{"id":85,"date":"2017-10-29T20:03:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T00:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.otherworldmapper.com\/blog\/?p=85"},"modified":"2019-01-16T13:06:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:06:56","slug":"importing-cartography-data-shp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.otherworldmapper.com\/blog\/tutorials\/importing-cartography-data-shp\/","title":{"rendered":"Importing Cartography Data (SHP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/h2>\n

One of the features we added with the first release candidate was the ability to import real cartographic data (SHP format) into Other World Mapper. This lets you start your map from real world maps, continental maps or local maps.<\/p>\n

In this tutorial I’ll walk you through importing real maps into Other World Mapper and show you just a few things you can do with them.<\/p>\n

SHP Format<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The shapefile format is a popular geospatial vector data format for geographic information system (GIS) software. There are many sources, free and commercial for SHP data.<\/p>\n

For this tutorial we’ll use maps from Natural Earth,<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.naturalearthdata.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their terms of use are very friendly and their maps public domain. There are many sources of SHP files and Other World Mapper should be able to work with most.<\/p>\n

Note: If you have any issues importing an SHP file let us know!<\/p>\n

Importing<\/h2>\n

We start by downloading a world map in a 1:110m scale. Note that Other World Mapper can import more detailed scales (i.e. 1:50m) but having more points the map will require more computer resources.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.naturalearthdata.com\/downloads\/110m-physical-vectors\/110m-land\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It will be a zip file and you’ll need to extract its contents. Make sure to keep all the files in the folder since the SHP format uses multiple files.<\/p>\n

Start Other World Mapper and close the Start Up Dialog. From the File<\/strong> menu, select Import–>Shape File<\/strong>. Navigate to the folder created when extracting the zip file (should be ne_110m_land) and select the ne_110m_land.shp<\/strong> file.<\/p>\n

The import window will let you choose the item type<\/strong> and scale<\/strong> for the map. There are additional options in the window and I’ll go through them later in the tutorial.<\/p>\n

In this case, you want to start with the layer type as Landmass<\/strong> and a scale that will make the map large enough, at least 500%. Remember that since SHP files and Other World Mapper are vector based, no resolution is lost form scaling.<\/p>\n

\"Import<\/a>
Import SHP Window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From there, the new map window will let you choose a theme and change the size of the canvas if you want to make it larger than the default. For instance, you can chose the soft color theme as I did below.<\/p>\n

\"Imported<\/a>
World map imported into OWM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with the Map<\/h2>\n

At this point, working with the imported map will be just like working with a map you created from scratch. You can change the properties of continents, add regions to continents, add bodies of water, roads, features and more.<\/p>\n

If you want to break apart one of the continents to work with it separately, note that you can use the partition tool. You can also simply work by adding regions to the continents.<\/p>\n

For the map below I set the landmasses to have no fill and used boundaries to create a game board style SciFi map.<\/p>\n

\"SciFi<\/a>
SciFi map from a world map.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additional Layers<\/h2>\n

Other World Mapper also supports importing other SHP data as layers, such as boundaries and bodies of water.<\/p>\n

For this tutorial I downloaded the Rivers and Lake Centerlines shape file, as well as the Lakes + Reservoires<\/p>\n

1:110m Physical Vectors<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n