How to Create a 3D Rendition of a DEM With a Draped Image

BlogJuly 7, 2011

PLEASE NOTE: As of Photoshop 22.5, Adobe has discontinued support for the program’s 3D features. This may affect some or all elements of this blog. For more information, see Adobe’s FAQ page about this change and the Geographic Imager compatibility information page.

NOTE: Prior to performing these steps with your data you would want to ensure that the DEM and image have the same geographic extents.

Using Geographic Imager, open your DEM file and set the desired schema type. In this case the DEM was “Auto stretched”.

With the DEM now opened and rendered as a 16-bit grayscale Image we can now make use of a number of Adobe Photshop tools to render it in 3D and to drape the image.

The following steps will outline the Adobe Photoshop procedures required to create the 3D rendition:

1. Create a 3D mesh: Under the 3D menu within Photoshop select “New Mesh From Grayscle->Plane”

2. We then use the “3D Object Rotate Tool” located in the Photoshop toolbar to manually rotate the mesh tilting it backwards, resulting in something like this

3. The resulting mesh is too exaggerated for a realistic rendering of the landscape so we will adjust the y orientation of it using the “3D Object Scale tool” setting the Y: scale to 0.10

This is the image after vertically rescaling it

4.Once the 3D mesh has been rescaled the image can be draped

In the Adobe Photoshop “3D Materials” panel, click the “Edit Diffuse texture” button (as denoted in the screenshot below) and select the “Load Texture” option. Now locate and select the image you wish to drape on the 3D mesh.

5. Within the Layers panel turn off the visibility of the Rocky Mountain DEM (as in the screenshot below).

The end result should be a 3D model such as this.

How to get Open Street Map data into Adobe Illustrator with MAPublisher

BlogJune 28, 2011

Edit: Updated with a new QGIS workflow (November 21, 2014)

The following tip is courtesy of Hans van der Maarel of Red Geographics.

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For many areas on Earth, OpenStreetMap is a viable alternative to commercially offered data sources. However, it is not always easy to process. This blog tutorial explains the steps needed to load OpenStreetMap data into MAPublisher.

1. Download and install QGIS, this is a free GIS application, available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. QGIS now comes with built in tools for downloading Open Street Map Data.

2. Open QGIS and zoom in to an area of interest. Use the OpenLayers plugin for a basemap if you do not have any imagery or mapping of your own. Keep in mind that downloads from the OpenStreetMap website are limited in the number of exported objects, so for larger areas you will have to combine multiple downloads yourself, or look for other options (for example Geofabrik).

3a. Go to the Vector Menu and Choose OpenStreetMap and then Download data.

3b. Choose how you want the extent of the downloaded data to be defined. The easiest way is to use the Map Canvas.

4. Open your downloaded .osm file in QGis using the Add Vector Layer tool. Select all the Layers and choose OK.

This results are shown in several layers depending upon what is present in the extent you have downloaded. In this case there are points, lines, multilinestrings and multipolygons. Note that QGIS only imports features that fall completely within the extent specified. So make sure you choose an area larger than your actual area of interest to ensure it is completely covered.

5. Export these layers one by one. Right-click and choose “Save As, then ESRI shapefile”.

6. The shapefiles can be imported into Adobe Illustrator using MAPublisher. After reprojecting, scaling and cropping we’ve ended up with the raw OpenStreetMap vectors in Adobe Illustrator, with all attributes still maintained.

7. Once within the data is imported successfully, you may now use any of the MAPublisher and Adobe Illustrator tools to style and customize the map in any way you want.

OSM Layers loaded and themed in MAPublisher

New in MAPublisher 8.4: Import Map Data from Web Services

BlogMarch 23, 2011

MAPublisher 8.4 has an exciting new feature: importing data from web services. It is another enhancement to provide you with more options to access data.

You can import vector data using the Web Feature Service (WFS). It accesses web servers that deliver vector content in GML format. Similarly, you can import raster data with the Web Map Service (WMS). It accesses web servers that deliver raster content in a variety of formats.

Access the WFS and WMS directly from the Simple or Advanced Import dialog boxes. After selecting either Web Feature Service or Web Map Service from the Format drop-down list, browse for a web service and select one. Of course, you can easily add, remove and manage your favourite WFS/WMS in this dialog box.

After selecting and connecting to a WFS/WMS, simply select features (layers) or rasters you want to import into Adobe Illustrator. At the same time, you will have an option whether or not to save the original datasets in GML format.

Click the Info button available next to the Server Info at the top of the dialog box. You can see more detail information about the web server.

After importing features from the WFS/WMS, each of the features will be in a MAP layer and all the georeferencing of those selected features will be stored in the MAP View.

