Category: New Features

Digimap dataset updates: March and April 2016

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

Lots of datasets were updated in March and April this year, with the majority of updates being to data in the Ordnance Survey Collection of Digimap. We also updated the vector marine data in Marine Roam so that it is now displaying the same version that is available for download through Marine Download; the Borehole data in Geology Download has also been updated to the latest version.

The updates include the latest versions of the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 Colour Raster products which show the new height of Ben Nevis. The mountain, which is the tallest in Britain, was recently resurveyed by OS and found to be one metre taller than the measurements taken during the previous survey in 1949. If you’re interested in finding out more about the resurvey, and why two different heights are shown for the summit on the maps, the Ordnance Survey have published a blog post which explains the process in detail.

Ben Nevis showing new height

The tables below detail all the datasets that were updated recently in each Collection along with the publication dates of each one.

OS Data Download:

Product Name OS Publication Date
1:25,000 Colour Raster March 2016
1:50,000 Colour Raster March 2016
MasterMap Topography Layer January 2016
VectorMap Local January 2016
VectorMap Local Raster January 2016
VectorMap District March 2016
VectorMap District Raster March 2016
Terrain 5 Contours January 2016
Terrain 5 DTM January 2016
Code-Point with Polygons January 2016 and April 2016
Code-Point February 2016
Code-Point Open February 2016
Points of Interest March 2016
Open Names March 2016
MiniScale January 2016
* OS Street View April 2016
* Meridian 2 July 2015 and January 2016
* Strategi January 2016

 

OS Roam:

Product Name OS Publication Date
1:25,000 Colour Raster March 2016
1:50,000 Colour Raster March 2016
MasterMap Topography Layer January 2016
VectorMap Local January 2016
VectorMap Local Raster January 2016
VectorMap District Raster March 2016
Terrain 50 Contours July 2015
 MiniScale January 2016
* Meridian 2 January 2016
* Strategi January 2016

* Note: these are the last updates to OS Street View, Merdian 2 and Strategi that will be supplied by Ordnance Survey who have announced that they are retiring these products. Whilst the data will still be available to download through Digimap, these products will no longer be updated to reflect changes in the real world.

The data product updates help page is kept up to date with all dataset updates in the Ordnance Survey collection.

 

Marine Roam:

As well as all the changes in the Ordnance Survey collection, we have also updated the vector data in Marine Roam from Seazone Solutions. This brings the data up to date with the latest version of the product from SeaZone Solutions, which is also available for download through Marine Download.

Product Name SeaZone Publication Date
HydroSpatial One August 2015

HydroSpatial One showing Leith harbour

 

Geology Download:

Finally the Borehole data available in Geology Download has also been updated to the latest version available from the British Geological Survey.

Product Name BGS Publication Date
Onshore Borehole Index January 2016

 

If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Improvements to Digimap February/March 2016

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

Last week (3rd March) we released a new version of Digimap which includes a number of changes that may be of interest to our growing user base. Our set-up allows us to release new versions without requiring any downtime so the recent changes are highlighted below as they may not be obvious at first glance.

Greyscale versions of the 1:25,000 Colour Raster and 1:50,000 Colour Raster have been added to OS Roam

We have added greyscale versions of the 1:25,000 Colour Raster and 1:50,000 Colour Raster products in the Roam client of the Ordnance Survey Collection. These can be selected using the Basemaps drop-down.

Greyscale 1:25,000 Colour Raster with annotations

The new greyscale versions make it much easier to see your annotations on top of the basemap. The greyscale versions can be saved and printed like all other basemaps available in OS Roam.

Warning about losing changes in all Roam clients

If you customise a map in one of the Roam clients, for example by modifying the layers that are displayed or by creating annotations on the map, then press the browsers back button or navigate away from Roam you will now see a warning prompt advising you that you may lose your changes. The prompt that is displayed in Chrome is shown below:

Confirm navigation

The prompt is not displayed if you have saved the map, printed the map, or exported the annotations.

Updates to the Open/Save wording in all Roam clients

We have updated the text on the Open and Save menus in all Roam clients to make it clearer what each option does:

Roam Open drop down

Open > Saved maps allows you to open any maps you have previously created and saved within Roam.

Open > Import annotations is where you go to import external datasets in to Roam (we currently support the import of datasets in Shapefile, KML, GPX, CSV, and GeoJSON formats).

