Messages

51

TopoFusion Pro / Resolution of color tiles

« on: January 31, 2009, 06:12:06 AM »

Hi Scott,

A quick question: what are the resolutions of the different color tile sets? My eyeball estimate was that the .003 color set had a resolution of about 1.6 feet (pixels were 1.6 x 1.6). What's the correct value for the different sets?

Larry

52

Beta Testing / Re: v3.65 to v3.68 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 31, 2009, 05:55:06 AM »

Hi Scott,

Now that I've got that important stuff done for the week,  ...

V3.68 works great! All the issues above resolved on my computer. By the way, some of my earlier video related issues might be due to my using dual monitors, one 24 inches, the other 22. It is very nice by the way. 

I tried writing the Exif headers on a new file, and it worked properly, wrote the lat lon as desired. This time I simply let PF reprocess all the features; photo placement as well as Exif. Don't know if it would make a difference, but on my earlier attempt, I had only the 'write Exif headers' box checked. In any case, it works now. So very cool! 

53

Beta Testing / Re: v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 28, 2009, 05:44:53 PM »

But anywho, I was able to write EXIF headers once I got exiftool there.  Hmm.

Gee Scott, I must have enabled some sort of download, because the ExifTool.exe is in the correct directory, and I did not put it there. Does that sound familiar for me?

So it's writing headers I guess, it's just that I'm reading them as lat lon both 0.0. I'll try another track after I get back from this weeks ski camping. Priorities you know.

Larry

54

Beta Testing / Re: v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 28, 2009, 03:40:41 PM »

Hi Scott,

I must be doing some thing wrong with the write-to-Exif feature. I started PhotoFusion, selected a track with a bunch of pictures, then had it write the GPS coordinates to the EXIF data. I did not do anything about downloading ExifTool, but in any case, the progress bar said that it had processed the pictures and was finished. In the associated picture folder, I found the modified pics, plus the originals with the extension .jpg_original. Seems OK so far.

But after downloading ExifTool and dropping an image onto the executable per the instructions, I see that the lat and lon are just listed as 0.0 Something must have been written, because if I drop an unrelated image, it does not even have a GPS entry line.

Where does TF store the exiftool.exe? I did not see it in the program files for TF? Is that the problem?

Larry

55

Beta Testing / Re: v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 26, 2009, 06:43:09 AM »

Oh, were you placing the photos or just loading the file after they had already been placed.

In the former case, try the new beta - v3.67.  It should behave much better esp. when adding EXIF info to large batches of pics.

Scott, I was just loading the photos, not placing them. However, whatever you changed with v3.67 fixed the problem. Works great now. 'Hokey Smokes', as Rocky the Squirrel  used to say.

Larry

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56

Beta Testing / v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 23, 2009, 05:02:17 PM »

Quote (ScottMorris @ Jan. 22 2009,11:30)

 How large are your photos (roughly, in megabytes?). Â

Scott, the pics linked to the test file I was using are about 3.5 to 5 megs. There are about 20 or more of them taken along a one mile section of a ski route, so there is a zoom level when it's very hard for the computer to find a non-overlapped space for all of them. But it tries.  '> Eventually it gets there, but I can't interact with the program in the mean time.

The color tiles are amazing by the way. Maybe you don't want to mention this yet, but is there a way to use the load maps tool to download only the color tiles for an area?

Larry

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57

Beta Testing / v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 22, 2009, 07:37:22 AM »

Quote (ScottMorris @ Jan. 21 2009,10:45)

Photo loading should be more or less "background", but I'm sure it does slow things down somewhat. In other news, I just added Washington to the color tileset.  Pretty sure this server is as good as the others. Â

Just thinking Scott, maybe part of the problem is that the photo loading is 'more or less' in the background, instead of always.

Oh, yes, as usual I forgot some of the settings already present in TF. '> Like mouse wheel zooming speed, and zooming smoothness. I had the smoothness maxed out for making html maps the exact area I wanted.

Here's some more info from one of my files that loads maybe 20 or more pics taken with a 12 mp camera. As I zoom in, I can see from my cpu usage meter in the sidebar that both cores start working quite hard. Zoom a bit more and one core maxes out (so says the meter!) and the other is at maybe 75 percent. At this point, I can no longer interact with TF, and the title bar says TF "not responding", plus the menu bar goes black. Once the cpu work has finished, I can then move the map around, but the menu bar stays black until I hit 'alt'. Then only the functional part of it returns. From a practical standpoint, the best option is to leave 'show photos' off until I am at a zoom level where I want to explore. But turning the photos on and off is a pain when I would have to do it repeatedly.