Georeferencing an Image in Adobe Photoshop with Geographic Imager

BlogJanuary 20, 2011

As of Geographic Imager 5.0, there’s an updated workflow for georeferencing images. Learn more about Georeferencing and work through the tutorial.

Nowadays, it’s common to find great orthophotos and satellite imagery on the Web. However, after downloading these (sometimes) large files, you might find that some don’t have any georeferencing. Most likely these files are in an image format supported by Adobe Photoshop(e.g. JPG or TIF) and you can georeference it using the Geographic Imager Georeference tool.

These are the requirements to georeference an image:

Knowing the coordinate system of the image (e.g. Mercator projection, State Plane system Alabama East, UTM system NAD 83 Zone 17 N..etc)
Finding three or more points from the image to assign coordinate values to each of them. These points are known as ground control points.

The first thing you need to know is the coordinate system or projection of the image you are georereferncing. If you are unsure about which coordinate system the image uses, contact the data provider or search the metadata of the image on the Internet. If you cannot get the information of the coordinate system assigned to the image, you might want to try georeferencing with different coordinate systems to make the map as precise as possible.

The second requirement is working with the ground control points. One ground control point consists of several values: 1) Pixel X coordinate, 2) Pixel Y coordinate, 3) Ground X coordinate (e.g. longitude), and 4) Ground Y coordinate (e.g. latitude). Furthermore, to make georeferencing easier, ground control points must be clearly identifiable in the image. Cultural features such as road intersection, a sharp corner of a lot or boundary are good examples of locations used as ground control points.

Now that you know what you’ll need, we’ll demonstrate a georeference workflow using the Geographic Imager Georeference tool and Google Earth.

Step 1: Obtain a non-georeferenced image

This image is in JPEG format and there is no georeference information associated with it. In order to transform it to another coordinate system or projection, mosaic with other images, or align the image to vector work using MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator, the image must first be georeferenced.

Step 2: Obtain the required information

As indicated above, two key pieces of information are required to georeference an image: a) the coordinate system of the image and b) defining ground control points

a) The coordinate system of the image

The image, collected from Google Earth, is projected in a coordinate system called WGS84 / Pseudo Mercator (this projection is common to Web based mapping systems and is also known as Web Mercator or Google projection).

b) Defining ground control points

We’ll need to define at least three ground control points for georeferencing. Below are the steps for finding out one of the ground control points.

On the non-georeferenced image, decide which spot to use as a point of reference. It should be available on Google Earth where you’ll find the X,Y coordinate values. For the first point, we’ll use the corner boundary between the pavement and a golf course.

Using Google Earth, find the exact same spot as the one decided in the non-georeferenced image. Place a point symbol to help identify the coordinate values. Record the collected latitude and longitude values. The latitude and longitude values are at the centre of the point symbol in the Google Earth window.

Find the coordinates of two additional ground control points. The latitude and longitude values are in decimal degree format and the coordinate system of those values are in the geodetic system “WGS84”.

Step 3: Georeference in Geographic Imager

In Geographic Imager, click the Georeference tool button in the Geograhpic Imager main panel (or choose File > Automate > Geographic Imager : Georerence). The Georeference dialog box will open.

First, we’ll need to set the proper image coordinate system and input coordinate system (the information from Step 2a). In the Format section, click the blue “Specify” link to open the Input Format dialog box.

Here we’ll specify two parameters: Image Coordinate System and alternate input coordinate system. The image of the coordinate system is WGS84 / Pseudo-Mercator as found at Step 2a. Click the “Specify” button to find the coordinate system from the coordinate systems list.

The option “Use alternate input coordinate system” will not have to be selected if the X,Y coordinate values are collected in the Eastings/Northings in the WGS84 / Pseudo-Mercator coordinate system. When those latitude and longitude values are collected, those values are collected in the decimal degree format and the values are in degree in WGS84. We will use those latitude and longitude values for the georeferencing. Specify the destination coordinate system as WGS84.

When the settings are made, click OK to close the Input Format dialog box. All the selected coordinate system for each setting will be indicated in the Format section of the Georeference dialog box.

The next step is to enter the three ground control points collected from Google Earth. Click the pencil tool at the top of the Georeference dialog box and click a point for one of the ground control points collected at the previous steps .

As soon as one point is clicked on the preview image, it will add one row in the Georeference table. This row contains the point name, PX (Pixel x coordinate), PY (Pixel y coordinate), WX (World X coordinate), and WY (World Y coordinate).

For WX and WY, enter the longitude and latitude, respectively, for the first ground control point.

Repeat the same steps for the second and third ground control points.

