this is the faq for sdts/DEM data.  it is an extension of the SDTS_FAQ.txt
that is in the parent (one directory up). Please read both before contacting
me with problems  :-)

sol--   skatz@blm.gov -- 303-236-0101

1. the sdts2dem program is so slow partially because i read and write a 
   direct access file written as ascii. i hope to speed it up using
   binary reads and writes. at the moment it takes my 50 mz 486 12 hours
   (yes i said hours) to process one 10 meter sdts/dem.

2. DON"T run any of these programs from the windows command line. use
   a dos window. see faq #3 in the main SDTS_FAQ.txt

3. the reason you get cell sizes of 0.0 height and 0.0 width is because
   you ran the program from the windows' command line. see #2

4. i have had one report so far on successfully importing an arc ascii grid 
   into arcview. he had  Arcview w/ spatial analyst,
   (File --Import Grids - ASCII).

5. there is an arcview avenue command "makeFromDem", no one has reported 
   using it yet.

6. in order to compile your own version of these utilities, you will also
   need to get the fips123 library from the sdts ftp site. i used version 1.04

   ftp://sdts.er.usgs.gov/pub/sdts/software/fips123/ver1.04/

7. the 3 required arguments to most of these programs are decribed below
   using this file as an example    1234ceL0.ddf  
   a.  the base 4 characters are  1234
   b.  the output file is 1-8 characters, without an extension
   c.  the characters in position 7-8 are L0  (ell zero)