Messages

1

TopoFusion Pro / Re: FIT files revisited - no waypoints

« on: June 30, 2021, 08:01:18 AM »

Being able to download, edit and/or resave FIT files directly to/from the device (especially without using other software) would be VERY useful. 

Thanks

I'm assuming that my old Garmin Forerunner 310xt handles waypoints ("Locations") in a similar manner. Manually inputting them is a pain. Being able to upload them directly from TF would be really great! And downloading saved Locations too.

Larry

2

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Remove PhotoFusion option

« on: June 21, 2021, 05:37:21 PM »

Thanks Scott,

The idea was as you mentioned; to quickly revert to a 'clean' file when something does not work.  I'm very good at finding what does not work ha ha but I think I've got it figured out now -- like the need to re-size full res pictures I link on the web to a more reasonable size.  But no worries if it's not worth adding a 'clear PF' feature.

Larry

3

TopoFusion Pro / Remove PhotoFusion option

« on: June 20, 2021, 02:01:46 PM »

Hi Scott,

I've discovered how slick PhotoFusion is for the documentation I do as part of Forest Service volunteer work. It saves a lot of text trying to explain what's what and where. One feature that would be handy would be a 'remove PhotoFusion' button where I might want to re-use the .gpx file but without PF.  I can do it with Notepad ++ but this would be easier. Or maybe the remove option is already there and I didn't find it!

Larry

4

Feature Requests / Re: Correction for wrong date, Garmin Geko 301

« on: March 14, 2021, 05:18:20 PM »

Thanks Scott!

What's odd is that my Geko 201 has always worked properly since I got it ~2004 I as I remember. (I've kept the software current.) It sill works just fine with TF using the current 2.70 software. I've tried re-installing the current software in the 301 but the date problem remains.

The  301 has a barometer / altimeter and an electronic compass both of which work very nicely so I'm thinking of using the 301 on the trail from now on.

Larry

Ps: the date displayed by the 301 is wrong and it is that date that TF also displays.  For whatever reason the 201  unit displays the correct date

5

Feature Requests / Correction for wrong date, Garmin Geko 301

« on: March 13, 2021, 02:42:07 PM »

Hi Scott,

I recently found a Garmin Geko 301 as a backup to my trusty Geko 201 which I still find is the best GPS for what I do in the Cascades.  Although the 201 works as it should, the 301 gives the wrong date in spite of updating the software to the latest version (2.70) with the Garmin Web Updater.  The problem is as described here:  Geko 201 Time and Date are Incorrect | Garmin Support 

https://support.garmin.com/en-PH/?faq=ymYX4ugd4a7ES1hz2VUdu7&fbclid=IwAR3V6VrMLtx0J81hoy57XL7lYrf6pfgZYGWu9ClpC4upeARb_5rjJPcFzuc

Otherwise the unit works perfectly.

I can manually edit the .gpx file generated by TF to correct the date but it's an inconvenience.  It turns out that if I import the file into Excel and add 7 x 1024 = 7168 to the Excel date, the correct date is generated.  I know this is a minor issue but it would be great if there were a way to correct or change dates (not the time, just the date) from within TF.
Or perhaps there is another solution I have overlooked.
Thanks so much for your continued work!

Larry

6

TopoFusion Pro / Server for marine charts?

« on: January 14, 2011, 07:36:58 AM »

Hi Scott,

Do you know of a tile server for US and or Canadian marine charts that will work with TF? Funny, but there are several sources for free topos, but its $$$ for digital marine charts; not worth it if one is just interested in this or that small area.

thanks so much,

larry

7

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Problem with 3D

« on: February 02, 2010, 08:16:26 AM »

Hey Scott,

John M finally got around to this; your fix worked fine!

Larry

8

TopoFusion Pro / Problem with 3D

« on: December 13, 2009, 05:50:58 PM »

Hey Scott,

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with 3D for a friend and don't quite know where to start, other than to run dxdiag. On his Win XP machine with Direct X 9.x, (c I think) 3D was working properly until a few betas ago. After that point, the 3D surface will load, but it has not tiles overlaying it. Could this have anything to do with the Direct X version? (There is no Direct X 10 for XP.)