Hope this helps.

And could you point me to somewhere that will tell me how to activate the Washington color tileset; the info and code that I'm supposed to paste into the dialog box(s)? Man, this is going to to be *so* cool. '>

Larry

58

Beta Testing / v3.65 - new PhotoFusion stuff

« on: January 21, 2009, 11:10:59 AM »

Hey Scott,

This is great! The ability to write lat lon to EXIF headers will be great for FS documentation. And the added right click dialogs are very handy too. The more of these the better I think, as long as the choices are pertinent to the object(s) under the cursor.

Here's one minor thing you might think about: My latest Vista 64 bit machine is very fast; it will zoom in and out with amazing speed. But also, the wheel (which zooms by default) is very sensitive. It's easy to overdo it and go too far. Not a big deal until I turn 'show pictures' on and there are a large number of pictures to show. Sometimes it's a fair wait while they all try to auto-arrange themselves, during which time TF will not respond to further input. And the computer may remember that there were a few more wheel movements in the cue, so once the pics are arranged, the next wheel setting is processed, and so on, all the while with the user not being able to intervene. Maybe some mouse sensitivity settings right within TF, that would only apply to TF.

Larry

59

Beta Testing / v3.55 Beta out

« on: November 08, 2008, 09:15:24 AM »

Hey Scott,

The bike trip must have really refreshed and inspired you. The beta works great (as far as I have tested it) on my machine. I really like the ability to turn off the little blue ball, in particular because just now I'm preparing a 3D view of a weekly snowshoe walk lead by FS personnel here. I'm exporting a 4000 x 3000 images and editing them in Photoshop. No sweat. Now no distracting blue ball. I notice that you now have full color coverage for Oregon. Any possibilities for Washington?

Larry

60

GPS, Trails, Training / GPS'ing 12/24 hour races

« on: October 05, 2008, 06:01:57 AM »

Hi Scott,

I just stumbled on this, and had the following thought. It might be interesting to plot nominal stress hormonal values as they very through a 24 hour cycle. That is, to see what you might find by looking at circadian rhythms.

Larry

61

Beta Testing / 3.50 - Garmin Mass Storage, and Vista stuff

« on: September 28, 2008, 04:56:29 AM »

Hi Scott, no problems that I've found so far on my Vista 64 bit machine. Only minor issue that persists are the funny upside down 'L' symbols for the track color instead of little squares to form a colored bar. Probably some video driver issue, but I update the driver each month when the new ones are released; no change.  (I posted a pic of this some time ago.)

Great job!

Larry

62

TopoFusion Pro / Topofusion 3.41

« on: August 22, 2008, 06:21:17 AM »

Scott,

I just checked, and I can right click on a waypoint and get a drop down menu that includes edit.

I'm not sure if I ever was able to right click on a track point to get the edit menu for that individual point, but it would be a handy feature. As usual, I can however left click and drag the point around.

Larry

63

Beta Testing / v3.41 - Australian Topos, Line styles

« on: August 18, 2008, 07:53:52 AM »

Very cool Scott! Track width color and style options are exactly what I've been wishing for. It will make the html maps I prepare for documentation of wilderness patrols much easier to interpret quickly. (Thick lines for videos, thin for web based html maps.)

By the way, one of my friends in the FS said that if TF had a few more of the annotation features of NGS Topo! (in an easy to use format) it would be great, as he could use TF for all his needs, only needing to learn one program well. A real advantage of the TF file format is that the GIS people should be able to directly import the files. Granted, Topo! will allow you to save as .gpx, but this only saves what can be associated with waypoints.

Larry

64

Beta Testing / v3.37 - arrows, more updates

« on: July 10, 2008, 05:41:22 AM »

Scott,

I was thinking about possible uncertainty with nautical miles, but then again, I don't suppose many people use TF for marine navigation. :-)

By the way, I finished my new Vista 64 bit computer, new X48 chipset mobo and new cpu. TF runs great on it. It's so fast that the maps appear before I request them. :-)

Larry

65

Beta Testing / v3.37 - arrows, more updates

« on: June 18, 2008, 04:09:06 PM »

Hi Scott,

I've just given the new beta a first look. The arrows are *really cool*. This is a big help, and I very much like being able to configure them to a size the does not get in the way, but still allows me to see the direction.  Haven't checked out the other features that I might use. One suggestion: with the drawing tool info area, after the bearing might want to add "TN". Consider adding "Statute" before miles too.

