Uiing US Tiger Shape files HELP!

[Guest Richard Hill]

Someone who has used Tiger US Shape files or is willing to take a gew moments to help me please read attached.Richard L Hill;

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Richard.I am curious...have you ever used any shapefiles with TerraScene? For European scenery, for example?There is a good example of HongKong in the manual, using shapefiles.If you are able to reproduce the HongKong example, then the Victoria example, that follows, is the next logical step. It goes into some detail about using shapefiles, and about the "key attribute field" in the wizard. This key attribute field is what ID's the type of shape for Terrascene...If you look at the data with ArcExplorer2, then you should be able to identify which attribute actually contains the shapes you need. That attribute should be the same one used by Terrascene. When you add the shapefiles with the wizard, you may not see the shapes and lines within TerraScene, but they will be rendered in the TGA image.If the 'key attribute field' of the wizard is not the stumbling point, and you have been able to reproduce the HongKong and Victoria examples ( to get a TGA image ), then the possiblity is that the TIGER data may not be in the proper form for TerraScene, and could not be used. FME might be able to translate the data.I've gathered all the e000 vmap0 data for Europe and converted them to shapefiles with FME, and the process works for me.I guess you need to determine if the problem is the TIGER data, or if you just can't get any shapefile data to work in TerraScene.--------------I'm guessing that no one has used TIGER data before, and that possibly not many designers are using Terrascene at all. I know the Flight Ontario team has been using Terrascene ( just produced ThunderBay for us ). 'jkanold' posts quite a bit in AVSIM's forums, as does 'Dan Martin'.... maybe they can help as well. Dick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;I can view the files with ArcExplorer, I even manaded to get a TGA ones of the area I was working on. However now when I try and select shape files and no response from the wizard to select attributes, Terrascene adds the files with no map display even after rebuilding list within TerraScene. As for Euorpe or Asia I do not fly or have interest in them, I will however attempt one of the examples even though the filenames come nbo where close to exampels. I was hopeing someone would download a county daat file and jest test to see if they could figure out what fields needed to be selected. I have made at least 55 tiles for the US for Fly! never used shape file option, however shape files have the newest data I need, DLG's are no longer updated, and now I want to try and make some files for FS2002.

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Richard.Can you e-mail me a sample? ludowr@charter.netI'll need the coordinates to view them in ArcExplorer2. I still think the attributes you need will be the ones displayed by ArcExplorer. I don't mind testing that and checking it out in Terrascene. I don't understand why the wizard won't let you select the attributes. Have you tried to start it as a new project again, rather than opening the project you've already started? maybe that will reset the wizard.I do think these shapefiles should work if you can view them in ArcExplorer2.Dick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;If I select edit map within the wizard, select lkA (road) file I get the following optionsIDCountyLFLCLand NameLand Polynow I select land poly (not sure if it is the right one or not)I get maping options for rivers, lakes, urban .. and everything except for highway/road selections. I will send you Harrison County, WV file for an examlpe, and see if you might know what I am doing wrong. I know I am getting old but not senile. I just do not get the Shape file setup.Richard Hill

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Richard.Land poly can't be right because you're looking for lines, in this instance, not polys... but it's odd the rivers are there as well.But you are at the point where I had been when I realized each shapefile, from different sources, has it's own way of organizing the shape data. There isn't really any set standard for, say, roadlines, and where they can be found in the files.It's not Terrascene's fault, although the interface might be made easier somehow. It's the 'looseness' of the shapefile format itself.I converted some VMap0 data to shapefiles, and it has roads, and trails, but at least they were clearly marked as to what they were. I remember railroads had different subtypes as to whether they were active or not.Dick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;Well after several attemps to send a 1.4 MB file, I gave up! If you want to take the time thee files are located at http://www.geographynetwork.com/DATA/Tiger2000/, you will then be redirected to another site. I am working with West Virginia tile 198-158 South East Quarter tile, so Harrison County is a good county tile. If nothing else I will wait and purchase FSGenesis scenery that Justin says will be hopefuly available before Christmas. I just like trying to do my own and the SDK tools leave me lost....Richard L Hill;

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Richard.I used this link: US Tiger DataI then selected West Virginia, and it took me to a screen to select by county or layer... but you can choose first county, AND layer.. so I chose Harrison County, and road layer.The eventual download was unzipped to yield 3 files:tgr54033lkA.dbftgr54033lkA.shp tgr54033lkA.shxwhich I found contain the county's roads by using ArcExplorer to view them.These files are in a folder named "lkA54033" which I moved to "C:Program FilesTerraScenedata-filesmanually-added", so that Terrascene can find them.I started Terrascene, started a new project, and proceeded to add the shapes to the project using 'digital maps', under the 'options' menu.I selected and double clicked on the "1kaf4033" folder, and selected the file "tgr540331ka.shp", which was the only choice, as I had only downloaded the roads.I clicked'Add Selected', and advanced to the wizard. Iused Georeferenced, and moved to the next screen, I then selected FETYPE, and Got choices of Rd, Run, St, Ave,... ( obviously the right selection ).Clicking 'Next' brought up the mapping screen, and everything was A-OK at that point. And here's where I stop, as it obviously is going to work from here on in. ( I'm rendering it as I type ).I'm suggesting you start from scratch with gathering the data, placing it in the right folder for Terrascene2.1 to find, then adding the shapefiles as I did above. I think TerraScene2.1 may have a bug in the "edit" feature, so that when you edit an old project to add new shapefiles, it doesn't list the choices correctly! So start a new project, to make sure your possible attribute choices are right.The attribute is definitely 'FETYPE'. Attached is a screenshot of a portion of the TGA output.Dick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;Thanks for the help! You are righr about some of the edit problems. I usualy edit the TGA afterwards with Photoshop anyway.What steps are required in TerraBuilder to import the file?Is it saves as a 24 bit BMP or an 8 bit?Richard;

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Richard.You've got an image from the shapefiles?Editing the attributes will cause errors, as the new attributes are ignored in the next step... if the results are not right, it seems you're better off starting from scratch, when using shapefiles, to enter all the shapefiles and attributes in one sitting.I might be misssing something here. Maybe saving the project and reloading it will work???? Still seems like a bug to me.--------------------The Targa image produced, can be changed by a paint program to 24-bit bitmap. I use the data from the project's TXT file to give the bounds NSEW to resample. Terrabuilder should work as well along the same lines. Watermask's need to be 8 bit, I believe, due to Elrond's tool being used to merge the watermask as the alpha channel.So you end up with a 24-bit bitmap, an 8-bit watermask, and the bounds from the TXT file. And that should be enough to resample the image.Dick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;Yes I finally got the files to load, I wish there was a simple way to set the Roads (too many types to choose from!) and Rivers ( would think one would be enough without selecting each creekstream), the lakes Poly are not too hard.By the way do you not use the night texture within Terrabuilder?Again Thank You!!!!!Richard L Hill