FREE! NSW Topo maps

[Mark F]

I just went on to the Six maps site and find that the TopoPDF versions of all the NSW lpi maps are now FREE!!!
http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo.html

[michael_p]

Excellent find Mark. Thanks for the link.

Cheers,
Michael.

[michael_p]

After a bit of fiddling last night I was able to work out how to direct download these maps.

Direct URL is:

Code:

http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo/geopdf/25k/####-## ************.pdf

Where ####-## is the map number and ************ is the map name.

Examples:

Code:

http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo/geopdf/25k/9129-4S OTFORD.pdf
http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo/geopdf/25k/9129-4N PORT HACKING.pdf

Notes:
All alpha characters (in the number and name) must be upper case.
There must be a space between the map number and the map name.
Maps with more than one word in their name must have spacing as illustrated in the second example above.

I was able to grab multiple maps using wget (linux version) and convert them to GeoTIFF for use with Oziexplorer. The GeoTIFF converter program is on the Oziexplorer website and is free to download. Oziexplorer can bulk create map files for GeoTIFF files, which is very handy.

When I get time I will write a script to grab copies of the maps I use all the time.

Cheers,
Michael.

[kanangra]

Gee I wish I knew what all that meant?

K

[puredingo]

I was lost after "After a bit".....

[kanangra]

K

[Lizzy]

Yep I will continue to pay for someone else to get them usable for me....

[potato]

Getting the map is straightforward enough. It's just a case of finding the map sheet that you want and inserting its number and name into the web address below

http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo/geopdf/25k/####-## ************.pdf

eg... for the Brindabella map, its number is 8627-3S and name is BRINDABELLA

copy and paste the following address into your web browser and hit the 'open' or 'save as' to download the map
http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/etopo/geopdf ... ABELLA.pdf

Using it in an app is the next challenge. Avenza PDFmaps is becoming more and more useless with its push towards being a fully paid app. Hopefully Ozi will be geopdf friendly at the next version.

[michael_p]

Sorry if I have confused anyone. My nerd side gets a bit over excited with new shiny toys.

Using it in an app is the next challenge. Avenza PDFmaps is becoming more and more useless with its push towards being a fully paid app. Hopefully Ozi will be geopdf friendly at the next version.

Even though I don't use electronic maps in the field I agree a geopdf friendly ozi version would be nice. The Img2ozf application can convert image files to OZF4 format (as long a there is a map file for the image) for use in the android app.

Michael.

[Allchin09]

Thanks for sharing this with the group Mark, it is a vast improvement to the way the e-Topos were previously available.

Last year I meet up with a few bushwalking friends and formed a "NSW Bushwalkers Mapping Group", essentially a group with a mission of being the 'go to' point of reference for all bushwalkers mapping desires in NSW.

We haven't been overly active since, but it's something I'd like to put more time into this year, and it would be great to have more people who are interested in maps and / or have technical skills involved.

Last year we were invited to Spatial Services out at Bathurst (the organisation responsible for mapping in the state - a branch of the old LPI or Department of Lands) to discuss how we could work with them to improve things such as track data. The e-Topos were also a topic of conversation so it's good to see improvements here.

Some of our work so far can be found here - http://maps.ozultimate.com/wiki/

With so many resources available these days, one thing I'd like to do is make it easier for those who aren't so technical to make the most of what's out there.

I've created a similar post in a new topic in case you wish to discuss the group.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=25047

Let me know if you want to get involved!

[Allchin09]

Also, the topographic map boundaries file found here - http://maps.ozultimate.com/wiki/downloads - may be of use for those wishing to bulk download the e-Topos as it lists the map name and reference number.

[tom_brennan]

Also, the topographic map boundaries file found here - http://maps.ozultimate.com/wiki/downloads - may be of use for those wishing to bulk download the e-Topos as it lists the map name and reference number.

I've updated the spreadsheet linked to include the links of the various e-Topos. So you can download the SS and click on a link, no particular expertise required!

