Messages

1

Feature Requests / Set zoom level

« on: October 04, 2017, 08:44:29 PM »

Is there a way to set the zoom level?  I'd like to set it to 1:4.88 for some custom maps I maintain and use a screen shot to output the same bitmap as the trail system changes. Perhaps the zoom level readout box in the upper right could be changed to an input box so I can type in the zoom I want.

Thanks for considering this request.

2

TopoFusion Pro / Open Aerial & Mapquest OSM tiles watermarked

« on: October 02, 2017, 10:32:29 PM »

I got an API key for these Mapquest tilesets, but each tile has an obnoxious (very unsubtle) watermark along the bottom. There's a big white oval with "mapquest" in it and copyright text. Frankly it makes these tilesets unusable. I didn't see these watermarks mentioned anywhere as a "feature" of the free plan. Is there something I need to do (other than moving to a paid plan) to remove the watermarks? Is there a way to fix this?

3

Beta Testing / Track outlining doesn't go away

« on: May 15, 2007, 10:14:26 PM »

I have version 3.05 Pro. When I select a track with the Profile tool then switch to most other tools, the track stays highlighted as if selected for profiling. Even if I disable or remove the track (GPX file), the highlighting remains. If I select the Draw Track tool, the highlighting will go away once I move the mouse cursor over the graphic (map) area. Otherwise I have to exit TF and restart to get rid of it. Am I missing something or is this a bug?

4

Archived Support / Climbing Analysis DEM warning

« on: October 26, 2005, 12:30:00 PM »

I'm still digging into this, but here's a tip that may be helpful to others:

If you suspect bad or missing DEM data, use the Climbing Analysis tool to compute the elevation using the DEM data for your route, then switch to 3D mode and zoom out and tilt the map so you can see under it. The points with bad/no DEM data will "drop through" the map and be way below it with a connector line from the last good point to the first bad point. This will help you see where the bad points are.

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Archived Support / Climbing Analysis DEM warning

« on: October 17, 2005, 10:23:37 PM »

I often use the Climbing Analysis tool to add elevation to a hand-drawn track. Seems to work reliably with the auto-download 30m option, but I ran into a problem using DEM data. I traced the route of the Porcupine Rim trail near Moab, Utah. When selecting the DEM dataset in the Climbing Analysis window it warns me that the track covers missing DEM files. So I use the 3D view to look along the whole trail and it falls on good, 3D terrain from the DEM files. The eastern-most point of the trail does come a bit close to the edge of the Rill Creek DEM file and I see the "edge of the world cliff" in 3D mode due to the missing eastern adjacent Warner Lake DEM. So for good measure I download the Warner Lake DEM and now no more "edge of the world cliff" to the east but Climbing Analysis still gives me the missing DEM warning. What could be wrong?

I watch when TF generates the 3D view and it says it's using the DEM files. Is the 3D view a good way to check for complete DEM coverage? The 3D settings window allows the selection of "use DEM files if available" for the data source - does TF drop back to auto-download 30m data if it finds missing DEM data? If so I'd prefer to have another option to force TF to use only DEM data so I can more easily check for areas where DEM data is missing. TF needs to supply more feedback so the user can see where the DEM data is missing.

To explain a bit further, I'd be happy to use the 30m auto-download dataset, but I found it to be quite out of registration with the 2D topo and aerial datasets such that the trail along the edge of the Porcupine Rim dropped off the edge a few times - really messes up the track elevation profile. The DEM data is aligned better (and has higher resolution) - that's why I'm trying to use it for the elevation data (via Climbing Analysis) for the trail track.

(Sorry for the double post. I got an error the first time.)

6

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Universal coordinate input

« on: April 19, 2005, 09:46:26 PM »

I find coordinates on websites, maps, etc. in many different formats. It would nice if TopoFusion were able to decipher pretty much any coordinate format. It would also be nice if the Goto Coordinate function had an option (check box) to mark a waypoint at the location in conjunction with centering the screen on the place. I would love to be able to copy coords from a website and paste them into one dialog in TF to create a waypoint there. Quick and easy.

It seems to me that there aren't that many valid coordiante formats and code for parsing them should be doable.

