Beta 3.976 - New Maps and new Combo mode

[ScottMorris]

Here are some notes about the latest beta(s).  (v3.974 - v3.976)

New in this version are some very exciting new map types, including new
topo maps courtesy of myTopo.com and street maps from the Open Street Map
project.  

• Note that your map index file (MapIndex.dat) will be upgraded
  the first time you run the software, and that previous versions of TF will
  not be able to read it anymore.  So it is not recommended to downgrade to
  any previous version.
  
• None of the new map types are available in the batch download tool.  This is by design -- none of the new servers allow batch downloading.
  
• They ARE available to be exported to newer Garmin units as custom maps.
  
• The myTopo maps are awesome!  They are a huge upgrade in clarity, plus they often have forest road numbers and trail numbers (Forest Service updates).
  
• If you are looking for a printed map service, try myTopo (http://mytopo.com), they have been very easy to deal with and have a very nice product.  We are very fortunate to be able to use their map service.
  
• The new combo mode allows any map type to be combined with any other.  This can lead to some really cool combinations.  Color and myTopo is my favorite at the moment (see image of Gooseberry Mesa), but being able to combine color with the Land Ownership layer is also very useful.  Fading between different aerial photos can show trails/roads/buildings appearing and disappearing.
  
• TIGER is done.  Use the new street maps instead.  They are much better!
  

Any bugs or comments, please post here or drop us an email.  Thanks!

[LDWhite68]

Besides the error that I bugreported to you upon install to the new beta, it's displaying some funny behavior for gpx points text. When I restarted the program after the freeze-up, it mostly seemed fine. But the displayed text field from my points disappears every time that I pan. If I right-click anywhere on the map, then they reappear. (I'm running in Vista.) I'll see what else I can break now.

[sarlabs]

I got a problem as not all mapsets are displaying. SOme do fine, like the B&W aerial and MyTopo but not the color, level 0.06 and below do not display (and those are the levels I generally use), topo does not display under 4m and topoWMW does not display under 0.015.

I thus cannot really play with the new Combo mode 

Amir K9CHP

[ScottMorris]

Shoot.  Amir is this the first time you installed any of 3.974 -> 3.976 ? 

I'll be out most of the today on the trail, but can try to debug after that.  Thanks.

[sarlabs]

Bang! Bang! Bang! You said shoot, right?
I updated to 3.975 on June1st then to 3.976 today.

Screen capture3 is interesting as you can see the tiles well south of the area but not the actual ones under the track.

Now could it be a Department of Homeland Insecurity thing? All the locals know about the nuke power plant and have free access to iodine tablets etc...

I'm checking that on my laptop which has an older, functional TF version on it 3.973.

Guess what it is getting complex. COLOR works on my laptop, no problems, TOPO is the same on 73 and 75! doesn't work in magnification! TOPOWNS also does not work on magnification on both computers/versions.

It it were DHS the first one to bum out should have been the COLOR. So is it a TF problem or a DHS puck up?

One thing I know for sure, this is a LOCAL geographical problem as I cannot reproduce it at my home location on the map. So I bet that 99.99999% of the users would never know about it, but my last search was in that area...

BTW, my GPS and computer have both topos and aerials from that area, so it is not as it is a real hush, hush location. On a clear day the plant is visible to the naked eye miles away, even from Syracuse NY...



Amir K9CHP

[ScottMorris]

Hmm, so it looks like you are getting existing maps you had downloaded, but having trouble with new maps?

MSRMaps was having issues, but they resolved this morning.  Did you get any 'having trouble contacting terraserver' message?

It appears there is a problem with converting map index files for some people (have received two crash reports now from first run), but if you already upgraded and it was working before with the previous beta, that probably is not the issue.

So, maybe it is just server hiccups?

[ScottMorris]

Just a quick note, 3.977 beta is released which fixes the error converting the map index file that LDWhite68 reported (also Ken F).  I believe that the index file was still converted correctly for those users that had 3.976 converting it, so they should be fine -- it just caused TF to crash after converting the index file.

If you installed and ran 3.975 or 3.974 (previous betas) the conversion already went through 100% and there is no need to get 3.977.

Hopefully that makes sense.  Thanks guys.

[apertome]

I've been really enjoying the MyTopo maps. However, I have a weird issue where not all tiles are loading. This occurs in a couple of different places, it seems like TF thinks it has the tiles, but it doesn't. I've tried zooming in and out and disabling/re-enabling internet downloading, but no dice.

I think when I first installed it, it may have had trouble downloading some of the tiles. I'm not seeing that problem anymore, so I think it's just a problem of TF thinking these couple of tiles are cached, when they aren't.



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[ScottMorris]

Hi,

That looks like it might be a problem on myTopo's side.  Try going to myTopo's online google maps:

http://www.mytopo.com/maps/

See if the map loads there or not.  I believe I have seen the same thing in a couple other places, and the coverage just isn't there for some reason.  One thing to try is the 'reload maps' tool, which will force a re-download of the tile you click on.

The myTopo folks are keen on fixing errors, so I think they'd appreciate a report if you do find it's an error on their side.

Thanks for the post.

[apertome]

Scott,

You're right, the problem is on MyTopo's side. I'll file a report with them. Thanks!