If you're wanting to import contour maps, your best bet is to hand-trace the data as you originally described. Programs like Wilbur or FT3 would only be of use if you're interested in generating contours from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). DEMs are available for free for most of the world at about 30 meters between samples, which is probably not quite as good as you would prefer for the kinds of map that you seem to be describing. Plus, a lot of GIS software can be a pain in the backside to use.
Thanks for your comments, Joe. I have sort of reached the same conclusion. I've dealt somewhat with DED data in my old job working on Army Simulations and it was very time consuming for us. (I didn't do any of the real work for terrain modeling). Having said that, the most common contour interval on military map appears to be 20 meters which can sometimes make things difficult. Fort Riley, KS has a whole different look at 20 foot contour intervals as compared to 20 meter contour intervals. Kansas isn't quite as flat as people think, but at 20 meters on a map, it can sometimes be hard to know where you are.
When I model US terrain using modern USGS maps downloaded as PDFs, they allow you to display many different layers, so one can look at the contour intervals alone. This is really cool stuff. If only I could cut and paste maps together with better precision and be sure of them being the same size, I'd bring in each feature (road network, water network, terrain, other stuff) as a separate layer. Not having to follow a contour line through a town is much easier. I also have to stitch several maps together which I find is much easier with a paper map than a digital map and I always have gaps because of course grid squares are usually trapezoids and not squares. (Sometimes when grid zones converge, they are triangles).
Tracing contours does put me into a sort of zen-like state. I have much more respect for the people who make maps by engraving them from raw data. I can't imagine how long that took.
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DEMs are available for free for most of the world at about 30 meters between samples, which is probably not quite as good as you would prefer for the kinds of map that you seem to be describing. Plus, a lot of GIS software can be a pain in the backside to use.
When I model US terrain using modern USGS maps downloaded as PDFs, they allow you to display many different layers, so one can look at the contour intervals alone. This is really cool stuff. If only I could cut and paste maps together with better precision and be sure of them being the same size, I'd bring in each feature (road network, water network, terrain, other stuff) as a separate layer. Not having to follow a contour line through a town is much easier. I also have to stitch several maps together which I find is much easier with a paper map than a digital map and I always have gaps because of course grid squares are usually trapezoids and not squares. (Sometimes when grid zones converge, they are triangles).
Tracing contours does put me into a sort of zen-like state. I have much more respect for the people who make maps by engraving them from raw data. I can't imagine how long that took.