Creating & Loading Terrain Elevation Data

See Also Terrain Elevation Data Usage

Where do I get the terrain elevation .DEM files from for use with
SPTerm?
SoaringPilot uses 30 arc second .DEM formatted data to produce the sub-sampled terrain data. You can use
the below image map to download the areas of the world that you wish to use. Instructions for creating the
terrain data for SP with these .DEM files can be found in the Readme.pdf file included with software. They
originate from ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/gtopo30/global/
or http://www1.gsi.go.jp/geowww/globalmap-gsi/gtopo30/gtopo30.html

Click in the map above on the area of interrest to download the DEM file for that area. The procedure to
convert that DEM file to a SoarPilot terrain database is described in the next section.
When unzipping these files with WinZip, make sure the option TAR file smart CR/LF conversion is
unchecked. The size of the DEM file should be exactly 57600 bytes.
You can also find a similar image map to the above, as well as some very useful utilities for working with
and visualizing DEM data at http://www.dgadv.com/srtm30/
There are rumors that this format for the data may eventually not be available from the above NASA site. If
that is the case, we will make the files available on our own server. Till that time, we will continue to use the
NASA site.

Procedure to create terrain database using PC

This procedure is for Windows based PC using SPTerm 1.34 or later. SPTerm can be downloaded from the
main Soaring Pilot web site.

Download and place the DEM file in a sub directory terrain of where the SPTerm.exe program is
located.
Start SPTerm and select menu command Terrain Generate
The next dialog will pop up:

In this dialog enter the upper, lower latitude and left and right longitude of the area you want terrain
information generated. The dialog will show in the Aprox. Output Size the estimated size of the
resulting terrain database in Kb. In the sample screen shot above the area is from 4 to 12 degrees East
and 48 to 55 degrees North (roughly NW of Europe). Make sure to keep the size small enough to fit
in Palm memory and still leave room for a log file for a long flight.
When youre satisfied with your inputs, use the Generate button. This will result in a terrain database
in PDB format in the terrain directory.
Double click this file and Hotsync to load in your Palm. On next startup of SP this database will be
loaded. You can verify this by checking the Show Terrain Box in the Map Settings screen and then
switch to the Moving Map screen. An additional box around the area covered by the terrain database
will be drawn (you may have to zoom out and pan left/right/up/down to get to see the lines of the
box). The Show Terrain Box option is temporary of nature and is not saved, so when you exit
SoarPilot the checkbox is cleared on restart.
Note: There is a trick for Windows users (depends from your Windows system settings) If it doesnt
work with (dot = . ) try (comma = ,) as decimal separator.

SoaringDotNET also has a feature to generate an airspace database for Soaring Pilot so this can be used as an
alternative for SPTerm.

Procedure to create terrain database using MAC OS X

This procedure requires the SPterrainGen.zip file that can be downloaded from the Soaring Pilot Yahoo group
site.

Download the program to your MAC. Your browser might unarchive the application for you. If it
doesnt, then something like unstuffit should.

Double click on the application to launch it.

You will see a dialog box that will allow you to enter the dimensions of the area you want to cover.
Enter the Latitude of the top and bottom edge and the Longitude of the left and right edges. Top is to
the north. The values must be in decimal degrees.

Click on the Generate button to create the file. If the program cant find the needed DEM source files
an Open Files dialog box will allow you to locate the directory that contains them. The program
will remember the DEM file location from then on. You will also be presented with a Save File
dialog box to allows you to select where and by what name you want the file saved as.

If you want to check your work you can check the Generate test DEM file checkbox then click
Generate. This option will generate two files that can be opened and viewed in a DEM file view such
as SimpleDEMViewer. The first will be a DEM file with just the data for the area you selected. The
second file is a text file that describes the parameters of the first.

Transfer the file to your PALM device.

Some restrictions:

The program has only been tested on OS-X version 10.3.x and 10.4.4.
It should operate correctly on Intel based Macs but it hasnt been tested.
The program cant deal with Latitudes below 60 degrees south so no soaring in Antarctica.
It probably wont deal well with regions that cross the 180 degree meridian so no soaring in portions
of Alaska.