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I am following this tutorial: https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/blender-relief-tutorial-final-adjustments/

I am attempting to download DEM data which is supposed to come in the form of a TIFF.

Here it is: https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/#productSearch

I can download such TIFF from the tutorial that the website recommends. However, when I download them they show up all white. They’re just totally blank. I have tried on Mac and PC, as well as opening them in Photoshop.

I am trying to get these grayscale images like the thumbnails shown, but I can’t! Another download option gives me a whole zip folder full of files. Can anybody help?

2

Answers


  1. Here’s what I did: install the open source program QGIS. Once installed, start a new project. Click the "data source manager" button and choose raster option. Navigate to your file and click "add" button. The image should appear in black and white.

    Now right click on the layer name in the lower left box (should be USGSxxxx) and choose export. In this box change two things: change output mode from "raw data" to "rendered image" and specify a new file name. At bottom of box hit ok. You should now have a separate file with issue corrected.

    TL;DR: it’s a GIS quirk.

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  2. DEM data is could be floating point, you would need to change the render type to singleband pseudo color and use the color ramps to color the image based on the heights in the DEM

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