Topographic Maps

[summer]

I live in a small lake town (there’s like 30 of them!) Any idea where I can purchase high quality topographic map files? I’ve searched online, but only found a few historic maps. Figured I would check here before I start re-drawing by hand.

[pubultrastar]

Topographic maps are usually easier to source, but sounds like you’re looking for bathymetric maps due to the lakes. I have traced the lake levels manually, as I wasn’t able to find data files for this. Topographic map data is much more widely available.

[marmak3261]

It seems that most people use the freely available data and tools and roll their own. That can be a steep learning curve. Some people have mastered it and are using it to leverage a business.

I should do that. But until then, perhaps this topic can give you some hints and an expert. I’ll search through some old topics for other references for you.

Our makerspace member made this map

… and it is amazing. Trevor Crosta is a member of our makerspace here in Bend, Oregon, as well as a volunteer. He has been excited about making things on the Glowforge since before it arrived, and he put his passions into creating these topographic trail maps. In Central Oregon there is an active outdoor hiking community and plenty of trails to hike or bike on. For some people these activities can be very important parts of their lives, so it made sense to Trevor to create beautiful wooden top…

One of the coolest coffee tables ever

Duffs in Londen created this coffee table that just a giant elevation map. Though the glow forge couldn’t do the scale (unless you pieced it) I like the way they used acrylic with the wood. Has an incredible effect. Wonder how well it would downscale. ocean coffee table [image]

[summer]

I’m wanting to stay simple and small, like the trail maps. I have no problem re-drawing the layers, it’s just going to be time consuming. I’ll keep looking while I start to draw my first local lake.

[marmak3261]

https://www.navionics.com/usa

They might have the detail you are looking for in this. I have lived next to a 75,000 acre lake for over five years. One of my dream projects, but I either sink time into learning the digital tools or sink time into hand tracing.

[randy.cohen]

Long ago I did a CGI animation of Glacier Bay national park, showing how it looked before the glaciers retreated, with a really nifty animated retreat of the glaciers. I used freely available USGS data, and there was tons of both topographic and bathymetric data for pretty much the entire continental US. And this was probably 30 years ago. The datasets have to have gotten better.

Go here: https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geospatial-program/topographic-maps

[EDIT]

Actually, go here: https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ngp/tnm-delivery/gis-data-download

[ekla]

Free vector pdf topos are available at the USGS website. They’re neatly organized by layer so it’s easy, if a little time consuming, to get rid of data you don’t want. At least that’s opening the PDFs in Illustrator, I have no idea how Inkscape would interpret them.

[robermar36]

Moving this thread to 'Everything Else"

[evansd2]

@ekla

I have no idea how Inkscape would interpret them

Well isn’t it handy that this has come up before…

Is PDF layer extraction without acrobat possible?

Anyone ever managed to split a PDF up by layers? oK, now put your hand down if you used full Acrobat. I’m trying to figure out how to split one without buying (subscribing to)the whole adobe suite.