Zoner Draw 3 download problem

[Guest]

Hello Everyone,I've been trying to download Zoner Draw 3 for the past three days with no luck. I fill out the little box, press the download button, a little modem activity occurs and the blue progress bar moves a ways to the right. However, it always gets to a point and then nothing happens. I receive no error messages, etc. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you circumvent it?I sent an e-mail to www.zoner.com describing the problem but have not received a response. I'd like to try using the program a la Holger's thread but am stumped for the present.Wil

[Holger 0]

Hi Wil,if you read through that long thread you'll find that you don't need ZonerDraw after all. Toward the end of the thread, "Slacktide" provides a step-by-step guide for getting USAPhotoMaps BigJpg files into G2K4: I'll copy it below but you still want to check with the original thread for a few more helpful comments further down.Cheers, Holger-----OK, it took me a few hours to get through this whole thread and get everything working. It got very confusing, between the gaps in the Digitalgrove tutorial and conflicting information between it and the forum. So, here it is, my entire detailed soup-to-nuts process to get USGS data into Ground2K4. First, make sure you have the following software installed:USA PhotomapsBigJpegECW CompressorECW Header EditorECW Plugin for ERDAS ViewfinderERDAS ViewfinderGraphics editing software of your choice.Start USA PhotomapsLocate area to importSelect File - "Boundaries for BigJpeg"Select areaClick View - Lat/Long and select UTMIn the title bar, you will see coordinates for Easting/Northing and a Zone number. Make a note of that zone number.Exit USA PhotomapsRun BigJpegMove Jpeg file to working directoryRun ECW CompressorInput file should be your JPEGSet Compression ratio to 1Click ApplyExit ECW CompressorRun ECW Header EditorClick File - Open and select the ECW file you created.Change Datum to NAD83Change Projection to NUTMXX or SUTMXX, where XX is the zone number you wrote down from USA Photomaps. NUTMXX is for the northern hemisphere, SUTMXX is for the southern hemisphere.Change Units to Meters.Click File - SaveExit ECW Header EditorRun ERDAS ViewfinderChange File Type to "ECW Image Format"Select your ECW File.Click OKClick File - Save AsNavigate to the directory you want to save in.Change File Type to .img (to avoid confusing this temporary step with the final TIFF file)Give your file a name, without any extension.Click OK ONCE (nothing will happen)Click the "Output File Options" tabDo NOT select "Change Output Pixel Size"Click Change Output ProjectionChange Catagory to "UTM WGS 84 North"Change Projection to the UTM Zone you wrote down from USA PhotomapsChange Resample Method to "Cubic Convolution".Click OKA new ERDAS Viewfinder window will open with the photo in .img format.Click File - Save AsNavigate to the directory you want to save in.Change File Type to TIFFGive your file a name, without any extension.Click OK ONCE (nothing will happen)Click the "Output File Options" tabClick "Change Output Pixel Size"Change Units to DegreesMake sure "Auto Convert" is selectedClick "Change Output Projection"Change Catagory to "Geographic"Change Projection "Lat/Lon (WGS 84)"Change Resample Method to "Cubic Convolution".Click OKA new ERDAS window will open with your final TIFF.Click Tools - "Image Information"Note that Units are in degrees, and the Upper/Lower corner information is now in degrees.Note that the Projection is geographic, and the spheroid and datum are WGS84.Write down the corner information for use in Ground2K4.Using the image editor of your choice, convert the TIFF to a BMP, without trimming or resizing.That's it, you're ready to use the image in Ground2K4.

[Guest]

Howdy Holger,Holy smoke! I'll be 76 next month and may not live long enough to get through this process but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the "tutorial". I don't think that I would have ever figured it out from the thread.Having fooled-around a bit with USAPhotoMaps and Terraserver, I see what you mean about the maps being much much better than the satellite images. Now if I can only get one into useable format and...........!Wil

[Guest]

Howdy Everyone,I tried to create a map for use in Ground2K4 following Slacktide's instructions but with no luck. Not all of us are wise to the more arcane aspects of these programs and some of the instructions assume more knowledge than is present. I couldn't get past the first set of instructions.Holger kindly provided me more detailed guidance and gave his blessing to providing it here. So, here are his instructions for starting out:1. Start USAPhotoMaps2. File > New Map File --> enter name and (approximate) center coordinates ---> OK3. View > Map Type > Topo4. Zoom > Zoomed to 32m/pixel (this is a display zoom only, the detail of the downloaded map will remain constant!)5. Go online6. Press "F" (File > Download Data > Fill Screen), watch the tiles being loaded or do something else ;-)7. File > Boundaries for BigJpeg ---> use your mouse to select an area, then click OK. Write down the name of the txt file, particularly if you generate more than one.8. If your area of interest isn't complete you can either zoom out to 64m/pixel or scroll and do additional Boundaries for BigJpeg selections.9. You're done downloading and can go off-line; the loaded tiles remain in your USAPhotoMapsUSAPhotoMapsData and don't need to be downloaded again when restarting the program.10. Open your USAPhotoMapsUSAPhotoMapsData directory; make sure it contains a copy of both BigJpeg.exe and ijl15.dll11. Double-click on BigJpeg.exe --> click OK to create the jpg and associated jgw file. Note that BigJpeg always reads the same boundary txt file; if you created several boundary you have to move those you already completed out of the USAPhotoMapsUSAPhotoMapsData directory or rename them.12. Move your jpg/jgw files to the working directory for ECW CompressorAfter following these I got all the way through Slacktide's instructions only to get an "invalid image" message when I tried to load the BMP in Ground2K4. Holger provided me with the following:"I've had that "invalid image" problem once too. Can't quite remember what I did but it had to do with the color depth of the bitmap. It has to be either 8-bit or 24-bit. Try loading it in a image processing tool and re-save as one or the other."I haven't tried this yet but will give it a whirl later this morning.Wil

