Messages

1

TopoFusion Pro / Inserting track points issue.

« on: May 11, 2015, 10:54:17 AM »

When I insert track points, I notice the "extra" data fields like heartrate, power, cadence, & temp are filled in with default data that can be a little odd.  Is there any way to change the default for inserted points to be No Data as is usually the case if this data isn't being collected?

2

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: April 18, 2013, 10:48:53 AM »

Tried selecting an area just a bit larger than a single tile in Aerial 1M to see if I could get an errant tile to download & it seems to have unveiled some sort of issue.  Now no Aerial 1M tiles will download.  I had various tilesets selected to download, including Aerial 1M (just whatever I had selected last time I used the tool).  It downloaded to about 40% or so & stopped.  I had to Cancel & that's when I noticed no new Aerial 1M tiles will download at all.  If I switch back to Open Aerial, new tiles do download, still fast too.  Closed & restarted TF & still can't download any new Aerial 1M but it is trying since I do get new red X's.

3

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: April 18, 2013, 10:40:31 AM »

MUCH better, thanks!  Haven't used it a lot yet, but all aerial tile loading seems quite a bit faster.  I'm still having some trouble with Aerial (1M, for example).  It downloads most of the tiles very quickly but stalls on a few at random & never fetches them (Retrying, download, red x icon), even after left clicking with the Load Maps tool.  I haven't tried deleting all my maps & starting over again.  I'll post more as I use it more.  Definitely an improvement though - thanks!

4

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: March 28, 2013, 11:14:28 AM »

OK, I see TF definitely does make use of a temporary file.  I'll mess with that a little more & welcome any other suggestions you may have, especially regarding the 0/0 cache issue.

5

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: March 28, 2013, 11:12:14 AM »

Also, no proxy, 20 active connections, persistent, 60 seconds to restart...

6

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: March 28, 2013, 11:11:03 AM »

I tried that & the cache still shows 0/0.  Other settings in this area are 25% of available memory & use DXT1.  I've had issues with file permissions lately but am the owner of all the directories TF uses (as far as I can tell).  Could this be related?  Does TF use Temp &, if so, how specifically?  I have a single Temp directory that all Users point to.  This does seem to cause some trouble with other software.

7

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Almost no maps work any more?

« on: March 27, 2013, 11:47:48 PM »

OK, sorry, I guess they are working but the delay before they start downloading has increased tremendously to 1-3 minutes!  Strange.

8

TopoFusion Pro / Almost no maps work any more?

« on: March 27, 2013, 11:40:21 PM »

Using 4.70 Pro & only Open Street & Open Aerial will download.  I've tried reinstalling, deleting all tiles/maps, disabling firewall, etc.  I haven't been using TF for a long time (many months).  Also noticed that my map cache size shows 0/0 mb which seems odd but I haven't kept up with changes to the program.  Where should I start debugging?  I really want to use Aerial 1m which used to work just fine.

9

TopoFusion Pro / Windows 7 shortcut installation/User profile issue.

« on: March 03, 2011, 09:47:53 PM »

It looks like there is a small problem with the TF install under Windows 7.  If you install from your Administrator account, the Start Menu shortcuts folder is placed in the Roaming profile for Administrator only.  If you then install from a User account, in an attempt to get the shortcuts to appear in the User Start Menu, no additional shortcuts are created.  In other words, if you install from your Administrator account, no shortcuts to run TF will be available to other Users & installing from those User Accounts may not fix the problem (it may depend on User rights settings?).

One simple fix is to Copy & Paste the Topofusion folder from the Start Menu of the Administrator folder to the All Users Start Menu.  Maybe I should have Moved it instead, but I didn't want to potentially break the Uninstall process.  Windows is smart enough to merge the two Start Menus so only 1 set of Topofusion shortcuts is displayed in the Administrator Start Menu.

A better fix would be for the TF installer to place the Topofusion shortcuts folder in the All Users or Default Profile Start Menu... something like that.  Whatever most other applications do.  I still haven't figured exactly how Windows 7 manages the Start Menu vs. Windows XP, but it is different for sure & Topofusion isn't doing something right here.

10

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Network segment delete?

« on: November 15, 2009, 06:52:14 AM »

Darn!  I mean, YAY!  Thanks!  It's getting embarrassing how far I've fallen behind on the tool changes that were made a while back (last year?).  I was off for some epic exploration this weekend, scrambling to put together some potential routes.  It always takes more time than it should.  This should help a lot!

