Author Topic: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?  (Read 4677 times)

kevroc

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Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« on: September 05, 2010, 03:51:31 PM »
Okay, I'm confused.  I thought the USGS Quads were all in feet, and thought the MyTopo maps were the same.  But now I see the mytopo maps in meters and the USGS Quads, well...some are feet and some are meters.  Is it just a matter of "be thankful what you get" or is there some way to get them all in feet?

Thanks,

Kevin


ScottMorris

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Re: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2010, 04:50:32 PM »
I believe it is be thankful for what you get.  :)

However, almost all of the 24k (highest resolution) that I have seen in either Topo or MyTopo are in feet.  Only the larger scale maps seem to be in meters, for some reason.

Maybe in Alaska things are a little different, but everywhere in the lower 48 the most detailed maps should be in feet.  Is this not the case?
Scott Morris - founder and co-author of TopoFusion
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kevroc

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Re: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2010, 07:14:26 PM »
I was looking at Topo maps of Mount Whitney near Lone Pine, CA and they look to be in Meters.

berck

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Re: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2010, 01:58:17 PM »
I've seen the same thing, but be grateful. All the USGS topos for that area have been messed up from the servers for some time. At least the MyTopo versions are accurate.

ScottMorris

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Re: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2010, 02:40:16 PM »
Sure enough, even the myTopo maps are in meters.  Huh, didn't know that.  Otherwise they look good though!  Thanks for pointing that out.
Scott Morris - founder and co-author of TopoFusion
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kevroc

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Re: Topo Contour Lines in Meters or Feet?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2010, 11:39:16 AM »
At least my Garmin Topo 24k maps are in feet, I'll probably use those for the Whitney Area.  That's one thing I liked on the delorme is the ability to set which map shows at which zoom level.  That way you could toggle between two maps just by zooming in 1 level or out 1 level.  For the Garmin I'll just enable/disable Custom Maps as needed and have the best of both worlds :)