Author Topic: Give us your ideas for improving TopoFusion  (Read 15150 times)

Krein

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Give us your ideas for improving TopoFusion
« on: September 25, 2006, 10:04:26 PM »
Some of the best features (my favorite, anyway) have come from our users.  We pride ourselves on being a small company that can respond quickly to user input.

With that said, how can we make TopoFusion better?  What's missing or needs improvement?

Even better, what hasn't been done yet in the GPS/Mapping/Athletics/Cool Graphics world?  The crazier the idea, the better.

We're all ears.

Bosti

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« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2006, 04:06:22 AM »
Hi!

Just implement feature to add (import) UTM maps in tif/tfw format... and TopoFusion will be the best program :-)

Bostjan

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« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2006, 10:17:25 PM »
How about shapefile import/export support? I thought I saw some talk/interest in this some time ago on your website. Shapefiles are old, but are arguably the most common basic GIS data type so it would be a logical choice if it were decided to go this route. A technical description is here: http://support.esri.com/index.c....aID=254

Keep up the good work.

Gavin

haroow

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« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2006, 01:10:24 PM »
When using the Goto for a coordinate, have a dot or some symbol show the coordiante in its  position on the map. that would be great for geocaching.

Larry

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« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2006, 05:09:20 PM »
I think I mentioned this idea some time ago, but how about being able to tint or shade the black and white tile overlays in the 3D view? It's fairly easy to export a view and do this in PhotoShop, but it would be way cool to have it done internally.

Larry

Ps: might be another excuse to upgrade the video card when Vista comes out.  '<img'>

Bosti

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« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2006, 10:55:31 AM »
What about adding a WMS by user?

Bosti

HammerDown

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« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2006, 12:34:19 PM »
How about integrating APRS data into TopoFusion?

APRS  is the Automatic Position Reporting System, an open-standard radio-modem data telemetry protocol.

From http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html :

"The Automatic Packet Reporting System was designed to support rapid, reliable exchange of information for local, tactical real-time events or nets. The concept is that each station with new information transmits his new data to everyone in the net and every station captures that information for consistent and standard display to all participants. Since the primary objective is consistent exchange of information between everyone, [APRS]  also establishes guidelines for display so that users of different systems will still see the same consistent information displayed in a consistent manner (independent of the particular maping system in use). "

In practical terms, this means that with an Amateur Radio (HAM), a GPS, a radio modem, and the interface between these, data from the GPS can be sent over the radio to a receiving station, a laptop connected to a radio modem and a recieving radio.  There are several retail mapping softwares that are already set up to process recieved APRS data, which effectively allows the mapping software to display real-time position data overlaid on the map image.

An example of how this works with Google Earth can be viewed at GoogleAPRS.com .

I have spoken with a local (Mesa, AZ) Wilderness Search and Rescue volunteer group, and they would love to see something like this integrated into a mapping software as useful and as affordable as TopoFusion.   If there is any way that this could be done, we would love to help get the ball rolling.

Many thanks,

HammerDown

dumketu

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« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2006, 08:59:44 AM »
I'd like to see photofusion get more robust - e.g. being able to click on the icon and see the picture in the program itself and even stamping the geocoords on the photo. Have to use other software for this at the moment.

Brian

twochins

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« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2006, 12:41:09 PM »
Printing.  I want TF to be better at printing, more options for how the screen is printed

dumketu

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« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2006, 08:24:09 AM »
I like the new GIS layers capability. Add the option to have an icon for the cities and the ability to change the font for the labels. Also, ability to create custom gis layers would be nice. (I have several files of cities outside the US I would like to use in this feature.) Speaking of icons, I would like to have more options for Icons.

Brian

Krein

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« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2006, 07:42:20 AM »
Thanks for the input thus far.  Some good ideas, and reinforcement of old ones.

Keep it coming.  Some of this stuff will be faster to add in the upcoming Direct3D version of TopoFusion.

Larry

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« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2006, 05:34:17 AM »
One way to solve the icon problem might be to package them in a file that could be edited by the user with a photo editor. You can do this with NGS Topo! for example.

Also, it would be a big help if one could delete .gpx files directly from TF. I have a huge collection of them, many not needed (planning files, etc.) and currently I have to review them and then pencil down which ones to delete, and later delete them. OK, that's what I should do --- but I'm too lazy.  ':p'

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« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2006, 02:58:28 PM »
How about the baility to export a video file of the track playback?  

The ability to use custom icons (like th erunner of cyclist) would be cool too.  

Thanks for a great product that keeps getting better!

