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MapInfo Monday: Using Hill Shade to Add Depth to your Map

  • 1.  MapInfo Monday: Using Hill Shade to Add Depth to your Map

    Employee
    Posted 10-28-2024 06:03

    In this article, I will look at adding depth to your standard base map.

    Here is an example of a base map with an added hill shade effect. In this case, the base map is from a Danish WMTS service and the elevation model used is a local DTM, Digital Terrain Model.

    As you can see, the hill shade allows you to better visually understand the terrain as you can detect valleys and hills.

    Let me show you how you can create the map above.
    Happy #MapInfoMonday!

    Adding Hill Shade Effect to a Base Map

    We will start with a base map. This can be one of the Bing Maps you get access to or another base map from an online service of your own choice.
    In my example, I'm using a base map from a WMTS service published by the Danish Agency for Climate Data.
    As you can see it does look rather flat.
    I will now open my DTm and use that to add a hillshade to my map. I will select my DTM dataset from the Open dialog and add it to my existing map.
    I would recommend using a Digital Terrain Model over a Digital Surface Model for this usage. The surface model also holds elements standing on the terrain such as buildings, trees, and similar.
    With the digital terrain model opened, I can start creating the hill shade look.
    There are two ways to add the hill shade effect to your map.
    1. 1. Make the DTM translucent
    2. 2. Make the base map translucent.

    In the first case, you want to make sure that the DTM is on top of the base map in the Layer List. Select the DTM and from the Style tab, adjust the Translucency. I'd recommend making it around 75% translucent.

    As you make the DTM translucent, the base map underneath starts appearing and you get the hill shade effect that you are looking for.

    If your base map consists of multiple vector layers, making the DTM translucent is the easier option to achieve this hill shade result.
    You can get a similar effect if you have the base map on top of the DTM in the Layer List. Now you will make the base map layer translucent instead. The result could look like this.
    In this way, you are aiming at a translucency around 25%

    Raster Hill Shade

    For this to work, you need to ensure that you have enabled hill shade for your DTM.
    Select the DTM in the Layer List and from the Style tab, open the Hillshade control to activate hill shade by checking Sun Shadow and Highlight.
    You can also use the many options for Hill Shade to control the look of your hill shade. Read more about these options here: MapInfo Monday: Hill Shading.

    Raster Color

    Another option that will influence the look of the hill shade is the raster color.
    Select the layer in the Layer List, and from the Style tab use the Color dropdown to select a different color table for your raster.
    In the image above, you can see how a darker color makes the hill shade stand out a bit more against the base map. You can also use a color palette with colors similar to the base map to make it blend better into the base map.
    I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use the hill shade effect to create better-looking maps.


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    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
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