Where should I start?

Larry

9

Beta Testing / Re: Beta 3.91

« on: October 28, 2009, 10:09:47 AM »

Right; I think it's off 90 degrees, but don't trust me!

10

Beta Testing / Re: Beta 3.91

« on: October 28, 2009, 09:48:33 AM »

Scott, just noticed one minor thing; the 360 degree lighting angle scale does not create shading that would correspond to the location of the sun. Easy fix or not?

Larry

11

Beta Testing / Re: Beta 3.91

« on: October 27, 2009, 07:05:49 PM »

Ok Scott, when you have an IPO, let me know.

Larry

12

Beta Testing / Re: Beta 3.91

« on: October 27, 2009, 10:58:07 AM »

Hey Scott,

I just quickly scanned this thread, and as I understand it, you have now found a way to do what the troubled Magellan unit (forget the series name) was supposed to do using NGS Topo maps. If I'm right, this super extra cool.

Larry

13

TopoFusion Pro / Re: A SAR related question

« on: October 02, 2009, 06:47:53 AM »

I would love to hear more here too.  I have looked into the APRS protocol, but found it unnecessarily complicated.

Scott, I did a bit of looking around for my FS friends, and found that Bendix King is listing gps as a future option. For example:

http://www.kingradios.net/kngp400.html

I'm not sure how widely King radios are used outside the FS, but I suspect the agencies that do use them would be very interested in the gps option (if they can afford new radios). When the gps option does come out, I hope you can figure out how to support it. Hey, maybe you could make it rich with a contract for the military.

L

14

TopoFusion Anouncements / Re: v3.90 - Shaded Relief, Land Ownership and Color Aerial download fixes

« on: September 22, 2009, 04:56:52 PM »

Hey Scott,

Works great! Shaded relief with color tiles on my 24 inch monitor is stunning.
By the way, have you considered supporting the 3D Connexion Space Navigator? (It's a 6 axis screen navigation device.) I really find mine useful; works with Google Earth, Virtual Earth, HD View (from MS Research), etc.

Larry

15

TopoFusion Pro / Re: A SAR related question

« on: September 18, 2009, 06:35:14 AM »

Thanks for this.

I gather then that at present, there is no easy way to adapt a standard Forest Service King radio (for example) so that it will transmit a gps location at intervals. Do you think that the manufacturers of such radios will incorporate this feature soon, or have they done so already?

Larry

16

TopoFusion Pro / A SAR related question

« on: September 16, 2009, 06:41:16 AM »

I wonder if one of the SAR people on this forum might update me on the current state of adapting standard SAR and/or Forest Service radios to transmit a gps lat-lon at intervals so that personnel could be tracked using TF.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

17

Beta Testing / Re: Beta v3.87 out! Shaded Relief

« on: September 09, 2009, 07:08:27 AM »

Hey Scott,

Shaded relief: extra cool! And the ability to control it is very nice, *way* better than say NGS Topo!


While I'm thinking of it, TF is getting very close to eliminating my need for Topo!, which has not been updated in ages. A short list of features I would want before giving up on Topo!: - the ability to annotate easily, any font, without having it associated with a waypoint. A text tool that is.

 -The ability to draw multiple bearing lines from a fixed anchor with just a left click, and to be able to place a text box with range and bearing near the line via right click. And then the ability to quickly save everything on the screen in one file, without having to think about where each annotation, or each bearing line is saved.

- A selection box for printing that can be set based on paper size, and percent of full size, with allowance for optional legends and/or grid lat lon.

Just a personal wish list,


Larry

18

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Batch download woes

« on: September 09, 2009, 06:28:27 AM »

Hi guys,

For what it's worth, fiddling with the internet connections settings has helped batch downloading on my machine. It seemed to me that if they were cranked up too much, a server  would stop responding. Especially the color tile server. (Scott may have fixed this internally by now.)

 By the way, I've used Vista 64 bit for some time now, no issues, but keeping my video driver updated has solved a number of other minor problems. (Vista uses a new video driver model, and I'm not sure if the video card makers have every last bit of it figured out yet.) 