Great job!

Larry

66

Feature Requests / Support for 3Dconnexion Space Navigator

« on: June 15, 2008, 02:03:12 PM »

Hi Scott,

I've just begun to explore the Space Navigator; it's very cool, but it takes some time to calibrate so that movement is natural. I'm still getting used to it, but this maybe a preview of the future.

Turns out that a custom driver for the S-N has been written that will work with any app that supports a joystick.

Here's the link:

http://www.3dconnexion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=336

It's a bit techie, but it does allow the S-N to work with TF. There are a huge number of options that you can configure with this driver, most a bit over my head at this point. The default settings will allow me to move the mouse cursor in TF. Assigning the  right click to one of the axes, or one of the two buttons is more than I want to play with right now. But perhaps someone could come up with a formula, a "layout" as it's called in the driver, and how to 'autoswitch' when TF is started. I think this has potential.

One issue for me though is that I'm planning to switch to Vista 64 bit, and all 64 bit drivers must be signed. The RBC9 driver is not, but I gather it's in wide use.

If you get interested in this, perhaps you could arrange to sign a driver; I know Armando of SpeedFan had do go through this recently so his program could be used on Vista 64 bit.

Larry

67

Feature Requests / Support for 3Dconnexion Space Navigator

« on: June 09, 2008, 07:10:42 AM »

Hi Scott,

If TF does not already support the 3Dconnexion Space Navigator  http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

, it might be worth considering. The description of it really looks cool. I just noticed that Fiero (DevalVR) has just added support, so I'm going to get one. Can't resist.  '> I can use it with Google Earth too.

Larry

68

TopoFusion Pro / Bearings using drawing tool

« on: June 07, 2008, 05:43:34 PM »

Scott, if bearings reported by TF are grid north, that explanis the discrepancy. By 'not adding up' I meant that once I get my scale overlay calibrated, peaks on my 360 degree pans match up with the bearings reported by NGS Topo! to within 0.2 degrees now. (This took some doing by the way. :-) Using the bearings reported by TF then did not correspond. Topo! bearings are all true north.

In this general area, the difference between grid north and true north is 1 plus degrees, depending on the USGS topo location I gather. I think this explains the empiric 1.6 deg I found.

In that GPS units report bearings in reference to true north, and that grid north appears to be map specific, is it possible for TF to report bearings in relation to true north (TN)?

I wonder if any others have spotted any discrepancy. Say with  a gps generated waypoint to waypoint bearing that does not agree with that calculated by TF.

I'm not sure of other fields, but for marine navigation, bearings used are either TN or MN, never grid north. At least we never used GN.

Larry '>

69

TopoFusion Pro / Bearings using drawing tool

« on: May 24, 2008, 05:40:11 PM »

Hi Scott, hope you are having a nice trip!

I normally use NGS Topo! to generate the range and bearings I use in making my labeled panoramics, but Topo! does not cover Canada, so for my latest pan from the North Cascades, I'm trying to use TF to ID peaks across the border. For some reason, the bearings reported by TF did not add up with the pan (as do those from Topo!) so I did a quick check:

From Kitling to Joker, Topo! reports 357.7 deg (TN), while TF reports 356.1 deg. How does TF arrive at this figure? Could it be grid north vs true north? Is is a constant offset at least for a small area?

Any help greatly appreciated. I think I saw something about this in another post, but is it possible to get the elevations of contours on the Canada topos? It's rather hard to figure out what's going on without them.  '>

Larry

70

Feature Requests / Increase zooming smoothness

« on: April 29, 2008, 12:13:29 PM »

Thanks Krein, using the zoom tool had not occurred to me. Now how could that happen?   '>

For my html maps, I want the largest topo map I can get at the highest resolution that still shows all the photo icons. Sometimes one tap of the + key zooms in too far, obscuring some icons, and then one tap of the - key zooms out farther than I would like.

