New Digimap Roam for all Collections

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 […]

Coming soon: New Roam for Digimap

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 […]

Detailed contemporary mapping added to Ancient Roam

We have recently added detailed, large scale, contemporary mapping to Ancient Roam allowing users to compare side by side historic mapping with detailed modern mapping.

Large Scale Contemporary Mapping in Ancient Roam

The detailed modern mapping is visible at all zoom levels in both the 1-up and 2-up views. The most detailed mapping uses the new OS OpenMap – Local product, which is the most detailed Open Data product available from Ordnance Survey and can be downloaded through the Digimap Ordnance Survey collection. We further enhanced the most detailed mapping to include the additional features from OS VectorMap District:

  • Contours
  • Spot heights
  • Medical centres
  • Police stations
  • Heritage sites
  • Places of worship

The other products we have added are OS StreetView and OS VectorMap District Raster to provide a comprehensive set of contemporary map data suitable for all zoom levels in Ancient Roam.

We hope you find the new data useful, if you have any questions about the updates or Digimap please contact us:

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

Digimap Roam: Printing PDFs from Chrome

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.

Print interface showing chrome alert

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.

Disabling Chrome PDF plugin

  • 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

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Historic Digimap: Printing options improved

Ancient Roam in Historic Digimap has had its print options updated so it now has the same set of options as the other Roam facilities. The two big changes to note are that you can now print up to A0 and that you can print a single county in areas where several overlap.

Until this change was made it was impossible to print an area with overlapping maps without printing all the counties available rather than just the one(s) you were viewing on the screen. Any print files now generated in areas with overlapping counties will only show those which are displayed on screen.  This allows you to have the control over how much information is on your map and to make the decision to show more or less information.

Overlapping Counties Print from Amcient RoamSingle County Print from Ancient Roam

Sometimes it can be an advantage to show multiple counties as even though the sheets overlap the actual map information doesn’t. However in the example above you can see how the counties overwrite each other in the map on the left and so produce a very confusing and fairly useless result; by switching one county off you can produce a much clearer print map such as the one on the right. [Click on the images above to view larger versions of the maps.]

The ability to print maps up to A0 brings Ancient Roam into line with the other Roam facilities so you can now print at this very large size in any Digimap collection.

 

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Digimap Roam updates now in service

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

New Roam Interface in Development

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:

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