer, Vivienne Carr, on 0131 651 1852.

OS OpenData

EDINA welcomes the release of Ordnance Survey datasets for free use and re-use. We are actively working to realise to the full the opportunities offered by this new policy for the enhancement and development of new and existing services for research and education.




As many will already know the Government published details on 31 March 2010 of the package of datasets and products from Ordnance Survey that are now available under OS OpenData - see http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/opendata/. The list coincides partially with the datasets currently available through EDINA Digimap – see below. Note especially that OS MasterMap, the large-scale vector data, is only available through registration with EDINA Digimap.





The key task for EDINA Digimap is to provide ease and continuity of access to a whole range of geo-spatial datasets, including re-use in materials that are shared in research and teaching. We are therefore seeking clarification from Ordnance Survey regarding the licence terms that can now apply to the data available through Digimap which are now covered under OS OpenData.





The release of many Ordnance Survey datasets as open data is also good news for Unlock, the EDINA service which is there to help you geo-enable research data and other Internet-accessible documents and images. Unlock, and its predecessor GeoCrossWalk, were previously limited by license to academic use only. Relevant datasets now regarded as open data, including Boundary-Line, Code-Point® Open and the 1:50 000 gazetteer of place names, can now be used by Unlock Places, Unlock Text and Unlock Geocodes.





We are keen to learn from users of Digimap how you wish us to take best advantage of these changes in availability and licensing. Contact us by email on edina@ed.ac.uk or leave a comment on this blog.

Product Name	EDINA Digimap	OS OpenData
OS MasterMap Topography	Yes	No
OS MasterMap ITN	Yes	No
1:10 000 Scale Raster	Yes	No nearest equivalent is OS StreetView
1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	No
1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	No
1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster	Yes	Yes
MiniScale®	Yes	Yes
Meridian™2	Yes	Yes
Strategi®	Yes	Yes
Land-Form PANORAMA® Contours	Yes	Yes
Land-Form PANORAMA® DTM	Yes	No
Land-Form PROFILE®	Yes	No
Boundary-Line®	Yes	Yes
Code-Point®	Yes	No
CodePoint® with Polygons	Yes	No
Code-Point® Open (point data only; subset of Code-Point®)	No	Yes
1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer	Yes	Yes
OS StreetView	No nearest equivalent is 1:10 000 Scale Raster	Yes
OS Locator	No	Yes
OS VectorMap District (from 1 May 2010)	No	Yes

New Products added to Data Download

MiniScale and 1:250 000 Raster data are now available in Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection Data Download facility.

The datasets have been available from the ShareGeo service for some time, but are now also available from within Digimap. In addition to the new products you can now also:

• download the OS Land-Form PROFILE, 1:10 000 Contour data in DXF format
• download Shapefile and MID/MIF versions of Meridian2 data

The new Meridian2 formats have their own entry on the Product & Format page of Data Download. These formats are available as national coverage, with a single download covering the whole of Great Britain. The NTF and DXF formats are still available as individual tiles.

Land-Line style maps available in Carto

Maps of OS MasterMap data in Carto can now be styled to look like previous Land-Line.Plus maps. This is particularly useful for black and white printing or to recreate Land-Line.Plus data for comparison with older printed maps.

Training Reminder: Manchester and Nottingham

EDINA would like to remind you that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, which are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions:

University of Manchester:

• Guidance for site reps: 9 March 2010
• Making maps in Digimap Collections: 10 March 2010
• Downloading data from Digimap Collections 11 March 2010

Bilborough College, Nottingham:

• Guidance for site reps: 7 April 2010
• Making maps in Digimap Collections: 8 April 2010
• Downloading data from Digimap Collections: 9 April 2010

You will find more details of course content and booking forms on EDINA's Training and Events page . If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please contact EDINA for advice at edina@ed.ac.uk.

All EDINA training courses are free of charge and lunch is provided.

Changes to Digimap on 26 January

Yesterday, Tuesday 26 January 2010, some changes were made to Digimap. These are detailed as follows:

1. Classic removed from Ordnance Survey Collection.
As advertised on 5 October 2009 and 6 January 2010 this old facility has been removed and replaced by the new Roam facility. You can find a demonstration of Roam on the EDINA website: Roam demonstration

2. Historic Digimap "preview map sheet" button has been removed.
This function used out-of-date technology to render the original historical map sheets in the browser window. It was extremely slow and was dependent upon software installed on a machine which is being decommissioned. It is much quicker and more user-friendly to download the map sheet required and view it locally.