I also ran into an error I've never seen before as I was trying to upload to my GPS (as I was heading out the door to explore).  My Garmin HCX reported "Database error" when I tried to upload the route from TF.  Never seen that before.  I was finally able to upload a few key waypoints & a track.  I couldn't upload the route using MapSource either.  Maybe uploading routes never worked?

11

TopoFusion Pro / Network segment delete?

« on: November 14, 2009, 12:56:33 AM »

After creating a network of trails, the reduction is usually never quite right, forcing me to have to delete trail segments manually (either point-by-point, scissors, or selection tool when possible).  This is cumbersome for large networks, especially when data is pulled from many different sources with varying accuracy & overlapping segments.

It would be VERY helpful if the Merge Tool, which can select segments (between waypoints?), also had an option to delete them.

12

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Shift-click & Profile tool?

« on: August 18, 2009, 04:05:10 PM »

Sorry, I should have messed around with it more.  Trying to do too many things at the same time around here.    Sometimes TF or maybe just my computer gets flakey after it goes into one of those lower power states.  I restarted & it seems to be working fine now!  FWIW, when it was apparently messed up, the Pan Map Tool icon wasn't working.  The icon displayed was always for the last tool I had selected but the Pan Map Tool did work properly.  Strange.  I'm way overdue for a whole system wipe & re-install.

I have quite a few GPX files with no elevation data & others that do have good elevation data (like ones I collected myself).  I often put together a route including segments from both files but don't realize the elevation data is missing until I've already shift-clicked (or merged now ) much of my route.  At that point, I can continue & add elevation data later, but that wipes out what might be better data from the more complete GPX files.  The other option is to stop & add the elevation data to the sections that are missing, saving temp files, then routing again.  Seems like having it handy as an option for the Merge Tool could simplify this a little.  Maybe there are better ways.  I've been away from this stuff for a while, not doing as much exploring as usual.

13

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Shift-click & Profile tool?

« on: August 18, 2009, 12:26:23 PM »

With the old Profile Tool, I could see the profile as I added trail segments.  Now there is the additional step of saving a temporary file with the route-under-consideration before you can profile it.  This results in Untitled files all over the place as I put together a plan.  I realize everyone organizes their trail data differently & this could probably be avoided to a degree, but there will always be at least one temp file because you can't overwrite a file you already have open.  Hope that's clear.

It makes perfect sense to me to view trail segments as the key objects in TF that are operated on with all the standard Windows keystrokes whenever possible.  What makes the most sense is always debatable I guess.  I just hate using & cleaning up little temp files because you always worry about deleting something important by accident.

Another thing that might be handy would be to add another option to the right-click of the Merge Tool to add elevation data to tracks without it (like in Climbing Analysis).  Sometimes as I'm piecing together a route, I find that some segments have elevation data & some don't.

14

TopoFusion Pro / Shift-click & Profile tool?

« on: August 17, 2009, 09:18:23 PM »

I thought it was once possible to shift-click to add up a bunch of sections of trail with the Profile tool.  Is this my imagination or is this feature gone now?  I'm running version 3.8 & have blindly updated the past few versions without using many of the tools along the way.  I see I can accomplish the same thing by creating a new track using the Merge tool, but this isn't as convenient when just messing around planning rides for example.  Besides, shift-click to combine stuff is pretty much a Windows standard - makes sense to me!

15

Archived - Feedback and Comments / TopoFusion Pro 3.0 User Maps are AWESOME!

« on: April 06, 2007, 10:27:31 PM »

TF 3.04 won't load my PNG file User Maps but 3.0 will!  Let me know if you need the PNG file to help track down the problem.

16

Archived - Feedback and Comments / TopoFusion Pro 3.0 User Maps are AWESOME!

« on: April 06, 2007, 10:21:05 PM »

Now I'm not able to add any maps that are PNG files.  JPG files still work fine.  I'm not sure what I did to trigger this.  I cleared all the User Map stuff out of the INI file, but TF still refuses to load any PNG file.  I wonder if this is a problem with 3.04 only?  I'll try rebooting, but I don't see how that could have anything to do with this problem.

17

Archived - Feedback and Comments / TopoFusion Pro 3.0 User Maps are AWESOME!

