Month: October 2012

Save, Import & Export Annotations from Digimap Roam

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest
Save, Import and Export Annotations tools for Roam
From left to right: “View saved annotations”, “Save annotations”, “Import” and “Export”.

Recent enhancements to all Roam applications in Digimap (OS, Geology, Ancient and Marine) mean you can now save, import and export annotations. The new tools can be found under the ‘My Annotations’ set of tools on Annotations Toolbar.

The new Save function enables you to work on creating and editing annotations in more than one Digimap session. You can now save your work and come back to it another day. Hit the Save button to store your annotations and retrieve them any time by clicking the ‘View saved annotations’ button. Any annotations that you save in one application (e.g. OS Roam) can be opened in any other Roam client (e.g. Ancient Roam) you have access to. This is a great function that enables you to digitise a set of annotations based on one type of map, and then open them up in another Roam application to view on a different type of map. For example, you could use OS Roam to annotate a detailed map showing a proposed new building. You can then save those annotations and open them up in Geology Roam to view the geology underneath your proposed new building.

If you have a spatial dataset, you can now import it into any Roam application to view those features as annotations. This could be a dataset you have created in a GIS, downloaded from Digimap or another data provider, tracks or points surveyed using a GPS unit or a geocoded table of survey results. You can import Shapefiles, KML, GPX, CSV and GeoJSON datasets. Click the ‘Import’ button under ‘My Annotations’ on the toolbar and navigate to your dataset to import. This feature means you can quickly and easily visualise datasets that you have created or obtained from elsewhere on top of maps in any of the Roam clients.

Proposed Wind Farm locations dataset downloaded from ShareGeo Open (http://hdl.handle.net/10672/294) as a shapefile and imported into Roam as annotations.

In addition to importing, you can also export your annotations  in Shapefile, KML and GeoJSON formats by clicking on the “Export” icon on the My Annotations tools. These formats cover the most popular GIS and Web Mapping software packages, such as ArcGIS, Quantum GIS, Google Earth and OpenLayers.

For more information on using the Annotation Tool have a look at the “How to” help page here: How to use the Annotation Tools in Digimap Roam

NOTE:If you create annotations by tracing features on a Roam map you will need to credit any maps you go on to make using the annotations with the appropriate copyright statement. Any geographic data you generate from a map is called “derived data” and is still copyright to the creators of the original map.

The copyright statement is added automatically if you print the map from Roam, however you will need to add in the statement manually if you export annotations and use them in other software. The statement to include can be found in the Terms of Use for the service you are using, just click the link a the bottom right of the Roam interface.

New Digimap Case Studies

ecls/ / Digimap News, Help, New Features, Of Interest

We have been busy over the last few months collating a new set of case studies showing how the different Digimap collections are being used. There are 13 new examples covering subjects as diverse as Archaeology, Religious History, Palaeontology and Geochemistry, as well as more traditional subjects like Landscape Architecture.

Green Infrastructure Study of Cheltenham and Gloucester: David Green Digimap Case Study
Green Infrastructure Study of Cheltenham and Gloucester: David Green

The new case studies can be found in the Digimap Support pages along with the previous examples we have collected over the years:

New Digimap Case Studies

If you would like us to feature your work as a Case Study then please get in touch with us: edina@ed.ac.uk. We are especially keen to hear from those using Marine Digimap.

EDINA Geoservices Impact Surveys 2012-13

ecls/ / Consultations, Digimap News

SurveyEvery year EDINA conducts a survey of its users to make sure that its services are meeting expectations and to find out what we should be doing to develop them further.

These surveys are very useful and have helped us prioritise the development of Digimap and our other geoservices.  This year we redeveloped the Data Download facility and have begun the replacement of Carto because you told us they were areas you’d like to see improved.  Other upcoming work prioritised by the surveys includes better print interfaces across all services and printable legends for Geology Roam.

As you can see it is beneficial for you to take part, so we’d really like you to let us know how we are doing. Please fill in a survey for each of the services you use; they can be found here:

To see the reports generated from previous years’ surveys please go here:

User Satisfaction Survey Results

Thank you very much for taking the time to help us.

Digimap Carto: We need your help!

ecls/ / Consultations, Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest, Service Availability

Digimap Carto has been making maps for nearly 13 years now, though it last received a major facelift in 2006. Although it is still well used the underlying technology is no longer a viable platform to develop on. It has simply become too difficult to maintain in today’s environment of almost monthly changes to web browsers and the Java Runtime  Environment.

How Carto has changed since 1998
Carto through the ages. All maps ©Crown Copyright

Thankfully these advances in browser technology, and our underlying GIS and web mapping software, mean that we can now provide a Carto like service without the Java applet. In 2013 we will be launching a replacement for Carto that will run directly in an up-to-date web browser and still include advanced functionality. Until the new interface is launched we will keep Carto running, please go here if you are having trouble getting it to work: Carto Notes

With work starting on the new advanced mapping application we would really like to know which functions you value most in Carto. We’d also like to hear your ideas for any new features you would like to see available. We can’t promise to include everything, but knowing what you want helps us to make informed decisions.

Please send your thoughts to: edina@ed.ac.uk

Maps and Data Updates: Digimap Policy Change

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, Digimap News, New Features

When Digimap was first launched in 2000 we consulted our users to find out how often they wanted the service updated. We found that at the time, the majority of our users wanted consistent maps and data throughout the academic year. Therefore it became Digimap policy to only update the information during the summer break so that new mapping became available for the next academic year.

As the new Data Download allows access to previous datasets during each academic year there will always be a dataset that remains constant throughout the year for those who require it. Therefore we have decided to update the maps as soon as possible after we receive the new data.

We still get most of our data updates in late spring/early summer so it is likely that you may not notice any difference to when the updates arrive, however the default setting will be to offer the most up-to-date data we have. If an update has come in since the start of the academic year you will need to change the version from the default to get the previous data.

Select Version, Data Download

We will use the blog notify you of any maps and data changes we make; you can see the dates of all the Ordnance Survey data we have available here:

Digimap Data Update Dates

If you have any concerns about the maps in Roam or Carto changing midway through an academic year then please let us know: edina@ed.ac.uk