Marine Roam

On 30th November 2017, we released Beta versions of our new Roam mapping application for all Digimap Collections. Log in to Digimap and click on each Collection to find the link to each new Roam:

The functionality of the new application remains the same, but we hope you agree that the updated look is easier to use.

Most importantly, BOTH versions of Roam (new and old) will run in parallel for an extended period of time to give users the opportunity to get used to the new interface. We will review this at the beginning of March 2018 with a view to establishing a date for withdrawal of the old application.

New Aerial Roam showing the London Eye

Known Issues

All applications have undergone thorough testing, but there are still a few issues that we working on, for example some elements can be slow using Internet Explorer. If you spot anything that is not behaving correctly, please report this to us.

We encourage you to try the new beta versions and we welcome any feedback you have.

Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

As mentioned at Geoforum earlier this year, we’re currently working hard on a new version of Digimap Roam. The new-look application will bring Digimap Roam, the online mapping tool in the Digimap family, bang up to date with the latest web technologies available. Whilst the functionality will remain the same, the look and feel of the interface will be more modern. The majority of functions will be available from a new menu panel down the left hand side which is hidden by default maximising the area available for the main map element. By utilising the latest technologies we will be able to add new functionality and make further enhancements to the application in the future.

The new interface makes further improvements to the experience on mobile devices, an area where we’re seeing an increase in usage across the service. A mock up of how the new Geology Roam interface might look is included below to give you an idea of the proposed layout and styling:

Mockup of the new Geology Roam interface

Currently we are on target to launch the new interface early in the first semester of the 2017-2018 academic year, but we will post progress updates on this blog as the new interface approaches completion. There will be a phased release with the new Roam applications with the Ordnance Survey Collection being first in line.

We appreciate that you may have teaching or lecture materials that may require updating as a result of this change in interface, so we will run all the existing Roam applications alongside the new versions so you can get up to speed with the new interface whilst the existing versions are still available. At the moment we anticipate running both versions in each Collection side by side until at least the end of the year. During this period we would welcome any comments and feedback that you may have.

As ever, if you have any questions about the new Roam, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Lots of datasets were updated in March and April this year, with the majority of updates being to data in the Ordnance Survey Collection of Digimap. We also updated the vector marine data in Marine Roam so that it is now displaying the same version that is available for download through Marine Download; the Borehole data in Geology Download has also been updated to the latest version.

The updates include the latest versions of the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 Colour Raster products which show the new height of Ben Nevis. The mountain, which is the tallest in Britain, was recently resurveyed by OS and found to be one metre taller than the measurements taken during the previous survey in 1949. If you’re interested in finding out more about the resurvey, and why two different heights are shown for the summit on the maps, the Ordnance Survey have published a blog post which explains the process in detail.

Ben Nevis showing new height

The tables below detail all the datasets that were updated recently in each Collection along with the publication dates of each one.

OS Data Download:

Product Name	OS Publication Date
1:25,000 Colour Raster	March 2016
1:50,000 Colour Raster	March 2016
MasterMap Topography Layer	January 2016
VectorMap Local	January 2016
VectorMap Local Raster	January 2016
VectorMap District	March 2016
VectorMap District Raster	March 2016
Terrain 5 Contours	January 2016
Terrain 5 DTM	January 2016
Code-Point with Polygons	January 2016 and April 2016
Code-Point	February 2016
Code-Point Open	February 2016
Points of Interest	March 2016
Open Names	March 2016
MiniScale	January 2016
* OS Street View	April 2016
* Meridian 2	July 2015 and January 2016
* Strategi	January 2016

OS Roam:

Product Name	OS Publication Date
1:25,000 Colour Raster	March 2016
1:50,000 Colour Raster	March 2016
MasterMap Topography Layer	January 2016
VectorMap Local	January 2016
VectorMap Local Raster	January 2016
VectorMap District Raster	March 2016
Terrain 50 Contours	July 2015
MiniScale	January 2016
* Meridian 2	January 2016
* Strategi	January 2016

* Note: these are the last updates to OS Street View, Merdian 2 and Strategi that will be supplied by Ordnance Survey who have announced that they are retiring these products. Whilst the data will still be available to download through Digimap, these products will no longer be updated to reflect changes in the real world.

The data product updates help page is kept up to date with all dataset updates in the Ordnance Survey collection.

Marine Roam:

As well as all the changes in the Ordnance Survey collection, we have also updated the vector data in Marine Roam from Seazone Solutions. This brings the data up to date with the latest version of the product from SeaZone Solutions, which is also available for download through Marine Download.

