About MapConnect

Geoscience Australia National Mapping & Information Group has developed its next generation of on-line mapping applications. MapConnect allows users to select and download datasets from a standard web browser without the need for any additional software. Its map-based interface accesses the most current data utilising user-defined areas, themes and formats, enabling mainstream access to spatial data by the wider community.

MapConnect uses ArcIMS to access an Enterprise Geodatabase managed by ArcSDE. Data can be clipped in real time from GA's corporate infrastructure ensuring access to a single point of truth for this data.

MapConnect is a convenient and user-friendly way to access the national Topographic 250K Geodata Series 3 data for free, allowing users to view the selected data as a map and download their areas of interest in various formats including: Geo-referenced images, GIS vectors and screen based images.

Users are required to register with the Office of Spatial Data Management (OSDM) - this is easily done through MapConnect. After accepting the agreement in the registration, an email will be sent to the registered user to allow access to the data downloads.

Functionality includes :

• Map functions include zoom in and out, full extent, pan, previous extent, drill down identify and measure.
• A collapsible layer listing within themes.
• Layers tab with scale dependant rendering.
• Legend tab showing the currently viewed map items.
• Find functionality which includes Zoom to State, Find by Attribute, Find Map Tile and Latitude and Longitude Zoom.
• Map side-scrolling with map border.
• Locator map to show selected area orientation in Australia.
• Scale change box where user can enter desired scale.
• The cursor's coordinate location on the map is shown in the browser status bar.
• The website avoids anti-popup technology by using frames to overlay the map when showing information such as printing, help and OSDM registration.
• Integrated help functionality for each information or function page. The help button will link directly to each page's help content.
• Feature extract functionality that gives the user layer selection and map tool select extent. Allows extract by Shapefile or GML, with options of single zip file or by theme. The maximum size of extract is approximately 9 tiles (15 degrees of area) at any one time.
• On-line map can be selected by the user to download tile formats of Shapefile, PGDB, TAB, and ECW.
• There is no cost for using any of these services. A order list stores the customer's selected orders and allow them to register the order against the OSDM system.
• The 250K web map is also supplied as a Web Map Service (WMS) to be consumed by any WMS client.