Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, available by subscription to UK Higher and Further Education establishments. Operated by EDINA at the University of Edinburgh, Digimap offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, aerial photography, LiDAR, marine maps, land cover mapping, global mapping and census data. For more information about Digimap go to our website: https://digimap.edina.ac.uk Background image Contains OS data (c) Crown Copyright and database right 2022
Author: ecls
//EDINA will be running a Digimap training course entitled “What to do with Digimap data” on Monday 1 February at Southampton University.
Further details of this course can be found on the EDINA website.
Please register by 17 January 2010 if you would like to attend. The course is free and lunch/refreshments will be provided.
If you have any questions about who should attend or about the course content, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 33302.
//On 26 January, the Digimap Classic mapping facility available in the OS Collection will be removed and will no longer be available for use. NOTE: ALL OTHER DIGIMAP FACILITIES WILL REMAIN AS THEY ARE.
Any maps present in your Classic Map Chest on 26 January will be lost. Please ensure that you print or save any maps that you require before 26 January. Please contact the EDINA Helpdesk (edina@ed.ac.uk) if you require any assistance in saving or printing maps from Classic.
The new Roam facility (released in October 2009) replaces Classic as the standard mapping facility in Digimap OS Collection. Key features of Roam include: 12 fixed scale map views, click-and-drag navigation or “slippy maps” and enhanced printing options enabling you to generate printable PDF maps in landscape or portrait and A4 or A3 size. Roam is a significant improvement on Classic, providing many enhanced futures and an easier to use, more intuitive user interface.
//EDINA is holding a celebratory event to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Digimap service on the 20th January 2010. All Digimap site reps and support staff are invited to join us in Edinburgh to mark the occasion.
During the day, there will be a number of speakers and demonstrations to showcase the Digimap service past, present and future and in the evening there will be a drinks reception followed by dinner with guest speaker, Mike Parker (television presenter and author of ‘Map Addict’).
The daytime event will be free of charge with lunch and refreshments provided. Tickets for the evening event (including drinks reception) will be available for £24 (or £30 including wine).
Site reps and Support staff can find out more details and register for the event here:
#digimap10
//ESRI (UK) is running a LIVE WEBINAR entitled:
It is being held on Wednesday 4 November 2009, 10:00 – 11:00 am
If you are using Ordnance Survey data from Digimap and your institution has a licence to use ArcGIS, you might find this a useful event to attend. Licensing ArcGIS via Chest includes the Productivity Suite, an additional software application providing data conversion tools. Productivity Suite does not cost extra, but should be requested specifically when the Chest licence is purchased.
Further details of the Webinar can be found on the ESRI (UK) website at: http://www.esriuk.com/trainingevents/events/productivitysuite041109/
//You can create EPS files directly from Adobe Acrobat by using an appropriate Printer Driver e.g. CutePDF or one downloaded from Adobe’s website. For example: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1500 and follow the instructions at: http://www.ep.ph.bham.ac.uk/general/printing/winsetup.html
Note: you will need the Generic Colour Postscript PPD file linked in the document if you want to print A3 or larger. You can download the PDD file from the above website.
Load the PDF into Acrobat and then go to File ->Print. Select CutePDF Writer (or another Postscript printer you have installed). Click on Properties and then the Advanced… button.
There is a section called Postscript Options; expand this to find the PostScript Output Option and change this from ‘Optimize for Speed’ to ‘Encapsulated Postscript (EPS)’.
When you print you will now be asked to save a file which you should add the extension .eps to your file. You should be able to open this file in Ghostview as a vector EPS.
//Since Digimap ceased to generate EPS files we have had a number of enquiries about suitable alternatives. Currently, Digimap’s mapping facilities will only produce PDF files. However, there are a number of options for those who prefer to use other formats. The following notes may help.
Note that EDINA does not endorse or recommend any of the products or services detailed here or guarantee their quality or performance.
PDF files generated from Digimap can be converted to various other formats including PNG, SVG, and PS/EPS using free software called Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/). The only down side to this that we have found is that it seems to blur the PS/EPS because of the ‘Digimap’ watermark.
You can also edit the vectors in Inkscape. If you want to put the map (or a bit of it) into a Word document there is a nifty little command in Acrobat under Tools –> Select & Zoom–> Snapshot Tool which allows you to define an area and then paste it into Word (or another programme) – note this is lower resolution than you can create with Inkscape.
The PDFs themselves can be opened in CS3 Adobe Illustrator as editable vector graphics and then exported to various formats. The PDFs can also be opened and converted to EPS in GhostView but this seems to treat them as images rather than vectors.
There are various software packages that will convert from vector PDF to DXF (e.g. http://www.trixsystems.com/pdfFLY.html) but we have not found any which are free of charge.
If DXF/DWG is required for OS MasterMap, the best option is to download GML and use Dotted Eyes’ InterpOSe software to convert from GML to DXF/DWG.
//Today, Monday 5 October, a new mapping tool is available to all registered users, through Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection.
Roam, the new mapping facility, is available as a BETA service and will therefore be subject to various improvements over the next few months. Planned changes include:
– additional print formats as alternatives to PDF
– inclusion of scalebar on printed maps
– provision of scale and extent indication on screen maps
– adding a “My Maps” function for bookmarking maps
Roam offers “click and drag” functions to locate your map, 12 map views at different scales, printing in PDF at both A3 and A4 sizes, search by place name, postcode or grid reference, seamless scrolling through the fixed scale maps and 5 customisable map views. You can access Roam from the icon above Classic in Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection home page.
We hope you will use the new facility and let us know what you think of it. There is a link within Roam for you to report any feedback you have (positive and negative). You can also email us on edina@ed.ac.uk or telephone us on 0131 650 3302.
Roam will replace the current Classic facility in January 2010.
//Booking is now open for several Digimap training courses and online workshops to be run in 2009-10. These events are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions.
Further details of course content and learning objectives can be found on our website, where you will also find booking forms: http://edina.ac.uk/events/
The first online workshop, Digimap Site Reps – Update for 09/10, is scheduled for 7 October 2009 at 12:00 noon. Emma Sutton will discuss the Variation Agreement to the Ordnance Survey Data sub-licence, which took effect in August 2009. The recent data update will also be covered.
Lunch and refreshments are provided for attendees. All EDINA training courses are free of charge. Regretfully, however, we will charge £25.00 per person for each day of absence of which EDINA is not given prior notice.
If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please get in touch with EDINA for advice at edina@ed.ac.uk.
//Following an unscheduled outage over the past 24 hours, MasterMap Download is now available again.
However, Topographic Layer orders are limited to 25sq.km and all orders may take longer than the advertised 2 days to process. Please be patient and do not resubmit your order.
We aim to restore full service early next week. Further information will be posted here when available. Apologies for the inconvenience.
//Following some unsuccessful remedial work carried out on the database this morning, MasterMap Download continues to be unavailable.
At this time we do not know when the service might be restored. Engineers are working towards this, but a time estimate is not yet available.
Further information will be posted here when available. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.
