[GH85Carrera]

Good afternoon guys.

I got busy trying to work up an estimate for a project this morning. I like to layout a proposal to the client that is precisely what they want and get an approval so they know what we will deliver. At the old company we had the entire state of Oklahoma flown over many years all digitized and ready to use as a base layer. It is all available from the Government as well. Or it was. It used to be super simple to request a certain county of any state. I use the old background image with a boundary drawn in so they know what we plan to fly new for them.

They decided to improve the system. Now it is a total cluster fudge and very well hidden and illogical. Instead of just using the name of the county and state they are listed by county code name that the census bureau invented. It ranges from Autauga, county in Alabama (01-001) to St. Thomas Island in the Virgin Islands (78-030). It has every state and US protectorate and most of Alaska but not all of Alaska.

Then you have to know what year is available for each state, and then the counties are not a folder that is just random order. Just scroll through the county list, no way to do a search on-line. Texas is gonna be a bugger with 254 counties to scroll through. They only use the last three digits as PART of the file name to make it even harder to find.

Gosh I like it when the improve a government program. I bet next they will improve and simplify our income taxes and make that better!