All Tiger data for download?

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 09:44:02 -0600, Camden Daily <cdaily at gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems that the uo.space.frot.org torrent would be the easiest way
> to grab the raw Tiger/Line data.  I haven't started it yet, but if it
> doesn't work correctly, I'll write a script to wget it directly.

Camden,

The torrent definately works!  If you have a big enough pipe you
might get data at near 1MB/s.  We have four good seeds running.

> What's the difference between using ogr2ogr and tgr2shp for converting
> the data to shapefiles? If the free utility can do it, why should I
> purchase tgr2shp?

I haven't used tgr2shp, but I will say that using ogr2ogr for tiger
data still leaves you quite a bit of postprocessing to do if you want
to extract all the polygons, relate the landmarks and so forth.  The
OGR TIGER/Line driver pretty much brings over the tiger tables
directly without interpretation.  The only real "work" it does is to
form the complete chains from the pieces so at least the linework
is well formed after translation.

If you need polygon and other information from TIGER/Line, you
may find that TGR2SHP does more of the "ground work" for you.
On the other hand, with python scripting you can do nearly
anything with the OGR driver.

> Thanks for all of the information regarding the Tiger/Line data.  I
> appreciate the offers to make a torrent of the shapefiles, but if I
> can generate them on my own, I'll attempt that route for now.

It is certainly an adventure, especially if you want more than just
the linework.

Best regards,
--
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent