Making Your Own USGS Topo Map With topoBuilder: A Quick-Start Guide

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topoBuilder is a free public web application from the USGS National Geospatial Program that lets anyone create custom digital topographic maps — OnDemand Topos — using the latest data from The National Map. No expertise or special software is needed; it all runs in a web browser.

Five steps

1. Choose a map type. At topoBuilder.NationalMap.gov, pick an OnDemand Topo type in the Map Types panel and click Next.

The Map Types panel appears when starting topoBuilder. The user must choose a map type before continuing.

Step 1: choose the map type. USGS.

2. Choose the area. Pan and zoom the basemap or search for an address or place. Click Select by Grid(s) to make a map on the standard USGS grid, or Custom Select to center a map on your cursor; use Move to adjust it.

The Maps panel has an option to zoom in to the grid. Select by Grid, Custom Select, and Move appear to the right.

Step 2: choose the map extent or center point. USGS.

3. Customize. Edit the data layers, choose the output format and, for 7.5-Minute Topos, adjust contour smoothing.

After choosing a location and extent, use the options in the Maps panel to customize the map content.

Step 3: customize layers, format and contour smoothing. USGS.

4. Add to cart. Check the box by the map title and click Add (or Select All, then Add, for several maps), then Go To Cart.

5. Check out. Click Checkout and enter an email address; a confirmation and download links arrive by email.

For help, click the Help icon in the left sidebar, which links to the user guide and USGS topographic map resources.

About OnDemand Topos

As of 2024, two types are available, with more types and options in development:

	7.5-Minute Topo	100K Topo
Scale	1:24,000 (continental U.S.)	1:100,000
Area	about 50 square miles	about 1,500–2,200 square miles
Good for	Recreation, orienteering and geocaching, city planning, search and rescue, field science	Land management and general planning
Extra layers	Shaded relief, aerial imagery	—

Either can include contours, surface water, place names, structures, boundaries, transportation and land cover, in any combination. The maps resemble US Topo maps and come as geospatial PDF or GeoTIFF files, for anywhere in the United States and its territories.