7

Archived - Feedback and Comments / World Wind

« on: April 07, 2005, 10:50:39 AM »

Played around with a program called World Wind last night. Pretty cool - kind of like Keyhole. Starts with a view of the globe you can pan and zoom. Multiple data sets to choose from. As you zoom closer more detailed tiles are loaded from servers on the Internet. Elevation data is included so you can view in 3D (with adjustable exageration). Not real useful for planing routes and such, but sure a cool toy to play with. Maybe some of these data sets could be used by TF?

worldwind.arc.nasa.gov

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Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: better waypoint management

« on: April 03, 2005, 03:04:32 PM »

Waypoint management could be improved. Seems most features of TF center around tracks, which are cool, but I still use waypoints quite a bit.

First, when downloading waypoints from a GPS, it would be nice if TF let you choose the points you want to import and select a file to put them in - much like the dialog you get when downloading tracks. I store a lot of waypoints in my GPS, but usually I only want to download the ones from my most recent trip into TF. So as TF is now I have to download all of the waypoints and then delete the ones I don't want.

I would also like to be able to cut/copy and paste waypoints between GPX files. Sometimes I put a waypoint in the wrong file and it would be slick to be able to select that waypoint, cut it then paste it into another file, rather than have to edit the GPX files manually.

It would also be nice to have a way to project a waypoint to the elevation (DEM) data to use that elevation for the waypoint. GPS doesn't measure elevation very accurately, so the DEM data should be better. Not a terribly useful feature, but might have some uses.

9

Archived Support / OnEarth blocked?

« on: March 29, 2005, 04:47:58 PM »

I heard back from the webmaster of the OnEarth server. He had blocked the IP of our company because of a spike in download traffic from our site. Oddly he said the image data (LandSat) downloads were the ones that got us blocked, not the DEM data downloads. He removed the block and DEM and LandSat are working again.

He gave TopoFusion a spin and seemed impressed by what it can do. But there may be a concern of TopoFusion putting too much load on their server. I'm awaiting his permission to forward our e-mail correspondence to the TF developers. If I get an OK I'll send it to the "suggestions" e-mail address.

I'm posting this here because I feel users and the developers may be interested in this issue. Devs, you may want to think more seriously about caching DEM data if the OnEarth server will be sensitive to the load caused by TF.

Lastly, you will be blocked from the OnEarth server if you go through an open proxy. They also block sites for national security reasons.

10

Archived Support / OnEarth blocked?

« on: March 25, 2005, 05:06:36 PM »

I think JPL is blocking me from work. I can access the OnEarth server from my ISP I use at home. I'll send an e-mail to the OnEarth webmaster and see what's up.

11

Archived Support / OnEarth blocked?

« on: March 25, 2005, 02:00:07 PM »

Ran TopoFusion today and got an error when I tried the 3D mode - said something about Error -5 decoding PNG file. Went to the JPL OnEarth server and found only an error page. Is the service just down or are they moving or taking the service down because of TF users?

I can't help but comment that if the 3D data was cached I'd still be able to view 3D in areas I've already downloaded.

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Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: Add trackpoints

« on: March 23, 2005, 08:18:39 AM »

I asked a similar question a while back. With the Select Point tool click on a track point then press the Insert key and two new points will be added on either side of the selected point and half the distance to the next and previous points. If you only wanted new points on one side, just delete the new point on the other side (select it and press the Delete key).

New to version 2.5 is the ability to pan in any mode. (I suggested this a while back and the devs put it in 2.5 - woohoo!) Just hold down the Ctrl key and click and drag (left mouse button). I suggested the right mouse button and the Ctrl key methods, but the devs liked the Ctrl key better I guess.

13

Archived - Feedback and Comments / coordinate display behavior

« on: March 18, 2005, 10:11:49 AM »

A minor suggestion:

When the mouse pointer moves off of the map graphics area/window I'd like the lat/lon display (in the toolbar) to indicate the location of the center of the map. Right now it shows the location where the pointer left the area (edge). It would also be nice if you could copy the lat/lon to the clipboard for pasting into other applications. Perhaps right-clicking the lat/lon area of the toolbar would pop-up a small menu with "Copy to clipboard" being an option.

Better yet, in Pan mode (and perhaps other modes) how about a right-click pop-up menu to grab the lat/lon under the pointer? Sure would make it easy to quickly grab coordinates of a map.

Yes, you can accomplish this with waypoints, but it's more cumbersome.

14

Archived Support / Garmin GPS-III+ tracks missing data ?

« on: March 18, 2005, 09:59:31 AM »

This is what we were seeing. I had no idea the time data was stripped from saved tracks. Makes sense if you use saved tracks as Garmin intended - a route you can bring up and follow - doesn't need time for this use.

Thank you for this info. I wasn't sure what was going on.