As soon as you enter three points, Geographic Imager will display the residual error values on the table for the accuracy assessment.

A residual error is the computed difference between an observed source coordinate and a calculated source coordinate. It is the measure of the fit between the true locations and the transformed locations of the output control points. A high residual error indicates possible error in either the observed source coordinates or the reference coordinates of the reference point in question.

When the error is particularly large, you may want to remove and add control points to adjust the error. As a general rule, apply several different transformation methods, select/deselect questionable points and select the method and reference points that yield the minimum residual error, assuming that the defined reference points are correct. Residual values are calculated via the associated error values between computed values and entered values through either the affine or various polynomial methods.

Once completed, the Geographic Imager main panel will indicate the georeference information of the image. Don’t forget to save the file once it is complete. Now your image is ready for any Geographic Imager function. You can also bring this image into MAPublisher for Adobe illustrator and align it to other GIS data.

New Transformation Method for World Maps in Geographic Imager 3.2

BlogNovember 29, 2010

When transforming a world image, there may be artifacts created by the Geographic Imager transformation engine. Below are the results of a WGS84 world image transformed into a Stereographic projection.

When we zoom into the problematic area, you can see up close how some artifacts affect the image after the transformation was performed.

To solve this issue, we are introducing a new projection method called Maximum: World Projection in Geographic Imager 3.2.

We are going to use the same world image used with the previous example and transform it into the stereographic projection. Take a close look at the Advanced Options.

Under the Performance/quality section, select Maximum / World Projections from the Precision drop-down list and click OK.

Below is the result of the transformation with the new method available in Geographic Imager 3.2.

Let’s take a close look at the same area where the problem happened with the previous version of Geographic Imager. Now the transformed image does not contain any artifacts.

This option is available since Geographic Imager 3.2. The official version of Geographic Imager 3.2 is available now.

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 3 – Applying Terrain Shader to multiple DEM files

BlogAugust 17, 2010

If your workflow involves Terrain Shader, specifying a DEM schema is an important step, especially when dealing with mulitple DEM files.

When importing a single DEM file, Geographic Imager converts elevation values to gray scale values. For example, if the elevation range in your DEM file is between 0 and 2500 meters and the “Auto-stretched” option is selected, this range will be converted to the Adobe Photoshop gray scale range between black and white. As shown below, the black color is assigned to the lowest elevation value (0 meter) while the white color is assigned to the highest elevation value (2500 meters). For elevation values between 0 and 2500, Geographic Imager calculates and converts them into gray scale.

In this example, we’ll use six DEM files of one geographic region. Many datasets are distributed as tiled DEM files. Each of them is next to each other and the goal is to create a colorized DEM image from those six files.

When dealing with multiple DEM files, you will need to consider the elevation range of the each DEM file. In other words, the elevation range in each DEM file will be slightly different.

Option 1: Using the “Auto-Stretched” option for multiple DEM files

When importing multiple DEM images and using the “Auto-stretched” option, click “Apply to All”…

Every one of the DEM images will be converted to the gray scale between black and white.

As a result, you can get the maximum contrast in each image. However, you will not be able to mosaic or apply Terrain Shader to those six images because each DEM has slight differences in elevation and an all encompassing schema like the”Auto-stretched” option will not work.

Option 2: Creating a DEM schema by specifying a range

In order to apply Terrain Shader to multiple DEM files, you will need to assign one DEM schema to each DEM image you would like to share the same schema.

Step 1: Identify the elevation range amongst multiple DEM files

Explore the DEM files and find out what the elevation range is for each one. Then note which are the lowest and highest values among all DEMs. For this example, the lowest elevation is 0 m and the highest is 3,231 meters.

Step 2: Create a new DEM schema for your dataset

Choose File > Open and select multiple DEM files. Once the Import DEM file dialog box is open, click the Add button to open the “Edit DEM Schema” dialog box.

Create a new Schema name (e.g. “my study area”). Simply enter the lowest and highest elevation value found in Step 1.

Step 3: Apply the DEM schema to your datasets

When you’ve created a new DEM schema, it will be available in the “Select Schema” drop-down list. Choose the new schema and click “Apply to All”. This selected schema will be applied to all the DEM files being imported.

After the import process is completed, the images are ready for Terrain Shader.

When one of the imported DEM file is the active document, click the “DEM” tab in the Geographic Imager panel. It shows the DEM schema name, the DEM value range, and the actual elevation value available in the currently active document. Click the “Calculate” button if you do not see the statistics (actual elevation value range of the active document).

Step 4: Apply Terrain Shader to your DEM files

Since each DEM has a schema, a mosaic can be perfomed and then Terrain Shader can be applied to the mosaicked iamge.