« on: April 06, 2007, 07:27:44 PM »

That makes sense.  I think I got 3 errors when I moved a single User Map file.  With more User Map files enabled (layered), that would be a mess.  Whatever you decide, if the file is not readily available, it would be nice if TF didn't automatically delete the calibration info.

By the way, is there any performance difference between the various image formats?  I've only used PNG & JPG so far.  I assumed JPG would be fastest since the tiles are also JPG, but I don't know the details about decoding PNG.  Both seem to work fine.  PNGs with transparency set to the map background color (usually white) makes for some really useful maps.  A writing tablet would be really handy to draw new tracks to explore!

Also, I noticed that long paths are an issue.  Can't see the full name & the base filename is the same on some that I have been messing with.  It's a minor annoyance.  Maybe just display the filename in the window & mouse-over shows the complete path?  Isn't this actually a Windows problem?  I think I've seen similar behavior in other applications.

18

Beta Testing / 3.04 missing track editing features?

« on: April 06, 2007, 03:08:02 PM »

Found something else a little odd when I merged 5 or 6 tracks using the Profile/Merge tool.  After the Save As... to a new file, the files open display at the bottom (what is this called anyway?) got messed up.  The font changed to something larger on all the files except the newly created (merger).  This happened on a "fresh" instance of TF (screensaver had not kicked in).

PS.  Should I be posting this stuff in the other forum since it is regarding the beta version of TF?  If so, feel free to move the thread.

19

Beta Testing / 3.04 missing track editing features?

« on: April 06, 2007, 01:50:58 PM »

I noticed that if I open Properties for multiple tracks, I can drag & drop Waypoints between then but not Trackpoints.  It would be really cool to be able to drag & drop Trackpoints between track files too.

20

Beta Testing / 3.04 missing track editing features?

« on: April 06, 2007, 01:41:52 PM »

Ahah.  The editing problems only appear after my computer goes to screensaver or hibernate or whatever.  Let me know if you want specifics & I'll mess around with it some more.

21

Beta Testing / 3.04 missing track editing features?

« on: April 06, 2007, 01:38:44 PM »

I can no longer select a point & hit Insert to add points to a track as before.  Has this changed?  I noticed other track editing features were missing in 3.00 but have magically re-appeared in 3.04.

22

Archived Support / Networked tracks go fuzzy

« on: April 06, 2007, 01:14:33 PM »

I saw the "fuzzy" track issue with the release 3.00 Pro version.  Also found a few other track editing bugs in that version.  They seem to be fixed in 3.04.  Thanks!

23

Archived - Feedback and Comments / TopoFusion Pro 3.0 User Maps are AWESOME!

« on: April 05, 2007, 07:12:31 PM »

Regarding the User Map file location, prompt the user for the location of the User Map file if it cannot be found where it last was.  This might get a little messy if there are a bunch of User Map files open (enabled) at the same time that were moved between sessions though.  Just thinking out loud here.

24

Archived - Feedback and Comments / TopoFusion Pro 3.0 User Maps are AWESOME!

« on: April 05, 2007, 05:31:47 PM »

You guys did a great job with the user maps & new updated version in general!  '>

I finally had some time to play with the new User Map feature.  The execution is nearly perfect & zero crashes so far.  Being able to tweak the calibration with the mouse is very very cool.

One minor thing that would be nice would be a setting under the Options, General tab to set a directory for User Maps.  I have a bad habit of constantly re-organizing my files & I'm sure I'm not alone.

I'm so glad I didn't have to buy another product to get the User Map feature.  I'll send you guys a little "upgrade" cash & hope others do the same.  I know I saw a way to do that somewhere.

25

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: November 17, 2006, 02:13:13 PM »

Oops.  Forgot to log in for that reply.  Thanks again for taking the data loss issue seriously & making the repairs so quickly!

26

Feature Requests / Feature Request - Combo options.

« on: September 20, 2006, 05:43:03 PM »

It would be really cool if Topofusion allowed the user to select which maps to "Combo" along with the transparency of each map (or layer).  This would be an extremely useful feature if/when TF supports user maps (JPG file that can be calibrated by entering 3 coordinates for example).

These features would be VERY useful for those of us using TopoFusion to try to find or follow new (or just new to us) trails!  Once a user map is calibrated, the trail (for example) could be drawn using the draw tool & uploaded to GPS for navigation.  I've done this to explore some unfamiliar mountain bike trails using TopoGrafix Expert GPS.  That software doesn't support Combo maps like TopoFusion does & it also runs much more slowly on my PC.