Note that the 1:100k ones are pretty big, and will test whatever software you open it in (I've got a pretty powerful PC and Acrobat Reader was quite sluggish). 1:25k ones are around 5-15mb, so more reasonable.

[michael_p]

I've updated the spreadsheet linked to include the links of the various e-Topos. So you can download the SS and click on a link, no particular expertise required!

Excellent idea, thank you. This makes the downloading task a snap.

I've already grabbed a copy and have started playing with the data in it.

Cheers,
Michael.

[tom_brennan]

Note that there are a small handful that don't work - some of the ones near the Vic border have changed, and the insets come as part of the original map (eg Nadgee).

And for some reason, Hampton fails - looks like they failed to upload that one.

The other 99% should be fine!

[michael_p]

I used the feedback form on the etopo website to report the Hampton map not working. Got an email the next day with a copy of the map attached and was advised that the error would be sent onto their IT people.

Michael.

[michael_p]

Oziexplorer can't read geopdf files but can use geotiff files. So to make the etopo maps usable in Oziexplorer they need to be converted to geotiff.

Simple Method for Windows.
Firstly download a map (or maps) from the etopo website.

Download a copy of ImageConvertOzi from the Oziexplorer utilities page: http://www.oziexplorer3.com/eng/utilities.html

Install ImageConvertOzi and run it. Follow instructions to convert the pdfs to geotiff. After conversion you will have a tif and a tfw file for each map. The tif file is the map image (geotiff) file and the tfw file contains additional information that can't be embedded in the tif file.

The geotiff files need to be imported into Oziexplorer to create map files. Open Oziexplorer. Go to File > Import Map > All DRG Maps on a CD or in a Folder. Follow instructions. Map files will be created and now you should have fully usable etopo maps.

Things I have learnt.
ImageConvertOzi is a wrapper for gdal_translate. So it is possible to script the conversion by calling gdal_translate in a bat file. Open the folder where ImageConvertOzi is installed and you will see a file called geopdf2geotiff.bat. The second line in this file is the one you want (note: %1 is the pdf file, %2 is the tiff output file).

The downloaded etopo maps appear to be the same as the current printed map version. Some maps are second edition (MGA) and others maps are third edition (GDA).

The etopo maps are georeferenced across the whole image including the map border. I tried merging two maps using Ozi Map Merge and the results were not good. See image below.

For the computer nerds.
I was able to script everything up to creating the map files. I couldn't get gdal_info to report the map bounds metadata in lat/long. It would only give the bounds in UTM. After trying a number of ways to create the map files from the geotiff metadata I gave up. Doing it by importing into Oziexplorer was soooo muuuuch easier.

Hope this can be of some use,
Michael.

Ozi Map Merge didn't come out that well:

[tom_brennan]

I'm not convinced the georeferencing is correct for the GeoPDFs.

I converted the Kanangra 1:25k map using both my own GDAL command line, and ImageConvertOzi (which generates its own command line). When I loaded into OziExplorer and looked at the corners, 2 of them are a long way out, 1 is a bit out, and 1 is pretty close. [The corners of all of the 1:25k maps are on whole, half, quarter or eighth of a degree, so are pretty easy to check - for example, Kanangra's are [150,-34],[150,-33.875],[150.25,-33.875],[150.25,-34]]

The top left corner is out by 25-30m, the bottom right by about 100m, and the other two by a lot - > 500m.

Gospers Mountain 1:25k map was pretty similar.

I'd be interested in seeing if someone else has similar issues - I'm assuming that the issue is with the PDFs, and not with me, OziExplorer or GDAL!

[tastrax]

You might also like to look at mapmerge for Oziexplorer - http://www.oziexplorer3.com/mapmerge/mapmerge.html

Problem with the PDF's is that they have the borders around them - you really need to get rid of that before doing any merging

[GPSGuided]

Thanks Mark and the department! Lucky star and so much more convenient (and costless) to access. Previously bought a number of eTopo map tiles but always had trouble in getting them to download automatically. Each time had to send in a service request email and wait for their staff to send my purchase by email (some odd gremlin at work).