Larry

19

User Projects / Re: Current Forest Service Topo's

« on: August 31, 2009, 02:05:25 PM »

I think these TIF images may be what is loaded (with some color modification?) by "http://www.mytopo.com/maps.cfm?".

Thanks for the link Loren, Having checked a few spots, I think a quick way to see if the maps are new is to check some elevations. The new ones dispense with the 'T' (for transit elevation) and none appear to be hand written now. Nice not to have to struggle to figure out an elevation.


Larry

20

Beta Testing / Re: v3.83 released

« on: August 30, 2009, 09:17:42 AM »

"No Proxy Server
25 Connections
Restart Connections after 20 Sec (though download dialog always shows 60 s)
Use Persistent Connections checked"

Steve and Scott, for what it's worth, I had a similiar issue some time ago that I fixed by not using persistent connections. It's as if the server is saying 'you can't tie up 25 phone lines to me and expect me to send you anything'. At least that's the way I imagined it.

Larry

21

User Projects / Re: Current Forest Service Topo's

« on: August 28, 2009, 03:15:35 PM »

Scott, it would not be high on my list now, but anything that would make it easier to use these new topos as user maps would be nice. I did however notice that even having just one load at startup delays things noticeably. That alone would limit my use.

I wonder if these new topos use some sort of digital line smoothing.

22

Feature Requests / Easy way to copy track stats

« on: August 20, 2009, 06:35:47 AM »

Hey Scott,

This is a minor request: an easy way to copy all the stats for a given track, so for example, they could be pasted into an Email. Maybe right click on the track file and choose 'copy stats' or something like that.

And the idea of being able to choose tile sets for PhotoFusion gets my vote too! Two or three votes. Now that the color tiles are available, this would be especially nice.


Larry

23

User Projects / Re: Current Forest Service Topo's

« on: August 19, 2009, 05:21:51 AM »

Thanks for this Mike,

The difference in quality of these topos compared to the standard ones TF uses is *amazing*. Scott, you might want to check these out. They are so much better, you might be tempted to figure out a way to make these an optional tile set. That would be fantastic, as big an improvement as adding the high res color tiles.

[edited to add:] As a trial I've made a user map from one of these new quads (Mt. Stuart in Washington), and it is really spiffy. However, it appears that the topo lines have been smoothed somehow. On the quad I checked, the fine wiggles or scallops, which are a very useful clue that a steep slope may have rocky ridges that are not easily passable, are gone. So the new quads are not a complete replacement for the old ones it seems.

Larry

24

Beta Testing / Re: v. 3.82 on netbook runing Win 7

« on: August 11, 2009, 04:49:54 AM »

Scott, Win 7 RC 1 is downloadable as a free 1 year trial version. It expires next August, but that's lots of time to play with Win 7. There are a number of web posts about installing it on an Eee PC; there have been a few minor issues, but on my machine, (a 904 HA), everything works, even the webcam. I just let the install do it's thing. The only Asus driver I used was the SuperHybrid power manager, which works fine. Win 7 supplied the rest. My no risk solution was to buy another hdd (not that expensive), and put Win 7 on that. I can always go back to the old OS anytime I want.

25

Beta Testing / v. 3.82 on netbook runing Win 7

« on: August 07, 2009, 08:20:31 AM »

Hey Scott,

I just thought I would let you know that the latest beta runs like a champ on my Eee PC with the Win 7 RC 1 OS installed. That's working *great* too.  With this setup, and my TF prefs set back a bit, I think TF is running perhaps even better on this little machine than when I first started using it several years ago on my desktop at the time. It's really quite amazing.

Larry

26

Beta Testing / Re: v3.81 Beta - Batch Downloading

« on: July 25, 2009, 05:22:45 PM »

Hey Scott,

The batch downloading is *extra cool*.     It's working fine so far! It's particularly nice because the color tiles, which I'm finding are really useful, are slow to download. No worries now. :-)

One hint for Vista users who are planing big downloads: it looks like you have to temporarily set the power options to always on; otherwise the download gets interrupted when sleep mode starts. But it will resume when the computer wakes up if you don't want to bother.

