DLG-OPT format

[Tim Szeliga]

 We have a set of DLG files from the USGS of politcal, admin, hypsography,
 lakes and streams, for the entire US at 1:2000000 scale.  
 They are expressed in Albers meters, in the "optional DLG" format.
 Samples are available on our anon-ftp site in pub/avhrr-sample/CPpol.dlg.
 Below is the header of one of the files.  
 
 Can grass translate these files into grass vector format?
 I tried to import it, and it converted ascii dlg to binary,
 then converted bin dlg to grass dig format, but got completely
 thrown by the albers meters.  The header of the results of v.out.ascii
 is shown below, as well.  Is this the standard problem of only UTM and 
 LatLon in Grass?  Hasn't anyone ever heard of GCTP II, the Global Coordinate
 Transform Package, a suite of Fortran routines to convert control point
 between any two standard projections?  UTM, Polar stereographic, Lambert
 Azimuthal, even the Robinson (Natl Geographic) projection are available.
 The code is available on my ftp site under pub/GCTP, if any brave souls
 want to play around with it.  I may not be able to bell the cat, but I 
 will provide the bell and collar to any mouse who cares to try.
 
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Tim Szeliga	 Org:National Weather Service / Hydrologic Remote Sensing
 Voice: (612) 725-3259  			NOHRSC BBS:  (612) 725-3230  (8N1)
 FTP archive: snow.nohrsc.nws.gov        Internet: tim at snow.nohrsc.nws.gov
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 (Just because I mention a product in a post does not mean it is endorsed by
 the United States Government.  You gotta be at least cabinet level before you
 can do that.)
 
 
 Appendix a:  Input DLG-OPT in albers meters
 
 USGS-NMD  DLG DATA - CHARACTER FORMAT - 09-29-82 VERSION                        
 CENTRAL PLAINS STATES                    1967, 1972  2000000.                   
                                                                                 
      3     3  9999     2 0.50800000000D+02     4     0     4     1              
    0.637820640000000D+07   0.676865799729109D-02   0.290300000000000D+08        
    0.450300000000000D+08  -0.960000000000000D+08   0.230000000000000D+08        
    0.0                     0.0                     0.0                          
    0.0                     0.0                     0.0                          
    0.0                     0.0                     0.0                          
  0.10000000000D+01 0.0               0.0               0.0                      
 SW       37.000000 -108.000000       -1055100.55  1617406.97                    
 NW       43.000000 -108.000000        -970479.10  2283986.45                    
 NE       43.000000  -95.000000          81046.72  2223061.79                    
 SE       37.000000  -95.000000          88118.08  1551169.70                    
 HYPSOGRAPHY            0    18    18 010     2     2 010    15    15   1        
 N    1 -1055100.55  1617406.97           0           0     0                    
 N    2  -970479.10  2283986.45           0           0     0                    
 N    3    81046.72  2223061.79           0           0     0                    
 N    4    88118.08  1551169.70           0           0     0                    
 N    5  -940143.24  1602604.78           3           0     0                    
     -2    -4     5                                                              
 N    6  -886460.58  1749249.88           2           0     0                    
     -1     2                                                                    
 
 Appendix b:  Output of v.out.ascii
 
 ORGANIZATION: USGS-NMD  DLG DATA - CHARACTE
 DIGIT DATE:   1967, 1972
 DIGIT NAME:   Import from DLG
 MAP NAME:     CENTRAL PLAINS STATES                   
 MAP DATE:     1967, 1972
 MAP SCALE:    2000000
 OTHER INFO:                                                       
 ZONE:         9999
 WEST EDGE:    -1055100.55
 EAST EDGE:    88118.08
 SOUTH EDGE:   1551169.7
 NORTH EDGE:   2283986.45
 MAP THRESH:   2000
 VERTI:
 A  2
  1727996.2    -1132653.83 
  1699536.89   -1136796.12