Global Mapper v25.0

downloading topo data

karenhansen
karenhansen Global Mapper UserTrusted User
edited December 2013 in Technical Support
Can anyone explain why srtm data won't download yesterday or today?

Comments

  • Jasmine_BMG
    Jasmine_BMG BMG Staff
    edited December 2013
    Hello Karen,

    The download data links are links to 3rd party servers, placed directly in the Global Mapper application for user convenience. These servers are not maintained by Blue Marble and sometimes they do go down for maintenance, or the connection parameters change. We try to promptly update the current version of Global Mapper when changes are made by the 3rd party data providers to these connection parameters.

    In Global Mapper v15, I tried a couple of sources for SRTM and was able to connect and download data fine. Are you able to connect and download today? If not, what version of Global Mapper are you using, and what specific source are you trying to download from?

    Regards,

    Jasmine Bird
    Blue Marble Application Support
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Hello Karen,

    The download data links are links to 3rd party servers, placed directly in the Global Mapper application for user convenience. These servers are not maintained by Blue Marble and sometimes they do go down for maintenance, or the connection parameters change. We try to promptly update the current version of Global Mapper when changes are made by the 3rd party data providers to these connection parameters.

    In Global Mapper v15, I tried a couple of sources for SRTM and was able to connect and download data fine. Are you able to connect and download today? If not, what version of Global Mapper are you using, and what specific source are you trying to download from?

    Regards,

    Jasmine Bird
    Blue Marble Application Support

    thank you so much for your response; its happened before but never for so long. I just get dark blue and black on atlas shader. I'll try again tomorrow. thank you Jasmine
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    thank you so much for your response; its happened before but never for so long. I just get dark blue and black on atlas shader. I'll try again tomorrow. thank you Jasmine
    I am using v14; I continue to be unable to download srtm, I cannot believe that it takes this long for the external agency to do maintenance. Is it possible that I have to undertake some reset on my version; would I have to reset some icons? Sorry to keep asking but my work is piling up! Kind regards, Karen
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    I am using v14; I continue to be unable to download srtm, I cannot believe that it takes this long for the external agency to do maintenance. Is it possible that I have to undertake some reset on my version; would I have to reset some icons? Sorry to keep asking but my work is piling up! Kind regards, Karen

    I read other threads on the same subject, and see that an option is :' back up srtm'. Didn't work for me. If I uninstall GM, will GM allow me to re-install on the same single user licence, please? kind regards, Karen. (I'm in south Africa).
  • Jasmine_BMG
    Jasmine_BMG BMG Staff
    edited December 2013
    Hi Karen,

    Can you right-click on the source 'SRTM World Wide Elevation...' and select 'Display Source Web Page' and check the address for the webpage you get? It should be: http://srtm.usgs.gov/.

    A backup SRTM was set up during the government shutdown, but the source name was different in the Online Data Download window.

    Regards,
    Jasmine
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Hi Jasmine, I did that and that is the webpage that I get.
    kind regards, Karen
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    What are you specifying for the bounds when you are pulling data from the server? It almost sounds like you are getting a tiny area and are within a single pixel, like other data was perhaps loaded with the wrong position. You might also check the Vertical Options tab of the Configuration dialog and make sure you don't have water display enabled at some large height.

    If none of that helps, can you open the online download dialog and press the 'Delete Cached Files' button and clear the caches, then try loading the SRTM source again and see if that then works?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    What are you specifying for the bounds when you are pulling data from the server? It almost sounds like you are getting a tiny area and are within a single pixel, like other data was perhaps loaded with the wrong position. You might also check the Vertical Options tab of the Configuration dialog and make sure you don't have water display enabled at some large height.

    If none of that helps, can you open the online download dialog and press the 'Delete Cached Files' button and clear the caches, then try loading the SRTM source again and see if that then works?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation

    Hi Mike, thank you so much for your advice. When I download srtm data I ask for an x km radius (2 to 20 km) from co-ordinate points. Water display was set at 0. I cleared the cache ok. I tried different projections, I was using Mercator and found that geographic gave me some colour rather than navy and black, but still very fuzzy.
    kind regards, Karen
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    What coordinates are you getting a radius around? What is the lat/lon readout on the status bar after loading the data? Is it possible you are just in an ocean area?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    What coordinates are you getting a radius around? What is the lat/lon readout on the status bar after loading the data? Is it possible you are just in an ocean area?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation

