Messages

1

TopoFusion Pro / Re: using program with new user profile

« on: January 03, 2010, 05:11:32 PM »

That is what I may need to do.......give that profile admin rights then take away after the install.
For now I was able to do a patch......I clicked on a gpx file and that opened the program so I just removed the waypoint and put in a new one and saved it so the program opens up with the waypoint file which I stuck on my toolbar. It asked for my authentication info on the first go.....but the program is still not visible in the program list.

I should have thought this out first but I am carrying my laptop to team training and as a "just in case" backup unit for searches [or if I beat the trailer there]  and I want to password lock my personal stuff since I am the computer "admin". So creating a profile for the team to use made the most sense.

It is strange; all my other programs are acceissble. And I put the data files in the right folders on the other profile [and they do map to the new folders Documents folder too.]

2

TopoFusion Pro / Re: using program with new user profile

« on: January 03, 2010, 02:24:05 PM »

Afraid not. The new profle is not there but there is one for me as admin and one for me and users.............and I did check all those permissions and apply and ok........but still not there.

3

TopoFusion Pro / using program with new user profile

« on: January 03, 2010, 01:13:38 PM »

I have created a new user profile on my laptop and the program is not available in the profile
Do I have to reinstall the software while under that profile? My other programs are available.

I have copied my topofuion files over to the same directory in that foder but I cannot change my path when I log on the program in the profile under which I originally installed the program..........

Suggestions?

4

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Garmin Astro proposal

« on: January 03, 2010, 01:00:40 PM »

We just got our team astros and were play on "that other program" with putting a collar on the tracklayer and one on the dog and looking at the deviaiton between the lines -

But our intent is to use them on our air scent dogs to analyze coverage gaps.............trailing dogs and flanker GPS is "good enough"

So we may have several out at once. Just now getting comfortable with the GPS.

5

Beta Testing / Re: Beta v3.87 out! Shaded Relief

« on: September 08, 2009, 06:15:39 AM »

Amir, my "workaround " for the color maps is to export and re-import them and calibrate to the map on the screen. Takes less than 20 seconds but you do loose some quality but then you can lay the grids on them when you adjust the blend. That is part of why the batch download in the new versions was such a good idea because now I can just update my maps for our entire response area [almost] once a year or so. ---- of course we are lucky there are not zone lines in SC though a zone error is generated in the lowcountry that I don't "get".  But when we go to the lowcountry it is to help another team and they will have the maps.


They also scrunch up to align with the topos  [its "magic"]

6

Beta Testing / Re: Topo across zone boundaries

« on: September 07, 2009, 08:00:35 PM »

Now that you mention it I am used to gridded maps where the grid lines are not exactly veritical but in my own zone it is barely perceptible on a small scale. And when I calibrate the aerial and pull up topo it "fits" and the roads and streams etc are in the "right spot" relative to the topo.

So I gather the old topo maps we have downloaded are rotated to fit to vertical grid lines whereas the WMS maps are not?

Some of it may be old school. We can't always count on having computers up and running at a search scene though and being able to manually track positon of your crew by having them call in coordinates is a must and there have been times when we have had to give them a bearing to navigate to a pick up point for transport etc.  So I am always using a grid reader or, with topofusion maps, the little hashmarks to log points manually.

So there is little "preplanning" for them to work with - the are basically given an area to work however they best see fit and then we download their track when they git back- it is not like they ever go out with a route marked on a GPS to follow.

It has only really been a few years where GPS have been reasonably reliable in the heavy eastern deciduoius forests.......and it can still get dicey in a deep wooded ravine.

7

Beta Testing / Re: Beta v3.87 out! Shaded Relief

« on: September 07, 2009, 06:35:58 PM »

Used the new feature - nice. Did see though that you have to be careful with angle because it can make your drainages look like ridges at certain angles.

The download issue I have experienced I believe is related to the older topo with the UTM issue.  The ability to control the aerial download is a blessing!

The topoWMS downloaded quickly and perfectly and I think the maps look better.  I sure hate the possible idea of loosing printed maps with UTM grids though!