Another solution might be to have a 'use maximum detail' and give a setting for the topo and aerial image sizes like you have for the exports.

Larry

71

Feature Requests / Increase zooming smoothness

« on: April 28, 2008, 03:42:22 PM »

Hi Krein,

Another minor request: in making html maps for documentation, it would be useful to be able to have one or two extra 'stops' when setting the zoom, so that you can show exactly the area you want, but nothing extra. I've set the Zooming Smoothness slider to the far right, but even more smoothness would be nice.

The html maps have been a big hit by the way! Once the topo.jpg file is generated, I've been opening it in my photo editor and annotating it. I've annotated some of the pics too. Then I open the index.html page in my html editor and tune it up to suit -- adding suitable text to the 'description', changing the title etc. Works great!

Larry

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72

Archived Support / Removing HTML map icons, etc

« on: April 14, 2008, 05:48:28 PM »

Quote (Krein @ April 14 2008,12:30)

Hi Larry, The "place pictures as waypoints" button shouldn't touch your photofusion directory, right? Maybe you mean the "Generate HTML Image Map" button? There is no way to undo it, but you can safely keep regenerating HTML maps in the same directory -- it'll just overwrite what's there. Same goes with the placing of waypoints -- as long as the "replace" option is checked you can redo the placement of photos and the old ones will be removed. Not sure why an undo for the HTML map is necessary.  Seems like it isn't too hard to just delete the whole directory?  We could think about adding a function that removes all the files TF created, I suppose.

Krein, I guess I didn't explain the issue very well... yeah, it's a minor one.

On the wilderness patrol I mentioned, I ended up three .gpx track files, one for each day, and then I merged the tracks to make one more file.

We also ended up with over 3 gigs of pictures!

Before I realized that I should preserve these files, not change them, but 'save as' another name before I used the picture feature, I just located the main picture folder for the trip, and then clicked 'place pictures as waypoints'. It worked fine, but camera icons *all over*  '>

I later realized that I needed a 3D map with just the tracks, no icons, and could not immediately figure out how to get rid of them.

I also found that having TF place hundreds of picture waypoints was a bit of a mistake.  '>  If the 'show pictures' toggle under "Map" is on, it takes a rather long time for those files to load, to say the least. It worked much better to make a sub folder with only the pics I would want for a given TF file.

In addition, I had also made an HTML map with all the pics, which of course added a lot of thumbnails to the pic folder. Not the best idea! I need to remember now to clean out the extra stuff in this folder, but of course I thought 'gee wouldn't it be nice if I could just click a button and completely remove all changes I made using the photo features (pleural).

On the other hand, I probably won't make these mistakes again.....
 '>

Larry

73

Archived Support / Removing HTML map icons, etc

« on: April 14, 2008, 05:33:21 AM »

Hi Krein,

I may be missing something, (now why would I suggest that?!)   but wanting to completely undo the addtions made by the HTMLmap feature, I found it awkward. I ended up finding a folder with no pics in it, and then clicking the 'place pics as waypoints' button.

Unless there is a way I missed, it would be nice to be able to click an undo button that would remove everything added; the icons, and the additional files added to the picture folder.

Larry

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74

Archived Support / New 3D export options

« on: April 03, 2008, 09:44:02 AM »

Quote (Krein @ Mar. 31 2008,8:17)

I'll have to give this one some thought.  It may be that the best solution is to just go towards a more continuous 3D model--one that may be lower resolution outside the area of interest, but at least showing something instead of black. Any other thoughts you have are welcome, though.

Krein,

Have not tried anything bigger than 4000 pixels yet.

I agree that the cleanest solution would be to extend the model. Lower resolution (even quite low) for the additional area would not be an issue for me at least. It would however help with general orientation. I think the Delorme 3D product does this or used to do it, although their  implementation is quite poor in my opinion. (NGS Topo! does not.)

Larry

75

Archived Support / New 3D export options

« on: March 30, 2008, 10:38:41 AM »

Hi Krein,

Maybe I can figure this out by myself, but hey, I'm lazy.  '>

My first experiment with a 4000 x 3000 max detail 3D export, printed with the 'poster printing', 2x2 on my printer was a huge success. This will be very useful for Forest Service documentation I think.

The black background at the top of the picture however adds no useful info, so I'm wondering how to fill it in so to speak.