 

Roam Save drop down

Save > Save map will save the current map extents along with any annotations to Digimap for retrieval at a later date.

Save > Export annotations allows you to export annotations from Roam as an external dataset for use GIS/CAD (we currently support the export of datasets in Shapefile, KML, and GeoJSON formats).

 

Background mapping in Data Download of all Collections is now shown in greyscale

The background mapping data in all Data Download clients has been converted to greyscale:

OS Data Download

This makes it much easier to see the availability and reference grids in these applications.

Further improvements

We hope you enjoy using these new features. We are continually improving the service so if you have any suggestions for improvements to the service please get in touch:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Recent improvements to Digimap

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Of Interest

We released a new version of Digimap last week (2nd February) which included a number of improvements to the service. Whilst we try to minimise downtime during releases some users may have noticed some of the new features; in this post we’ll highlight the changes that affect Digimap users.

Chart Roam

By far the biggest change happened in the Marine Collection where the old, somewhat dated, Marine Maps application was replaced with the new Chart Roam application. Chart Roam uses the familiar Roam interface to display hydrographic charts, enabling users to quickly and easily navigate around using the tools they are familiar with from other Roam clients.

New Chart Roam Interface

Updated Roam Measurement ToolsChart Roam displays marine Hydrographic Charts from SeaZone Solutions using the WGS84 Web Mercator projection. As part of the work done to support the display of map data in different projections we added Nautical Miles to the distance measurement tool in Chart Roam. Users can now measure distances in metric (metres and kilometres), imperial (yards and miles) and nautical units; areas measurements can only be made in metric units at present.

Annotations [all Roam clients]

We have made significant improvements behind the scenes to the way annotations are handled in all Roam applications. This work was done to ensure that users uploading annotations with a large number features can style, save and print the data once loaded in to one of the Roam applications. Other notable improvements are detailed below:

  • We have added the ability to load multiple Shapefiles as annotations from a single Zip archive. Previously it was only possible to import a single Shapefile from a Zip archive, and all other Shapefiles were ignored by the import process. Now all Shapefiles in your Zip archive will be added to the map, and they can be of different geometry types e.g. points, lines and polygons.
  • We have improved the printing process so that it is possible to create prints that contain many more annotations.
  • Improvements have been made to remove some of the internal file size and feature number limits when loading, saving and exporting larger annotations. Note there is a 10MB file size limit when importing annotations.
  • Annotations in CSV (comma separate value) format can now be imported using Latitude and Longitude values; previously it was only possible to import CSV annotations in the British National Grid projection.

Ordnance Survey Roam

A number of changes have been made to the Ordnance Survey Roam application, predominantly to rationalise the data available at the different zoom levels:

  • The vector version of VectorMap District (VMD) has been added to OS Roam and is available at the Local View zoom level (approx. 1:19,000) as an alternative map accessed through the Basemaps option:
    VectorMap District Basemap
  • The Local Plus View has been removed and the datasets available in the District and Local Views have been rationalised. Full details of the datasets available in each View can be found on this help page.

Accessing Product Help [all Roam clients]

As well as updating the help pages to cover the changes listed above, we have also changed the Map Information panel in all Roam clients making it easier for users to get help on the particular map product(s) they are currently viewing in the map window.

  • Hyperlinks to help pages for each product have been added to product names in all Roam clients. The screen grab below was taken from Geology Roam where the hyperlink takes the user through to a help page dedicated to the map product currently displayed in the map window (DiGMapGB-50 Rock Unit):

Map Information Product Hyperlinks

 

We hope you enjoy using these new features, and if you have any suggestions for improvements to the service please get in touch:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Datasets updated in Digimap OS Collection – November 2015

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

November has been a bumper month for updates in the Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection with updates to 15 of the datasets in the collection. Of particular note are the updates to two of the new Open Data products: OS Open Roads and OS Open Names. Both these products are still available as Beta versions as the products are still undergoing development by OS.

OS Open Roads on top of VectorMap Local Raster (displayed in greyscale using QGIS)
OS Open Roads on top of VectorMap Local Raster (displayed in greyscale using QGIS)

The tables below lists all the datasets that have been updated in the Digimap Ordnance Survey Roam and Data Download applications and include OS release dates for each one.

