Mapping the whole of the British Isles

With DMAP, it is possible to map Britain and Ireland together on the same map using British and Irish National Grid References in alphanumeric form. The necessary steps for doing this are set out below:
  1. Download GB7.ZIP (or GB8.ZIP).
  2. Download IRL7.ZIP (or IRL8.ZIP).
  3. Extract the corresponding BDY files by opening and extracting them from the ZIP folders.
  4. Open each BDY file in a text editor or word processor.
  5. Using Copy and Paste, append the entire contents of the file for Ireland to the end of the file for Great Britain.
  6. Edit in the word TRANS so that it appears as the only text on the first line of the combined file.
  7. Save the combined file as a new file name, for example "BI.BDY". Make sure that you save the file as a file of type text only.
  8. In DMAP, set up a new File Group which incorporates BI.BDY and which has a new Map Parameter file, for example "BI.PAR".
  9. After setting up the new File Group, go to Options|Map Parameters and enter the Grid Reference parameters as follows:
    SW= 0800000000
    NE= 0660012210
    or, in DMAP V7.0 or later:
    SW= -200,0
    NE= JM600210
  10. Go to Options|Map Style and switch off the overlaid Grid because this would otherwise conflict with the Irish Grid which is at an angle to the British Grid. You will see that the map has a 'built-in' 100km grid over Britain and Ireland. This grid is digitized in the BDY file.
It is recommended that you produce a printout of these instructions to assist you in following this procedure.

Alan Morton
28 June 2006