Suggested Improvements

[smileyninja]

I've been a user of USAPhotomaps for 5 or 6 years to manage my GPS waypoints and locate them visually, to find landmarks/surface water nearby. While searching for an improvement I came upon TopoFusion.  I realize the focus of the program is for biking and trails/route mangement, however after looking at several other GPS Aerial programs I've come away a bit dissapointed.  None of these programs have exactly what I'm looking for- each one has several good features, but one or more deal breakers for me. (ExpertGPS-no .25m resolution maps, WW2D-no GPS support, WorldWind-limited to no waypoint management, high system requirements, etc).

 I think that TopoFusion might fulfill my needs- especially since the author's are actively looking for suggestions to make the product better.

 So here are some features that would really put this program over the top for me:

* improved access to waypoint information- something similar to ExpertGPS's way of searching for a particular waypoint (type and search at same time).

*Is there a way to change the default placeholder that is shown when downloading tiles?  The checkmark and downloading image is jarring and a bit intrusive for my tastes.  It's possible I'm just used to USAPhotomap's simple empty square.  However, if it's possible to put in a system like WorldWInd or WW2D, it would not be necessary to have placeholders.
[edited: After purchasing and trying out the latest version, I'm not noticing this as much.  Maybe it was the "Demo" that was bothering me.]


* add virtual earth layers( hybrid -aerials with streets) with automatic "flipping" from the USGS b/w 1m aerials, to the color .25m aerials if you zoom in close enough.  

* if not that, how about adding Tiger Streets and a USGS search for addresses (like USAPhotomaps)?

* The way WW2D loads and displays tiles/aerials is very nice (especially using the plugin for loading VirtualEarth server). If the program would start with a large scale of either the US or just the county you are in, allowing a user to get his/her bearings.

* is there anyway to "share" the downloaded aerial maps between these various programs?  They all come from the same place for the most part (except for the virtual earth stuff).  I have 4gb of aerials and topos for central florida I've gotten for USAPhotomaps and still have to download more whenever I use another program.  It would be very nice to just set a pointer to direct to a central depository to grap these photos. [Edit: I see in Preferences that it is possible to change the map directory.  I wonder if USAPhotomaps and TopoFusion store the files in the same manner?]

*How about a way to just select the tiles for a particular US county and download just those tiles- I'm not sure how useful that would be but I can see myself using a feature like that.  There are lots of times I'm away from internet access and need to see an aerial photo of my surrounding area, I usually have to get a GPS coordinate and download the aerials later.

Like I said before, I feel that TopoFusion is the closest to my version of an ideal program for GPS aerials.  Sorry about the long wordy post. '>

[Krein]

Quote (smileyninja @ Dec. 14 2006,12:41)

* improved access to waypoint information- something similar to ExpertGPS's way of searching for a particular waypoint (type and search at same time). *Is there a way to change the default placeholder that is shown when downloading tiles?  The checkmark and downloading image is jarring and a bit intrusive for my tastes.  It's possible I'm just used to USAPhotomap's simple empty square.  However, if it's possible to put in a system like WorldWInd or WW2D, it would not be necessary to have placeholders. [edited: After purchasing and trying out the latest version, I'm not noticing this as much.  Maybe it was the "Demo" that was bothering me.] * add virtual earth layers( hybrid -aerials with streets) with automatic "flipping" from the USGS b/w 1m aerials, to the color .25m aerials if you zoom in close enough.   * if not that, how about adding Tiger Streets and a USGS search for addresses (like USAPhotomaps)? * The way WW2D loads and displays tiles/aerials is very nice (especially using the plugin for loading VirtualEarth server). If the program would start with a large scale of either the US or just the county you are in, allowing a user to get his/her bearings. * is there anyway to "share" the downloaded aerial maps between these various programs?  They all come from the same place for the most part (except for the virtual earth stuff).  I have 4gb of aerials and topos for central florida I've gotten for USAPhotomaps and still have to download more whenever I use another program.  It would be very nice to just set a pointer to direct to a central depository to grap these photos. [Edit: I see in Preferences that it is possible to change the map directory.  I wonder if USAPhotomaps and TopoFusion store the files in the same manner?] *How about a way to just select the tiles for a particular US county and download just those tiles- I'm not sure how useful that would be but I can see myself using a feature like that.  There are lots of times I'm away from internet access and need to see an aerial photo of my surrounding area, I usually have to get a GPS coordinate and download the aerials later. Like I said before, I feel that TopoFusion is the closest to my version of an ideal program for GPS aerials.  Sorry about the long wordy post. '>

Hi,

Thanks for the thoughts.