The FEMA default is now USNG, which is the old MGRS - I am not sure if there is a way I can use this or not with these shapefiles as that is all voodoo to me at this stage.  It is easy enough to translate it from UTM in WGS84.........

http://mississippi.deltastate.edu/

Also Played with land ownership in a small area but did not do with batch download due to added file size but pretty cool.

8

Beta Testing / Re: Topo across zone boundaries

« on: September 07, 2009, 06:21:23 PM »

Hmmm what is a "tilted grid line"? There are most certainly depths of mapping that I am totally new to.

To me, the ability to do a combo map with a color / topo and being able to see the grid lines from the topo** would have more use.

**not the ones from the scan which are usually NAD27, but the WGS84 grid.

9

Beta Testing / Re: Topo across zone boundaries

« on: September 07, 2009, 09:06:59 AM »

Since I was playing with batch download today and thought I would try WMS - I was surprised when I could not get the UTM grid and found this thread on a search.

Opinion - keep the option for the UTM grid. How else are you going to take a field map with you and plot your location unless you have a fancy mapping GPS and - GPS has continued to improve over the years but is not 100% even now.

Up until topifusion, the only thing that kept me bound to Maptech was the ability to print with UTM grids.

10

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Problems saving gpx files in Vista

« on: September 04, 2009, 08:06:43 AM »

I don't know whether it helps or not but EVERYTHING got better when I updated my graphics drivers. I was having freezes, jerky motion, all kinds of little problems and it made a world of difference.  I have Vista 64 home premium with a dedicated graphics card. My computer is new as of 8/21 but driver updated 8/27 and I updated a few days ago and got put on their notify list.

11

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 03, 2009, 11:12:37 AM »

It appears you pegged this issue with the graphics driver. Went to NVDIA website, found driver from August 27th [upgrade] installed and now maps are downloading properly [still server communication issues], the box is visible when I draw it, and the file size is coming in at a bit less than projected.

I will definitely look forward to the upgrade beta though.  Really for printed maps for individual areas no larger than about 5 x 10 kilometers, you really don't need the bigger color aerials - - - the issue in the field is, of course, downloading maps on an air card with a 5 gig per month limit it can add up not to mention the time issues when you need to hit the ground fast.

12

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 03, 2009, 07:53:19 AM »

THAT sounds like a plan - next beta.
 
They are both home computers - the 64 is a laptop while the "home computer" is just an XP clunker.

I will have to check the graphics card sw - it is a dedicated NIVIDEA Geoforce card with DirectX 10...........I am new to having a dedicated graphics card

13

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 03, 2009, 05:29:12 AM »

VISTA. I think VISTA 64 is the culprit.  I did batch download on a home computer with the demo version and it was fast and accurate and I could even see the area selection box while I was using it and the download was fast.

So I may blow everything away, do it on the XP computer, and copy the files to the Vista computer.  I did, however, remember just how smoothly everything worked. It was so different on the XP computer than on the Vista computer!

It would be nice to select WHICH color aerials to download though to save space.

14

TopoFusion Pro / Is there any way to delete map files

« on: September 03, 2009, 02:53:36 AM »

As you know I have been through batch download problems.

After manually loading 4m topos and .015 color tiles for the entire upstate of SC I decided to batch download all color aerials in a small section of same area. BIG mistake. my 800 meg download went over 6 gigs, does not contain all the color aerials - thank you microsoft for doing an update last night and shutting down my computer = AND = goes well outside of the box I delineated. I just want to cry.

Now if I delete files after the batch download started I am hosed because the map index thinks they are there and topofusion won't run. 

Is there any way to recover the work I did before I started the batch download or do I have to start all over again. I cannot live iwth the extra aerials because I want to put the files on other computers with smaller hard drives, it takes up too much space

I tried deleted the mapindex file but it did not recognize the existing maps when I reloaded so I had to restore it.......I think I am hosed

15

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 02, 2009, 08:43:01 AM »

Yes I was. No other tilesets were toggled. I don't get it either.

