At least for Texas, I can get a good dataset of our State's basemap in
e00 format. It takes a bit to automate that transformation to shapefile
but I can look into that and work on it, as well as automating the
renaming function from County ID to name...
Somehow I'm not surprised Census is making their data less useful to the
likes of us. Their requirements are considerably different from some of
the things we do and some of their shapes are likely to be highly
stylized or interpretive to reflect their needs.
Gerry
Tom Russo wrote:
On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 10:52:11AM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of
the <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> flavor, containing:
On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 12:33:25PM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of
the <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> flavor, containing:
[Re: TIGER/Line shapefiles]
You guys have been really patient in answering several questions form this
rank newcomer to Linux and Xastir. Am I good for another one?
What are the benefits of these new offerings versus what was already out
there?
I answered the "Why not the online version" question, but not this one.
The 2006 Second Edition maps will have updated (presumably better) data as
the Census adds information.
The previous 2006 shapefile conversions only converted the linear features,
and were missing all of the polygons. The files were also named by FIPS code,
which made it a little difficult to figure out what file applied to what part
of the state. The new ones have county names.
The much older 2004 shapefiles had the polygon features, but were based on
older data that the Census doesn't distribute anymore.
The 2006 SE files will be the last data that the Census will be distributing
in TIGER/Line format. Starting next year they'll be distributing shapefiles
of their own. From the looks of it, these will be less useful, as their
current plans show that their files will have a set of attributes that will
make it difficult to use them in Xastir. So these 2006 SE shapefiles will
probably be the last set of useful Census data we can get our hands on, unless
the Census changes the DBF attributes they plan to attach to their data when
they start distributing shapefiles themselves.
The TIGER/Line data was never meant to provide navigation-quality maps, but
they're the closest thing we've got to free street-level maps of the whole
country. Better data can often be had from local public works departments,
but it's hit-or-miss and not at all standardized.
--
Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX 979.862.3983
MAIL: AATLT, 3139 TAMU
Physical: 1700 Research Parkway, Suite 160,
College Station, TX 77843-3139
_______________________________________________
Xastir mailing list
Xastir@xastir.org
http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
