Bing Maps Topographic Layer

Question

Is there any topographic map support in Bing Maps?

Answer 1

There are no topographic maps in Bing Maps but you can easily pull in topographic tile layers and add them to any of the Bing Map controls.

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Windows Live Developer MVP - http://rbrundritt.spaces.live.com

Answer 2

Thx for the reply..do you have any info on how to pull in those tiles?

Answer 3

I realize that this thread is a year old, but I'm trying to add a topo layer and integrate it into the Bing Map controls panel. Any direction would be appreciated. I'm leaning towards using the USA Topo map service at http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/USA_Topo_Maps/MapServer with ESRI's javascript extension for Bing Maps (though this is v6.2), but am not sure if there's an easier way.

Answer 4

I wrote a blog article showing how to overlay ESRI maps on Bing Maps AJAX v7 - just copy and paste the examples and substitute in the URL of the topo map above:

http://alastaira.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/displaying-open-street-map-and-esri-tiles-on-bing-maps-ajax-v7/

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twitter: @alastaira blog: http://alastaira.wordpress.com/

Answer 5

Actually, there is a kind of topographic map. Not really with isolines and stuff but a style tileset dedicated to look like the Terrain style from Google.

You can add a dedicated layer with these kind of url: http://ecn.t0.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/r12022132020?g=677&mkt=fr-fr&lbl=l1&stl=h&shading=hill&n=z

Take a look at the shading parameter.

 

If this answers your needs, you should ask your Microsoft contact in order to see if it can falls inside the correct licence.

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MVP - Bing Maps - My blog (FR): http://blogs.developpeur.org/nicoboo/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/nicolasboonaert/

Answer 6

Thanks much! A set in the right direction. I'd really like the user to be able to toggle between topo, road and bird's eye as basemaps. Is there any way to attach an added layer to a control and have that control show up in the existing list? Since ESRI is no longer maintaining it's ArcGIS Extension for Google Maps now that Google Maps has moved to V3, I'm trying to port the map I've built on the site I manage (http://www.wilderness.net/NWPS/) over to Bing Maps to see if this will provide an adequate substitute. The ability to add basemap controls is one tenet of the Google Maps api, I'd like to reproduce in Bing. Any suggestions? 

Answer 7

You can add your own map styles into the existing dashboard in v7, but it's a bit of a pain to do so. See http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vemapcontroldev/thread/cf03a42c-ab7b-4ffa-92c6-433a4a735667/#ad5cf7b6-22a9-467e-aadf-2f5bac096303 for an example.

However, every function available via the dashboard (changing map styles, zooming, panning etc.) is also directly accessibly via a method in the API. So, rather than try to add your own additional options into the existing dashboard, I'd recommend disabling it entirely (using showDashboard: false) and then creating your own custom dashboard in which case you have complete control over those controls/styles you want to display.

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twitter: @alastaira blog: http://alastaira.wordpress.com/

Answer 8

Now that you told us we can add topo tiles, where do we get these tiles and how do we install/use them?

Answer 9

Here is a code sample: http://bingmapsv8samples.azurewebsites.net/#TileLayer_BaseMercator

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