aerial photo

[jimP]

Can I use my own aerial photo? I have digital ortho @ NAD 83 of my farm. It is a SID file

[Krein]

Nope, presently only maps from Terraserver and On-earth are supported in TopoFusion.  Many factors (including user requests) are pushing us towards supporting user maps.

Thanks for the interest.

[hardwire]

Cool, maybe a user map layer that can be partially transparent with one of the other layers to make it easier to get registered???  Maybe a similar implementaion as "COMBO" but with a user map  '>

Quote (Krein @ Feb. 12 2006,2:01)

Nope, presently only maps from Terraserver and On-earth are supported in TopoFusion.  Many factors (including user requests) are pushing us towards supporting user maps. Thanks for the interest.

User maps would be a great option. We do aerial photography and could definitely make use of this.

[Glossy]

Here's another vote for implementing user maps in TF.  It would save me a lot of time and effort to add at least one user layer to the photo and topo layers.  I have two immediate uses for this requested feature.

1)  I could scan plat book pages for use during real time tracking so that I can verify that I am exploring public lands and not trespassing on private land.  Currently, I've painstakingly plotted public land boundaries by hand drawing tracks around each section's (square mile) acreage.  I have plotted over 700 parcels of public land by hand just in my area of Michigan and would like to use user maps instead for future public land endeavors.

2)  I could scan maps available for recreation areas, such as Isle Royale National Park, that contain information not available on the USGS topo sets.  There are many paper maps available that it is impractical to duplicate their information for TF use that the user maps feature would enable, ie park trail systems, facilities locations, parking areas, etc.

Thanks for TF and your efforts thus far.

[brian.r.hamilton]

This looks like a good place to add a plug for support for "user supplied" map data - scanned jpg, gif, tif, or whatever format.  This is the only significant feature ExpertGPS has over TopoFusion right now.  I'm finding it absolutely invaluable when exploring new areas using old paper maps of "lost" trails!  I've been doing this a lot lately - very fun!

In fact, TopoFusion could get one leg up on ExpertGPS by improving the calibration procedure when adding this feature.  All it would take would be an easier way to obtain the coordinates of a calibration point from another downloaded reference map.  These have to be entered manually in ExpertGPS right now.  This is error-prone & time consuming, usually involving a pencil & paper.  It would be nice to be able to just go to the calibration point on the reference map (TF topo layer for example) & just right-click "copy coordinates", then go back to the scanned map layer & paste those coordinates!

Better yet would be to right-click on the user map to "add calibration point", switch layer to reference map, right-click "set calibration point" on the reference map, repeat for all 3 calibration points!  That would be really much faster & very cool!

Maybe just have a calibration point tool where a calibration point is similar to a waypoint in that you simply click on the map to create it except it is layer specific.  To align the calibration points between a user-map & reference map, the user could simply give the points the same name in a properties dialog or something?

Lots of ways to do the calibration I suppose, but something simpler & faster than ExpertGPS uses would be greatly appreciated.  User maps are a GREAT feature, but the calibration needs to be simple & fast!

So can TF beta this feature before my trial of ExpertGPS runs out in 15 days?  '>

[tymbee]

Quote (Guest @ Mar. 22 2006,8:25)

User maps would be a great option. We do aerial photography and could definitely make use of this.

Another aerial photographer, Topofusion user here who would love to see a custom map feature!

[rpiontek]

I would like to create my own basemaps, along with my gps routes, from pre-existing maps.  What I really need is to trace the roads on a road map, which I will add to my trail data.  There are other ways to do this, but it would be most convenient if it could be done in topofusion!  I have already purchased topofusion, but I will try out expertgps tonight because of this feature.