Translating Russian Topographic Maps using the OziExplorer Names Database

I thought I'd write down an email exchange I had with a recent customer who purchased one of our South American Topographic Map series.  As you can read on the download page, the maps are in Russian, and normally not of much use to us English speakers.  To remedy that we provide a database of geographic names that can be overlayed on the maps through the use of OziExplorer's Names feature.  This is not one of the most widely known features of OziExplorer, so it is no surprise that we get questions on it from time to time.

Here is a copy of the emails so that you can also benefit, edited for clarity:

G'day Robin,

One question I have is the maps I have looked at so far don't have the english translation in red as have the maps on the website. It would be very handy to have the translated version if possible.

The English translation only works within OziExplorer. OziExplorer has a names feature built into the software that will load a database of names and place them on the map at the correct coordiates. The coordinate and name information is all stored in the database. This database is included in the download.

Download OziExplorer

If you purchase one of our map sets, make sure you've got OziExplorer.  It will add huge value to the maps. You can download a trial/demo version here at the OziExplorer website.  After you install it you will have 2 options to run - either the shareware or the trial. Choose the TRIAL version. You should be able to use all the minimum features to view the maps with the names. For full functionality you will have to purchase the software from them. The email chain continues:

G'day Robin, I'm still having trouble with the english names coming up. I have the latest Oziexplorer ( 3.95.4s ) installed and get the maps up OK but then I'm not sure what to do next to bring up the english translation. Hope you can help. Kindest regards.

Using the Names Feature in OziExplorer

In OziExplorer on the menu bar on the top is an icon called "Name". Click it and a side pane opens up. Click the "load" button and navigate to the south american .names files that came with the download. It defaults to installing the names files to c:\oziexplorer\name search.

1. Select the country name file that you're interested in, and load it.
2. Load the map you're interested in looking at.
3. On the Name sidebar, check the "On Map" box. This will filter the list of names to only the ones that are on your map. The names list is really long, since it's for a whole country.
4. To display the names, press the button on the names sidebar that has a while empty circle in it. The names will plot on the map.

There's also a really detailed help section on how the names work within OziExplorer - it's worth your time to give it a read and understand how all of this works.

Also note that the names files have different types of information as shown on the Feature Code pull-down.  You can further filter what shows up on the map by selecting a specific feature code, including Cities or Towns, Administrative Regions, Hydrographic Features, Vegetation, or Roads and Rail.

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