CONVERSION OF ELEVATION DATA INTO DTED FORMAT FOR USE WITH TAK USING GLOBAL MAPPER
This messy guide was created by: Moosecow
1. Navigate to https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper.php and purchase the software ”Global Mapper”. You
could also sign up for a free trial here. Global Mapper is a powerful GIS software but for the purposes of this guide we will only
use a few of the available features.
2. Download and install Global Mapper. When opening the software for the first time you will be asked to register. If you’re on a
trial select trial.
3. Once installed and registered open Global Mapper and you should be presented with the screen below (fig 1).
4. Import your elevation data by clicking on ”open data files” which is highlighted with a red circle in fig 1. You can also open
files by navigating to the dropdown menu ”file” -> ”open data files”.
Fig 1
5. When opening your elevation data you may be prompted to identify the data you’re trying to import, if it’s elevation data hit
yes.
Fig 2
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6. Select the units you want the elevation displayed as and hit ok (note you can repeat steps 4-6 to import multiple data sets or
alternatively you could select multiple files to import them all at once.)
Fig 3
7. Your data should now show up as in fig 4
Fig 4
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8. Navigate to and select ”export elevation grid format” via the drop down menu ”file” (see fig 5).
Fig 5
9. Select the format you wish to export (in this case DTED) and hit ok. A tip will show up, hit ok again.
Fig 6
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10. Select the DTED resolution you would like to use where level 0 is the lowest and level 3 the highest (DTED 2 seems to be the
sweet spot and is recommended) then hit OK. Name the files whatever you wish for now but we will have to change it later in
order for them to work correctly with TAK.
Fig 8
11. You have now converted you elevation data to DTED format and we will now move on to importing them into TAK.
IMPORTING YOUR DTED FILES INTO TAK
12. When exported your DTED file will probably be named something like what is shown below in fig 9. In order for it to work
with TAK we have to do a few things.
Fig 9
13. Create a folder and name it after the longitude of your file (eg ”E15” in this case, yours may be a different number and may
also show W instead of E). Make sure to use 3 numbers in your folder name and use upper case for the longitude, add a ”0” if
needed.
Fig 10
Fig 11
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14. Rename the DTED file (.dt2) to include only the northing letter and numerals (eg ”n64” in my case). Use lowercase for the
northing letter. No need to use 3 numbers in this case.
15. Now move the DTED file into the folder you created. We are now ready move the folder into the TAK folder structure.
16. Navigate to the ”ATAK” folder on your phone then place your new folder containing the DTED file inside the ”DTED” folder.
17. The finished folder structure should be something like ”Phone\atak\DTED\E015\n64.dt2” .
18. Thats it, start TAK and start seeing the world in 3D!
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