[Guest rellek01]

Erdas viewfider always crashes on me when I try to save the 1st.img file. Any Ideas?

[Guest]

I haven't had this problem so far and don't know what might be causing it for you. Maybe the more experienced folks can help you out.Wil

[greggerm 312]

Ya'know - I just started getting that ERDAS error as well - once I get to the point of saving the ECW as an IMG, it errors out hard. Running Win2000 on a laptop here at work.I'll try it from home to see if XP makes a difference... -Greg

[Guest rellek01]

My eyes are bleeding. I'm running xp home here. Bummer too cuz I've been working on a scenery for a year now that kinda hinges on the photoreal ground (in my opinion). Wish there was an easier way to reproject utm AirPhotoUSA to geographic. I willing to spend time (the fun is in the making) but not yet to spend cash on software. I have XPsp2 installed. Wonder if that's the problem?Rellek

[Guest rellek01]

Sorry to go off on a tangent but I was qickly browsing the terra server site and noticed a link To reprojected (utm to geo) map data but it is difficult to navigate. Also, I'm no expert on mapping/GIS terminology and techniques but maybe this is the holly grail. Also seems to be a link for programmers to use to convert map data. Maybe Mr Cox (USAPhotoMaps) will build this into a future version!Don't know if this is worth anything but I thought I'd throw it out there for those that are interested and more learned in this type of thing. Holger Maybe?rellek

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi rellek.That's a good find. Here's a format I can get working for a Geo-referenced topo map:http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ogcmap.as...ceptions=se_xmlLayers=doq or drg ( or urbanarea ????? where available ).If Layers=doq, you get a aerial image:http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ogcmap.as...ceptions=se_xmlStyles=0 means no reference lines added.SRS=EPSG:4326 uses the default USGS image set ( I believe )... I don't know it's resolution.BBOX=W,S,E,N in decimal degrees.Width and height are 50-2000 pixels.Format=image/jpeg is a jpeg image... other formats???????Exceptions=se_xml ???????????????? maybe not needed.As far as meters/pixel used ( not of much use in Georeferenced pictures ).... It is determined by the BBox coordinates. If they cover too small an area, you'll bget an error. It looks like 3/100ths is about as small as you can go for aerial photos:http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ogcmap.as...ceptions=se_xml4/100ths seems OK for drg ( topomaps ). I haven't tried stitching these together in a paint program, but it should not be a problem, as it is in Geographic projection. More experimentation should yield the right sizes to display, and a program could be written to download a batch of images covering any size coordinates Like USAPhotoMaps... if someone is handy with that type of thing.Dick

[Guest rellek01]

Wow this is exciting! What a time saver this will be. I understand that terraserver will adding up 133 different "natural color" "urban Areas" in the future for north America. I still find it difficult to navigate the site, as far as finding a list of "urban areas" that have been completed, and some of the "urban areas" I've found look pretty rural to me. Any way, I will try to download the georeferanced B+W arial photos for my area of interest and see how it works for me.Thanks again,rellek

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi rellek.They also have an open source test server test... try this:http://terraserver.microsoft.com/OgcWms.as...ceptions=se_xmlHere's a view of Meigs Field... before the closing:http://terraserver.microsoft.com/OgcWms.as...ceptions=se_xmlDick

[Guest philtm]

I don't know if anyone is still tracking this thread, but I too am having problems using the ERDAS Viewfinder 2.1, using the steps listed by Holger in this thread.Tried using the program under WinXP pro (SP1) and even installed it under Win98SE. Both crash with illegal error messages, so something in the program isn't working right.Anyone get this program to work correctly without crashing? I would really like to try getting my .ecw file to Ground2k4 to see what happens.p.s. Could it have anything to do with how the ECW plugin is installed? I pointed the installation to where I have the Viewfinder program installed, and it did open the ECW files correctly, but I wonder if everything went right with the installation.Phil

[Guest]

Hello Phil,I'm having no problems with ViewFinder processing topo maps from Terraserver. I have ECWCompressor installed in its own folder. ECW Header Editor and ViewFinder are also in their own separate folders. I don't know if this would help but it might be worth a try.Wil