    Hi Mike, no I'm not in an ocean area, I'm on land. This current project is only 2km from my office so I know the terrain well. I am really concerned and mean no criticism of GM. I've been a user since 4 years and really have never had this problem for more than a day. I really think that I should try uninstall/reinstall but I'd be grateful if Blue Marble would confirm that I can use my single user licence to re-install. And after that, I just don't know what I will do. My work is piling up and I imagine you guys will all be off for the holidays.

    and thank you so much for all the advice so far. kind regards, Karen
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    What coordinates are you getting a radius around? What is the lat/lon readout on the status bar after loading the data? Is it possible you are just in an ocean area?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation

    Hi Mike, thank you for your response; no I'm not in an ocean area; I've checked the co-ords lots of times; I know all about finger trouble! No criticism of GM, I've been a user for over 4 years. The only solution I can still try is uninstall/reinstall but I need to know from B Marble if I can do that on a single user licence. And after that.... well I just don't know. kind regards, Karen
  • Mykle
    Mykle Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    For a simple test, I selected an area about 25km square, centered on 19E 34S.
    This is just east of Cape Town and north of Grabouw. Elevations vary from sea level to 1500m

    I set the projection to Mercator, then downloaded SRTM and ASTER data (and the World Topo Map) without problems.

    The appearance on your screen will depend upon your choice of shader, and whether you have hillshading turned on.

    The SRTM file would be easy to attach (once we have an area that is useful to you).
    It looks like GMG is not a recognized format for this forum, but ZIP is.

    Cheers,
    Mykle
  • Jasmine_BMG
    Jasmine_BMG BMG Staff
    edited December 2013
    Hi Karen,

    If you unload all data - and then try loading the SRTM, will it load? (You can then zoom in on your area of interest, and reload you other data.)

    Regards,

    Jasmine
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    A reinstall would pick up the same license, but that wouldn't make any difference anyway. Can you save a workspace file and post it here so we can see exactly what you are loading? It's possible there are some bad tiles on the server or something, although I wouldn't expect the same bad tile on the backup SRTM service. Also can you try the ASTER GDEM source and see if it looks the same? It should have high resolution terrain anyway.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    A reinstall would pick up the same license, but that wouldn't make any difference anyway. Can you save a workspace file and post it here so we can see exactly what you are loading? It's possible there are some bad tiles on the server or something, although I wouldn't expect the same bad tile on the backup SRTM service. Also can you try the ASTER GDEM source and see if it looks the same? It should have high resolution terrain anyway.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Hi Mike, the co-ords for my site were -34 03 08.00 18 50 14.00. I have been experimenting. I tried a site far away in NW Province. altas shader/SRTM came up perfectly. I got contours ok and then drew a cross section; the colour shading changed. Ok it still looked good. I have been all over South Africa with random co-ords and generally it works although sometimes as it downloads it starts navy blue then switches to the usual colour shading of blue for low lying land and orange for higher land. My site, co-ords noted above, will still not load. I think that there is just a glitch; I think it is one of those unexplainable glitches that happen when data gets used to travelling down a certain path and just sticks with it.

    So I can get terrain data for most places I'm not working on right now, but around cape town, the terrain software just presents as navy blue, but randomly. So where to go from here? I'd like to try re-booting, but will have to get Blue Marble to agree that I can re-use my single user licence. If that fails I can leave it for a few days and try to surprise it. Either way I've certainly lost a whole lot of work time with this. Such a shame, GM is great with super functionality, but I just need to navigate past the glitch. Upside is that I've explored more of the software and found new stuff. kind regards, Karen
  • Mykle
    Mykle Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    When I picked the centre of my simple test, I had no idea where your area of interest was. And I wound up very close. Honest! I have not visited SA (yet), but have browsed around Cape Town a few times. And I browsed around Helderberg Dome since it looked interesting.

    I did not notice any problems with SRTM or ASTER data for this area.

    Cheers,
    Mykle
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    Can you check the Vertical Options tab of the Configuration dialog and see if you have maybe checked the new option to 'Color Elevations Based on Visible Elevation Values'? Perhaps that is checked and something in that area is causing a wacky display.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation
  • karenhansen
    karenhansen Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited December 2013
    Karen,

    Can you check the Vertical Options tab of the Configuration dialog and see if you have maybe checked the new option to 'Color Elevations Based on Visible Elevation Values'? Perhaps that is checked and something in that area is causing a wacky display.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation

    Thank you so much to everyone who read my posts and who commented. I was desperate as the days went on and it was just so inexplicable - I'm a big fan of GM, used it happily for 4-5 years. The restore default settings seems to have sorted it. A bit wobbly at first, I still got dark blue screens but gradually its come right and now I can get back to my work.
    Hope everyone has a great break and time off when it comes. Karen