As a terrestrial RF propagation modeling tool, TAP™ requires local elevation data in order to perform propagation calculations. The more accurate the elevation data, the more accurate the TAP™ field strength predictions will be. Digital elevation data are available from a wide variety of sources; however, many SoftWright customers choose to purchase topographical data directly from SoftWright. These data are shipped along with the software at the time of purchase. Depending on the size of the data file, it is provided on DVD or USB hard drive for use with TAP™.
SoftWright currently offers elevation data of 1/3 second (~10m) resolution (or better) in FLT format for the United States and SRTM 1 second (~30m) resolution (or better) topographical data for the rest of the world. SoftWright also offers Land Use – Land Cover data for the United States and most of the rest of the world. These data are guaranteed to work with TAP™ software.
Supported topo data file formats include .FLT, .BIL, DTED (.DT1, .DT2, etc.), .HGT, .IMG, and .TIF. SoftWright is happy to test out sample topo data files to verify compatibility.
SoftWright also has land use / land cover data for the entire world. For the U.S., the data is from NLCD 2021 and globally the data is from the European Space Agency (ESA) WorldCover 2020. The land cover data allows TAP to include clutter losses based on the land cover category of the receiver location or raise the local terrain height along an RF path based on the land cover category along the path.
If you would like a quotation for topographical or land use data from SoftWright, please contact sales@softwright.com.