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Our office often has need for the latest USGS topo quads for fieldwork. We use quadrangle geotiffs for basemaps in geologic mapping. We found that there are few, if any, freeware tools to convert GeoPDF to geotiff, and the commercial products never did the job precisely as we needed it done. I turned to a relatively easy scripting method to dissemble the USGS GeoPDF quads into the layers we needed, and convert the file to geotiffs. With some experimentation I found I could write a few command-line script templates that meet our needs, and simply add the source file name to the script. Don't be put off by "command line script." It is not rocket science. Several complicating factors due to inconsistent source PDF file formats makes this solution attractive because many commercial software solutions assume your source GeoPDF conforms to standards set forth by TerraGo and other pioneers in the field. The fact is that many USGS GeoPDF files do not strictly conform to these original standards, and the file structures tend to change with time and editions. The command line scripting makes it relatively simple to accommodate the varying formats. I'm not going to list everything you need to do to get results. There are several people who already figured this out and posted the procedure on the web. I will just explain what is needed to prepare for the task. If this puts you off, then you will have to choose another method. The scripting solution I use requires installing an open source graphics package that is used by almost all commercial mapping programs and many graphics editors. This program is called GDAL, available from http://www.gdal.org/ . There are various packages available for special purposes and most operating systems. For this task, the best source to select is from http://www.gisinternals.com/ . The most recent stable releases or stable branches. If you are uncomfortable or flat-out scared to do this installation, ask for some help; many of our colleagues know what this package does and how to get it running. You need to make sure the GDAL release you select for installation is version 1.10 or newer and includes the Geospatial PDF driver ( http://www.gdal.org/frmt_pdf.html ) for the version you select. With GDAL installed. the process involves examining your USGS GeoPDF source file for the names of the layers included in the file, the map projection and the coordinates of the neatline surrounding the map. This is done by using a few simple tools built into GDAL to extract this information and use it in your script. You select the layer names you want to convert, choose what color information, projection, resolution, file format,etc. you need for you output. Can insert these values into a script template by copy-and-pasting, and execute the script to produce the desired geotiff, or what ever other geo-format (geojpeg, geobmp, etc) you want. Fortunately, USGS is consistent in what projections they use in GeoPDFs, so that can be part of the script template if desired. The least consistent part of USGS PDF formats are layer names, and their visibility. That is what makes a single solution difficult to produce. If this sounds promising, have a look at the detailed instructions other have put on the web, and you can decide if you want to try this. Here are some links: Instructions for installing GDAL, from USGS: https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/tools/rasterconversion/gdal-installation-and-setup-guide.html Creating Geotiffs from GeoPDFs: https://opengislab.com/blog/2016/4/2/usgs-geopdf-to-geotif-with-gdal USGS examples of scripts and their use: https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/tools/rasterconversion/geopdf-gdal-conversion.html Older but useful links: http://www.spatialthoughts.com/blog/gis/geopdf-gdal/ http://www.staygeo.com/2013/03/convert-geopdf-maps-to-geotiff-with-gdal.html I can try to answer questions, give help, and post example scripts if anyone needs help.
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05-04-2018
04:49 PM
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I ran into a similar problem in 9.3.1. The fix that worked for me was to manually add the toolbox. First, check your toolbox folder to see if the 3D Analyst Tools.tbx and Spatial Analyst Tools.tbx files exist. On my computer the toolbox files reside in C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\ArcToolbox\Toolboxes\. If the files are missing, you may need to get them from the install discs. I don't remember if it is true for 9.3.1, but some versions of ArcGIS required Arc Workstation to be installed for all toolboxes to be available. I recall this was true for the Coverage toolbox to work. If these .tbx files are on your hard drive, add them to the Toolbox. Enable Toolbox and right-click on the "ArcToolbox" icon at the top of the toolbox pane. Select "Add Toolbox", navigate to the Toolbox folder and select the desired toolbox to add. I hope this is a fix for your problem.
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11-05-2010
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