Greetings, all...

 

I'm looking for a vector map of the Cincinnati area that can be imported into AutoCAD, for an academic design project. (The most common vector-based file formats would be Illustrator or AutoCAD.)

 

I need a map that shows everything as far south as Alexandria, as far north as Hamilton, as far west as Lawrenceberg, and as far east as Milford. It doesn't need to show every single city street, but I need the major highways and railroads.

 

I've found a couple of online services that can give me what I need for about $300, but I'd like to avoid having to pay that much if possible. Any current or former DAAP people have something like this laying around on your hard drive?

 

Thanks...

the CAGIS streets layer is quite large, as it covers every street in Hamilton County.  Uuummm, I would call CAGIS and say you are a student and need the layer for school purposes and you can get a major discount or even for free. 

Thanks for the offer... I need more than just Hamilton County, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

that kind of thing could be very useful around here on uo -- so please do report back and let us know what you find.

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

Railroads, airports, and major highways:

http://www.oki.org/uploadfiles/OKI_Railroads.PDF

 

Highways and city streets:

http://www.oki.org/uploadfiles/OKI_REGION_MAJOR_ROADWAYS.PDF

 

The files are in PDF format, but they're not encrypted, so they can be imported into Illustrator and then exported to DWG format.

 

I did that this morning, and combined the two maps into a single AutoCAD drawing. After some cleaning up and layer management, the file size comes in at about 25 MB (AutoCAD 2007 format).

 

Good to see you found that.  I discovered that trick too back in arch school.  MPOs and CDCs are always protective of their data yet they don't train their employees properly to flatten their maps and layers prior to putting them out to the public.  I was capable in a lot of my planning projects to retrieve data by using illustrator, and then dumping them into ArcGIS. 

 

I'm surprised you got the map down to 25 MB.  I have a street map of just the city of Detroit converted from ArcGIS format to AutoCAD 2009 .dxf.  It's 80 MB, but I think that's because the streets are actually drawn out as parallel lines with curb corners and everything.

ODOT Has their county maps, in MicroStation DGN format here (sorted by district)

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/ProdMgt/Production/CADD/Pages/CountyMaps.aspx

They do have all the city streets/county roads and TWP roads shown and labeled - I attached a PDF sample. (If you want I can convert one to DWG for you and email it to you)

 

and here is a statewide GIS download page from ODOT:

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/TechServ/Prod_Services/ESRIDWNLOADS/Pages/default.aspx

(I don't think it includes county and city roads); this info can be useful in creating statewide maps

 

 

Thanks... As noted above, I was able to find a PDF of the entire region and convert it to a DWG file.