[Xastir] USGS DRG files no longer free..

[Jerry Chamberlin]

This is very surprising as all Government software and maps are by law suppose
to be free.



On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, Tyler Allison wrote:

> Looks like the USGS has now "partnered" with a commercial group that
> charges an arm and a leg for the DRG maps and they've removed the 'free'
> download. (something like $75 per grid, which would cost me over $1000 to
> get the topos for Kentucky)
> 
> I found the following Kentucky State website to download DRG files im
> interested in:
> http://ogi.ky.gov/data/drg/drgzone.htm
> 
> However, I downloaded one of the tif files and of course it doesnt come
> with a fgd file and the file is not in USGS name format so the perl script
> that creates fgd files that comes with Xastir doesnt work.
> 
> So I created a bogus fgd file using the README.MAPS information just to
> see if it would load anywhere in the world.  However, it looks like the
> TIF file was created using the commercial library of tiff so it's using a
> compression format that was removed from libtiff due to lawsuits and what
> not...what that means it that xastir is trying to access the file in
> 'random access' mode which is not support by libtiff with that type of
> compression.
> 
> So I use tiffcp to 'uncompress' the file. I get a couple errors about some
> lines ignored because of bad format or what not but the new files reads
> okay in my various graphic viewing software.
> 
> I put the new tiff in the maps directory for Xastir and Xastir prints an
> error every time it tries to load the map:
> 
> Problem in translating
> Problem in translating
> 
> Anybody know how I can get these tif's to work in Xastir?
> 
> Or a place to download the USGS name formated tif's without paying my
> first born for them?
> 
> ps: does it make anybody else mad that their taxes paid for the USGS topo
> work yet you have to pay to get what your tax dollars paid to create?
> 
> -Tyler
> 
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