The 1:24,000 shaded relief images currently available from the WATER web site are in Arc-View readable ArcInfo format. This means that you will be able to view them in ArcView, but you will need to follow somewhat peculiar instructions that are unique to the ArcInfo filing system.

If you don’t happen to know the quad name(s) for the area you are looking for, try loading the 24k quad boundary theme called waterqds into ArcView along with a reference layer or two, such as the county boundaries or highways  theme. With the waterqds theme active, use the identify tool to click on the approximate location you are looking for. The Identify Results window will show you the quad name in the field Task_Name.

To download the image for a particular USGS 7.5-minute quad, first find the folder (directory) for the quad you are looking for within the /hshades/24kDEM/ directory. Most of the directory names for individual quads are pretty obvious contractions of the quad names, but if you are having trouble figuring out which directory is the right one, check the listing here.

Once you have identified the folder (directory) within DEM/24k/Hillshades that corresponds to your quad, download the entire directory, including all files it contains. Make a note of which directory on your hard drive you downloaded it to – you will need this later. If you want to download the shaded relief image for more than one quad, make sure you download the entire directory for each quad into the same directory on your hard drive.

This is the critical step: MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE DIRECTORY CALLED "Info" (right-click to download the directory now) TO THE SAME PLACE ON YOUR HARD DRIVE THAT YOU ARE DOWNLOADING THE QUAD FOLDERS.  The "Info" directory contains information critical for ArcView to understand the files in the quad directories. Without it, ArcView and ArcInfo cannot display the hillshade images. You only need to download the "Info" directory once, regardless of how many of the hillshade image directories you have downloaded.

To properly display the hillshade images, take the following steps:

1. Open ArcView.

2. Create a new View.

3. Add the hillshade theme (you must select Image Data Source as the data source type in the Add Theme window to see the list of hillshade images that you downloaded).

4. Make the image visible by clicking in the box to the left of the image (quad) name. At this point, the image will look like a box of multi-colored confetti. Don’t panic!

5. Double-click on the image (quad) name to bring up the Image Legend Editor window.

6. Click on the button labeled "Colormap…". This opens the Image Colormap window.

7. Now click on the button labeled "Gray".

8. Click on the "Apply" button and you will see the image change from a box of colored confetti to a gray-scale image of mountains and valleys (if there is any terrain in your quad).

9. Optional: If you want to get rid of that black border around the image (especially important if you want to view adjacent quads at the same time), go back to the Image Colormap window and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list of numbers. After the number 255 you will see "NODATA". Now double-click on the black rectangle next to the word "NODATA". This will open the Color Palette. With "Foreground" selected in the droplist, click on the white box with the ‘X’ through it (upper left-most square). Now go back to the Image Colormap window and click the "Apply" button. You should see the black border disappear!