These are pretty cool features if you think about the potential.  One could combine real estate plot/plat maps with the topo maps, for example.  It would be possible to combine any map that can be JPG'd with TopoFusion & get data from that map to our GPS!

27

Archived Support / Looking for % grade tuning/accuracy

« on: September 15, 2006, 09:15:15 AM »

I've always thought TopoFusion's calculations were very good in this respect.  I use the 3 meter windowing for my GPS data for cycling & 1 meter for hiking data.  The exact grade at any point can only be as accurate as the data you collect.  You need a lot of points to see grade details for a short climb, especially at faster speeds.  I have my GPS set to collect as much data as possible while still in the Auto mode (or whatever it's called).  You may want to check your GPS settings to ensure you are collecting enough points in your tracks to get the accuracy you want.  You may have no choice but to walk the climb if you want really good detail.

I don't see any reason to change the calculations in TopoFusion.  It would be nice if TF saved the default selections in Climbing Analysis between sessions though.

28

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: July 05, 2006, 10:38:39 PM »

Thanks for giving this stuff so much thought & attention.  Hopefully new users will notice the great customer support & support TF in return!  I plug TF every chance I get!

29

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: July 05, 2006, 10:34:34 PM »

I installed the latest version (2.1.0.0, dated 03-13-2006) of the Garmin USB driver (grmnusb.sys) on 06-04-2006.  I only installed it because it was available about the time I first installed & updated the MapSource software.  I have only had my USB GPS since about that same time.  I was using a serial Garmin GPS prior to that.

30

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 29, 2006, 12:04:38 AM »

Hmmm... messing with it some more & can't get Windows to even recognize the GPS is connected!  I tried TF, Expert GPS, & MapSource & none see the GPS.  Windows isn't giving me the usual beep when the device is connected, so it makes sense no SW can see it.  I even tried a different USB port (built into my printer).  No luck.  Connected my camera with no issues using the same USB port & cable.  Apparently the Garmin USB driver is crashed somehow.  I think I'm going to have to reboot my PC.  The USB driver or the use of it seems like it has to be relevant.

31

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 28, 2006, 11:39:32 PM »

Just tried again & couldn't repeat it so I tried 2 downloads in a row, disconnecting the GPS in-between & returning to download a 2nd track.  The Merge/Delete dialog was flaky in that I selected the original merged track & saved but the GPX file that was saved was only the first track of the two I merged (i.e., the first one off the GPS in the 2nd download too).  Anyway, this file was saved just fine.  Now I'm wondering if the key is to download a track, leave all dialogs open, let the screensaver kick in to power savings or whatever (my discs are always running though), then come back & download.  I can't think of what else I'm missing here but I know we're getting closer.  I'm still not convinced it is a problem with TF.  It could very well be a problem with my PC and/or the Garmin USB driver.  Hmmm....

32

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 28, 2006, 11:20:01 PM »

I was just able to recreate the problem!  Now let me see if I can relate exactly what I did.

I don't think I closed TF since the last time I successfully transfered a track.  I plugged the USB cable into the GPS, then the computer, then powered on the GPS.  Next I did the GPS Transfer, merged 2 tracks (out of 5 or 6), saved the selected track (actually not highlighted in the dialog - i.e., I didn't click on the merged track), did not close any dialogs, alt-tabbed to the main TF window, & double-clicked on the track file (the only one currently loaded & displayed in TF) to view/center it on the Combo map.  Then I think I alt-tabbed back to the Merge dialog before turning off the GPS & unplugging it from the computer.  Finally, I simply closed TF by clicking on the X in the title bar of the main window.  There is an entry in the log book again but no GPX file or backup file.  The GPX file does show up in my Recent Documents again too, but that shortcut is broken since the file is not on disk.

33

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 28, 2006, 11:03:06 PM »

No backup file was created.  I'm not sure if I closed the Merge/Delete dialog, but I think I did not.  In fact, I think I may have closed TF with that dialog still open as well.  I also think I turned off the GPS & unplugged it before closing anything too.

Fortunately I didn't clear my GPS so I was able to simply restart TF & transfer the track again.  I'm not sure if/what I did differently, but it saved it just fine the 2nd time.  I may have closed all the dialogs before disconnecting the GPS the second time.