Larry

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« Reply #13 on: October 28, 2006, 08:56:46 AM »
Just browsing and came across this:

Could the 3D features in TF be speeded up with this method?


http://www.okino.com/conv/imp_dem.htm


"Features of the DEM Converter:


DEM datasets typically contain 60000 or more quadrilateral polygons, or 1200000 triangles (for a 258x258 resolution sample; the maximum DEM dataset size if 2050x2050 which would result in 4.2 million quadrilaterals or 8.4 million triangles). This is an enormous number of polygons for most 3d rendering programs so this DEM converter incorporates two unique options to overcome this problem:

The converter can skip over samples in the dataset so that only every n-th sample is used. Rather than importing 258x258 samples, the converter imports 51x51 samples (for a skip factor of 5) which results in only 2601 quadrilateral polygons. [don't think this one would be that useful. LR]


Rather than store the entire DEM dataset in single object, the DEM converter breaks up the data into multiple smaller objects with a common parent. This has shown to be an effective method to speeding up the wireframe redraws of the DEM data (by a factor of 2 or 3), and makes interactive user movement of a 3d camera much faster since each sub-object is only a few hundred polygons. In addition, certain rendering programs (such as Okino's NuGraf renderer) use much less memory when many smaller objects are used rather than one large object with many polygons. By default each sub-object stores a maximum of 900 polygons; contrast this with other converters which lump all 120,000 polygons into a single object - few renderers will be able to render such a large object.


A default 3d camera is added to the scene which views the DEM data from a pleasing angle.


u/v texture coordinates are added to the imported data so that a bitmap image can be easily draped over the DEM data.


The converter creates smoothed vertex normals for the DEM data so that it will appear to be smooth when rendered. "

m38a1guy

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« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2006, 03:45:36 PM »
Sounds neat, but I would just like to see cashing and if not that atleast MORE visible area that just a small section of 3D terrain, the only way to get more of a view is to zoom out and you dont get the feel of it. I know some programs have continious horizons so it looks like you see a 3d work when viewing the 3dmaps. That would be nice instead of Black edges to nowhere until you move there. lol

thmecharlie

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« Reply #15 on: July 29, 2008, 10:47:29 AM »
when viewing Lenior NC  with topo 4m map is correct, switch to 2m an kings mountain in Cherokee County is to the east. What gives?  '<img'>

ScottMorris

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« Reply #16 on: July 29, 2008, 11:48:48 AM »
I see what you mean.

This is definitely a Terraserver issue.  They have a bad offset or a bad map in there.

Unfortunately there isn't that much we can do about it.  There is a "map nudge" feature that you could toggle on and off when using that area.  This is assuming you can figure out the correct offset (probably need some GPS data in the area to do this).  

Sorry about the issue.  I'd suggest contacting Terraserver to see if they are aware of the issue in that locale.
Scott Morris - founder and co-author of TopoFusion
email: smorris@topofusion.com

thmecharlie

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« Reply #17 on: July 29, 2008, 12:03:48 PM »
yes terraserver is guilty as charged, same on their site. have contacted them will keep you posted.
i have delorme topo and street atlas, TOPO backroad explorer, and Topo explorer, your images are sharper, better selection, and faster. using a triton gps and is cumbersome from Topofusion but i manage, works good with my meridian '<img'>  Thanks

WVHunter129

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« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2008, 06:49:46 AM »
Printing needs to be more user friendly with options to select print/paper size.  I like to print to the a plotter so I can get 11x17 or 24x36 inch, etc. size drawings that shows all the terrain that I have covered while riding my ATV or to show all the boundary of my hunting lease.  Yes I can do that on an 8-1/2x11, but no detail because of having to zoom out so far to see the entire trail or he entire hunting lease boundary.  Adding options to print size would be a big benefit to the software.

ScottMorris

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« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2008, 09:42:00 AM »
Quote (WVHunter129 @ Sep. 23 2008,8:49)
Printing needs to be more user friendly with options to select print/paper size.  I like to print to the a plotter so I can get 11x17 or 24x36 inch, etc. size drawings that shows all the terrain that I have covered while riding my ATV or to show all the boundary of my hunting lease.  Yes I can do that on an 8-1/2x11, but no detail because of having to zoom out so far to see the entire trail or he entire hunting lease boundary.  Adding options to print size would be a big benefit to the software.

Yep, printing functionality needs to be expanded.

Right now the recommended strategy is to export to high resolution, then use a graphics program to print the resulting image (constrained to whatever paper size you want).

Thanks for the suggestion.
Scott Morris - founder and co-author of TopoFusion
email: smorris@topofusion.com