[Xastir] Complete set of TIGER 2006 SE shapefiles now available!

[Tom Russo]

Thanks to the efforts of Jason Winningham and his cluster of linux workstations,
the entire set of TIGER/Line 2006 Second Edition files have been converted
to shapefile format --- both polyline and polygon conversions.  

Thanks to Gerry Creager, these are available for download now at 
ftp://aprs.tamu.edu/pub/TIGER_2006_SE/

The script that I providede to Jason lays out the converted files somewhat 
differently from the older conversions.  Each state has a zipfile which will 
create a directory tree for that state,
e.g.:

   NM/
   NM/Polylines
   NM/Polygons

In each of the Poly* directories will be shapefiles named by whatever the
TIGER/Line file had as the title in the metadata file for each 
county/parish/whatever in that state.

I set it up to save the states this way to make tweaking the map properties
a bit easier --- you can set common map properties like min/max zoom level
by selecting whole directories, whereas the older 2003 conversions required
that you click all the individual "_Poly" shapefiles to set polygon properties,
then unselect them, and click all the unqualified shapefiles to set polyline
properties.  I find the new layout a bit more usable.  Your milage may vary.
If you hate this, you can do a mass rename to the old style, renaming all
the files in the Polygons directory to have "_Poly" and moving them into a 
flattened directory.

Thank you, Jason and Gerry.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick