Messages

51

Archived Support / multiple track segment selection

« on: May 07, 2007, 07:35:09 AM »

I agree with the above--you have a "select point" tool, include a "select track" tool.  I don't need the analysis pop-up and the runner/animation every time.

I would also like the option to merge end-to-end. I keep getting a "double-back" due to time/date stamps, I'm assuming, after the network was created.

I would also like the track to be merged in situ, instead of having to export the track, then re-import.

Thanks.

52

Archived Support / Leave the "moderator approved" message up longer

« on: May 07, 2007, 07:04:32 AM »

Sorry about the double post, the "post is in, will be moderator approved" went by too quick.

When I didn't see it pop up in the forum list, a closer look let me see what the issue was.

Leave that message up about 10 seconds before it pops, or remove the auto-bounce back to the forum--give us a chance to read it, then make us click "return to forum"

[Quote]

53

Archived Support / Network:  Reduction strength

« on: May 07, 2007, 07:01:34 AM »

I searched on "reduction strength" first and came up with 0 hits. I know I can't be the first to ask about this feature.

I've been riding Tucson Mtn Park.  For the record, despite the picture at the top, I will not believe you actually rode up Krein trail to the peak.  That was steeper than anticipated.  I walked the bike up, and then walked it back down the other side.

I'm using a "Gen 2" gps; in simple terms it's a DeLorme PN-20 with an STMicro chipset that's more or less equivalent to SiRF III.  The satellites have general drift, and even with WAAS, I've noticed my tracks over time wind up a maximum of 30 feet (mostly 25 feet) apart on the wider trails.

I ran the Network Analysis on default to reduce my tracks, and it didn't work, in particular I noticed it on two parallel tracks that are 25 feet (9 meters) apart.

I looked at the docs and saw this:

Quote

Reduction strength is a measure (in meters) how how close parallel tracks must be to each other in order for them to be considered the same trail. They are then reduced to one track.

I looked at the default in TopoFusion and saw it was set at a whopping 76 meters.  That should have combined a lot more of my tracks.

Without experimentation, my guess is that may supposed to be 7.6 meters?

Can you please clarify this, or explain what I'm doing wrong?  Thanks, Wayne

54

Feature Requests / Trackpoint Reduction Tool

« on: February 27, 2007, 03:02:59 PM »

I wanted to report back that now that I've found and used the track reduction tool (where's the "I'm a dope" smilie?)

• It makes sense to right-click because you perform the operation to one track at a time.  However, you might make a tools menu and include just the tools (like track network), including a menu item for Reduction.  Reduction could have a pop-up box saying "select track (or right click on a track at any time)"  Not an elegant solution, but a little more obvious for new users and would point them to the easier selection.  I don't care so much now that I know where it is.

• The reduction worked great.  I experimented with dividing DeLorme GPL logs by 10 to 3.  I settled on divide by 5 for offroad 4x4 use.  This reduced tracks to 20% of their original size, while maintaining near perfect mapping data at high zoom.

Offroad 4x4
- Div by 9 decent for general use where memory is scarce.
- Div by 7 very good for curved roads, very good at zooms up to 15.   
- Div by 5 virtually indistinguishable at zoom 15, great even on switchbacks.  Very good even at zoom 16 and 17 (max).   

When combined with the Average/Network tool to average out where I went the same place twice, your outstanding tools reduced track sizes to about 10-15% of original size (depending on how many times I backtracked), with no loss in quality.

This lets me store more locations on my GPS, and speeds up 3D rendering on my computer.

Great job, and thanks for the help.

55

Archived - Feedback and Comments / National Geographic TOPO Conversion

« on: February 22, 2007, 12:34:13 PM »

I've got DeLorme Topo and it doesn't "save" to GPX, but it does Export to GPX.

See if you have an export option.  If you do, you will be able to find it by searching your help file.

TopoFusion opens GPX.

56

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: February 21, 2007, 10:30:25 PM »

Just to be clear:  The bug only occured in TF 3.00 Demo.

TF 3.00 Pro never made a fuzzy track even after several tries.

Thanks for the update.

57

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: February 21, 2007, 08:41:14 PM »

Glad you found it.
I quit the program and restart, the program fuzz is gone and it's the correct display.

I have not installed the regular (non-demo) Pro version at home yet; this is all with the demo-Pro version.

Here's a zoom on the blue line, since I already made it:

58

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: February 21, 2007, 04:02:12 PM »

I tried using the demo basic version at work.  No failures.

My work computer won't run the demo Pro version.  I have DirectX 9.0C and a Intel 82915G Chipset with 128 meg of what I believe is on-board RAM, but can't verify.  

It was pretty regular to reproduce on the pro demo version at home on a system that exceeds the Pro requirements.

I will take some more screen snapshots tonight, including a closeup, then install the full version and try again.

It reminds me of the outtakes on Shrek and other animated movies where the character's grew into puffballs or porcupines.

59

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: February 21, 2007, 07:38:07 AM »

I took the fuzzy explosion (a GPX file) and imported it to another program.  It displayed just fine there.

I don't know what the fuzzy explosion and blue fog means, but it doesn't seem to affect the data.

60

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: February 21, 2007, 12:19:05 AM »

I went to build a network.  As I try to build the network (editing points inbetween attempts) about every 4th attempt, my network blows up.

I can use the 'select multiple track points' tool to select the underlying track, but I can't get rid of the color explosion.

Then I'll recalculate...and it comes out exploded somewhere else, or it's fine.

When I zoom in on the circle explosion, it turns looks like the longer, tubed shaped one.  I'd guess that the ends have fixed 'explosions' but the middle sections scale into them, turning a tube into a circle as you zoom out.

