So I am finally updating some of my maps and what browsing the National Map Viewer (have to update the tutorials too) I noticed they now have straight up 1:24k contours. They're at 1/3 arc sec which means that they "redo" the contour interval at those borders. This creates a few weird areas but it means that for my Arizona Topo instead of having a straight 30 or 40 ft contour interval in the flatter areas it'll be 5ft or 10ft.
Has anyone started using these contours instead of actually building from the DEM files? Seems like it would save a lot of computing time. Also, the new downloader seems like it'd be nice but so far it isn't working...