Downloading Maps with The National Map Download Client
In this lesson, we will discuss the process of using the National Map download client
to download maps.
Lesson 4a provided some general guidance on use of the interface and available tools.
If necessary, please review lesson 4a for information on the general use of the client’s
features.
Here we are at the launch page for the National Map data download and visualization services.
If you haven’t already, please bookmark this address now for future reference.
This lesson focuses on The National Map Download Client and how the client can be used to download
maps.
The preferred method of accessing the client for downloading maps is clicking the Download
Maps link under Maps.
This will open the client already configured specifically for accessing maps.
Clicking the link under applications would open the default version of the client.
We will select Download Maps, which will open the Download Client in a new browser tab or
window.
The National Map Download Client is a new web application built on modern web technologies
to take advantage of the USGS staged-product download API and provide users with a more
straight-forward, and feature-rich download experience.
Using The National Map Download Client for downloading maps is basically a two stage
process.
You will first define an area of interest, then select the products available in that
location.
As you can see, we have two map options.
The first is the US Topo, which is the most current image based topographic map.
Historical topographic maps are also available, which are scans of the traditional paper or
lithographic printed maps.
We will start the process of finding our maps by defining an area of interest.
This can be done using the draw point tool, where you place a marker at a specific location
on the map or by using the draw rectangle tool.
Use the draw rectangle tool with caution as it may produce an unmanageable number of results.
After zooming in to an area of interest select the Draw Point tool to place a marker at the
location of interest.
This will immediately query and display the results under a new products tab.
Using the draw rectangle box will result in the same products tab automatically showing.
This behavior is unique to this custom view of the client specific to maps.
In other custom views, you would not see this same behavior.
If both US Topo and Historical Topographic Maps datasets were selected, the results will
be collapsed to easily see how many results were available for each dataset.
To uncollapse and see the actual products click on each of the ‘results’ links.
If only one dataset was selected the results will not be initially collapsed.
Each product result will include the product title, the published date, the last date the
metadata was updated along with the format and size of the downloaded product and extent.
A number of Action links can be found next to each product to draw the footprint on the
map, zoom to the product extent on the map, and obtain additional Info or Metadata about
the product.
You can also directly download each product in the list by clicking on the download button.
You can also go to the USGS Map Store to order a printed copy.
Clicking the show footprints at the top of the list shows them all for the current list.
Once you draw a footprint, you can click the same link again to remove the footprints.
The Cart buttons can be used to add or remove maps to or from the Cart.
The Add All button can be used to add all the currently visible products to the Cart
without having to click each individual item.
The View Cart button will create a Cart tab which shows a list of the items already added
to the Cart.
The Cart is a temporary list of products you’ve selected within the current session.
These are not automatically saved when you close the browser or select the start over
button.
Enough information is given to identify the products along with Metadata and Download
links.
Items can be Removed from the cart individually with the Remove button or the entire cart
can be emptied by selecting the Remove All button.
To save the contents of the cart to a CSV file click the “list and export cart items”
button, and you’re your download will be initiated.
The CSV file can also be read easily into Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice, or any other
spreadsheet program that reads CSV files, in addition to being used to import the products
into the National Map Download Manager.
A link to the download manager is provided for convenience on the Cart page.
We will describe the Download Manager and its use in another lesson.
In this lesson we introduced the process of using the National Map Download Client to
download maps.
This concludes lesson 4c, to continue to the next lesson, please return to the course homepage.