At high zoom, instead of a thin line for the track, it looks like a series of blue rectangles (with the lighter blue fuzzy coloring the screen around them)

What causes this, and how can I fix or prevent it?
Thanks.

61

Archived Support / Network Dialog question

« on: February 20, 2007, 03:01:15 PM »

Thank you.  I would suggest you include your above information in the on-line documentation.

The new definition of Contraction explains why my 'stubs' were disappearing.  I make stubs on purpose, to show where another trail is to follow up on later.  Most of my stubs seemed to be long to avoid elimination, but a few of the shrunk down in size (but didn't get eliminated).

62

Feature Requests / Trackpoint Reduction Tool

« on: February 20, 2007, 02:55:29 PM »

Thank you, reduction worked perfectly.  I have so many points you can see when I wobbled away from the curb on the way home; this helps make more clear trails.  I need to play more on how to reduce points with this GPS; I took 1640 points down to 250 and still had great clarity.

I'd also suggest you include the tool in the Analysis section (with network) then maybe have a "click to select track" arrow pop up.  I'm trying to think of a way to make it more obvious.  Maybe a "tools" section with Network, Simplify, and Playback.

One thing I noted was that where I sat around a gate a little bit (averaging waypoints with one GPS) and have many points in one spot (from the 10k points GPS), TopoFusion reduced the number of points but didn't 'sense' was was hovering in one spot and completely eliminate them.  That was reduced with the Trail Network tool, however.

For your 10k limit, could you upload your points to the active memory instead of a shared slot?  If you were using the "wrap" function, your new track would wipe out your old track by the end of the trip.  Or you could simplify to 7500 points and upload to the active track memory, then use the first 2500 for your new track.

I also have a software friend; he wrote his own email client and is the king of very neat software that is only useable by him since he did it.

Splining might have been an issue in the past, but now that i have a GPS that stores 10k track logs, I will most likely only be reducing information.

On a side note, I have googled John Krein and received either trail information, or the obit of a guy in Canada.  I noticed you also use his name as your admin account.  Can you point me to a link to learn more?

Side note 2:  I live just south of Ajo/Kinney.  On the rare occasions I leave work by 5, I hit the park (and have sent you some trail updates; I'll fill out the east end sooner or later and get it to you).    My question is, how do I get a job like yours so I can get on the trail all the time!

Side note 3: Though I only use the network property (I use a competing product for map needs that comes with maps and allows me to add a notes layer), and now the reduction property, I'm getting closer to sending you money anyway.  I've now found another reason to use this product.

63

Feature Requests / Trackpoint Reduction Tool

« on: February 20, 2007, 07:53:53 AM »

I made a post located here looking for definitions on the Network Dialog slider bars.  I have a suggestion for further expansion of the tool to include trackpoint reduction.

Many GPS's have a large track log, and smaller saved logs.  Ex: Garmin 76CS has a 10,000 point active log, but a 500 point saved log.  The GPS reduces the track size (with no user control) on save.  DeLorme's PN-20 lets you save full 10k unreduced track logs, but they take up a lot of memory with too much data.  (Yes, I can expand from a 2G to 4G card, but that's not my point, or the solution to every problem).

You seem to have some sort of a "reduce" function with the networks, but I'm suspecting (after playing with it) that it just reduces points based on overlapped routes, not a true "reduction" forumla.  I would like the ability of the tool expanded.  I'd like a way to better manage / average tracks. Examples:

• Track Reduction.  Active track logs can be reduced by using the reduction tool, little by little.  But the Garmin GPS (and others) have a saved-log limit of 500 points per saved log.  Allow me to say I want it reduced to "X" number of points, and TopoFusion will reduce the full tracklog from it's current size to 500 points via an intelligent mathematical function.  I know you have some of that already, but some suggestion are:
- When I travel in a straight line, you could eliminate most in-between points until there's movement in the perpendicular direction.
- When I stop and sit for a few minutes, I wind up with dozens of points that describe the same location. These could be reduced/eliminated.
- No two points withing "x" distance" of each other, even on turns. (When I import my 10k Garmin track log, it seems to make extremely descriptive low-speed turns, even while making less accurate descriptions on higher speed tighter turns).

• Allow me to remove "x" number of points. While the Garmin default method set on "Very High" logging produces many points, the DeLorme track logs (Street Atlas/Topo/PN-20 GPS) have many, many times more detail (and often too much detail, but I don't want to keep stoping and changing the logging method....and you can't change the logging method when you're 4x4ing with the laptop software version of the program).  This grows very large files. As a starter, I might remove every 1 of 2 points, or every 2 of 3 points, before I apply other advanced reduction methods.

[Quote]

64

Archived Support / Network Dialog question

« on: February 20, 2007, 07:45:40 AM »

I looked at the help for the Network Dialog box: TopoFusion Help.  I also searched this forum on "Network Dialog" and didn't find what I was looking for.

I know the method is proprietary, but can you explain what each individual sliders is?  You only have a joint explanation that makes sense when you know the answer already, but doesn't

Quote

The slider bars for reduction and contraction strength control how close or similar sections of tracks must be in order for them to be considered duplicates. Larger values will result in tracks being considered the same (and subsequently averaged together) when they are further apart.

I'm guessing here:
• Reduction:  How close two tracks have to be to each other to reduce them into a single track?  (NOT the reduction of total number of points)

• Contraction: How close single points have to be (without a lot of X-Y change) to reduce them to less points.
Ex: -  -  -  - - - -
could be contracted to:  - ____ -
with no loss of information.  (underscore added to keep spacing)

• Or I might be wrong and the program doesn't reduce points (except overlaps) at all.

Either way, a more detailed explanation of what each bar's function is would be appreciated.  Thanks.