If I just zoom out, increase the size even further and use max detail, and then crop the resultant .jpg, will that work?

If so, maybe you could save some trial and error by suggesting how much to zoom out (it will depend on tilt), and how much to increase the export size to keep the same res.

Oh, yes, and since I'm only going to crop the top I should change the export width to height ratio. Maybe make it one to one for prints that will eventually be 17 x 22 landscape?

Thanks, Larry

76

Beta Testing / Thanks beta testers!

« on: March 25, 2008, 09:34:49 AM »

Krein, just a follow-up to say that I've just tried a 3D export at 4000 x 3000 pixels, maximum detail. Absolutely amazing. I saw the warning about the video card not being able to do it, but no problem. The jpg save took only 5 to 10 seconds on my machine. I'm going to try for even bigger now.

This is really going to be great. Now I can print a 3D combo view using the print poster option on my printer driver to print large and very detailed maps of areas of particular interest.

Larry  '>

77

Beta Testing / Thanks beta testers!

« on: March 21, 2008, 05:39:30 AM »

Krein, just a quick note to say that the improvement to 3D views in the latest release are *fantastic*. Besides just looking cool, this will be a big help in my route planning.

I've just installed Vista SP1, and TopoFusion runs just fine. Actually, things seem a bit snappier in general than before. I'll let you know if I find any issues with the TF features I use.

While I'm thinking about it, I had been quite  interested in the Magellan Triton GPS series because one can import maps from NGS Topo. But from looking at the reviews I could find, it looks like Magellan really dropped the ball.

I've always liked Garmin units, and it seems to me that this leaves an opening for someone to figure out how to use raster maps like those created with TF in Garmin units. The vector topo maps that Garmin uses are nice, but I don't think they are worth that much for route finding in the mountains.

Larry

78

Beta Testing / Heart Rate, Cadence - v3.22 Beta

« on: February 19, 2008, 03:30:34 PM »

Krein, no problems so far, but I have not checked any of the new HR, etc features.

Larry

79

Archived Support / Selected trackpoint does not show

« on: February 04, 2008, 06:53:39 AM »

Krein, I just checked this on V 3.21. If I double click on a track point, a small yellow dot appears at the point, but it would be easy to miss on the topo map depending on the background color on the topo at that location. It is there however.

Larry

80

Beta Testing / Beta v3.21 - more fusion in your TopoFusion

« on: January 30, 2008, 09:11:49 AM »

Wow Krein! This beta is *very nice*. The TIGER / Aerial combo will be so useful for planning; works great.

Thanks so much for the other little tweaks, like the 'open folder containing' feature, and the range and bearing info on the drawing tool. It's these little things that make all the difference to me, especially when you use a program a lot.

I still have the funny little colored upside down 'L' however in the file info section.

A thought for Vista users: if you are using a large monitor or monitors (e.g. 24 inch +20 inch) and are having stability issues, keep the video drivers completely up to date. ATI finally posted a driver for my newer Radon 2600 that seems now to be completely stable.

Larry

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81

Beta Testing / New maps!  Beta 3.20

« on: December 31, 2007, 04:45:25 PM »

Quote (Krein @ Dec. 31 2007,6:44)

So you'd like the "a" key to continue to work as is, cycling between topo,aerial and combo (with bw/topo)?  That might cause a bit of a hassle, but I'll think about it.

Hmmm, well, I guess what I really want is a quick way to ID obscure roads. A bw/tiger combo could do that, (my first thought), but only if the the text was clear enough.

Maybe this would be a better solution: just add one more item to the 'a' key toggle list, like this. topo, aerial, combo, tiger. All I would need to do is hold the cursor over the road I am interested in as seen in the bw, and toggle till I get the ID.

One more item on the 'a' key toggle, that should not confuse me too much.  

Larry

82

Beta Testing / New maps!  Beta 3.20

« on: December 30, 2007, 06:04:43 PM »

Krein, first try; works great. The TIGER maps will be quite handy figuring out access to routes that I plan with TF. No need to switch to another program.

Would it be possible to have different combo selection, one with the TIGER Maps and the photos? Again, this might be nice for quickly getting the name of logging roads I use for access.

I wouldn't use it that much however, so I wouldn't want it to change the toggling with the 'a' key, which has become habit.

