Bodleian Library Map Room Downloads page

Bodleian Library Map Room home page

The Map Room GEO TOOLS page

FREE OS NTF to MapInfo and MasterMap to MapInfo translators can be downloaded from the Translators page

OS Land-Line NTF to DXF translator. A FREE translator for converting OS Land-Line data tiles in NTF to DXF format is now available. It can be downloaded from the Translators page

These applications have been written by Nigel James

You can download the following applications


	Conversion Tools	A MapInfo tool which converts British OS National Grid refs to eastings and northings and create points - and converts Lon/Lat coordinates to decimal degrees and create points as well. It converts both tables of coordinates or single instances quickly and easily - an essential add-in tool for MapInfo users

	Scale Finder	*Scale Finder converts linear scales to representative fractions and vice-versa.* It is an invaluable tool for cataloguers and map users and is free to non-commercial users**

CONVERSION TOOLS - Coordinate conversion tool for MapInfo -

Conversion Tools is an essential MapInfo tool for handling point data files - download free!

Convert British OS National Grid refs to eastings and northings and create points - and convert Lon/Lat coordinates to decimal degrees and create points - it converts both tables of coordinates or single instances quickly and easily. It can also extract coordinates from a table. Conversion Tools can be used with MapInfo version 6.0 onwards

To download Conversion Tools, right-click here, then click Save Link As...

Conversion Tools converts tables of conventional National Grid references or single grid references to eastings and northings in metres (correct projection is selected automatically). It will also create a symbol for each point. Also, a single GR can be entered and the location mapped as a point symbol on a map. This is much quicker and easier than the normal MapInfo method! The eastings and northings values are added to the table in two new columns.

Conversion tools also converts tables of Lon/Lat and places single points in Lon/Lat as well (any MI projection can be selected).

These original coordinates can all be converted:

OSGR	Lat	Lon
SP51	21:20:2N	4:12:23W
TL2361	23:23S	156:3W
TQ446 559	56.48N	21.3W
S243 194	11:23.5S	87:20.55E

OS grid references can have 2,4,6 or 8 digits.

Lat/Lon can be in:
degrees:minutes:seconds, degrees:minutes
degrees:decimal minutes

Mixed precision coordinates will be automatically converted to the best precision

Have a look at a guide to creating data files for use in MapInfo, using Conversion Tools.

To download Conversion Tools, right click here and select save link as.

Installing Conversion Tools.

1. Save cvtools.mbx in your MapInfo/Tools folder.

2. In MapInfo, open the Tools menu and click Tool Manager.

3. In the Tool Manager dialog click the Add Tool... button.

4. Click the small button next to the Location box and go to the folder containing Conversion Tools and select it.

5. Type Conversion Tools in the Title box and click OK.

6. Back in the Tool Manager dialog, click both check boxes next to Conversion Tools. It will then automatically add itself to your menu bar each time you run MapInfo.

Any problems or queries, please e-mail Nigel James

SCALE FINDER - Convert linear scales to representative fractions and vice- versa - an essential map cataloguer's tool

Version 6 now available - download it now!

Scale Finder converts nearly 100 different distance units - both current and historical.

To use Scale Finder, simply measure a number of units from the map scalebar and enter the values - the scale as a representative fraction (RF) is displayed automatically - no need for a calculator and you can measure any number of distance units

For example: The scalebar is in kilometres and 5 kilometres measures 3.3cm. Enter these values and the correct scale (1:151,515) is displayed.

Scales can be copied and pasted into other applications and documents. Either the full RF (with the 1:) or the short RF (without the 1:) can be copied.

RFs can be rounded or unrounded.

No scale or the distance units are not in Scale Finder? - No problem if degrees or minutes of latitude are shown. Simply measure any number of degrees and/or minutes and choose the latitude to the nearest 10° to find the scale (note that scales calculated in this way are not as accurate so if a scalebar is shown then use that for preference)

Installing Scale Finder

Scale Finder downloads as a self-extracting .exe file. Download the file to a temporary folder, then double-click the file (or click the START button and then CLICK Run and select the file and run it). The files self-extract into your Windows Temp folder.

Run the file setup.exe in your Windows Temp folder to start installation. The program will by default create a folder in your program files folder and install itself. An icon will be added to your desktop. It is then ready to use!

Any problems or queries, please e-mail Nigel James

Nigel James
Bodleian Library 2003