I would like to TerraScene Israel and the middle east.How do I start, where can I find data files?Amir

Hello Amir,outside the USA data we havn't such data quality/level of detail as USGS data. You can get data with ArcExplorer from ESRI of many countries of the world. As I am trying to create some scenery for northern Germany with TS and shapefiles (data from ESRI) I can only state that not so detailed data are better than no data. Therefore have a try:==========================>>>>You must have TS 2.1 installed. Look in the folder "doc", there you will find "manual.pdf" which you can open with Adobe reader. Believe me, you have to study this manual if you want to work with TS. All about data outside the USA, ArcExplorer and ESRI you will find starting at page 18 (Hong Kong - International scenery with DCW data).<<<<==========================Have a look at this manual. If there are further questions which I can answer (I am a TS-beginner too), post them here. Will be a little delay, as actually I have to work hard, not staying at home for many hours.Would be nice to have some Israel scenery.Best regardsGeorg

Shapefiles are hard to find for free outside US, so good luck! For selected parts of Europe, the CORINE database is a good, no, perfect LULC source, for the rest of the world, shp can be build from scanned charts or datas from the DCW, refined by terrashape and a CAD program and/or dedicated GIS software.Data Chart of the World ("coarse" datas, need to be modified to be useable):http://ortelius.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/A "must have" URL for... everything :http://www.terrainmap.com/For your country, if everything goes wrong, no shp found, no time to convert or create those datas, you can use nima DOI, which offer SPOT panchromatic (n/:( photos with a 10m resolution. I have obtained good results with this relatively simple method : nima orthoimages are assembled with photoshop, enlarged (133%, 10m to 7.5m, so round 17000 x 17000 pix for a tile with overlap) and regenerated with S-Spline algorithm, colorized with ColorBMP (in the Avsim file library), converted to .tga and sliced with the FLY! editor.Digital Orthorectified Imagery :http://geoengine.nima.mil/ If Terrascenery is your goal, remember you must have also on hand fine grid (30m nominal) elevation datas for relief shading, so a mix-up of Terrascenery (for flat countryside) and orthophotos (for mountaineous areas) may be a solution if the above condition is not realized.