I am on 3.85 -

16

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 02, 2009, 07:36:31 AM »

The resulting files was 8 gig at about 30% complete. I am finding the occassional missing file in the ,manually scanned area [even though they all loaded before I moved to the next area]  but not much. -

 I think it said it the expected file size for the batch download should have been about 2 gigs - which sounds about right because the download all box had to be bigger than the area I wanted.

Sounds odd - don't know if the start/stop/server disconnect issue is to blame? Maybe each time it reconnected it redownloaded the same tiles? I really cannot make sense out of it.

17

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 02, 2009, 04:06:32 AM »

Scott, I am not sure I can figure out what the heck went on, but maybe this is helpful info.

I settled for now on JUST 4 meter tiles - all I want is good enough for a walking field map and that is.  NOW - download an area and I quit at 30% complete and, HONEST, 8 gigs and hours and hours of downloading and that was the ONLY checkbox checked [4 meter topos]. 

Decided to sit there and do it manually instead. About three fourths of same area [manually had some more control] and I downloaded the same area within about an hour [but was multitasking on another computer at the same time........Total space was about 1 gig so I have no idea what was going on.

-------------

Not sure of how to go back and snag the aerials but coming up with a strategy. Sure don't need ALL color aerials, just the 0.015 level

18

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 05:53:52 PM »

It is amazing all you do with this and I am sure a lot of folks are grateful because I will tell you many of the other products come with a very high cost ....

19

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 03:04:44 PM »

Strange..even at current ISP afterschool lag 10mbps [just tested] should get me a gig in an hour and a half - but I am only at 144 megs after an hour of downloading - but in that hour, 8 error messages.  Boy I sure don't get it. Maybe it is Vista, my computer, I don't know........The zone boundaries are not an issue I can stay inside of them.

20

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 01:05:01 PM »

I sure can't figure it out.

I thought I downloaded 2Meter topos and wound up with 64 meter BW aerials - tried again to get 2 meter topos and it said there were no tiles to download but if I go on map and enable downloading they feed in like normal ..........

Looks like color aerials downloaded fine but those darned topos keep freezing up even though I stayed clear of zone lines. They download fine the normal way. Just takes forever to keep moving the cursor.

21

Feature Requests / Some things that would help

« on: September 01, 2009, 12:28:02 PM »

I think some have been discussed before--------------------------------

Being able to do topo-fusion with the existing color aerials on the system

UTM Grids over those color aerials

MGRS [FEMA is using that now, actual using National Grid Reference System and both are a variant of UTM]

Dual coordinate displays

22

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 12:15:50 PM »

I am also getting some issues with downloading across zone lines - topos. Had that happen yesterday - that was not batch downloading but just downloading an area.

Now that is not a big issue for me in the upstate of SC but there is a line in eastern NC/SC and in GA.

Right now I have been downloading solid for 3.5 hours without a glitch but this morning it was very screwy and was yesterday too.

Now lets say in 6 months I want to check for new aerials. If I download again will it only take the new maps or does it know?

That is very nice about being able to copy the maps over. Maptech is so darned proprietary. [and expensive] - their topos are nicer quality than terraserver but not enough to me to make a rats a of a difference

23

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 10:21:16 AM »

It just hangs there and does not restart. I think that is where I am seeing the problem. Even waiting for it to reconnect after 15-20 minutes and nothing happens. Oh, BTW, I have turned off my screensaver so nothing is hanging it up there.

That seems to be where it just hangs because I can exist and restart it by going through the whole process again.

 Yes I figure that will take awhile - it is the area our SAR team covers and downloading at a search - if you have phone coverage - is not only expensive but time consuming. I wanted to preload those maps for that area.

Fast ........ no I was not expecting that ........ even with 20mbps download speed verifed on speedtest........just do the math.

The other thing I am hoping is that since we have a 5 user license - is that when I upgrade the other computers [which are much slower] to the current version I can also replace the existing map data with the stuff I am downloding by deleting the data files on the other computers and just taking my downloaded files, copy to DVD, and pasting in the folder.

