icon.The National Map Viewer is a one-stop destination for download of public domain vector and raster data products used in topographic maps.
The download process is initiated by clicking on the
Download icon.
The Download interface allows products to be downloaded by an Area of Interest (AOI) defined by: Bounding Box, Reference Area, Current Map Extent, and Coordinate Input.
Red text in the dialog indicates the option is not available at the current scale and provides 'Click here' links to zoom to the appropriate scale.
See: Download Process below for further details.
Important Notes:
In the past, products have been available for download via a dynamic clip-n-ship mechanism. While this offers users the flexibility of choosing and customizing the specific area of interest, it is a resource intensive process that no longer makes sense. Each dynamic order represents a custom package generated by backend services after the order is submitted. All orders were queued with other user requests and downloadable products were often not available until a day or more later.
In 2013 The National Map will be transitioning to completely pre-defined, staged products. Rather than wait for products to be generated, users will be presented with a list of pre-generated staged products matching the criteria they specify which are in turn immediately available for download. This is seen as a more cost-effective way to distribute products and will provide a more streamlined download capability for users.
The download process consists of these basic steps:
The AOI can be defined using one of the four options below:
Once the area of interest has been defined, the next dialog allows selection from the following product themes:
Grayed boxes indicate a product that is not available for the current area of interest and a smaller area should be selected in the previous step to make these products available.
Select the desired themes and click the Next button to obtain a list of products.
The Product Selection dialog provides a listing of the available products for the provided area of interest.
Products are grouped by product theme type under separate panels which must be opened to see the list of products. In the example dialog, at right, note the following product group labels:
Clicking on each product group label opens up the corresponding listing of products for that theme.
Basic information is provided in the listing to distinguish between products.
Full metadata is available by clicking on the Metadata 
icon.
Select the checkboxes beside the desired products you want to order.
When you have selected all the products you are interested in. Click the Next button to add these products to the cart.
The cart process is provided to organize a group of product downloads together for easier user management. Items can be removed from the cart individually or all together at one time by clearing the cart.
Clicking the Checkout button submits the order.
The user will then be prompted for an email address before being allowed to click the Place Order button. Confirmation that the order request has been received will be provided along with an Order ID for tracking the order.
An email will be sent upon completion of the order process indicating products are ready for download.
USGS does not currently offer a vector bulk data download option other than by special request only. For assistance, go to http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/contactus/ to access the Service Desk mailbox at tnm_help@usgs.gov. For your vector bulk data download request, include contact information (such as address and phone number), requested product, requested area, and download format.
To receive bulk data, we require you to supply the external hard drives, within our specifications, and pay for shipping the drive(s) to us and provide a paid return label or a carrier (UPS, FEDEX, we do not ship DHL) account number. Turn-around time may take up to 4 to 8 weeks; no guarantee or priority service available. The actual delivery time may vary, depending on the workload at the time an order is placed. See the following page for more details: http://gisdata.usgs.gov/bulk.php.