34

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 28, 2006, 05:47:05 PM »

It happened again!!!  It has nothing to do with multiple files.  I just downloaded a track from my GPS, saved it, looked at it on the map (actually exported the map too!), closed TF & now the file is nowhere to be found!  There is a logbook entry just like before.  There is also a shortcut to the file I saved  in my Recent Documents, but the file does not exist anywhere on my hard drive!  I'm not having any trouble with other documents.  What in the world is going on here?

35

Archived Support / Drawing Tracks

« on: June 27, 2006, 07:11:49 PM »

The solution is to use a trackball!  '>

36

Archived Support / Log Book  - Error

« on: June 27, 2006, 07:10:04 PM »

Worked fine.  Plenty fast (a few seconds tops).  Didn't notice any duplicates.  I'll stop deleting the log file now.  Thanks!

37

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 07:02:56 PM »

So MS is collecting TF program state info & they never forward it to you guys?  That's funny.  I bet you can get it for a fee!  I'll understand if you don't reply to this.  '>

Does the GPS thread go away entirely & release all resources (memory & close GPS USB driver) after the transfer is complete?  What happens if I alt-tab to another app during the transfer & that other app requests something of the GPS USB driver?  Perhaps Garmin has some re-entrancy issues with their USB driver?  Not that I understand Windows multi-tasking & drivers or anything, but I have a good handle on that stuff for embedded systems.

I'll do a scan disk & maybe a few other disk tests tonite too.

38

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 06:51:03 PM »

Assuming I did initiate the Save operation from the Merge/Download dialog, TF did continue to run to the extent that  I was able to navigate the menu to initiate another GPS Transfer (that failed & resulted in my having to restart TF).

So it sounds like the most likely scenario is that I did initiate the Save, the log entry was written to disk, then the file operation to save the GPX file failed for some reason but reported success since TF continued to run (well enough to initiate another transfer before crashing at least).

A failed disk write is a scary scenario for me!  My disk drives are good ones (four 10k Quantum SCSI), but they are getting old!

By the way, I just tried another GPS transfer & TF disappeared immediately after my GPS beeped that the download was complete!  It left no trace & all TF windows were just gone!  I believe I briefly saw the Merge/Download dialog before everything vanished.  Restarted TF & tried again & all went well.  Perhaps this is another reason to suspect something going on with my system although the other half dozen or so apps seem to be running just fine.  Don't you just hate things like this?  Does TF use the registry for anything at run-time?

PS.  I was thinking the exact reverse order (3, 2, 1) made the most sense.  Adding some sort of "normal termination" (or state) flag to the INI file would also allow TF to potentially better recover from crashes.  Maybe TF could look at the flag on start-up & do some sort of sanity check & potentially avoid lost data?  It's easy to get too carried away with this sort of thing to though.

39

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 05:48:20 PM »

I've been using the "mini-explorer" thing for so long that I never even bothered trying the menu commands!  Thanks for pointing that out!  Doh!  However, I noticed that TF doesn't allow me to open/add more than 1 file at a time like I can in the "mini-explorer" thing though.  Would it be difficult to allow multiple file selections thru File Open too?

I agree that saving the original track data from the GPS in a unique backup file makes sense.  Those backups have saved me from a few mis-edits more than once!

I think I misunderstood your earlier explanation of the order of operations.  I thought the fact that the logbook entry appeared for the missing file meant that the file should have been written to disk already.  If not, then my forgetting to actually do the Save operation seems the most likely culprit for sure.  I could easily have alt-tabbed away from the TF Save dialog before saving & later alt-tabbed back to the TF main window with my unsaved track visible!  Thinking I already saved it, since it was displayed on the map, I probably downloaded & saved the new track (to a different directory), clobbering the backup file with the same name.  Definitely sounds like something I could easily have done!

So besides unique backup file names, another solution could be a captive Save dialog?  In other words, if I alt-tab away from TF, then alt-tab back, the Save dialog would be forced to the "front".  Sorry, I don't know the correct Windows terminology.  I notice this behavior with the GPS Transfer dialog, Profile Tool, & Export dialog too.  Should all these "windows" be allowed to exist open at the same time?  At least in the case of file operations, this seems like a potential area for trouble.  Just more thinking out loud here...

40

Archived Support / aerial photo

« on: June 27, 2006, 05:08:40 PM »

This looks like a good place to add a plug for support for "user supplied" map data - scanned jpg, gif, tif, or whatever format.  This is the only significant feature ExpertGPS has over TopoFusion right now.  I'm finding it absolutely invaluable when exploring new areas using old paper maps of "lost" trails!  I've been doing this a lot lately - very fun!

