PZmaps

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, PZmaps!

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Re: Maps

Hello. I only opened the Albanian version of your map, but I've no remarks about it: a really great map! Congratulations! Without display bugs (not easy in SVG with MediaWiki at this size), well complete, with the legend, the scale, the projection used, pretty sourced... Great and nice job!
About the “DejaVu Sans“ and “DejaVu Serif“ rendering problem, it seems that these kind of fonts aren't well supported (in the contrary of what is said), but only the < “Condensed” > versions of it.
For a world map in a Mollweide projection, I made one here you may perhaps re-use if you don't need the States boundaries and deleting Tissot's indicatrix. Or perhaps do you need the data to be able to open it in a GIS software? I used the World Coast Line data (scale 1:5,000,000) for it.
Tell me if I can be of further help. Keep up the great work! Greetings. Sting (talk) 16:10, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Free road map data

About your suggestion the other day: do you know www.openstreetmap.org? Just came across it. Might be worth exploring how wikipedia mapmaking could interface with what they are doing over there. Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

hi, if you want you can try to download global mapper and the import the .map and the .gif files and from there you can export them almost to any kind format you want..

== Maps ==

Hi PZmaps. Do you know if there is any free geo-referencer or .map to shp converter available? I found a very good map resource, a collection of Soviet high-scale military topographic maps from the 1980s: http://maps.poehali.org/en/. The georeferenced map files are in the .map format and, sadly, they can't be imported into GRASS GIS. I'm trying to find a way to use these wonderful maps.

Have you tried making a map using the openstreetmap shp files? I'm having problems handling the immense road data in Inkscape. It seems that I can only make very small regional maps or city plans. Wish I had a more powerful computer.

Best wishes,

Andrei

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 18:59, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Landsat imagery

Wow! The landsat files are absolutely amazing. Thank you! Still, how do I find my way through all those folders and rows? I couldn't find a chart on the link.

Are you sure the Soviet maps are not free to use? I've seen other maps on Commons which quote them as a source. Furthermore there is no mention anywhere on the Internet about their licenece. I know they are mostly outdated, but I find them great for tracing rivers, forests, secondary roads and minor settlements.

All the best!

Oh. One more thing. Is r.mapcalc the same with Raster > Map Calculator (r.mapcalculator)?

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 17:15, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

You are right about the copyright status of the Soviet maps. I just found out that their terms of use are not compatible with Commons. In any case, the Landsat images are far better. But don't you think it would be much easier to simply trace the terrain features in Inkscape than to calculate indices with r.mapcalc? This is what I planned to do with satellite bands. I'm sorry but I couldn't really figure out what r.mapcalc does after reading the GRASS syntax. Why do I need to convert the raster files into arithmetic expressions? I'll try to find out more about this on GRASS-Wiki.

Greetings

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 22:39, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried doing the same thing with GIMP? I think the results can be superior if the colour schemes are well manipulated. I just made a composite image of three satellite bands using he same method as when you create the shaded relief plus some colour changes. The result is quite satisfactory, but it's still rather hard to trace the roads (but this might not be necessary since we have the openstreetmap data) and the limits of smaller settlements.

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 16:15, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Now I have some problems with GRASS. If I try to set the number of levels to maximum (256) I get an error report and GRASS suddenly stops working. It works fine with 32 levels though. Is it because I tried to use the same band for each of the 3 map layers? By the way there is no 'grayscale' colour table', it's just 'gray', 'gray 1.0' and 'gray 255'. I tried the plain 'gray' table.

Which one is the (#8) panchromatic band? Is it the...nn10.tif.gz file? I thought the largest files (those with a size betweeen around 90.000 and 140.000 KB -- ...nn.80.tif.gz) are the best.

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 19:55, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh. I forgot to to convert the satellite bands to arithmetic expressions. This might be the reason why the r.composite is not working.

I know it doesn't make sense to use the same band for diffrent colour layers :), I was just checking if r.composite works.

On my computer, GRASS is in the C: drive. This is where the GRASS setup programme advised me to install it. So I can't view the command line from Start>Programs. And I can't see it in the GRASS directory either. This is strage. I thought I've seen it somewhere...

