• Free GIS data may be accessed from the individual Available Datalayers metadata pages. MassGIS distributes vector data in Shapefile format and raster (image) data in TIFF, MrSID, JPEG 2000 and ERDAS Imagine formats. Some data are tiled (split into pieces) to allow for smaller downloads, such as by towns, watersheds, USGS quads, or orthophoto index quads. Other layers are available in single statewide datasets. Details are provided on each layer's download page.
  
• Many popular GIS software packages, such as ArcGIS, ArcView GIS, MapInfo, Maptitude, AutoCad Map, Geomedia and others support one or many of these image and vector data formats.
• Shapefiles are compressed inside self-extracting executable (.exe) files. Once the .exe files are downloaded, their contents may be extracted by any of the following methods:
• Double-click the file name in Windows Explorer
• Type the file name at a DOS command prompt and hit Enter
• Extract the data using the StuffIt software (available for Windows or Macintosh from http://www.stuffit.com)
• Use the "unzip" command at a Unix or Linux prompt. Usage is: unzip <.exe file name>
  
• For users wishing to use a command-line FTP interface, please see the Command-line FTP Usage and the file naming convention sections.

• Browser "freezing up" - Some users have reported problems (e.g., the browser window "freezing up") with ftp download using Internet Explorer 5. In such cases MassGIS suggests using another free Web browser (Netscape Navigator, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) or ftp via command line.
   
  
• Receiving the following message:

  "Internet Explorer cannot download file from data.massgis.state.ma.us.  Internet Explorer was unable to open this internet site.  The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found.  Please try again later."

  Possible solutions:
• Use another free Web browser (Netscape Navigator, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) or ftp via command line.
• Try to download during "off" hours, as our site can get extremely busy between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
• Be sure that no more than 2 users from the same IP# are attempting to download from our ftp site, which has a two-concurrent user limit per IP#.
   
  
• Pop-up login box - The following settings may keep the pop-up login box from appearing when using Microsoft's Internet Explorer to connect to ftp://data.massgis.state.ma.us:
• Tools menu -> Internet Options ... -> Advanced tab
• Uncheck (disable) "Enable folder view for FTP sites"
• Optionally, users may check (enable) "Use Passive FTP..." if their firewall is blocking access to the site.
  

The vector data available from this site is in ARC/INFO Export File (.e00) or ESRI Shapefile format. For users seeking our data in DXF format for use in AutoCAD or other CAD programs, download the desired Shapefiles and then download the free DXF Author utility to convert the Shapefiles to DXF files.

Last Updated 2/27/2007
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