Larry

83

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Strange behavior with load maps tool

« on: October 23, 2007, 07:44:09 AM »

Krein, I finally decided to bite the bullet and dump my old maps.dat files so I could enable dx1 compression on a whole new set of tiles. As before, Vista Home Premium

I was hoping that I could just let the load maps tool run all night, but after loading files for a few minutes the internet connection fails; it appears to be blocked. No other app can then connect either. No mail, no IE. I have to restart to reistablish an internet connection.


The maps load just fine in the usual way with my current settings (10 to 20 connections, no persistent connections).

I tried reducing this to 1 connection, and still the same thing. Next I tried unchecking most of the tile sets, figuring that maybe I could just do one type at a time for a large area. This to caused the same issue after downloading for maybe 3 to 5 minutes.

Very strange that not only is my TF connection with the server cut, but entire internet connection is blocked. What's going on... any ideas?

Added: I was just now able to reproduce this issue by downloading a large number of tiles, continuously in the usual way. Some sort of ISP server related issue? On the other hand, I can download very large individual files. Something to do with the number of connections, and how long they are used?

Larry

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84

Beta Testing / 3.17 Beta out

« on: October 08, 2007, 04:49:43 AM »

Quote (Krein @ Oct. 07 2007,12:17)

The latest has some serious speed ups,

Hi Krein,

No problems so far. Speaking of speeed ups, any progress on a DX1 file converter so I could keep my very large tile collection and also get the increased speed of the new tile format?

If it's going to be difficult, maybe I should just start over; use the load maps tool and let it run all night.

Larry

85

Feature Requests / More colored tiles?

« on: September 04, 2007, 06:18:10 AM »

Hi Krein,

Just browsing on Microsoft's online mapping service  http://maps.live.com/  and I see that they have added more and more 1 meter resolution aerial tiles in color. At least fringes of the hiking and skiing areas around here are now included. The pics look great. Better yet, at one meter res the pictures are "courtesy of USGS" per the statement at the bottom of the map display.

Would this mean that TF should be able to access these images? Sure hope so, at least eventually.

Larry

86

Feature Requests / Convert track points to waypoints as batch

« on: August 25, 2007, 02:58:36 PM »

Krein,

Hope you had a good trip!

I've got the latest Topo! version (4.2..  Funny that Topo! only gpx imports waypoints. Ever since NGS bought Topo! the pace of development has slowed to a crawl.

So in spite of the fact that being bought out might make you a gazillionaire, I hope you stick it out and keep doing things the way you have been. Selfishness on the part of a user I know,  

Larry

87

Feature Requests / Convert track points to waypoints as batch

« on: August 19, 2007, 06:53:58 AM »

Hi Krein,

Here's something that would be useful for some: I still use NGS Topo! for trail maps in part because of the annotation features, print controls, etc. For gps work it has it's limitations, so I first download my tracks into TF and tune them if necessary. Then I transfer them to Topo! Currently the easiest way for me to do this is to upload the TF track to the GPS, and then download it in Topo!

Topo! v4.x will however import waypoints from .gpx files. Waypoints but not track points. I've found that I can convert trackpoints to waypoints in TF, but only one at a time. If I could do this as a batch, using the shift key to select all the track points, it would then make importing tracks into Topo! a snap.  Especially so in that Topo! offers to convert the points to a freehand route (at least I think that's what they call the result of the 'route' tool).

How hard would it be to have TF allow batch conversion of track points to waypoints, autonaming them with 6 characters or less?

Larry

88

Archived Support / Photo icons in html map

« on: August 13, 2007, 05:40:37 AM »

Krein,

This is very strange! (It must be me - should I Email you separately?)

To be safe, I just reinstalled v3.15 (over the top of what I had).

I do not get the photo icons in TF. Just the text of the file name when the photo toggle is off. The photo toggle function works properly.

If I edit one of the waypoints that were placed corresponding to a photo, I can change the icon from the default 'photo' to something else, say 'mine', and the mine icon appears. But it's not clickable.

When I use the multi-playback feature, there are no sprites. Only a small red dot that follows my route.

Hmmm???

Larry

89

Archived Support / Photo icons in html map

« on: August 12, 2007, 02:25:13 PM »

Thanks Krein,

I'm not sure if my TF used to generate the html map feature is working as designed or not. I removed both the sprite.bmp and the symbols.bmp files from the TF directory, and still no camera icon. I just get the file name. If under preferences>fonts I choose symbol instead of name, the text 'Photo' shows instead of the file name. No symbol.