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 20:45, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I can open the GRASS command line, but I can't type anything in it. Should I press a special key to make it work?

My target is to make something simillar to military topographic maps. I aim for a scale of 1:200.000. I would like to include, if possible, the shape of all visible settlements, the majority of rivers and the forests. Now for the forests I don't need to analyse different bands, they are visible enough on bands 7 and 3. The same goes for the lakes and major rivers.

Unfortunately the r.composite of GRASS doesn't seem to work and the crucial 'select by colour' tool in GIMP can't be used (because of the size of the satellite bands). However, I was able to create two or three-band composite images with GIMP and I can play with their brightness and contrast.

I hope I can solve some of these issues in the next few days.

Cheers

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 1:08, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes I use Vista. But don't worry. GRASS might not be necessary. Now I can create RGB composite images in GIMP. It's pretty simple. You just have to set the mode to rgb for each layer (Image>mode>rgb) and then to adjust the colour balance (Colours>Colour Balance). I imagine that the results are the same.

You said that I should use the #3 and #4 bands to enhance the vegetation visibility. What are the #61 and #62 bands good for?

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 02:05, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Now Inkscape doesn't work. It can't cope with the size of the composite image I made in GIMP. It seems that all the problems are casued by the size of the satellite bands. Do you know if there is a way to break each band into 4 smaller ones. That, I think, should solve all problems. Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 03:46, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I tried r.region and it doesn't work if I introduce dd:mm:ss N/E/S/W values. It's the same with Raster>Develop map>Boundaries. I can put pixel boundary values, but the image only skrinks.

I think it's better to try creating the composite image in GRASS. I'm not sure if the colours I set for the bands in GIMP (green, red, blue) are the same with those of GRASS. And you're right about the upper layer covering the two layers below. I'll now try by inserting a smaller srtm raster in the GRASS location and then I'll set the limits of the whole region to those of the srtm. I hope this will work. Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 19:29, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

So if my region looks like this:

projection: 1 (UTM)

zone: 35

datum: wgs84

ellipsoid: wgs84

north: 5217324

south: 4984735.5

west: 168834

east: 426217.5

nsres: 28.5

ewres: 28.5

rows: 8161

cols: 9031

cells: 73701991,

then all the north, south, east and west boundaries are in meters? What do I have to change, only the easting and northing?

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 19:59, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Wow! r.composite finally works. And I didn't have to crop any of the bands. #5 for red, #4 for green and #2 for blue, right? I just put 256 instead of 1-256 in the 'number of levels' box.

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 22:45, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

The RGB composite image is more than enough for tracing the forests. I can even differentiate the conifers from the rest of the trees. The only things harder to trace are the limits of small villages and secondary roads. Do you know how could I use the high-resolution band in conjunction with the composite RGB?

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 00:50, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

If I create a #3 (red), #2 (green), #1 (blue) RGB composite, I get a life-coloured satellite image which looks like to a screenshot from Google Earth. Have you tried this?

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 06:18, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Maps

Hi! Thank you so much for your help with the Landsat bands and GRASS. I have almost completed my first map using the satellite images. I'm going to upload it on Commons at the end of this week.

I need your advice on two matters upon which I came across:

1. Which is the best way to use the high-resolution Landsat band in conjunction with the other bands?

2. I want to make maps of several South-Eastern European cities during World War II. I scanned some high scale topographic maps and I geo-referenced them with Quantum GIS. The problem is that the larger cities (Budapest for example) are covered by two or more sheets. How can I join together geo-referenced raster files in GRASS? I've read that r.patch could do this, but when I try to open it I get an error message.

I hope you are all right.

Regards,

Andrei

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 09:16, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

I just found out that the WWII maps I scanned are still copyrighted (it's 70 years for German maps). I also read on a forum that r.patch doesn't work for Vista, so nevermind that.

I think I solved the first problem. It appears that i.fusion.brovey is specially designed for the Landsat high-resolution band. I'll try to see how it works.

Andrein (User talk:Andrein) 13:59, 20 May 2009 (UTC)