Product Name	SeaZone Publication Date
HydroSpatial One	August 2015

HydroSpatial One showing Leith harbour

Geology Download:

Finally the Borehole data available in Geology Download has also been updated to the latest version available from the British Geological Survey.

Product Name	BGS Publication Date
Onshore Borehole Index	January 2016

If you have any questions about the dataset updates or Digimap please contact us:

Phone: 0131 650 3302
Email: edina@ed.ac.uk

We are getting a few reports from users experiencing issues when printing PDF maps using Chrome web browser. Unfortunately, the map watermark and any semi-transparent annotations are being printed as solid filled features. We have discovered that this occurs when the PDF is viewed and printed from within the Chrome browser, using Chrome’s in built PDF plugin.

We have investigated this problem and discovered that the bug is with Chrome and occurs with all PDFs with semi-tranparent layers not just those created by Digimap. The problem only happens on Windows computers with versions of Chrome released since the end of April (Chrome 34.0.1847 onwards).

Digimap users with Chrome should see a warning when they open the Print… window, informing them about the problem.

As the alert message suggests you can disable the plug-in to prevent it from opening PDFs or you can use the following workaround.
Printing from Chrome alternative method

Create your printable map as normal it will appear at the bottom of your web browser.
Don’t click the file name to open the PDF, click the little arrow and choose ‘Open with system viewer’.
Providing it is installed on your machine, the map will open in Adobe Reader which will print the semi transparent layers correctly.

We hope that the issue is resolved by Google who develop the Chrome browser, it has been reported to them. Should you wish to disable the plug-in entirely then you can follow the instructions with the image below. You can also download the map as a file to your computer, and then open it directly with Adobe Reader, this is usually the best option anyway as it allows you to print the PDF multiple times or store it if you don’t want to print it just yet.

Type Chrome://plugins into the web address bar in chrome, this opens a list of all the plug-ins you have installed for Chrome.
Scroll down to the Chrome PDF Viewer on the Plug-ins page and click on the blue “Disable” link.
You will no longer have the option to view PDFs in the web browser.
Use this page to reactivate the plug-in if you want to reverse the change in the future.

If you need any assistance with opening your PDF map, please contact the EDINA helpdesk:

Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
Phone: 0131 650 3302

The changes we previewed in the last blog post have now been put into service.

We hope that you find the these changes an improvement and we would really appreciate any feedback you may have:

email: edina@ed.ac.uk
phone: 0131 650 3302

Read the previous blog posts about the updates to learn more about the changes we have made:

This year’s annual data update will take place at the beginning of September. There will be a refresh the following Ordnance Survey products:

MasterMap Topography and ITN Layers
VectorMap Local
Meridian2
Strategi
MiniScale
Code-Point
Code-Point with Polygons
Boundary Line

1:250,000 Colour Raster
1:50 000 Colour Raster
1:25 000 Colour Raster
1:10 000 Raster
1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer

There will also be updated Hydrospatial data in Marine Digimap and a new version of the DiGMapGB-50 data in Geology Digimap.

Along with the new data Ancient Roam will be getting the Annotation Tools and there may be a bit of a surprise bonus addition to Digimap Roam. More information will be posted on the Blog, Twitter and Facebook page nearer the time.

Now we have the annotation tools up and running they are being added to all the Roam services thick and fast! Marine Roam is the latest to get the tools, again they are an initial version with the basic set of features.

Please let us know if you have any requests for symbols, line styles or any other features you would like to be able to annotate the map with. You can comment on this post or email us directly here:

Mailto: EDINA help desk

Remember there is a video on how to use the general features of the Annotation tools on YouTube:

There is also a section in the How to use Marine Roam help page that covers how to use all the different tools:

We are currently offering free trial access to the new Marine Roam facility to institutions which do not yet subscribe to Marine Digimap.

Marine Roam provides the only available online mapping tool for Hydrospatial data, a comprehensive dataset of features found in the marine environment, including buoys, wrecks, windfarms, sandbanks, flora and fauna, as well as transportation and socio-economic use information. Marine Roam is currently available as a beta service.

Any staff member at a UK Higher or Further Education Institution can request a free trial. EDINA will issue one username and password per institution which may be shared with anyone at that institution wishing to try the facility. Passwords will be valid until 31 March 2011.

Please feel free to pass this message to others who may be interested or request your trial account.

Request a free trial now

Information regarding how to subscribe to the Marine Digimap resource can be found at – http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/access/ a subscription provides access to data download facilities as well as online mapping.

New Digimap Roam for all Collections

Coming soon: New Roam for Digimap

Digimap dataset updates: March and April 2016

Digimap Roam: Printing PDFs from Chrome

Digimap Roam updates now in service

2011 Data Update

Annotation Tools in Marine Roam

Marine Roam Free Trial