Working with USGS data?

[dlparisi]

Can anyone give some pointers for using the USGS data provided at https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic...vail=&refpoly=

Can 3ds max import some of this data natively? What am I supposed to do with this otherwise?

There area few links via google that talk about DEM files and GeoTiff's, neither of which are files that you can download from the website (even under Elevation Products there is a DEM category but downloading any of these yields no .DEM files). I've been working with this for a few hours trying to do something with the data but have turned up nothing. Short of purchasing a plugin (http://www.west-racing.com/mf/?page_id=2979) is there anything I can use to get this into max?

[chriserskine]

if your going to be doing a bit of it. global mapper is good and opening lots of different formats and saving it out as something useful.

you will generally need to move them from world coordinates to a local one.

I think there is also a plugin for 3dsmax that will let you open dem files.

[dlparisi]

Thanks but it's just this one project so I'm trying to do it all via free or in built tools. I thought there was already a built in importer for dem files in max but maybe I'm not using it correctly.

It also appears that none of the downloaded files are.dem files. Is that correct?

[chriserskine]

could be a lot of things.

do you have a link?

keep in mind you will need to move the DEM. they are all in wgs84 format. and will be a complete mess if you try to import at there true location in max.

[Paul Roberts]

I've fiddled around with MicroDem which is free. There's a tut about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mCCZvlLjs

[dlparisi]

I've fiddled around with MicroDem which is free. There's a tut about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mCCZvlLjs

Thanks Paul. I was able to get something useful using MicroDem and the SRTM data at http://opentopo.sdsc.edu/lidar?format=sd . I still have no idea what to do with the original data from USGS but I don't care!