3. Marine Digimap Hydrospatial data updated.
The 2009 version of SeaZone's Hydrospatial data is now available through Hydrospatial Download. Late delivery of the data has meant a delay of the release from September 2009 to January 2010.

MapAction - Haiti Appeal

MapAction is a a volunteer-based charity and non-governmental organisation which works in disaster zones providing frequently updated situation maps showing where relief help is most urgently needed.

The earthquake in Haiti has killed all but two members of the Haitian national mapping agency (the equivalent of Ordnance Survey). At Digimap's 10th Anniversary event on 20th January 2010, Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey's Chief Executive and Director General, took a moment to tell of the work that MapAction are doing in Haiti and encouraged donations to this cause.

Donations can be made online directly from the MapAction website: http://mapaction.org/. Vanessa's appeal can be seen in the short video below:

ArcGIS and raster catalogs

The following may be of interest to those Digimap users who have ArcGIS 9.3.1 and are using raster catalogs.

ESRI have just released a patch fixing the issue with Microsoft SQL Server and Raster Catalogues. This works with ArcGIS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1.

ESRI's announcement is as follows:

"ESRI announces ArcSDE 9.3.1 SP1 SQL Server Raster Catalog and Raster Field Patch. This patch addresses the raster catalog display and raster field identify problem for SQL Server following the install of 9.3.1 sp1. We recommend that all who store raster catalogs or raster fields in ArcSDE for SQL Server download and install this Patch at their earliest convenience to ensure the highest quality experience when working with ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1."

Link to patch:(http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.patchesServicePacks.viewPatch&PID=17&MetaID=1586)

Not getting emails?

We have recently noticed that some Hotmail accounts are rejecting emails from edina@ed.ac.uk as spam. This also includes emails which have been automatically forwarded to a Hotmail account from an institutional email account (.ac.uk).

This means that some users may not receive emails from which to download OS MasterMap data or their "Welcome to Digimap" registration confirmation.

If you believe you are not receiving emails from EDINA, please check that you have edina@ed.ac.uk in your Hotmail list of Safe Senders.

Training: Southampton, 1 February

EDINA will be running a Digimap training course entitled "What to do with Digimap data" on Monday 1 February at Southampton University.

Further details of this course can be found on the EDINA website.

Please register by 17 January 2010 if you would like to attend. The course is free and lunch/refreshments will be provided.

If you have any questions about who should attend or about the course content, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 33302.

Digimap Classic Removal

On 26 January, the Digimap Classic mapping facility available in the OS Collection will be removed and will no longer be available for use. NOTE: ALL OTHER DIGIMAP FACILITIES WILL REMAIN AS THEY ARE.

Any maps present in your Classic Map Chest on 26 January will be lost. Please ensure that you print or save any maps that you require before 26 January. Please contact the EDINA Helpdesk (edina@ed.ac.uk) if you require any assistance in saving or printing maps from Classic.

The new Roam facility (released in October 2009) replaces Classic as the standard mapping facility in Digimap OS Collection. Key features of Roam include: 12 fixed scale map views, click-and-drag navigation or "slippy maps" and enhanced printing options enabling you to generate printable PDF maps in landscape or portrait and A4 or A3 size. Roam is a significant improvement on Classic, providing many enhanced futures and an easier to use, more intuitive user interface.

Digimap 10th Anniversary Celebration

EDINA is holding a celebratory event to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Digimap service on the 20th January 2010. All Digimap site reps and support staff are invited to join us in Edinburgh to mark the occasion.

During the day, there will be a number of speakers and demonstrations to showcase the Digimap service past, present and future and in the evening there will be a drinks reception followed by dinner with guest speaker, Mike Parker (television presenter and author of 'Map Addict').

The daytime event will be free of charge with lunch and refreshments provided. Tickets for the evening event (including drinks reception) will be available for £24 (or £30 including wine).