24

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 08:50:37 AM »

I was starting at the dropdown box to do a batch upload instead of using the little curvy arrows. Now I figure out that when I draw the box I cannot see it until it is done and the area pops up and the box opens.

Where it seems to hang is that at some point in the download the communication is lost with the server and not re-established and I have to start all over. Hopefully I am not downloading maps I have already downloaded for a second time.

Not sure what a is realistic size area is to download.  Right now I am trying to do about 1/4 of South Carolina - hanging up on color aerials; that is the only thing I am trying to do right now

25

TopoFusion Pro / Batch download woes

« on: September 01, 2009, 06:25:52 AM »

I am having a dog of a time with this tool.

I seem to not be able to get the box drawn. I suceeded once out of about 20 attempts and saved it as a gpx file, thinking maybe I could use the same area to download again but it did not get me anything, although when the program goes to not responding, and it closes and I have to reload the box comes back up and laughs at me but I can't seem to load.

Are there any step by step directions. It really is just not working. I have Vista 64, Home Premium, logged on as admin if that makes any difference. 2.2 gig Intel premium core 2 duo and 4 G of RAM. Plenty of hard drive space.

26

TopoFusion Anouncements / Re: Terraserver not responding

« on: August 31, 2009, 07:33:44 AM »

Went on this morning and it is SCREAMING so I am downloading 2 meter topos for my entire state

They must have done some incredible upgrade because my new computer has a 2.2 ghz intel core duo processor and 4 megs of RAM and I am maxing out the CPU and using half of my RAM because I have changed my tilesets to only download the 2meter topos and have zoomed out as far as I can to allow download and am scanning with the arrow keys to pull all the tilesets.

27

TopoFusion Pro / Re: This is awful

« on: August 27, 2009, 05:47:17 AM »

Ok - I see this is an ongong issue........it is happening again this morning.

28

TopoFusion Pro / Re: This is awful

« on: August 27, 2009, 04:43:02 AM »

It was working better this am. Surprisingly not much faster than my old computer so I gather the terraserver servers are the bottleneck. 

Ah well I had to get another computer anyway because it was on my work computer and I knew that could not be a permanent solution.

29

TopoFusion Pro / This is awful

« on: August 26, 2009, 07:27:56 PM »

I bought a new fast 64 bit computer in part to help me download maps faster and run multiple programs simultaneously. It is on Vista. 

I keep getting "difficulty contacting servers messages even though I have enabled firewall acess. I don't think I use a proxy server = nothing else has asked for that and everything else is screaming fast I have zero problems watching tv and movies without discernable buffering - much faster than on my old slow xp computer.  I am at a loss. It keeps disabling downloading on me. I cannot download much of anything making the program worthless

What the heck is going on?

30

Feature Requests / More tweaks

« on: July 09, 2009, 08:29:43 PM »

I know it is buried again but that whole putting UTM grids over the aerial map thing.

Also, any chance for adding USNG coordinates?  Seeing more people starting to use them in adjacent states and it is standard for FEMA now

31

TopoFusion Pro / Ummm how do you upgrade to a newer version?

« on: July 06, 2009, 09:33:46 AM »

There has been one since I installed. Do you just download and install?

32

TopoFusion Pro / Re: saving as csv defaults to UTM

« on: June 16, 2009, 09:45:07 AM »

Works like a charm.

33

TopoFusion Pro / saving as csv defaults to UTM

« on: June 08, 2009, 06:58:52 PM »

Help! - I need to communicate waypoints from our searches to law enformcement in lat longs as opposed to UTMs.  When I go to save the file as a csv file which would be the easiest way to get them the data [so I can put it into a written report] , it defaults back to UTM, even if I change my preferences to Lats/Longs.  {we prefer to work in UTMs but our entire state law enforcement is set up on lats/longs in WGS 84}

Is there any way around this? All I want is tabular summary of waypoints, lat longs, and comments.