If I use the 'toggle view status (photos)' button I see a thumbnail, the size based on my settings. A mouseover a thumbnail cases the thumbnail to enlarge. It's very cool! But this feature is not included in the html map.

So I've still not been able to have the little camera icon displayed at the point each picture was taken. I even read the help file believe it or not.   '>

Operator error?

But in fiddling around, I found a method that works better than the icon anyway. I used the batch renaming process in Vista (XP too) to sequentially rename all the pictures with the base file name of "----.jpg". The next one in order is then automatically named ----(2).jpg and so on. The result is that if you display just the name of the file, the name serves as a nice little arrow that points at (just barely below in my case) the location from which the picture was taken.

So no big deal now; I'm just feeling silly that I can't get the camera icon to show. Replacing the sprites and symbols files does not change things.

Larry

90

Archived Support / Photo icons in html map

« on: August 12, 2007, 08:20:55 AM »

Krein, thanks for the tip about turning the track display off. You would have thought that I would have thought of that, but then again....  '>

Still fiddling with the html maps, and I find now that there is no camera icon displayed next to the image file name. As I remember there was at one time, but it got in the way if pics were closely spaced. Yeah, that was a problem.

After I place pictures as waypoints, I can edit those waypoints by selecting 'properties' for the track, and looking in the waypoint tab. When I edit an individual waypoint, I see that the default icon is set to 'photo', but no icon displays, at least all the time. If I click on the file name, a small yellow dot pops up. That's handy when working on screen, but the precise location of the waypoint does not show in the html map.

I've put the symbols.bmp file in my TF folder, and I can choose any of the other icons I would like, and I guess I can even edit them in my photo editor, but to have such icons show in the html map, I'd have to edit every photo waypoint.

Am I missing something? In the improbable instance that I'm not, would there be a way to change the default icon added when you 'place pictures as waypoints' to the user's choice of the ones in the symbols.bmp file?

Larry

91

Feature Requests / Transparency setting for tracks

« on: August 11, 2007, 08:05:45 AM »

Krein,

I'm just now doing some documenting for the FS using the 'generate html map' feature - which is absolutely great for the purpose - and had the following thought.

The track I took to take the pictures is not important; only where they were taken. It would be nice if I could adjust the transparency of my chosen track color(s) so that the track would be barely visable, or  perhaps invisible. Is that possible?

Larry

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92

Archived Support / Question on New download method?

« on: July 08, 2007, 05:27:01 AM »

Quote (Krein @ July 06 2007,6:12)

If you enable DXT1 compression, new tiles will be downloaded and saved as DXT1, but your old maps will still be there (again, no need to redownload).  Your old maps will just be slower to load from the HD than newly downloaded maps.

Krein, any progress on a DXT1 converter? For what it's worth, on my computer if I enable DXT1 compression the old maps, of which I have plenty   '>  are just slow enough to load to be annoying.

Larry

93

Beta Testing / Version 3.11 out

« on: June 16, 2007, 07:05:55 AM »

Krein, you have been busy! Wow!

Thanks much for the .bmp files that can be changed. I'm gonna see if I can turn the runner sprite into a tired old backpacker.  '>

The 'delete track' option on the right click menu will be handy. I'm assuming that this does not delete the .gpx file and send it to the recycle bin, but only deletes the track portion of the file. Right?

And to confirm, the only way to access the delete track right click option is to first right click on the the file at the bottom of the window and choose 'center map on file'. This highlights the track, which then will respond to the right click. Or is there another way?

By the way, after adding even more RAM, (4 GB, Vista recognizing 3.5) TF is amazingly fast. Track profiles load nearly instantly.

Super job,

Larry

94

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Port scan upon tile download

« on: June 11, 2007, 09:38:04 AM »

Krein, my ISP purchaces DSL bandwidth from Covad, so ultimately my connection is through Covad. But that does not explain why a Covad server should do a port scan exactly upon the first tile download. Maybe Terraserver uses Covad?? Or maybe because I've got TF set for 20 connections and the Covad server is trying to figure out which ports on my computer to use?

Yup, 20 connections, and 'persistent connections' disabled. Works great with no slowing or stopping of the tile downloads after an initial flurry as had been the case using persistent connections.