Re: improved waypoints.  Yes, this is due to the focus on tracks more than waypoints.  The city search function just searches a GPX file of waypoints, so we plan to extend it to search any GPX file (or all GPX files loaded).

Re: download tile.  No way to change it.  Must have been the demo tiles because no one else has suggested they are annoying.

I tried WW2D this evening and found its method of always having something to display but mix and matching maps to be extremely annoying.  That and the seams between maps, and transparency problems et cetera.  It looks like a promising viewer, but obviously needs some work.

We tried various strategies for display, including what WW2D/WW/GE do, but we eventually settled on what is in TF now.  With the new beta version we could certainly revisit the issue.  One thing is that that strategy works OK for aerials, but topo maps get pretty messed up when you combine different resolution maps.

Re: virtual earth.  When it first came out I thought they made it clear that you could not use the imagery in a program like TF.  Not sure if what WW is doing is OK or not, but it's worth looking into -- maybe they changed the policy.

I couldn't get the WW2D virtual earth plug in to work (??), but if you try the beta you'll be able to see the whole world and better move around large areas.

I like starting off where I left off on the last TF session, but it could be an option to instead start with the world view -- or better go to a view and do "set current view as startup view."  I'll add that to the ideas file.

Re: sharing.  There isn't really a way to share data, unfortunately.  I believe all programs listed by you use their own format for caching the data.  It would be nice to share them, but don't count on it any time soon.

Re: entire county.  You can use the load maps tool to download a box of maps.  Not sure there would be enough need for a "county" function.  It should be too hard to approximate it with a rectangle.

No worries on the lengthy post.  Glad you like TF and that you took the time to comment.  Thanks.

[smileyninja]

Hi, back with more requests.  

* Is it feasible to have some way to associate jpegs with waypoints manually?  I envision a window with all waypoints on one panel, and a directory of thumbnails of jpegs in the other panel and the user can drag and drop the thumbnail onto the waypoint, which associates the waypoint with that thumbnail.  Maybe even associate other files as well (word documents, spreadsheets, AutoCad drawings, etc).  When you mouse over the waypoint, a hyperlink to the file comes up.  (This may possibly be a feature for a professional version if you ever decide to go that route.) But when I tried for the LandSat images, it timed out and then the 3d view would not work again.

* Are there any suggestions on what programs I can use to make my own GIS layers?  I spent several hours trying to figure out how to add my county's Tiger Streets but had no luck.  I would also like to have my county outlines, possibly some surface water layers (lakes, streams, creeks).  The ultimate would be to add practically any shapefile- but this might be getting into full featured GIS area and outside the realm of where this product exists.

*[Support Issue] For some reason, I've been unable to get ANY landsat images.  I'm even running the beta version which should be using a cache to get the images if I'm correct.    I just happened to try the 3d view and got it to work for the first time- It had been timing out trying to connect to the server.

[Krein]

Re: manual jpeg assc.  Just add a waypoint by clicking (waypoint tool) and then use the button to browse to a jpeg.  Doesn't need to have time or an associated GPX track.  It wouldn't be too hard to associate other files here too, just might be a little confusing for people.  I'll think about it.

I think a dialog with thumbnails and a list of waypoints might be  a little over the top in terms of what it would take to get that rolling versus the real gain in functionality you'd get.  Having to browse to grab a pic through explorer (where you can get a display of thumbnails) is 80% there, unless I'm not quite understanding it...

No real easy way to convert shape -> GPX.  It's not outside the scope of TF, though, since we just added export TO shapefile.  Import is a little trickier but it'll happen sooner or later.

As for landsat issues, it seems the entire server has been down for the last few days, meaning no one can get landsat images, beta or otherwise.  I hope he gets the server back up soon!  Fingers crossed...

[Krein]

BTW -

As of this morning, 12/18/06, the OnEarth server is back up with both 3D and Landsat downloads!