Do they ever update stylefiles for GR?>

[ericjkelly]

Hey friends,

Maybe this is a better question in a grlevel forum but you guys are way quicker.

Do they ever update the stylefiles? Roads change all the time, and I didnt know when they updated the stylefiles for GR?.

Anyone know the last time they were updated?

 

[Jeff Duda]

There is no unified database of shapefiles/placefiles for GRX products. Individual shapefiles are updated by the person who creates them, and Mike Gibson is not the person who does that. While the portability and adaptability of GRX to handle shapefiles and placefiles is an major advantage the software has over other programs, it also means users are at the mercy of shapefile creators to maintain their products.

I'm sure if you hunt around online you can find update road shapefiles. The Open Street Maps project is supposed to be very useful for this, but I don't know the status of that project.

 

[ericjkelly]

So I found some 2017 Data. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-line.html

Just curious if I need to do anything to make them work? Can I use an older style file with these shapefile?

 

[Jeff Duda]

Well you can always just try. It's not like GRX will crash or destroy your machine if you attempt to load the wrong style file.

However, sites that distribute shapefiles like this should also include a style file unless I'm mistaken. I'm not sure where it will be, though.

 

[Randy Jennings]

There are "Base Roads", "Base Counties", and "Base States" in GR that you turn on/off from the GIS menu. I don't know of any way these are updated, and suspect they only get updated when a new version of GR is released (if then). You can load shapefiles in GR (also under the GIS menu), but as Jeff noted these are developed by third parties and not GR. I should note that shapefiles are actually used across many differ GIS (Graphical Information Systems). They are a standard that was originated by ESRI. The ERSI whitepaper doesn't even mention style files. In fact, the 3 required files are the shapefile (.shp), index file (.shx), and attribute file (.dbf). There are several optional files, the most common of which is the .prj file that provides projection information, GR is very different from most GIS software in that it only uses the .shp file and doesn't need the .shx or .dbf files. GR is also unique in that it also requires a style file, which as far as I can tell is a GR invention. You will find shapefiles all over the internet without style files because most GIS systems don't use style files.

The spec for the style file is at http://www.grlevelx.com/manuals/gis/files_style.htm (it includes a sample for TIGER shapefiles). I tied using the TIGER files and creating a style file myself, but did not have much luck. I ended up using the ones Scott Lincoln made and posted at http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/~slincoln/GRS/shapefiles/ . They are from 2014, but I have found them to work well. Unless you are chasing in high growth urban and suburban areas, you will not find too many new roads.

One note - if you do use the ones Scott Lincoln posted, make sure you extract them from the .zip file, as GR can't use them otherwise.

 

[Mark Blue]

This appears to be a decent set of shapefiles broken down by state: http://redteamwx.com/grlevelx.html#shapefiles

Between the above, what Allison House offers, SN, and if you were lucky enough to snag the plethora of options on GRLXStuff.com before it went offline, there are customizations for GRLX galore. It seems new sources are popping up as well lately, so hopefully a chaser can find what they need to customize their app just the way they like it.