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 1

BlogAugust 11, 2010

The upcoming release of Geographic Imager 3.2 introduces a new feature called Terrain Shader, used to apply color gradients and shaded relief to imported DEM images. Color gradients can be exported so that you can use them for other images or share them with other people.

You might want to take a look at our brief video about the Geographic Imager Terrain Shader on our Avenza YouTube channel.

In this blog, I’ll show you a quick workflow with Terrain Shader using one of the files from the Geographic Imager tutorial folder.

1) Open the DEM file called Yukon Water.dem from the Geographic Imager Tutorial Folder in Adobe Photoshop. Geographic Imager will automatically detect the file type so that you will see the “Import DEM File” dialog box(below).

When your workflow involves Terrain Shader, it is important to select an appropriate schema in the Import DEM file dialog box. For now, we’ll use the option “Auto-stretched”. We’ll return to this dialog box when we talk about an advanced use of Terrain Shader feature in another blog.

After the DEM file is successfully imported, you will see the geospatial information, the DEM schema and the value range information in the Geographic Imager panel. The panel has been redesigned and improved for version 3.2 (We think it works really well!)

2) Click the Terrain Shader button.

In the Terrain Shader dialog box, on the left side, you can see the elevation range of the DEM file. There is a large preview image at the centre of the dialog box.

3) Click the check box beside “Apply Color Map” to apply a color gradient to the DEM image.

You can select one gradient from the preset gradients from the dropdown menu. Or you can edit the color gradient form the existing one. Click the pencil icon next to the preset dropdown menu. In the Edit Color Map dialog box, you can modify the gradient scheme. You can change colors, add ramps, adjust the ramp position, ….etc.

4) Click OK to apply the modication.

5) Another great function with the Terrain Shader is to apply the shaded relief effect at the same time. Click the check box beside “Applly Shaded Relief”.

You can adjust the angle of the source light and the intensity of the contrast. You can see how the settings affect the DEM image in the preview.

6) The DEM is stylized with a color gradient and a shaded relief effect.

Stay tuned for Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 2

Import Geodatabase Feature Classes into Adobe Illustrator

BlogMarch 9, 2010

In this post, we’ll cover how simple it is to import a geodatabase feature class into Adobe Illustrator using MAPublisher import tools enabled with the Spatial Database add-on.

Spatial databases are optimized data repositories for spatial data storage and management. Many GIS environments use spatial databases to easily access and manage GIS data in a central location.

MAPublisher 8.2 introduces support for import of the popular ESRI single-user and multi-user Geodatabases: Personal, File and ArcSDE Geodatabases; and direct access to ArcSDE server. The MAPublisher Spatial Database importer is built on ESRI software libraries and requires a valid ESRI software and license installed on the computer (ArcGIS 9.2 and higher).

To import one, you can use either Simple Import or Advanced Import. In this scenario, we’ll use Advanced Import. When we add data, a list of Geodatabase types are located at the bottom of the Format list. We’ll be importing some feature classes from a simple geodatabase consisting of waterlines, hydrants and valves.

After browsing for the geodatabase (a File geodatabase in this case), the Select Feature Classes dialog box appears. We’ll go ahead and select a few feature classes from the Landbase and Water feature sets listed.

The Advanced Import dialog box shows the number of features being imported and the coordinate system as well as page and map anchors.

The features are imported and are ready to be used in a map.

Avenza maps makes it easy to interact with offline
maps on your iOS, Android and Windows devices.

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Archives

How to Create a 3D Rendition of a DEM With a Draped Image

How to get Open Street Map data into Adobe Illustrator with MAPublisher

New in MAPublisher 8.4: Import Map Data from Web Services

Georeferencing an Image in Adobe Photoshop with Geographic Imager

Step 1: Obtain a non-georeferenced image

Step 2: Obtain the required information

Step 3: Georeference in Geographic Imager

New Transformation Method for World Maps in Geographic Imager 3.2

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 3 – Applying Terrain Shader to multiple DEM files

Option 1: Using the “Auto-Stretched” option for multiple DEM files

Option 2: Creating a DEM schema by specifying a range

Geographic Imager 3.2: Introduction to Terrain Shader, Part 1

Import Geodatabase Feature Classes into Adobe Illustrator

News Archive

Avenza maps makes it easy to interact with offlinemaps on your iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Get the app. Get the map.

Step 1: Obtain a non-georeferenced image

Step 2: Obtain the required information

Step 3: Georeference in Geographic Imager

Option 1: Using the “Auto-Stretched” option for multiple DEM files

Option 2: Creating a DEM schema by specifying a range

News Archive

Avenza maps makes it easy to interact with offline
maps on your iOS, Android and Windows devices.