Eduard Cloud User Guide

This is the user guide for Eduard Cloud.

If you use Eduard for macOS, see the User Guide for Eduard for macOS.

Sign In

Start Eduard Cloud and sign in with your Google account. Create a Google account if do not have one. You can sign in with any Google account, but if you have multiple accounts, always sign in with the same account.

Eduard Credits

Creating a shaded relief image costs one Eduard credit. You purchase Eduard credits through our website.

One Eduard credit costs US $5 and one Eduard credit is required for creating one shading.

Click on the Credits button and enter the number of credits that you want to purchase. Then, click the "Checkout" button to be securely redirected to Stripe, our trusted and secure payment provider, to complete the transaction.

Create a Shading

Click on the New Shading button and select an area on a map. Zoom in and out with the buttons in the top-left corner of the map, and use the "Select Area" tool in the top-right corner to adjust the shaded area. Click the Create button to load the elevation model from OpenTopography.org.

A free OpenTopography API Key is required to load elevation data. Create an account and request an API key at OpenTopography.org, then enter the API key when creating a new shading. Eduard will remember your API key when you create other shadings in the future.

Eduard Cloud can download ALOS, NASADEM, and SRTM elevation data. 

• ALOS 30 m: The ALOS Digital Surface Model with a cell size of one arc second (approximately 30 meters).
• NASADEM 30 m: An improved version of the SRTM elevation model with a cell size of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meters).
• SRTM 30 m or 90 m : The NASA SRTM elevation model with a cell size of 1 or 3 arc seconds (approximately 30 or 90 meters).

Choose between a "geographic" (spherical latitude/longitude) projection and a Mercator projection. The Mercator projection is preferable for most applications.

Adjust a Shading

Adjusting the shading often requires experimentation and will vary with the selected shading style and the type of terrain. Adjust the values on the right sidebar and click the Update Shading button to recompute the shading.

Shading Style

Choose from three shading style at the top in the sidebar.

• Left: Large scale: Best for maps showing detailed terrain.
• Center: Medium scale: Best for medium scale terrain.
• Right: Small scale: Best for maps showing large areas.

Illumination Direction

Adjust the horizontal illumination direction with the round slider. The illumination angle is relative to the default top-left direction. Click on the small circle at the top-left of the round slider to use the default top-left direction of 0°. Eduard adjusts the illumination direction locally to improve the readability of small and large terrain forms.

For best readability, set the illumination direction to the top-left for most terrains. With an illumination direction from below as shown on the right side on the image below, it is more likely that some readers see mountains as valleys and valleys as mountains.

Generalization

Apply generalization to more clearly show large landforms and reduce details. Reducing details often results in relief shadings that are easier to read.

Increase the Macro value to simplify regional macro landforms. Increase the Micro value to remove local micro details. The Macro and Micro values increase or decrease in tandem when either slider is moved. Click on the chain icon to adjust the Macro and Micro values individually.

Recommendable Macro and Micro values vary with the terrain type, the cell size of the elevation grid, and the selected shading style.

Aerial Perspective

Aerial perspective emphasizes contrast for high elevations and reduces contrast for low elevations. An aerial perspective layer creates a more expressive shaded relief that often shows the structure of a landscape more clearly.

Adjust the amount of aerial perspective with a value between 0 and 100.

Contrast

Adjust the contrast of the shaded relief with a value between 0 and 100.

Terrain Type

Terrain type lets you select the type of landforms in your shading. The slider has two handles.

Right handle

• Move the right handle to the right end of the slider if the shading includes steep alpine peaks.
• Move the right handle to the center of the slider if the shading includes mountains and hills.
• Move the right handle towards the left of the slider if the shading does not include steep hills but mostly flat areas or gently rolling hills.

Left handle

• For most shadings the left handle should be on the left end of the slider.
• Move the left handle to the right side for extreme alpine terrain without flat or hilly areas.

Move the right terrrain type handle to the left if the shading shows high elevations with too much contrast and sharpness. For example, with a terrain with rolling hills, you move the right handle to a value of approximately 15%.

If your terrain is very flat, for example, a coastal lowland with very little undulation, it can be useful to move the right handle to a value as low as approximately 3%. Best results often require experimentation and will vary with the selected shading style.

The left handle should be at 0 for the vast majority of elevation model.

Download a Shading

Click the Download shading button in the toolbar to obtain a georeferenced GeoTIFF, PNG or JEPG image of the shaded relief. The downloaded ZIP file includes world files and projection files with information about the spatial coordinate system.

Organize Your Shadings

Eduard stores your shading in the cloud. Click the Shadings button to see all your shadings and select a shading. Click on the trash icon to delete a shading that is no longer required. Click on a shading name to change it.