I can *see* them in the file properties box in lats and longs but it defaults back to UTM when I go to save and we are not going to be able to change an entire state over to UTM even though it is a much more sensible coordinate system.

Also, when I go to manually enter a waypoint is there anything I can do about the time - some of these show as 1969.

34

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Waypoint Icons

« on: April 19, 2009, 04:47:35 AM »

It kind of makes sense but I don't see a "default tracks" directory.

35

TopoFusion Pro / Waypoint Icons

« on: April 18, 2009, 05:27:56 AM »

I have read through dozens of threads and am still a bit confused
Is there anyway I can create bitmap icons and use them instead of the standard ones?
Can I clear the standard ones to simply my pick list?

What I am looking to do is create several different colored squares [circles would be nicer but squares are easier] with an "x" inside [very simple] since I want to mark places where people in the field will be calling in waypoints while they are out and I want to color code each person.

36

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 08, 2009, 10:30:17 AM »

I think having the entire shooting match [program and all] in one place [the USB drive] would make life simpler, particularly if we could also make folders and store our pictures and jpeg maps there.  I noticed this had been asked for before.

If not, I got to thinking that the *.ini points to drives by "letter" and was concerned that my USB drive is drive "K" on one computer and "E" on another if that would be an issue - so thinkng we might have to edit the ini file with switching between computers.

37

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 08, 2009, 08:21:12 AM »

I really think that stand alone USB version would be the way to go since it has already been requested.  This program is already great but that is something you *can* do with Maptech.  Given the file sizes and potential for growth being able to have everything on a USB drive would be awesome and meet several people's requests.

38

TopoFusion Pro / Re: print scaling for use with a grid reader

« on: April 07, 2009, 03:22:43 AM »

LOL, the SAR folks were using UTM grids while GPS was still a novelty and impaired by "selective availability" of the signal.  Just a lot easier to deal with than degree minute type systems.

The grid reader is the plastic I was referring to. You know the one that is exactly the size of a 1:24 000 UTM grid and is broken down like your hashmarks. Transparent peice of plastic with what looks like a graph

Sounds like some playing but once I figure it out can post.

It really is not necessary now based on the way the UTM has the hashmarks on it.

39

TopoFusion Pro / print scaling for use with a grid reader

« on: April 06, 2009, 08:14:15 PM »

Ok, I absolutely "get" that because your UTM marks have tickmarks you can throw away that peice of plastic.

But some people won't part with their UTM grid readers.  To my 53 year old eyes, I like having the big print edition of the map 

So if I want to print a map to "fit" - is there a magic setting so that the print output will be 1:24000 scaled properly?

40

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 03:45:57 PM »

That makes a lot of sense

That calibration export function would be a real plus - being able to take along those maps and load into any computer with topofusion installed would be a real boon!

Think about it. After a search we have to write a report but the team laptop needs to stay in the trailer ready for action.  But the person writing the report could take the USB stick and have the data right in front of them for the closure report.. 

You have resolved my last issue for the comparison [we have a meeting to make a final decision this Thursday, but even knowing that you may do that is an added boost - for now, I can write directions and assume they can just copy the ini file from the appropriate folder [which I can point to in application data] folder to the flash drive then from the flash drive to the team laptop application data folder 

This is a really fine program - on the surface it looks rough but underneath it has so much functionlity - even the little things like area calculation - much nicer than in the program we have been using.

41

TopoFusion Pro / Re: custom combo maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 12:45:47 PM »

Viola!  Thanks.  There is a learning curve here but that is GREAT. Don't even need most of the county maps!

42

TopoFusion Pro / Re: custom combo maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 11:39:52 AM »

Ok, the color maps are pretty recent and it is correct, cannot combo them with topo. I tried toggling. Though the image processing does allow to adjust the darkness of the color aerials.

I get that color is not supported in combo.

But if I could capture the screen output as a jpeg I could reimport and calibrate to the existing aerial and have a map that I can adjust transparency and over which I can lay a UTM grid.  I did try that by doing print screen, cropping etc and it worked just fine but being able to save to jpeg would save some steps.

