TOPO! Xport Pro Expands Support for GIS, CAD and GPS

National Geographic (DC, USA) has released a new tool to add topographic maps to their projects with National Geographic Maps' TOPO! Xport Pro. This software enables users to add seamless topographic maps to any software that supports standard raster file formats. The maps are actual USGS quads that have been geo-referenced and enhanced with up-to-date streets and roads and 3-D hill shading. The maps immediately provide context for other geospatial information and are ideal for reports, presentations, or use in the field. TOPO! Xport Pro is compatible with a wide range of spatially-enabled software including products from Autodesk, ESRI, Microsoft, Microstation, Integraph, MapInfo and more.

TOPO! Xport Pro includes several layers of maps: two National Geographic atlas layers, USGS 1:500,000- and 1:100,000-scale topographic maps for the entire U.S., and up-to-date street overlays from TeleAtlas/ Geographic Data Technology, Inc. (GDT). Users can turn roads on and off and add street and road names with a single click. Also included in TOPO! Xport Pro is the TOPO! State Series dataset which provides the highest resolution 1:24,000-scale USGS topographic maps for a specific state or region. Each quad in the series employs true-colour imaging to optimise raster maps for viewing and printing.

Three-D view and fly-thru functionality is also built-in. Users may look down a valley or stand atop a mountain and see the view from every angle. Users can soar along a route they have drawn and stop anywhere along the route to zoom and pan 360°. Resizable split-screens show 3-D and 2-D views simultaneously, making it easy to get a lay of the land.

Raster maps exported from TOPO! Xport Pro are in GeoTIFF, TIFF or JPEG formats with world headers in ESRI, .TFW format or MapInfo .TAB format. These rasters can be referenced to either latitude or longitude or UTM map projections in either Nad83/WGS84 or NAD27 map datum. TOPO! Xport Pro requires Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, NT 4.0 or higher.