Edited to add this: now that my large download is finished, I'm amazed at how smoothly the color tiles zoom in. There is no dectable jump between tile resolutions. I would not have noticed this before, because tiles were always being downloaded. This is really impressive!

Larry

27

TopoFusion Pro / Re: TopoFusion Pro Refusing to Download Maps

« on: July 11, 2009, 06:07:22 PM »

In case you can't tell, I'm auditioning mapping software right now, lol. I like TopoFusion's interface quite a bit more than GPSDrive's, but GPSDrive's mapping data gets the nod.

Hi Rich, just a few thoughts from my perspective. If you are looking for software for navigation or route planning for areas other than off road, or off trail, there are quite a number of options I gather. However for the purposes I mentioned, there is nothing like TF that even comes close. The user interface may not be ideal, but Scott has put most of his time into new features, some of which are quite amazing. And they keep coming. 


Larry

28

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Resolution of download/cashe DEM

« on: June 22, 2009, 08:09:08 AM »

Scott, I played around with this a bit more. In both cases (stored DEM and download cashe) the interpolation method was set to Bicubic. I can't tell for sure, but it appears that the stored DEM is not higher resolution. I don't see any additional terrain on steep gullied hillsides for example, but it seems as if the 3D simulation using the download/cashe is made up of flat tiles (creating facets) where as the stored DEM 3D simulation seems to bend or form each tile such that there are no visible facets. I hope this makes sense.

But I also discovered that my stored DEM seems to be off by perhaps 150 feet in the central Cascades. This by looking at steep ridgelines with knife edge crests and noting the displacement of the shadow (the real shadow) on one side. The download / cashe is right on.

Larry

29

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Resolution of download/cashe DEM

« on: June 21, 2009, 12:22:51 PM »

Scott, guess I should have checked to make sure the links work; I got the same error as you. I don't know what's causing it.... I think I remember some setting somewhere about opening a file linked from another website....

However, I found I could 'save target as' and save the picture to my desktop. I'm confused! 

But perhaps for now you can just copy the URL and paste it into the browser. That worked for me.

Larry

30

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Resolution of download/cashe DEM

« on: June 21, 2009, 09:43:39 AM »

Scott, checked to make sure I'm using the download/cashe option. As I remember, my NED data was the 30 meter stuff.

Here are two screen clips, the first using the download/cashe data, and the second using my DEM files:

http://www.larryscascaderesource.com/pics/downloadcashe.jpg

and

http://www.larryscascaderesource.com/pics/oldstoreddem.jpg

To my eye, the second is much smoother.

Larry

31

TopoFusion Pro / Resolution of download/cashe DEM

« on: June 21, 2009, 08:51:49 AM »

Hey Scott,

Just got to wondering if the download/cashe DEM resolution was as good as the stored ones on my HDD. These were generated some time ago, using the instructions on the website. Turns out that the original stored DEM files have a much higher resolution as compared to the download/cashe version. At least on my few tests. The later produces a very blocky 3D model when zoomed way in.

I was under the impression that the download/cashe files could create the same DEM resolution as before. What's going on do you think?

Larry

32

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Combo Maps

« on: June 08, 2009, 07:49:22 AM »

Scott:
1. What have people found to be the most accurate measurement of elevation. Thanks.

Hi Marian, 
For what it's worth, here is my experience, adding to what Scott said: if I remember correctly, the best res on the DEM model is a point roughly every 100 feet. That in itself can lead to a significant error. In general, here in the NW, my guess is that plus / minus 50 ft is the best the DEM can do. Sometimes it's much worse. On the other hand, when the GPS gets a good, unobstructed view of the sky, I've been amazed at the accuracy. On many of the peaks in the Cascades where where I have compared the elevation reported by the GPS to the transit elevation, or the elevation of a benchmark, I often get agreement within five feet! This even though the GPS says that the best it can do is say 12 feet.  On the other hand, in deep forested valleys, the GPS elevation data can be near worthless. One clue to this in the field is noticing that the GPS elevation data lags. (That is, when you arrive at a point of known elevation, the
GPS reports the elevation you attained  earlier.)

Hope this helps,

Larry

33

Feature Requests / Any progress on the load maps tool?