Site reps and Support staff can find out more details and register for the event here:

Event Programme

#digimap10

Live Webinar: Productivity Suite

ESRI (UK) is running a LIVE WEBINAR entitled:

Productivity Suite 2.0 - Unlocking the Full Potential of Ordnance Survey Data

It is being held on Wednesday 4 November 2009, 10:00 – 11:00 am

If you are using Ordnance Survey data from Digimap and your institution has a licence to use ArcGIS, you might find this a useful event to attend. Licensing ArcGIS via Chest includes the Productivity Suite, an additional software application providing data conversion tools. Productivity Suite does not cost extra, but should be requested specifically when the Chest licence is purchased.

Further details of the Webinar can be found on the ESRI (UK) website at: http://www.esriuk.com/trainingevents/events/productivitysuite041109/

A further note on creating EPS files...

You can create EPS files directly from Adobe Acrobat by using an appropriate Printer Driver e.g. CutePDF or one downloaded from Adobe's website. For example: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1500 and follow the instructions at: http://www.ep.ph.bham.ac.uk/general/printing/winsetup.html

Note: you will need the Generic Colour Postscript PPD file linked in the document if you want to print A3 or larger. You can download the PDD file from the above website.

Load the PDF into Acrobat and then go to File ->Print. Select CutePDF Writer (or another Postscript printer you have installed). Click on Properties and then the Advanced... button.

There is a section called Postscript Options; expand this to find the PostScript Output Option and change this from 'Optimize for Speed' to 'Encapsulated Postscript (EPS)'.

When you print you will now be asked to save a file which you should add the extension .eps to your file. You should be able to open this file in Ghostview as a vector EPS.

In lieu of EPS files...

Since Digimap ceased to generate EPS files we have had a number of enquiries about suitable alternatives. Currently, Digimap's mapping facilities will only produce PDF files. However, there are a number of options for those who prefer to use other formats. The following notes may help.

Note that EDINA does not endorse or recommend any of the products or services detailed here or guarantee their quality or performance.

PDF files generated from Digimap can be converted to various other formats including PNG, SVG, and PS/EPS using free software called Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/). The only down side to this that we have found is that it seems to blur the PS/EPS because of the 'Digimap' watermark.

You can also edit the vectors in Inkscape. If you want to put the map (or a bit of it) into a Word document there is a nifty little command in Acrobat under Tools --> Select & Zoom--> Snapshot Tool which allows you to define an area and then paste it into Word (or another programme) - note this is lower resolution than you can create with Inkscape.

The PDFs themselves can be opened in CS3 Adobe Illustrator as editable vector graphics and then exported to various formats. The PDFs can also be opened and converted to EPS in GhostView but this seems to treat them as images rather than vectors.

There are various software packages that will convert from vector PDF to DXF (e.g. http://www.trixsystems.com/pdfFLY.html) but we have not found any which are free of charge.

If DXF/DWG is required for OS MasterMap, the best option is to download GML and use Dotted Eyes' InterpOSe software to convert from GML to DXF/DWG.

Roam - new mapping tool available

Today, Monday 5 October, a new mapping tool is available to all registered users, through Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection.

Roam, the new mapping facility, is available as a BETA service and will therefore be subject to various improvements over the next few months. Planned changes include:
- additional print formats as alternatives to PDF
- inclusion of scalebar on printed maps
- provision of scale and extent indication on screen maps
- adding a "My Maps" function for bookmarking maps

Roam offers "click and drag" functions to locate your map, 12 map views at different scales, printing in PDF at both A3 and A4 sizes, search by place name, postcode or grid reference, seamless scrolling through the fixed scale maps and 5 customisable map views. You can access Roam from the icon above Classic in Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection home page.

We hope you will use the new facility and let us know what you think of it. There is a link within Roam for you to report any feedback you have (positive and negative). You can also email us on edina@ed.ac.uk or telephone us on 0131 650 3302.

Roam will replace the current Classic facility in January 2010.

New Digimap Training Schedule 2009-10

Booking is now open for several Digimap training courses and online workshops to be run in 2009-10. These events are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions.

Further details of course content and learning objectives can be found on our website, where you will also find booking forms: http://edina.ac.uk/events/

The first online workshop, Digimap Site Reps - Update for 09/10, is scheduled for 7 October 2009 at 12:00 noon. Emma Sutton will discuss the Variation Agreement to the Ordnance Survey Data sub-licence, which took effect in August 2009. The recent data update will also be covered.

Lunch and refreshments are provided for attendees. 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.

If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please get in touch with EDINA for advice at edina@ed.ac.uk.

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.