Ordnance Survey Roam

Product Name OS Release Date
OS VectorMap® Local October 2015
OS VectorMap® Local Raster October 2015

Ordnance Survey Data Download

Product Name OS Release Date
Code-Point August 2015 and November 2015 (two versions)
Code-Point with Polygons October 2015
Code-Point Open August 2015 and November 2015 (two versions)
OS Locator November 2015
OS VectorMap® Local October 2015
OS VectorMap® Local Raster October 2015
OS Street View November 2015
OS Terrain™ 50 Contours and DTM July 2015
OS Terrain™ 5 Contours and DTM July 2015 and October 2015 (two versions)
OS MasterMap® Sites Layer October 2015
OS MasterMap® ITN Layer Urban Paths Theme October 2015
OS Open Names (Beta release) October 2015
OS Open Roads (Beta release) October 2015

 

The data product updates help page is kept up to date with all dataset updates in the Ordnance Survey collection.

If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Chart Roam to replace Marine Maps

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features

In January 2016, the Marine Maps application available through Marine Digimap will be replaced by a new application called Chart Roam.ChartRoam-overview

As it’s name suggests, the new application will offer the same Chart data currently available through Marine Maps.  SeaZone (the data supplier) now call this dataset HydroView Charts.  They were previously referred to as the Charted Raster data.

Chart Roam will operate in the same way as all other Roam clients available, offering slippy maps, 12 fixed scale map views, annotation and measurement tools, as well printing in multiple file formats and sizes up to A0.

A date for release will be advertised in the new year.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact EDINA on edina@ed.ac.uk.

ChartRoam-blog

Old Historic Download withdrawn Friday 11th December

ecls/ / Digimap News, New Features, Service Availability
oldhistdld
Old Historic Download

EDINA will be withdrawing the old Historic Download on Friday the 11th of December.  With most people now using the new Historic Download we have taken the decision to switch off the old version to free up resources. The new interface contains all the same data but allows you to take multiple products and revisions in a single order. Existing users’ Download History from the old interface will NOT be available to reorder from the new interface so please make sure you have made all the necessary orders in the old interface before the 11th.

New Historic Download
New Historic Download

Please note that if you want a definitive list of published dates for the maps you download from the new interface, it is available in the contents.txt file delivered in your zip folder with your data. This text file has the details for every tile / sheet of map data you have taken.

The old Historic Download was the last remaining download interface that was different to the other collections, so now every collection uses the same interface to retrieve data for use in CAD or GIS software.

OS MasterMap Topography Layer now available in outline ‘plan’ style for CAD users

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

In April 2015 we made OS MasterMap Topography Layer data available to CAD users in DWG format. If you missed the announcement you can read all about it in this blog post. Since adding this option to Digimap we have processed over 13,000 orders for MasterMap in DWG format. Building on this we have now produced an outline ‘Plan’ style of MasterMap in DWG format which is a stripped down representation that mimics the alternative ‘Line Drawing’ style of MasterMap available in the Digimap Roam application.

OS MasterMap Topography Layer in standard and plan style
OS MasterMap Topography Layer in standard and plan style

The alternative ‘Plan’ style is a cut down version of the full dataset and does not include polygons, users requiring the full dataset should download the original ‘Standard’ style which includes both lines and polygons.

The style is specified in the basket window of the Data Download application using the drop-down in the ‘Theme’ column:

Selecting DWG plan style in the basket
Selecting DWG plan style in the basket

We hope you find this new style useful, if you have any questions or suggestions for further improvements please contact us:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Geology Roam gets new maps

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

EDINA has updated Geology Roam with a whole range of new data, allowing users access to nearly all the data available from Geology Download without needing to put it into GIS software. We have also updated the Active legend, so you can now order it by the Age of the Rocks on the map.

New Data

geology_roam_2015_2

As you can see in the image above the most zoomed out levels now have the Offshore Geology data (DigRock250 and DigSBS250) allowing you to see the rocks and sea bed sediments around the coast of the United kingdom. We have also added in the most detailed onshore geological mapping from the British Geological Survey, the 1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scale maps (DiGMapGB-10 and DiGMapGB25).  Please note that these datasets do not have national coverage, where they are not present there is a water mark on the map to inform you. As there is almost no overlap between these two large scale datasets EDINA has combined them into a single detailed geology layer.