« on: June 01, 2009, 02:44:06 PM »

Hey Scott, any progress on simplifying the use of the load maps tool so that you can easily load all the files of a given type (especially the color tiles!) without any of the others? And while I think of it, would it be possible to add color tiles to the list of combo tile sets, so I can use the color tiles now instead of black and white blended with the topo tiles?

Hiking - exploring season is here!

Larry

34

Beta Testing / Re: v 3.76

« on: May 08, 2009, 06:59:46 AM »

Hey Scott,

Great improvement, the elevation storage. Perhaps you could arrange for this to work with the 'load maps' tool. Or can I do the same thing by say just viewing a 3D image of a very large area?

Haven't used this version much, but no issues so far,

Larry

35

Feature Requests / Re: An easier way to use download tool

« on: April 01, 2009, 10:36:27 AM »

Scott, guess I was just thinking of right clicking somewhere in the rectangular area that will be downloaded, to bring up a list of options. But now that I think of it, naw....

Perhaps one useful option in the message box that pops up might be 'download all active tile types' if type is the right word. Say I wanted all the topos. While viewing topos, just select the 'active current types' option, and I could get them all for a very large area, nothing else. Then maybe I would want the aerials. Same process.

36

Feature Requests / An easier way to use download tool

« on: April 01, 2009, 07:51:40 AM »

Hi Scott,

I wonder if there might be an easier way to use the area download tool. That is, to be able to quickly select one or more tile sets to download. Say I just want to download the new Canadian topos for an area. As I understand, currently I need to open preferences>tile sets, and uncheck all but the one or ones I want. If I don't do this, TF wants to download tens of thousands of tiles for a small area in Desolation Sound for example. (Or am I missing something?)   


Maybe a right click menu when the cursor is within a selected area, or something in the download message box.

Larry

37

TopoFusion Pro / Canadian color tiles

« on: April 01, 2009, 07:01:49 AM »

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the instructions on inactivating my old Canadian topos. Worked fine. After I did this and started exploring some of the new maps, I found that the 'c' key brings up Google like color tiles at least well north of the Washington - BC border. North of  East  Redondo Island (a wonderful cruising area) for example. What's the real story about Canadian color tiles?

In case this has not been mentioned before, here's what I've found about using hot keys: to find the hot key for newer tile sets, try the first letter in the name that is not already taken. For Canadian topos, that letter is 'n'. Does this idea work consistently?

Larry

38

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

« on: March 27, 2009, 05:50:04 AM »

Hey Scott,

I particularly like Bob's idea of an option to have TF use an HTML template of some sort, such that for example, the elevation profile would not be shown, etc. When it's important, I edit the TF output with an html editor, but I typically do the same edits each time. Starting with a template that I've modified would be slick.

And I agree, being able to show photos is only part of the power of this feature. It's very cool once you learn how it works.

Larry

39

TopoFusion Pro / Re: custom combo maps

« on: March 20, 2009, 05:12:36 AM »

Thanks Scott, yup, that tells me how to do it; works fine. I guess I had never tried any of the other combo options under 'image processing'. I did however need to find the  hotkey for the non-standard combos; normally I just toggle through with the A key. Since the C key brings up color maps, my next try was O (as in cOmbo) which worked.

While I think of it, is the list of hotkeys in the on-line manual up to date? (In case I want to tattoo it on the back of my hand.)   

Larry

40

TopoFusion Pro / custom combo maps

« on: March 19, 2009, 08:32:58 AM »

Hi Scott,

Maybe this has been covered before, but I can't find any info:

I'd like to be able to use my own choice of tile sets for the combo maps. Is there a way to do this? Second choice would be to use hotkeys to toggle between the urban tile sets and the TIGER tile sets. (In effect I would get something like Google Maps, but no need for an Internet connection.)

Larry

41

TopoFusion Pro / Live tracking; removing black track line

« on: March 14, 2009, 07:42:01 AM »

Hey Scott, just got a gps dongle for my laptop. Works fine with TF, and quite amazing at that. One thing I have not figured out however. As the track is being drawn, it is shown as a black line. When I save the track, it lies directly under the black line, and is not visible. I was not able to figure out how to clear that black line so I could see my saved track. But eventually it disappeared (so I could see and edit my track); I just don't know how I did it. 

