Terrian Programs Etc

I have seen a few requests for terrain programs and what not here on the list.
The best one I have found is called MicroDem and is made by Prof Peter Guth of
the Oceanography department of the US Naval Academy.

http://www.nadn.navy.mil/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem.htm

This program allows you to read in the DEM data (Digital Elevation Model) that
is online at:

http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/doc/edchome/ndcdb/ndcdb.html

The USGS ftp site and construct terrains from them.

It has many interesting features, an overhead mode, a flythrough,
perspective view, weapons sheafs, weapons range circles etc.   It will
even export this data in heightfield form for use in programs like Bryce to
create reaslistic terrain.

I have used it to download the terrain of New Haven CT, overlay it with the
map from Street Atlas and output a nice 3d map with the terrain features on
it.

If there is interest let me know offlist and I would be happy to talk more
about it. Last months 3D Artist mag has a decent article on the same thing.

I've got a number of links to map-making programs & sites on my Links
page
- <http://warbard.iwarp.com/links.html> and scroll down to 'Cartography
&
Mapmaking Sites" - I'll add some of thse DEM sites soon.