Can Shape files be used rather than LULD Data files?Now that I can manualy slice my TerraScene2.1 TGA files, I would like to make thes as accurate as possible. As I was informed that LULC Data is no longer funded and what is available is rather outdated. Richard;

Richard,As the tutorial and manual show, yes, you can use shapefiles. You can use them separately (outside the United States you have no other choice) or in concert with USGS data.Even though it may be old data, the USGS data is far, far more detailed than shape data. If there are new items that are missing from the USGS info, you could add shape data that contains it, or paint it into the image before slicing.

Randall;Thaks for the sugestion; done that. I went to a few sights but ended up just getting the run-arround. I could not find any data for the US that one could download.Richard;

Richard,Most of the shapefile data available for the US is in .e00 format which you must then convert. You'll need to download a converter to convert the files - there is only one program (that I'm aware of) that can do this. It is payware (bigtime), but you can get a trial license for no charge.I'm at work right now - I'll post the sites I get the files from when I'm back home and can access my computer.

Randall/RichardEsri have a program, Import71 (I think) available for free, but I can't remember offhand if it will produce shapefiles. Certainly the data is viewable with ArcExplorer.Using ArcExplorer itself you can download 'free' shapefile data from Esri's site, but I think that you have to use that interface to get it.Colin

Thanks Colin, I found some data but it was not free. I will do some more looking.Richard;

Richard,I get a lot of my data at GIS Depot (Geo Communities) http://www.gisdatadepot.com/catalog/index.htmlThe data is "free" with a catch - the download pipe to get the free data is abysmal. If the files you are accessing have any size, they will take forever. If you are willing to become a paying customer, then you get the high-speed download access - quite a deal, huh? Anyway, I paid to get rid of the aggravation and to get easy access. I set up an account of $25 about two years ago and still haven't spent it all. They still won't have everything you need, but I've been able to use a lot of their files.The program you'll need to translate the .E00 files to Arc shape is in the FME Suite from Safe Software. Check the TS Tutorial - the Canada tutorial includes info on the program and where to get it. You can obtain a trial license to run it.I get other info from DCW through Penn State: http://www.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/

Richard,You might want to try a few government sights. For instance the shapefiles I used for the Big Island of Hawaii all came from a GIS site for the county of Hawaii. For the most part these were as or more detailed that LULC data and for the most part more up to date. For example the urban data came from the 2000 census. The difficulty lies in that you may need several layers of shapefiles (for Hawaii I used 8) to get everything you need and it's somewhat difficult to set the layers up in an order that doesn't cover something in another layer that you want to keep. Some of the shapefiles can have codes in the hundreds and you can spend considerable time matching up textures to get the look (or cover) you're looking for.Don

Randall;I have checked several places and all data seems to lack the lake I needed so I used my paint program to place a air photo into my TGA a lot of work, but at least I know it ai accurate. With no funding for LULC Data. I guess the new data from the shuttle mission two or so years back are ort will be available, then we will need a program to place them in Fly!2.Richard;