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« on: November 18, 2010, 06:15:26 PM »
I am hugely impressed with the power built into TopoFusion. It has literally transformed the way I view and work with tracks and maps. The following suggestions are in no way critical of your work but more a wish list. Since you actually seem to enjoy doing what you do and are responsive to your customers, I'm hoping you might consider some of the following. So, here goes:
Make the little pivot sphere in 3D view a small compass rose, so it would be easier to retain orientation when soaring around a 3D aerial map.
3D regeneration works fast enough, at least on my laptop, that it should be able to just occur whenever the center pivot moves more than a certain dx or dy instead of having to traverse to a tile edge.
The File/Print function doesn't hook up with all functions of my printer driver. For example, my Canon MX860 print menu is able to preview a print job and posterize a page by spreading it out into a 2x2 or 3x3 page array that can be trimmed and taped together. TopoFusion doen't support these features.
Merge vs. Merge:
The name "merge" is given to two different operations. The first, the merge tool, joins tracks into one continuous track. The second merge bundles the track data from separate track files into one file, without joining them. Perhaps "join" in the first case would be clearer.
Track Stats vs. File Stats:
While the tracks within a merged file retain their original identity, the track lengths and points count are summed in the file properties tab under stats. This presents us with the non-useful total of the entire file no matter what track is highlighted. It would be nice to have, under Track Properties, say, the individual distance and track stats for a selected track.
Merged Track Files as Libraries:
A file of merged (but not joined) tracks could be used as a library of track segments. This can be very helpful when we want to load all the tracks in a particular area for use in developing a ride or hike route. Unfortunately, in order to be able to choose separate merged tracks, we must load a copy and delete the unwanted tracks. It would be more convenient if we could pick (highlight) desired track segments and copy them into into another file or, in some other way, directly copy/save each individually. Suggestion: How about Ctrl-Right Click each track to highlight two or more, then the Right Click menu could have a Save As option.
Drawn tracks don't have any time data and route planning for a future ride or hike that uses past recorded tracks doesn't need time data. Being able to null a recorded track's time data, especially during a "joining" type merge (above) might eliminate some problems.
I expect that you wish to keep the number of buttons on the active file window to a minimum. But additional functions via a right-click button would be handy ... like "Check All", "UnCheck All", "Select All", "Unload All", etc. would be nice.
Inserting many waypoints of the same type would be more convenient if the waypoint symbol would default to the last selected for many of the same symbol.
Scroll wheel zoom focus occurring at the mouse cursor position would reduce having to pan around during zoom.
Colors:
TF allows us to colorize a track in just about any RGB color possible. Unfortunately, our GPSs understand a very limited subset of what's possible. For example, my Garmin 60Csx understands 16 track colors but will show only 7 of TF's 48 preset colors; all other colors I might have used default to red when uploaded into the GPS. Theoretically, TopoFusion allows us to define a custom color which should allow us to match Garmin's internal colors. I haven't gotten custom colors using the RGB values for Garmin's internal colors to work reliably, but since they aren't saved, they can't be used later, anyway. Sorry for the ramble, here, but track colors are a pain.
It would be nice to be able to toggle through map "underlays" (T, C, S, etc.) while viewing a user map without having to uncheck first, re-select, then check again.
Keep up the good, and very much appreciated, work.
Bill Abbay
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