Free Data
Depiction Elevation Quickstart Working Again
Apr 12th
We have restored our Geoserver and have the Elevation Quickstart working again. The other quickstart data sources we provide from our server still aren’t available but we are working to get them restored.
Geo-coding of initial location not working in version 1.4.2 and earlier
Apr 4th
Problems seem to happen in threes. First our geo-server went down, then USGS changed the location of their elevation data and now Yahoo has changed their API which is what we used for geo-coding the starting location for new Depictions. Existing long time users may not notice either of these problems if they are creating new depictions in their home areas because the data may still be in their cache. However, new users and trial users will definitely notice this as will new DepictionPrep users. We have a fix for both problems and the current download on the website is an interim build 12522 which fixes these issues. We will be coming out with an official build next week but if you are experiencing these issues then you can download the new version from the website. We have noticed that the new USGS elevation source is very slow. Apparently they are now returning 1 degree tiles that are 250mb in size and if your boundary happens to cover more than one tile then you could have to download multiple tiles. We hope to have our geo-server up and running next week and so we can have reasonable elevation download times.
Initial Location Geo-coding currently not working.
Apr 3rd
It appears that all of our data sources are changing. Now the initial location geo-coding has ceased to function. We use Yahoo and they recently changed their API (application program interface) which caused our malfunction. We hope to have a fix for this in the next day or two. We have actually fixed the problem and are in the process of testing the build to make sure it is OK. We have also fixed the Elevation Quickstart data source. Unfortunately they changed how they are serving out the data and give it out in 250mb chunks and so it takes much longer for it to download. Existing users won’t notice much of a change if your elevation data is in your cache for your area but new users will certainly experience this. We are working to find a solution to this problem as well. We are sorry for any inconvenience these problems cause you.
Elevation data currently unavailable in Quick Start
Mar 29th
If you attended our recent Webinar on creating Rapid Situation Maps, we were a bit embarrassed when we found that elevation data wasn’t loading. At that moment we blamed it on a new Beta build that we were running but as it turns out the service where we get the data changed their API and so the elevation quick start source wasn’t working for any build. We are in the process of fixing this problem and will be putting out a new build as soon as we can. If you have downloaded elevation previously for your area then it will probably still be in your cache but if you are a new user or are doing a Depiction in a new area then you will run into this problem. You can still get elevation data directly from the USGS web site. Watch this webinar recording to find out how.
Another Site Pointing to Data sources by State
Jan 29th
The site listed below provides links to state data repositories for download. You should check out your state and see what is available. It also points to data sources for Canadian Provinces.
http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/16966/
Good web sites for free GIS data
Dec 28th
We are always on the lookout for free data sources. Here are two sites that are worth checking out:
http://www.mapcruzin.com/
http://www.diva-gis.org/gdata
Apple starts using OpenStreetMap in Iphoto
May 3rd
Apple switched from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap a few months ago. Depiction has been using OpenStreetMap for several years. OpenStreetMap is a crowd sourced map of the world.
Check out this article about Apple’s switch.
Mer enn kartlegging
Oct 6th
Google Translate tells me that means ‘more than mapping’ in Norwegian, and hopefully it’s right.
The Depiction 1.3.3 Release Candidate became available this week, and one of the new features added is Quickstart data for Norway–two different topographic maps and a hydrographic map. If you use 1.3.3 to create a new depiction in Norway, you’ll see these new options
You may ask, why Norway? As nice a country as it is, this wasn’t an idea that came out of our own heads–a Norwegian user used the Depiction support forum to point us to a set of data services provided by the Norwegian Mapping Authority.
Quickstart data consists of publicly available data from governments and other organizations–and if you know of data that is being made available that you think we should take advantage of, let us know, either in the Depiction support forum or right here.
In the meantime, if you’d like to explore Norway a little further, download Depiction 1.3.3 and take a look!
International elevation data available from Quickstart
Sep 20th
Some of Depiction’s coolest simulation features make use of elevation data–floods, runoff, antennas and more. In the USA, we’re blessed with excellent elevation data available both from Depiction’s Quickstart and, in higher resolutions, as a download from the USGS.
Things have been a bit tougher elsewhere in the world–the ASTER-GDEM data is useful, but its distribution license means we can’t make it available as a Quickstart source.
But thanks to the good folks here, we are now able to make 90-meter data available through Quickstart for many countries. Specifically, you will find it if you create a depiction in any of these countries:
- Canada
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Denmark
- Norway
- Romania
- Mexico
- Peru
- Argentina
- South Korea
- India
- Malaysia
- United Arab Emirates
Be warned, 90-meter data means that it is based on measurements taken at 90-meter intervals, so this data is very rough and not very pretty. It also is going to make small-scale simulations even less accurate. However, we do think that it is better than nothing for a variety of purposes, and hope our users around the world are able to make good use of it.
Would you like this 90-meter data available for another country? Let us know!