Basemaps

geology_basemapsTo allow different datasets to be viewed at the same scale we have introduced the basemaps tab so that the geology data can be switched with the scale remaining the same. Adding the basemaps tab has also allowed us to introduce new ways of viewing the same data, with all the geology layers now viewable as both the Rock Unit e.g. Kimmeridge Clay Formation and Rock Type e.g. Mudstone.

geology_roam_2015_basemaps

The basemaps tab has allowed many datasets to be view at the same scale so in addition to the new geological data we have also added several extra types of data which provide information about the soil and hydrogeology of Great Britain. The Geological Indicators of Flooding; Permeability (Max and Min); 1:625,000 Scale Hydrogeology; along with  Soil Strength, Texture and Calcium Carbonate content from the Soil Parent Material Data are now all available as basemaps.

Active Legend

geology_roam_2015_active_legend
Click image to enlarge…

The final change made to the Geology Roam interface has been to the Active Legends which now allow you to order the entries by their age. The ordering is based on the MAX_INDEX attribute in the geology data that allows you to order the Rock Units based on its oldest age.

The active legend still lets you rocks on the map by clicking on the legend and vice versa.

 

A full list of the products available in each view / scale can be found in the Geology Roam “How To Guide” here:

If you have any questions abot the changes to Geology Roam or any other part of the serve then please get in touch:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

Boundary-Line updated with different County Boundaries

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

The latest version of Ordnance Survey’s Boundary-Line data contains two new layers, Ceremonial Counties and Historical Counties.

Ceremonial Counties

OS Boundary-Line Ceremonial CountiesThis new layer in the Boundary-Line data represents the areas of England, Scotland and Wales that are represented by a Lord Lieutenant. The Lord Lieutenant is the chief officer of the county and representative of the Crown; whenever the Queen visits an area she will be accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant.

This layer is very useful for those who want to make a map of Great Britain divided into its counties without all the complexities of Unitary Authorities, Districts and Boroughs. This is the layer to choose when making a map showing a more traditional view of Great Britain without making a historical view.

Historical Counties

OS Boundary-Line Historical CountiesThe historic counties dataset shows the county boundaries in place in 1888 in England and Wales and 1899 in Scotland. The boundaries for England and Wales were derived from mapping  from the National Archives  dating from 1890. The Scottish boundaries are derived from maps as late as 1940.

This layer is very useful for those studying this time period and when combined with the ceremonial counties and modern the most up to date boundaries gives a good picture of how fluid the boundaries are over time.

Selecting Layers in Data Download

If you have the Boundary-Line data you need already but would like to add the new layers without downloading it all again then follow this useful tip. Once you have added the product to your basket click on the arrow in the layers column to pick and choose those that you want to take. See the image below:

Selecting Layers from Data Download

You will then just receive these new layers and not all the others which you may already have or not need.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this or any other aspect of the service:

  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • Phone: 0131 650 3302

Points of Interest now available through Ordnance Survey Data Download

ecls/ / Data Changes & Additions, New Features
Ordnance Survey Points of Interest sample
© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). This material includes data licensed from PointX© Database Right/Copyright 2015.

We are pleased to announce that the Points of Interest dataset from Ordnance Survey is now available to download through the Digimap Data Download application.

Points of Interest is a national dataset covering the whole of Great Britain and contains over 4 million different features. All features are supplied with location, functional information and addresses (where possible). Points of Interest has a three-level classification to assist customers in identifying the features or sets of features they require. This classification is explained in detail in chapter 3 of the official User Guide. The top level classification is given below:

  • Accommodation, eating and drinking
  • Commercial services
  • Attractions
  • Sport and entertainment
  • Education and health
  • Public infrastructure
  • Manufacturing and production
  • Retail
  • Transport

Please note: the copyright statement for Points of Interest is slightly different to the usual Digimap statement as the data is licensed from PointX by Ordnance Survey. The correct copyright statement that should be displayed with Points of Interest data is included below:

© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). This material includes data licensed from PointX© Database Right/Copyright 2015.

The data can be found in the Boundary and Location Data section in Data Download:

Points of Interest in Data Download

The data is provided in CSV format and uses the pipe character as the field separator. To load this in to GIS for visualisation on a map requires a couple of short steps to create a definition file so that the GIS application uses the correct data types for each field in the file. We have created instructions on how to do this in ArcGIS and QGIS:

If you have any questions about Points of Interest or Digimap please contact us:

  • Phone: 0131 650 3302
  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk