Targetware: Terrain Development

MapMaker User's Guide

Downloads and Installation

In order to use this tool, you will need to download several files. WARNING: Some of these files can be quite large and, depending on your method of connection to the Internet, may require considerable time to download.

• Targetware MapMaker Application - Download size is approximately 640KB. This is a zipped file containing a version of the tool and a several associated files required for proper operation. Create a new directory/folder on your computer and then simply download and unzip these files into that folder (folder name isn't important).
• Data Files - For the sake of organization, create a new directory/folder for your data files. Then follow the steps below to download and install the necessary data sets:
  
  
  1. Obtain USGS GTOPO30 elevation data sets for the regions you are interested in. There are a total of 34 files available (for full global coverage). The download size of these files ranges from 1MB to 25MB, but all will extract to the same size in your directory. It is NOT required that you download all the files, just the tiles containing the regions to which you are interested. If an area of interest spans several tiles, fear not, simply download the tiles and the terrain tool will automatically seam the data for you. Data Files can be obtained in either of two ways:
     
     
     • Interactive Download (simply click on the tile of interest on the interactive map of the World to begin the download), or
     • Anonymous FTP (you will need to go to the interactive site to get the proper file names).
     
     
     
  2. Decompress and UnTar the GTOPO30 files from Step 1. The GTOPO30 data files come zipped and tarred. Use a utility like Winzip or Stuffit Expander to decompress the files. Note the following suggestion from USGS:
     

     If using Winzip on a PC, the "Tar File Smart CR/LF Conversion" default needs to be overwritten (or turned off). This is under the configuration menu on options. One of the possible problems, if this setting is active, is carriage return characters are converted to CF/LF pairs resulting in a larger DEM file which creates the corrupted files.

     When properly uncompressed/untarred, the standard tile (non-Antarctica) should have a final size of 56250 KB when viewed using the "size" column of Windows Explorer, and "57606144 bytes used" under the file's "properties" tab. It is important to have these values exactly in order for the tool to function. Once uncompressed and untarred it is suggested that you change the file name to something that is more easily recognized.
     
     Note: Several files are contained in the compressed zip file, to save hard drive space you can delete all files EXCEPT the files with a .dem extension.
     
     
  3. Obtain the Global Land Cover Data Set. The download size for this file is 23.5MB. There is no need to download particular regions of the Earth, as land cover data for the entire World is contained within this file.
     
     Note: When uncompressed, this file will grow to a whopping 1 GB. Ensure you have sufficient hard-drive space before completing the de-compression.
     
     Once expanded, change the file name (but keep the .img extension) to something descriptive of the contents (example: land_cover.img).
     
     
  4. Obtain the data files for all Coastline networks in your terrain. Coastline data can be downloaded from the GIS Data Depot. Data is organized in the Depot by country name. First, select the first letter of the country to which you want coastline data. Then continue down the hierarchy until you reach the download screen containing Admin/Political Boundaries data. Download the file Political/Ocean - Network.
     
     An example of traversing the heirarchy to download this file type for South Korea is illustrated in the figure below:
     
     
     
     When you download the file from the GIS Data Depot, it will arrive on your computer compressed and tarred. First, uncompress and untar the file using the same process you used to obtain the elevation .dem files. Remember:
     

     If using Winzip on a PC, the "Tar File Smart CR/LF Conversion" default needs to be overwritten (or turned off). This is under the configuration menu on options. One of the possible problems, if this setting is active, is carriage return characters are converted to CF/LF pairs resulting in a larger DEM file which creates the corrupted files.

     After you have uncompressed/untarred the file, you will notice that it has a somewhat cryptic file name (example: 83_PONET.E00). For your sanity's sake, change the file name (but keep the .E00 extension) to something that will allow you to easily identify what the file contains (for example: south_korea_coastline.E00).
     
     
  5. Obtain the data files for all River networks in your terrain. River data can be downloaded from the GIS Data Depot. Data is organized in the Depot by country name. First, select the first letter of the country to which you want River data. Then continue down the hierarchy until you reach the download screen containing Hydrography data. Download the file Drainage - Network.
     
     As before, extract the .E00 file and rename it to something descriptive of the contents (example: south_korea_rivers.E00).
     
     
  6. Obtain the data files for all Cities/Towns/Villages in your terrain. City/Town/Village data can be downloaded from the GIS Data Depot. Data is organized in the Depot by country name. First, select the first letter of the country to which you want data. Then continue down the hierarchy until you reach the download screen containing Admin/Political Boundaries data. Download the file Populated Places - Polygons.
     
     As before, extract the .E00 file and rename it to something descriptive of the contents (example: south_korea_cities.E00).
     
     
  7. Obtain Hypsography data files. Hypsography data can be downloaded from the GIS Data Depot. Data is organized in the Depot by country name. First, select the first letter of the country to which you want data. Then continue down the hierarchy until you reach the download screen containing Hypsography data. Download the files Hypsography - Network (contour lines) and Hypsography - Points (elevation high points). These data are only used during creation of the Pilots Tactical Chart (TPC).
     
     As before, extract the .E00 file and rename it to something descriptive of the contents (example: south_korea_hypsography_network.E00).
     
     
  8. Obtain the data files for any road or railroad networks you want to include in your terrain. Road and Railroad data can be downloaded from the GIS Data Depot. Data is organized in the Depot by country name. First, select the first letter of the country to which you want road/rail data. Then continue down the hierarchy until you reach the download screen containing Transportation data. Download the file Railroads - Lines and/or Roads - Lines.
     
     As before, extract the .E00 file and rename it to something descriptive of the contents (example: south_korea_roads.E00).
     
     
  9. Optional Data. The following files can produce object file if any data exists in those files:
     
     Cultural Landmarks - Points. Data on structures (not necessarily "cultural").
     Aeronautical - Points. Data on airfield locations.
     
     As before, extract the .E00 file and rename it to something descriptive of the contents (example: south_korea_airfields.E00).

Helpful Hint

Storing all this data in an organized fashion will greatly ease the terrain building process. It is recommended that you create a data directory separate from MapMaker and store each downloaded data set in subdirectories under that directory by common data type. For example: store all downloaded road networks in /GIS data/roads/, all coastline data in /GIS data/coastlines/, etc. Since you will have renamed each file by the country it represents, it will be simple to find a needed file, as well as load multiple files of a given type at one time.