The National Map dynamic overlay services

carol ostergren October 3, 2017

The following changes were made throughout August and September 2017, when new services were published to replace previous content:

GovUnits

• All land unit types broken out into individual layers. Rather than a single layer with “Other Reserves” that included USFS, Military, and others, each FTYPE (from GU_Reserve) has its own layer, created with definition queries. Affected layers:
  • National Park
  • National Forest
  • National Wilderness
  • Wildlife Reserve
  • National Grassland
  • National Cemetery
  • Military Reserve
  • NASA Facility
  • Metropolitan Washington Airport
  • BLM land (no labels)
  • Tennessee Valley Authority land (no labels)
  • Incorporated Place, Unincorporated Place, Minor Civil Division, Native American Area, Congressional District, County, and Large/Small-scale States remain the same.
• Layer order changed.
• Labels updated to new typeface. Most labels have their drop shadows or fills changed to be visible against newly designed layers, whether the PADUS style polygons or others.
• Labels use drop shadows instead of halos.
• Polygon fills of most national lands updated to match color scheme in PADUS viewer .
• Outlines/fills of all other features updated to be visible against new USGS Topo base map and grayscale shaded relief.
• Visibility restrictions by scale removed from all layers except States which are still divided into large-scale and small-scale layers.
• Currently, only States and Counties are on by default while all other layers will have to be manually turned on. States are visible at all scales; Counties are visible in beyond 1:600,000.

Map Indices

• Layer order changed.
• Label font and halo changed.
• Colors of 1×1 degree and 30×60 minute cells changed.
• 1×1 degree cell features are visible at all scales; 1×1 degree cell labels are visible larger than 9M in scale.
• 30×60 minute cell features are visible larger than 20M, and 30×60 minute cell labels are visible larger than 5M in scale.
• 15 minute cell features are visible larger than 4M, and 15 minute cell labels are visible larger than 2M in scale.
• 7.5 minute cell features are visible larger than 1M, and 7.5 minute cell labels are the same (visible at 577K and larger in scale).
• 3.75 minute cell features are visible larger than 500K, and 3.75 minute cell labels are the same (visible at 288K and larger in scale).
• All layers are on by default (which is same behavior as previous service).

Structures

• Label layers and feature layers separated.
• Labels/features regrouped by type, and reordered. Labels/features are created as single layers (one layer per feature class) by using definition queries.
• Layer order changed.
• Label font and halo changed.
• Some symbols updated.
• Post offices and State capitols are on by default while all other layers need to be manually turned on.

Geonames

• Label layers and feature layers separated.
• Labels/features regrouped by type, and reordered.
• Labels/features are their own layer and can be toggled on/off, rather than being grouped into a single layer (for example, schools, airports, and buildings are separate layers, rather than grouped into a Structure layer as they used to be). Labels/features are created as single layers (one layer per feature class) by using definition queries.
• Layer order changed.
• Label font and halo changed.
• Historical features are grouped by type (cultural-political, hydrographic, and physical).
• Symbols for most features updated.
• Communities (populated places) are on by default while all other layers need to be manually turned on.

Contours

• Label font and halo changed.
• Index contours have thicker lines than intermediate contours.
• Large-scale, 50-foot, and 100-foot contours are regrouped by type and sub-type, and all available sub-types are included in the layer list. Layer order numbers have changed as a result.
• Small-scale contours for the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been included, and are visible at 1:1,000,000-scale.
• Slight changes were made to visibility-through-scale settings.

Transportation

• Label font and halo changed.
• Small-scale transportation data originally from the National Atlas has been refreshed to replace previous content shown in the service.
• Additional road types are now included in the small-scale data layers: ferries and railroads.
• Large-scale local roads, ferries, tunnels, 4WD trails, and U.S. Forest Service roads are now able to be shown up to 1:300,000-scale.
• However, these layers are turned off by default, so users will have to manually turn them on to see them.

For additional details, go to The National Map Data Download and Visualization Services webpage and search under “What’s New”.