Request GNIS Process addition or Instructions

[masdangkolo]

Oz,
It appears that you are the author of GNIS Process.

I am trying to build a map of Guam (territory of the US) and maybe some of the other pacific islands.  The current GNIS Process only lists the 50 states, but I know data for the US territories exists at geonames.usgs.gov.  Could these be added to GNIS Process or could you share the process that GNIS Process does?  I'm thinking I could do it by hand.

BTW When running Hawaii as a test,  I get a "Run-time error '62': Input past end of the" in a dialog while the status says "Extracting GNIS Zip File".  Testing with Minnesota runs fine.

Thanks,
Roy

[Coggins]

I have attached a GNIS file for Guam for you.

[-Oz-]

glad coggins attached guam.

I would have to look with more detail at if guam is available via the way I get the files (there are two ways to get the files).

Odd about Hawaii's error; I'll check it out since I used it to get my hawaii map pts.

[masdangkolo]

coggins,
Thank you for the GNIS file.  I looks like I now could figure out how to do other areas from the original zips with a little perl (how did you greate this file?).

Oz,
I assume this is the first step or two that GNIS Process does.  Per part 5 of the tutorial GNIS Process will make a shp file.  What steps do I need to do to turn this csv into a shp?  I'm guessing it needs to get put into the postgis database and then pulled out as a shp file using pgsql2shp, but I'm at a loss with how to do it.

Roy

[Coggins]

coggins,
Thank you for the GNIS file.  I looks like I now could figure out how to do other areas from the original zips with a little perl (how did you create this file?).

Roy

I downloaded it manually from the USGS GNIS server http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/:
Search:

Results:

Download via "Save as pipe "|" delimited file"

[-Oz-]

Roy, sorry about me not replying fast enough.

Two options:
1. When I get home from work this afternoon (8hrs) I'll convert it or fix the program.
2. Using the method coggins mentioned you can use this online tool to create .gpx files then open that and convert it to a .shp file with gpsmapedit or global mapper.  The gpx file includes the MP_TYPE code.

Dan

[-Oz-]

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tools/gnis_process.php <-- updated for guam (didn't test it though :-/)

[masdangkolo]

I'm not making much progress at all.  I was hoping to figure some of this out myself, but now I'm back asking for help again.  I got the GNIS file, converted it to gpx, using the "USGS GNIS to GPX Converter", examined the resulting gpx file, and discovered the elevations were in meters.  Converted the meters to feet, and then added to my .mp  contours only to discover that the points were all shifted again (datum problems).  Translated the gpx from Guam_1963 to NAD83.  They are now cottectly positioned.  At this point I am stuck again, I cannot figure out how to use gpsmapedit to generate shp files from the gpx as instructed above.  I thought the gpx should be loaded into the postgis database and then be extracted as a shp file, but I am unable to figure out how to do this.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Roy

[masdangkolo]

Dan,
Thank you so much for the program update.  Processing the Guam data results in an error "Run-time error '70': Permission denied".  Arizona works fine. I wonder if it is due the special characters in some of the names such as "Hagåtña".

One other problem I still have is that I need to change positions of the gpx points. Or can I project the shp file?

Roy

[-Oz-]

I didn't get that error but it did fail due to the characters.  I have a special version that pauses so I can pull them out since Visual Basic doesn't appear to handle them at all.

Anyway, I attached the GNIS points in shapefile format.

The projection the system thinks it is is:
GEOGCS["GCS_WGS_1984",DATUM["D_WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS_1984",6378137,298.257223563]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],UNIT["Degree",0.017453292519943295]]
Aka WGS 1984 which is very very similar to NAD 83

[Coggins]

Dan,
Thank you so much for the program update.  Processing the Guam data results in an error "Run-time error '70': Permission denied".  Arizona works fine. I wonder if it is due the special characters in some of the names such as "Hagåtña".
Roy

I would use one of the following transliteration for this name before processing:
Hagatna
Agana