In fact, TopoFusion could get one leg up on ExpertGPS by improving the calibration procedure when adding this feature.  All it would take would be an easier way to obtain the coordinates of a calibration point from another downloaded reference map.  These have to be entered manually in ExpertGPS right now.  This is error-prone & time consuming, usually involving a pencil & paper.  It would be nice to be able to just go to the calibration point on the reference map (TF topo layer for example) & just right-click "copy coordinates", then go back to the scanned map layer & paste those coordinates!

Better yet would be to right-click on the user map to "add calibration point", switch layer to reference map, right-click "set calibration point" on the reference map, repeat for all 3 calibration points!  That would be really much faster & very cool!

Maybe just have a calibration point tool where a calibration point is similar to a waypoint in that you simply click on the map to create it except it is layer specific.  To align the calibration points between a user-map & reference map, the user could simply give the points the same name in a properties dialog or something?

Lots of ways to do the calibration I suppose, but something simpler & faster than ExpertGPS uses would be greatly appreciated.  User maps are a GREAT feature, but the calibration needs to be simple & fast!

So can TF beta this feature before my trial of ExpertGPS runs out in 15 days?  '>

41

Archived Support / Log Book  - Error

« on: June 27, 2006, 04:55:29 PM »

I found that option... thanks.  I'm going to open all of them!  Am I in for a big delay?  Will TF create duplicate logbook entries?

42

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 04:41:15 PM »

Yes, it makes sense & is just a different way of looking at the whole backup issue.  Your view is more like that of other programs that have an AutoSave feature used in case of abnormal program termination or to revert to the original file currently being edited.  I agree with this approach, but couldn't your approach also coexist with the use of the Recycle Bin in general?

I've assumed it was probably MS's intent that all applications use the Recycle Bin when doing any file manipulation that would result in overwriting one file with new contents or when deleting a file whenever the user isn't prompted to specifically choose to do so (as in "File Exists, overwrite YES or NO?").  Also, when most applications open/close/save files, they use the standard Windows File Open dialog.  This allows the user to delete/rename/select more than one file, etc. as well as usually (always?) using the Recycle Bin when files are deleted.  That Recycle Bin has saved me more times than I can count!  Windows Explorer must be involved too because choosing Undo in there often restores an accidentally deleted file.

Anyway, if every saved track gets a new unique backup file, I guess the problem simply goes away.  The Recycle Bin would only come into play if TF used the Windows Explorer (?) call to open/close/save files.  By the way, I do think that method of opening files would be a little cleaner from a UI standpoint.  Most application do this these days.  The current TF method is just fine though.  Whatever you do, please don't ever consider the oddball UI like used in DeLorme TopoUSA software!  Tabs all over the place.  Bleah!

So when/how often does TF currently write the backup file anyway?

43

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 04:02:34 PM »

I thought of one unusual thing that happened.  When I returned to the computer to download the track data from my hike, the download just hung.  I mentioned this above & just assumed it was a USB communications issue, perhaps related to my computer going into a power-saving state while I was away or maybe related to the fact that I probably had other GPS software (Garmin MapSource and/or TopoGrafix ExpertGPS) open.  The thing that I did not mention yet was that I had to terminate TF - it did not close normally!  I closed the download dialog/window & then closed TF.  I believe the Windows "Send Error Report" thing came up too.  I don't know where those go, but if that did happen, there could be a clue in that report.  Normally, after something like that happens, the application is terminated quickly but TF held on for a while for some reason.  I wasn't very patient & had already started another instance of TF which I believe started before the other instance had totally terminated.  I believe I tried the download again & it would not communicate.  The GPS was on & connected this entire time by the way.  I closed TF & restarted TF again without incident & then was able to download the new track.  So perhaps TF was hung on the previous disk write for some reason?

My search for the lost file turned up absolutely nothing, but I've only searched on Creation Date so far.  If you are sure the log file entry means the GPX file should have been written to disk, I have no idea what happened to it!  I know this has happened to me at least twice since I've had my new GPS (not even a month).  I wish I could remember more details about the first occurance.

Thinking out loud here, but I don't see how the screen saver/power savings could be related because the disk write should have been very quick - obviously the log file was written OK.  This is puzzling.