Larry

95

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Port scan upon tile download

« on: June 11, 2007, 07:43:36 AM »

At first I thought the port scans that Norton Internet Security 2007 has detecting since installation were all random, but on a closer look not so.

As soon as TF begins to download new tiles a portscan is triggered. NIS reports as follows:

 Details: Attempted Intrusion "Portscan" against your machine was detected and blocked.
Intruder: 64.105.163.108(domain(53)).
Risk Level: Medium.
Protocol: UDP.
Attacked IP: LARRY_R.
Attacked Port: 49985.
 
The attacked port numbers vary.

There has been no problem with downloading tiles, but I'm curious about what's going on. So far I have not been able to figure out who the 'intruder' is. Maybe it's just the Terraserver checking to see what ports it can use.

Does anyone have more info on this?

Larry

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96

TopoFusion Anouncements / Terraserver Back up

« on: June 04, 2007, 07:42:02 PM »

Quote (Krein @ June 04 2007,7:48)

If they are too many of them [dud tiles], you may want to go to a backup, I guess.

After fiddling around, I decided to use a backup from a few days ago. Acronis is so nice for this. As before, I thought that the mapx.dat files would be in the TopoFusion directory. I tried this with no effect.

It turns out that in Vista, the mapx.dat files are stored in

 C:\Users\Larry\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\TopoFusion

on my computer. Not so obvious.  '>

Hope this helps others who might want to restore data. The ini file is also there. Don't know if the ini file in the Program Files directory is used or not.

Once I figured it out, restoring the the index and the data files quickly got me back to 'real' tiles.

Larry

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97

TopoFusion Anouncements / Terraserver Back up

« on: June 04, 2007, 03:49:51 PM »

Quote (Krein @ June 02 2007,9:47)

Still serving fuzzle tiles as of this morning. Larry - Good question.  The white fuzzy tiles are not stored locally.  A list is kept in memory so that they are not repeatedly downloaded within that session.  But once you restart TopoFusion that list is gone, and the program will try to download those tiles again. Hopefully Terraserver will be back to full functionality soon.

Krein,

I've been busy with TF as you can see from the recent questions. Check this screen snip:

http://web3.foxinternet.net/lrobinson/pics/Blanktiles.jpg

This after closing and reopening TF. Same after reboot. I'm getting proper tiles now with the exception of those that were being served up recently. TF appears not to be recognizing them as blanks, that is, the server must have been sending image files that appear as shown.

I guess I can use a backup data file from a few days ago (so nice to have!) but is there another solution?

Speaking of data files, hope the DX1 file converter is in the works.

Larry

98

Beta Testing / 3.09, error generating HTML ImageMap

« on: June 04, 2007, 09:45:44 AM »

Krein, I was right; it was me.  '> Why am I not amazed at that?

Clicking the 'place pictures as waypoints' button first did the trick. I had thought to myself 'gee, I just want the map, so I'll skip that'.

I see that now I can grab the camera icon and drag it around if necessary. Cool.

Larry

99

Beta Testing / 3.09, error generating HTML ImageMap

« on: June 04, 2007, 08:05:36 AM »

Hi Krein,

This could just be me spacing out, but...

Using v. 3.09, I'm unable to generate an HTML ImageMap. I'm doing it the same way that has always worked in the past, but I get this error message: no images displayed in current map view...

I've confirmed that the times in the track points cover the times and date in the exif data. I'm using the standard PST time correction. No adjustment for daylight savings time; I've not needed it in the past. I tried an hour offset, but no change.

I tried several of my older tracks too; one generated the map, the others did not. I didn't see any obvious difference, but that's not saying much.

So I can definitely conclude, with the greatest of confidence, that its either me, or TF. I think.

(Vista OS as you know.)

Larry

100

TopoFusion Anouncements / Terraserver Back up

« on: June 02, 2007, 06:26:54 AM »

Krein, glad you posted this; I just installed 3.09 and was wondering if it was a bug or the server.

I'm getting whitish tiles speckled with gray that fill in as if they were real tiles. Not text on them. Will TF recognize that these are not real tiles and later be able to download the actual ones?

Or am I stuck with fuzzy wuzzy in my gigantic tile file which I don't want to rebuild?    :'>

Larry