[mholling]

Pretty cool that these maps are finally free and easy to get. It's been really interesting to see LPI slowly come around on this issue. They used to be super-protective of their data! Open data FTW. (Taxpayer-funded, after all.) The next step is to get all the NSW DTDB (Digital Topographic Database) available free for download as shapefiles. (data.nsw.gov.au is pretty much empty of topographic datasets, currently.)

I'd also love to see them step up their game and replace the old coarse vegetation underlay with the new SPOT5 data (SPOT5 woody extent and foliage projective cover from 2011: much more detailed at about 5-10 metre resolution, versus 25 metres previously). My nswtopo maps use this data as do all our ACT rogaine maps. It looks so much better. And how about a nice shaded relief on the top? I love love love a good shaded relief depiction, it makes a map much more intuitive and attractive. I implemented this multi-directional shaded relief algorithm for my Victorian maps with great results.

As for converting GeoPDFs like these ones to GeoTIFFS, just get the GDAL tools installed on your machine and stop fearing command-line! :) It's as easy as:

Code:

gdal_translate '8727-3S TUGGERANONG.pdf' '8727-3S TUGGERANONG.tif'

If you're using Avenza Maps, just get a copy of Tom's spreadsheet on your device and then open or share the link for the map you want. (Alternatively, download from the etopo link.) It should give you an option to open with Avenza Maps, and the map should download and install from within the app. You can change the import DPI in settings if you want higher resolution than the default.

Yes, it kinda sucks what Avenza have done with their app from 2.0 forward. (Artificial limit of three self-imported maps at any one time.) Their subscription model to remove the restriction is ludicrous. They have trashed their app-store rating with the backlash. I really hope they relent before their casual users just move on. It's really nice to be able to import GeoPDFs and GeoTIFFS directly on a mobile app; I don't know of any other apps that can do that. Hint: on Android you can just download and install the last pre-2.0 version to keep unlimited map imports. Just don't update the app once installed. The APK is Avenza_PDF_Maps_1.7.3.apk. There are sites where you can download older versions of APKs, assuming you trust them.

Michael & Phil, for mosaicing the maps, there is neatline data embedded in the files. (The neatline is basically the border of the map itself within the larger page.) You can see it with gdalinfo:

Code:

gdalinfo 8727-3S\ TUGGERANONG.pdf
# => ... NEATLINE=POLYGON ((680019.768017437 6068807.67187656,679959.751862371 6083912.02000497,705775.764175994 6083901.85531787,705792.904086281 6068817.74320769,680019.768017437 6068807.67187656)) ...


It's possible to use this information during the mosaic, so the borders don't mess things up. (There is some information here; it's a bit messy but it does work.)

I converted a couple of the etopo PDFs to tiff and opened them in Google Earth. I couldn't find any places which were out by more than a few tens of metres. Certainly no 100m or 500m discrepancies, so I think the georeferencing is correct. (Unlikely that it wouldn't be.)

[michael_p]

neatline data embedded in the files.

...FACEPALM TIME...I was so absorbed by the shiny new toy that I never even tried to run gdalinfo against the pdf files. Only ran it against the geotiff files, what a goose I am.

The geopdf files have the lat/long extents for each map, now I should be able to script the map file creation.

There is some information here

Thanks for the link. When I get time I'll have a look at using gdalwarp to trim the maps down for merging.

Many Thanks,
Michael.

[adktz]

Thanks for sharing the links. I am planning to do some bikepacking and a bit of hiking around Jagungal in a few weeks. Hopefully I can get I can get these into Avenza with no worries.

[tom_brennan]

Old thread, but for those who are interested, I put together a bit of a process (tutorial) on merging the e-Topos for use in OziExplorer (and other applications).

I've put it up on the NSW Bushwalking Mapping Wiki (https://maps.ozultimate.com/wiki/). Requires a moderate level of technical expertise, but may prove useful for some. Corrections/feedback welcome.

Stitching e-Topos: https://maps.ozultimate.com/wiki/stitching_etopos