15

Archived Support / map information

« on: March 18, 2005, 09:55:22 AM »

Me too. It would be nice if this info were in the top or bottom status bar so it's always available, but a small pop-up box would work too.

16

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Google Maps

« on: March 16, 2005, 10:25:00 AM »

I would also love to be able to import my topo map data from National Geographic TOPO! since the detail and resolution on those maps is very good.

Topofusion is stronger in most features than TOPO! now. The main thing I still go back to TOPO! for is printing maps. I know the devs are aware of this - hope to get good map printing in Topofusion soon. It would also be nice if you could add notes in TF. This is very handy in TOPO! for annotating maps (i.e. turn here, good place to camp, etc.).

17

Archived Support / Garmin GPS-III+ tracks missing data ?

« on: March 10, 2005, 01:00:50 PM »

A friend has a Garmin GPS-III+ that he used to record a mountain bike run. When we downloaded the track data we saw some tracks that had time stamps and elevations but other that didn't. Obviously this data is useful in Topofusion for many of the analysis features. Anyone know why this happens? Is there a setting in the GPS unit?

18

Archived Support / DEM resolution, v2.5

« on: March 08, 2005, 09:46:20 PM »

Krein, thank you for reply and the info on 3D - good stuff.

Yes, I was seeing the "flat" areas because the 3D view was only partially covered by an available DEM so the rest was flat.

I'll take your word that rendering a 3D scene with 10m DEM data mixed with 30m auto-download data is not easy and may not be worth development time. Still, perhaps you can throw the idea onto the wishlist.

Just some feedback: it seems cumbersome to be locked into a DEM, US or World mode especially since there is no fast way to switch between them. Perhaps hotkeys could be defined so you can switch between DEM, US and World and then press "R" to re-render the 3D scene. Better yet, what if TF used the datasets more intelligently based on zoom level. You are correct that 10m data is overkill for viewing large areas and it takes longer to render because so much data must be loaded and processed. So how about switching from 10m to 30m elevation data once the user zooms out past some point - much like you do for the 2D datasets (1m, 2m, 4m, 16m, etc.). Seems natural to me that 3D operates similar to 2D mode in this regard. Maybe even have a slider like for 2D so the user can set this switch-over level/threshold.

Lastly, I agree that with the new auto-download of 30m data, there isn't much sense in gathering 30m DEM files. I only have 10m DEMs in my collection.

19

Archived Support / DEM resolution, v2.5

« on: March 07, 2005, 10:17:43 PM »

I've been playing with the 3D features of 2.50 and I like the auto-download feature, but it would be nice if TF could use any available elevation data to render 3D topography. Let me explain:

Currently in the "3d Options" dialog there are three settings for "Data source":

- Use DEM files if available
- Always download (US only)
- Always download (World)

If I have DEM files selected I see 3D topography in the DEM coverage area but flat (sea level?) topography outside this area.

But if I switch to download US I will see 3D topography everywhere (unless the data doesn't exists on the server or the server is unreachable).

Why can't I set TF to use DEM files and then for areas outside my DEM coverage have TF auto-download the missing elevation data? Is it an issue with creating 3D meshes (polygons) with two different densities? It shouldn't be that hard to do.

As the icing on the cake, it would be nice if TF reported what elevation dataset is in use in the 3D view (under the blue center ball). Maybe down in the status bar.

Krien commented that he doesn't notice much difference between 30m and 10m resolution - but I sure do! I live in Utah and mostly use TF to "virtually explore" areas in southern Utah which has some rather extreme topography in places. The 10m data dramatically improves the visualization of these areas.

Here's a view of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park using 30m resolution elevation data:



Now here's the same view with 10m data:



Pretty noticeable improvement to me.

20

Archived Support / No Maui ?

« on: March 03, 2005, 10:54:53 PM »

After using Topofusion to look around Oahu, I went to go look at the other Hawaiin Islands. For some reason only the east edge of Maui shows up but then disapears when you move west. Go to this coordiante and then pan left and up to see what I mean:

20° 15.677' N
155° 52.564' W

Easiest to see in Topo 64m or higher. Seems like the longitude is screwed up here. Is this a zone boundary issue?

Overall I'm very impressed with Topofusion and this new version in particular. So much so that I finally stopped "evaluating" and paid the paltry $40 registration. Keep up the good work!

21

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature Request: Date info on aerial photos /maps

« on: January 29, 2005, 07:51:18 PM »

If the data is available, I'd also like to know the quad name.