44

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 03:26:26 PM »

I've got no reason to believe there was any trouble with my drives (4 drive RAID array with over 16 GB free, zero issues to date) & no instabilities or anything unusual going on with Windows XP either.

I've tried recreating the problem too & everything works as you've already discussed.

I double-checked the log entry & it definitely refers to the biking (missing) GPX file.  I searched the entire drive, including the Windows Recycling Bin & can't find any trace of the missing file.  If I deleted it manually, it would be in my Recycle Bin (nowhere near full & only emptied manually).  I'll run a search for the file by creation date & maybe even one based on contents to see if the filename could have been altered somehow.

I've literally got hundreds of GPX files that are all referenced in a spreadsheet journal (no links or anything like that though), so I'm not really eager to change the naming convention just yet.

PS.  I'm a programmer, but not for Windows... I'm curious why you wouldn't just send any file to the Recycle Bin before overwriting instead of worrying about a goofball naming convention for backups?  Isn't there some sort of file operation that will ensure the Recycle Bin is used (when setup accordingly in Windows of course) when TF wants to overwrite or delete a file?  I wouldn't use such a thing where TF normally prompts the user to overwrite, but it seems like a better solution for backup files than changing the filename.  I often wish more Windows programs would use the Recycle Bin for this sort of thing.  I know it's possible because I have some programs whose files indeed end up in the Recycle Bin.

45

Archived Support / Grade & Climbing elevation excessive

« on: June 27, 2006, 10:27:22 AM »

It would be nice if the checkbox selections were saved from one session of TF to the next.  This also applies to the Climbing Analysis window & probably others in TF too.

I wouldn't miss the "follow" option one bit since you already have the playback/trace tool anyway.  I vote for making "follow" disappear entirely.  Maybe replace it with an option to "center on map" after the download?

PS.  I don't completely understand the issue with these other GPS units & climbing stats, but I've found that using the 3 meter "window" in TF for biking works very well.  It seems to generate numbers that are in close agreement with both my eTrex Summit & Vista C GPS units climbing totals.  I think the TF smoothing algorithm is probably better than what Garmin uses unless Garmin is also considering signal quality in it's calculations - something TF wouldn't have access to.  For hiking tracks, I use 1 meter "windowing" in TF with good results.  It seems reasonable to filter more for data gathered at higher speeds.

PPS.  On a related note, anybody know the details on the Garmin "sample rate" choices when Auto saving track data?  My GPS has "Normal", "More Often", & "Most Often".  I recently switched to the "Most Often" setting, but can't find any details on exactly how much more dense the breadcrumbs will be.  So far, it seems to be somewhere less than double the density so 10,000 track points is still plenty to cover any ride I can do on 1 set of batteries!  I'm definitely glad the newer GPS units have this option, but it would be nice if Garmin would supply more details sometimes.  Regardless of the option chosen, it appears that Garmin is using a smart algorithm to eliminate unnecessary track points.  There is also an option to save track points at specific time or distance intervals.

46

Archived Support / Log Book  - Error

« on: June 27, 2006, 10:18:25 AM »

So that's what that file is for!  Oops!  I've been deleting those whenever I'm in a housekeeping mood thinking they were just error log files.  I guess my logbook is sort of incomplete now.  I do regular backups, so maybe I can piece a new logbook file together again.

47

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 10:07:12 AM »

That was fast!  '>

The biking file (the one I lost) has the entry in the logbook, but the hiking file doesn't because I unchecked that option when downloading that file for some reason.  When the USB communication was lost, I unchecked both the "follow" & "logbook" options just to see if I could re-establish communications without having to restart TF.  Not that I thought it would really help, but it was just a dumb thing to try before restarting TF.  So when I restarted TF, I unchecked them again for no good reason.  Anyway, the biking entry in the logbook shows the complete path to the missing file.

YES!...  I could have forgotten to actually save the file & just alt-tabbed to another application & came back to TF thinking my file was saved if the download/save dialog has it's own "tab" & can be hidden & I could see my track on the map!  This sounds like a very reasonable explanation since I usually have more than a dozen windows up at any given time!  As long as the track was visible in TF, I could have easily came back assuming I had already saved it & simply did another download!  Would the dialog just come to the front again with the previous tracks still showing or would the previous download info be cleared from the previous session?  If the previous download session status was still visible, I would usually notice that, but maybe not & I may still have thought I already saved it anyway since I saw the track on the map.  Maybe this is a good reason for me to never use the follow on map option?  I do think this scenario could be the problem!  Thanks!