That would be of great utility for me where I cannot get capture county GIS maps as JPEGs and at juncitons between county maps where they are on two different sites.

43

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 06:50:28 AM »

Scott, hope you don't mind my putting this here but maybe it helps some other SAR teams because I think I will point them to this program as was I. We are doing a comparison pros/cons between this and upgrading to Maptech and I like what we can do on your program better than Maptech. 

I figure out how to get maps on USB so our 20 gig hard drive is not a problem

Now, Let say we buy a 5 user license.  That would give 4 of us with the full version on our computers and 1 on the team laptop which lives in a trailer.  Could any one of the 4 of us do a quick download from home when we get the search call, download and calibrate a user map and save to USB by directing our maps to be saved on USB.

That way the first person on scene [with a USB] can pop the USB in the team laptop and be ready to go in minutes?

That is, are user added files stored in the maps data files?

Would musical USBs present a problem? 

That approach could keep us from having to buy an aircard and worrying about a signal in some of our search areas and could let us get the most up to date data available.

44

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 04:48:25 AM »

Another thing I am liking very much is that with Maptech TNP  the data lags - even now it is big bucks to get access to 2006 data when 2008/2009 data are available on county sites. And not that long ago the data was from 2000.  Then I find out you have to pay MORE to get the current roads.  And this is data that is constantly changing. I think the maps are a subscription to already out of date data and the roads is a one time buy to constantly changing data.

Your UTM grids are spot on.  We can print a map to a good scale for a searcher and not have to worry about scaling it to use a grid reader. The hashmarks and UTM numbers on the grids make it very user friendly even if you don't have the reader with you.

I do wish we could put grids over the color aerials though.

Given the size of maps, I think we may be looking at an air card - it makes more sense to me to download data as we need it instead of having huge monster files which have to be renewed. The calibration has gone down from about 15 minutes to two to three now that I am playing with it.

45

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 05, 2009, 04:28:30 AM »

Well, all the aerials from one county are in MrSID -AND- are expensive and I have already read about that. The other county has them available in ECW [they need a 300 gig USB drive to deliver]

I have gotten pretty handy with just taking jpegs off of the viewer and calibrating them - finding that calibrating to the color aerials here is pretty good and gives me the transparency for the topo lines; I am only doing that because I can't see that you can put grids over or adjust transparency of the color topos you can access through topofusion.

They are also all done in NAD83 across the state; I gather that is common and don't know what that means for the ECW shapefiles?

Will be coming back and asking about working off of an external drive.  Our computer does meet the requirements of the program but drive space is only a 20 gig drive and I can see this adding up.  The more I play with the program the more I like it; we downloaded some GPS data yesterday and compared to maptech it was very easy.

46

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 02, 2009, 02:20:53 PM »

I think I may have figured this out. My state, south carolina, has tons of GIS data on the web for free.
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/GIS/gisdata.html
I just have to figure out HOW to get it!  I am pretty sure I am going to be signing up on this product soon [we are trying to do a demo next week with team GPS and figure out how many people need to have the SW]

STET

It looks like the DNR data is OLD. There is newer data on the county websites that is for sale but it does not appear to be in the right format. So, we may need to make some calls to figure this out.

Nancy
www.scsarda.org

47

TopoFusion Pro / Using other [non Tiger] street maps

« on: April 02, 2009, 08:41:45 AM »

Is this possible and can this be done with a combo map?  How do user calibrated maps work? Can we get maps from our county GIS [these are online and very updated] and pull in for use?

I am playing with the demo now as our search and rescue team is looking at alernatives to upgrading to a newer version of Maptech, and morphing street maps with aerials and topos would be ideal [I am pretty sure the limitation here is two layers at a time but even that is not so bad].  The other issue with Maptech being one of GPS interface issues.

A problem with Tiger is the street data is too old for our section of the country which has shown tremendous growth in the past 5 years. Right now we wind up with our topo [ we need to print with UTM lines] and other maps such as street maps and aerials to supplement