Is there a need for that black line to persist? How do I clear it?

Thanks,

Larry

42

Beta Testing / Re: v3.73 - Improved Canadian Topos!

« on: March 13, 2009, 09:08:06 AM »

Just to check, you're OK with the wasted space that the 'dead' tiles will leave?

Scott, I've not downloaded that many Canadian tiles yet, so for me it's not an issue. But it might be for some of your Canadian users.  As an aside, after seeing the new topo maps, I don't know who would want to keep the old ones.

Larry

43

Beta Testing / Re: v3.73 - Improved Canadian Topos!

« on: March 13, 2009, 04:18:05 AM »

Hey Scott,

Yup, that funny map movement issue is fixed now. I *really* like the new Canadian maps. Trying to use the old ones to ID peaks in my panoramas was frustrating to say the least. The new ones are so much better. Unless there is an easy way to dump the tiles I have already downloaded, having these as a new tile set would be great! (Otherwise I won't be able to use them without starting all my .dat files over again. Don't feel much like doing that.) 

44

Beta Testing / Re: Some fixes - v3.72

« on: March 05, 2009, 07:04:51 AM »

Hey Scott, I just tried this and I also get a goofy response, but on my machine the map moves up with both the up and down arrow keys. Also left arrow key makes the map move up and to the right, while the right arrow key moves the map up and to the left. Very strange.

Larry

45

Feature Requests / Re: Various new feature suggestions

« on: February 24, 2009, 09:00:17 AM »

I'll have to get a more recent copy of NGTopo.  My copy doesn't do anything like that.  Sounds potentially useful.

Scott, latest version is 4.50 via the updates page at Topo! Are you still using the 2.x version maybe?

46

Feature Requests / Re: Favicon?

« on: February 22, 2009, 08:47:13 AM »

Scott, strange, if I click on the link above, all I get is the 'red X'. I'm using IE 7, with current updates. Maybe some of the file specifics not suited to IE? I just made a favicon using Photoshop and a 'save as .ico' plug-in. Works fine. RBG color, 8 bit. 16 x 16 pixels.

Larry

47

Feature Requests / Favicon?

« on: February 22, 2009, 05:19:30 AM »

Hi Scott,

Now here's a simple request.  How about adding an appropriate favicon.ico to the TF website? I'll try making one for you if you don't have the time.   

Larry

48

Feature Requests / Re: Various new feature suggestions

« on: February 21, 2009, 07:36:52 AM »

Scott, with regard to  the idea of highlighting a section of a profile (great idea!) perhaps you could add something like NGS Topo does. As you select any point on a profile, a horizontal line appears that allows you to read the elevation scale, and a vertical line appears so you can read the distance from the origin. Also, when you click this point, a marker dot appears on the profile, and the corresponding point on the map is also marked (with a small dot) and horizontal / vertical lines appear. The  marker dots stay in position until you click another spot on the profile. This is a bit different than the way TF works, but I find the NGS Topo! features very handy!  Especially the markers that stay in place, and the ability to see the whole trail as you move the markers.

Larry

49

TopoFusion Pro / Re: Resolution of color tiles

« on: February 04, 2009, 07:33:02 AM »

The numbers in the tilesets are lat/long degrees per pixel and are a constant. 

Hi Scott,

I must be missing something; here in the NW, one degree of latitude is ~60 NM. This converts to 11120 meters. If a color pixel is 0.003 degrees, this comes out to 333 meters. Is it perhaps that each tile is .003 degrees? Naw, I must be doing something wrong!

Larry

50

Feature Requests / Tile date

« on: February 02, 2009, 07:58:31 AM »

Hi Scott,

I think this has been discussed in the past, but with the addition of color tile sets, all sorts of research is now practical. Backcountry campsite surveys come to mind, in keeping with my interests. It would be very desirable to know the date when a tile image was taken, say by right click over an exact area of interest.

I'm not sure if this is possible (if the tiles have this info) but it would be a great feature I think.

Larry