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Overview
The quadrangle template datalayer contains the boundaries and Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate values of the corners of the 189 1:25,000 USGS 7.5-minute topographic map sheets that cover Massachusetts. This datalayer is of great utility to any project planning to digitize information that has been compiled onto the 1:25,000 quad sheets because it ensures that the data will register to the other datalayers in the MassGIS system.
In ArcSDE the polygon layer is named QUADS_POLY and the corner points (tics) layer is named QUADSTICS_PT.
See the Quad Index for a map showing the index using a join to the table QUADS_POLY_DATE, which stores the date of the paper maps used at MassGIS to create the Scanned USGS Quad Images layer.
Production
MassGIS project staff devised a simple numbering system to identify each quadrangle and the corners of all quadrangles. Staff then used NADCON to translate the longitude and latitude of the quadrangle corners into Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate values. These values were put into an INFO database and used to generate an Arc/INFO datalayer. Arcs delineating the quadrangle borders were also generated.
Attributes
The QUADS_POLY polygon attribute table contains the following items:
| QUAD_NAME | The USGS name for each quadrangle |
| DOUBLEQUAD | The USGS name for each paper double-quad |
| QUAD_ID | The unique identifier for each quadrangle |
The QUADSTICS_PT point attribute table contains the following items:
| IDTIC | Unique tic identifier |
| XTIC | Mass. Stateplane Mainland Meters X coordinate |
| YTIC | Mass. Stateplane Mainland Meters Y coordinate |
Maintenance
MassGIS carefully proofread the state plane coordinates of the quad corners. Many plots were made at 1:25,000 and smaller scales.
MassGIS maintains these layers.