Is the logbook entry created after the download or after a save?  I definitely didn't use Merge though, if that matters.  The Vista C gets much better signal reception than my old GPS, so the tracks are rarely broken.  Really like TF track downloading vs. ExpertGPS or any other program by the way.  Now just add those pretty waypoint icons too.  '>

I'm not positive about the state of the highlighting, but I think what I said is accurate.  I have also been messing with the color options in TF lately, so I could easily have mistaken a change there for highlighting since it may have appeared different than I was used to.  It seems to me that it was indeed a thicker yellow line though.  I'll try to pay more attention to this next time I download 2 tracks on the same day.

I checked the "backup" directory right away & it indeed had the hiking file (apparently overwritten the biking file).  I suppose it could be argued that the auto backup in TF would be a bit safer from fools like myself if it never overwrites a file in the backup directory.  Maybe a future rev could rename a previous version of the file before writing one with the same name?  Better yet would be to make use of the Recycle Bin before overwriting any file at any time since you wouldn't have to worry about duplicate names & the timestamp could be preserved.

48

Archived Support / Losing GPX files, Garmin USB problems?

« on: June 27, 2006, 09:05:30 AM »

I'm using a Garmin eTrex Vista C with USB.  After downloading (follow download in map, add tracks to logbook) the track & viewing it on the map (everything OK), I disconnected the GPS & went away from the computer.  When I came back (screensaver, password protected), the previous track was still displayed (highlighted actually).  I now had a new track to download, but Topofusion wouldn't communicate with the GPS, so I had to close & restart TF.  After doing this, I was able to download the new track just fine.  I save my GPX files using the date only (as in xx-xx-xxxx.gpx).  The new track was for a hike & the previous track was for a mountain bike ride.  I use different directories for each file, but they had the same date (same filename).  Next I wanted to look at the climbing data for each file but I found that my previous GPX file was not in the list of open files!  I believe it was missing when I restarted TF as well, but I didn't look for it until after downloading the current track.  I looked in the "biking" directory & the file was not there!  The hiking GPX file was in the hiking directory as it should have been, but the biking GPX file was gone - as though it was never written to disk or was wiped off the face of the planet when TF saved the hiking file.  My default directory in TF is the biking directory.  My TF logbook shows the complete entry for the missing biking file, but can't load the file since it doesn't exist.  I've had this happen at least 2 times now, each time losing valuable track data.

I really don't think I did this by accident but unfortunately I can't reproduce it at will.  I really think it is an obscure bug in TF that is somehow related to the USB connection troubles and/or some sort of logbook & filename issue.  I don't recall ever having this problem with my serial Garmin although similar loss of communication troubles did occur occassionally.  There seems to be some trouble with the Garmin GPS when communicating & a loss of GPS signal occurs with either serial or USB, although less often with USB.  There is definitely an issue with sharing the USB driver in TF because I always have problems if I have MapSource & TF running at the same time.  I can run ExpertGPS & MapSource together without troubles.  My guess is that there are driver resources that aren't being locked/unlocked properly.  I have no idea if this is also related to the file loss issue though.

I'll try to watch for this again but I'm a bit paranoid about losing my data now, so I'll probably be sure my previous file is always safely on disk before downloading another just out of habit from now on.  If there is anything specific I could test to help track this down, I'd be happy to do so.

49

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Climbing Analysis bug, very irritating.

« on: March 19, 2006, 12:10:54 PM »

When TopoFusion cannot connect to the "elevation server", Climbing Analysis won't work even if you have your own GPS data!  Waiting for the timeout & error messages (2 of them every time you click anywhere in the Climbing Analysis window!) is VERY irritating!  You'd think going thru ONE error message & then checking GPS would allow TopoFusion to bypass the "elevation server" & use your GPS data.  Unfortunately that is not how it behaves.

Please fix this annoying problem.  Personally I think it would be nice if TopoFusion remembered the last setting of this checkbox (DEM or GPS).  Seems like the simplest fix for now at least.

50

Beta Testing / Auto-DEM download - new feature in next beta

« on: January 21, 2005, 11:26:19 AM »

Sounds good, thanks!  Hey, what does a LandSat/Topo Combo look like?  I really like the current Topo/Aerial Combo, so I am just curious.

I assume Combo 1M will still exist?  The current Combo 1M 's Topo 2 or 4M and Aerial 1M correct?