Posts tagged tiling
USGS Topographical Background Tiler seems to still be working!
Aug 20th
We had removed the topo background tiler back in May because they said that they were stopping the service. We had created a topo add-on to allow those users that had the topo tiles in their cache to continue to access them. But recently we have noticed that with the Topo add-on installed it is still bringing in topo maps even for areas where we have not been before. So if you want to have topographical background maps, and you haven’t downloaded the topo tiler add-on, then please do so. Of course we can’t guarantee how long they will continue to offer this but for now it is working. You can find the topo add-on download here.
“Terraserver” Imagery Hotfix
Jun 1st
Depiction users may have noticed that the USGS imagery denoted as coming from “Terraserver” has been spotty recently–this includes the USGS topographic map, both tiling and Quickstart, the USGS Hi-Res Urban imagery, both tiling and Quickstart, and the USGS 1m satellite imagery Quickstart source. This occurred because Microsoft, which hosts that USGS imagery, recently changed their domain name from terraserver-usa.com to MSRMaps.com (Microsoft Research Maps). They did set up a redirect, but we’ve found that it is very unreliable.
To solve the problem, we’re putting out a hotfix–changing the URL where its present in a few system files. If you don’t use any of the Terraserver (or MSRMaps) imagery, then you don’t need to run the hotfix. Everything will continue to run as normal, and you’ll even be able to access the Terraserver imagery occasionally. If you want more consistent access, though, you’ll want the hotfix.
Click here to download the 1.8 mb zip file containing the executable. Running the program will install the hotfix, and you should be able to access the imagery immediately. If you have any questions, just email support -at- depiction.com.
New Getting Started Tutorial
Feb 16th
Our Getting Started tutorial has been out of date for some time–but now we’re ahead of the game! Watch the above video to see how to get started using Depiction, and to get a sneak preview of the new version being released very soon.
A Quick Tip
Nov 5th
I have had a few questions lately about the quality of our imagery and maps. There is some confusion on how Depiction handles maps and imagery, actually. When you select a map or image source in the Quickstart Data list, you are getting a static image at the zoom level of your depiction area. If you’re using 1.01.n, they will be put into Revealers and you will still be able to see the active map or image source you’ve selected for your background in the lower left corner of the Depiction screen. If you don’t have “N” yet, I highly recommend you run the Update program from the Help menu or the Depiction folder on your Windows Start Menu.
The background map or imagery is a live feed from a web server that changes as you zoom in and out, so that it will get better as you go in: not fuzzy as when you have a static image. Depiction also stores all of the tiles in a cache file, so the more you zoom and move around in a given area, the faster the performance will be.
I will add some images later, and I hope this will help clarify things for anyone reading.
Happy Depicting!
George’
Depiction Support Manager