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Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: compress DEMs

« on: December 28, 2004, 01:44:43 PM »

For compression, you could use the free (of cost and patents) zlib (source and DLL available).

Pulling elevation data from a server sounds nifty. I'd like to read up on this NASA server and dataset, is it the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data?

It would be nice if TopoFusion continued to support DEMs - especially if there might be holes in the elevation data from the server.

Thanks for the reply!

23

Beta Testing / No Dems?  How about 3D with track elevation only?

« on: December 10, 2004, 04:43:24 PM »

Not sure how useful this feature is, but it is cool that you 1) thought of this idea, and 2) made it work! I'm reading a 9 on my gee-whiz-ometer.

24

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: compress DEMs

« on: December 07, 2004, 09:26:30 AM »

With the (fairly) new 3D features in TopoFusion, I'm starting to collect a good set of DEM files. While hard disk space is cheap these days, at close to 10 MB per "quad" I already have more DEM data than map tile data. A while ago I ZIPed up a few DEM files to send to a friend and noticed that they compress pretty good - down to 2-3 MB or so. I'd like TopoFusion to compress DEM files - either as an option or standard - unless it would slow down TF too much to do the decompression.

25

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: project tracks to 3D

« on: December 07, 2004, 09:19:32 AM »

Thanks. Funny thing is I found this just before going to bed last night (too late to post a reply).

This is a nice feature that has more uses than just for climbing analysis. Perhaps it should be accessible via the pop-up menu that appears when you press the right mouse button?

While I really like TopoFusion and all the cool things it can do, its User Interface (UI) sems to be getting harder to navigate. You may want to rethink how the various functions are accesssed. Are they logically grouped? Can they be accessed conveniently? Are they easy to access when the user is in a particular mode? For instance, I feel the function for using DEM data to alter the elevation data of track points should be easily accessible when in the Profile and Playback tool (mode).

Just something to think about. TopoFusion is still my favorite mapping program because you guys have rejected the limitations other mapping programs have accepted. TopoFusion helps me explore, plan routes, and use my GPS data better than any other program. It just seems that new features are being added quickly and maybe it's time to take another look at the UI to make sure all these cool new features are easy to find and are "located in the right place".

[Quote]

26

Archived Support / How to build on an existing 'Track'?

« on: December 06, 2004, 10:38:31 PM »

Quote (Krein @ Dec. 02 2004,7:56)

Actually you can use the arrow keys to pan around the map at any time, including when you are drawing a track.

The arrow keys work OK, but how about using the Ctrl key to toggle into Pan Map mode no matter what primary mode you are in. For instance, say I'm editing a track with the Point tool and I need to see more of the track off to the left so I hold down the Ctrl key which causes the mouse cursor to change to the Hand icon and now when I press the left mouse button I can pan the map to the left - release the Ctrl key and I'm back in Point tool mode.

I've used many programs which operate like this and it makes it incredibly easy and fast to "draw" and move around.

Or perhaps the middle mouse button could be dedicated to be the Pan button.

27

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Feature request: project tracks to 3D

« on: December 06, 2004, 09:02:46 PM »

I have a feature request:

If I have DEM files for a particular area, I'd like to be able to project a track onto this 3D "surface". This would be handy for drawing a track by hand (2D) then adding the 3D info of the DEM to generate an elevation profile. I have wanted to do this several times when looking for routes in unknown terrain. The 3D view is very handy for this, but an elevation profile for a proposed route is better.

I would also like to use this feature for tracks imported from a GPS. My GPS doesn't have an altimeter and often has poor elevation data. I'd like to be able to convert these tracks to use the DEM elevation data.

28

Archived Support / website OK ?

« on: November 16, 2004, 02:31:45 PM »

Is the TopoFusion website OK? It came up this morning for me but was unreachable since Saturday.

29

Archived Support / Add to tracks ?

« on: October 31, 2004, 08:02:02 PM »

Is there a way to add track points? My GPS shut off a few times so there are gaps in the tracks and I'd like to add some points and also join the two ends.  Can this be done?

30

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Fast DEM downloads

« on: October 13, 2004, 08:54:45 PM »

A bit of registration hassle, but I've had fast, free DEM downloads at MapMart:

http://www.mapmart.com/DEM/DEM.htm

I used bogus registration info and have been downloading DEMs over 150 Kb/s with DSL. MapMart has a nice map that you can zom in on (if you zoom in far enough it shows you the quad name) and select the DEMs you want to download. Uncompress the tar.gz file then convert it with SDTS2DEM.exe and copy the resulting DEM to TopoFusion.