Windows maps download tool for MapThis! by in7ane

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Originally Posted by zsc

@PSPLawyer, I'm guessing that you're running Windows Vista and you tried to "extract all", am I correct? I had the same problem, if in fact that is the case.

Instead of using the Vista's built-in support for zip files, I had to use WinRAR to extract the contents of the gmdl zip file, that solved that problem. It's weird, only In7ane's zip files gave me this problem, all others are fine.

@In7ane, how are you zipping the files? Are you running Mac OS X?

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@zsc and in7ane: Actually, I'm on XP. But I did try zsc's idea of using winrar and it worked. Thanks. However, I'm still getting the error when I click on "geodata" button once inside gmdl tool.

I was able to find a geodata file of CA on a thread. But how it this functional/practical? I was able to find a location but I'd like to know how to get to that same location from wherever I am using GPS. Kinda like getting directions. How is this possible? Is there anyway to get turn-by-turn directions?

Hi in7ane, thanks for implementing my suggestions, they're super. I have another idea that I think would be great for GMDL. Instead of having the midpoint text simply say "Midpoint", would it be possible to implement an option to have it say what the next upcoming turn will be so that we'll know what to look ahead for? Something along the lines of this:

2.0 Mi
Upcoming turn: Left at Main St

PSPLawyer, does it gives any specific error message? See if you can take a screenshot of the error, hold down ALT and press PrntScrn, paste image into MS Paint, save as JPEG, put it up on photobucket or something, then link it here.

the geodata file for CA contains all addresses and the associated geographical coordinates i think. if you're in LA like me, you probably dont need addresses for Sacramento and such. I'll post the one i made for my big map, it has LA county, Orange, Ventura, San Bernandino, ... and two other counties that I cannot remember. As for directions, since the maps are just images, I don't think it's possible to get turn-by-turn directions just yet. Unless you use GMDL to create a set of POI and use them as waypoints, haven't tried it yet. Then again, most of the time I used the geodata address lookup is when I'm running errands and didn't plan in advance to go to where I wanted to go. The thing with geodata address lookup is that it put a marker on the address you're trying to get to, that i think is half the battle.

While MapThis isnt as good as your over-the-counter GPS Nav System, it's perfect for someone who are used to the Thomas Guides, those big map books, like me. I don't like having someone or something telling me where to turn, it's annoying. This is not to say that the feature is not welcomed though. I hope MapThis gets to that point one day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by in7ane

Mysteryman, most EU countries do not make available the source data that would be needed to create geodata.dat files (Denmark is an exception to this I think), see: http://www.publicgeodata.org

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Uhm.
That's really bad.
Are there any alternative methods out there?

Like reading the Streetnames out of the Maps?

Deleted.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...Screenshot.jpg



Here is the screenshot zsc. Thanks for all your help.

so this happens every time you click the geodata button?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PSPLawyer

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...Screenshot.jpg



Here is the screenshot zsc. Thanks for all your help.

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i also get an error along those lines when i choose to add geodata for a map that i have already created that doesnt have any geodata. if you create a map from scratch and remember to check the 'add geo data US only' or whatever it says button when you make a map from the get go it will work and a geodata file will be created i noticed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zsc

so this happens every time you click the geodata button?

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every time, without fail.

http://www.in7ane.com/psp/gmdl0.4.6b.zip

(1)
True custom maps that are fully GPS compatible, courtesy of MapCruncher by Microsoft Research ( http://research.microsoft.com/mapcruncher/ , you may also want to read http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa907679.aspx )

Example (converted to JPEG since PNG version was 131MB):
http://www.in7ane.com/mc/7pr/_MC_JPG_SHIFT.zip (GPSFS map 7MB)
http://www.in7ane.com/mc/7pr/ (Local.Live mashup)
http://www.in7ane.com/mc/7pr/7pr.zip (the whole thing, 14MB)

I've also put in an option (off by default) to fill empty tiles (with a small jpg/png), since I'm experiencing some crashes in Map This! which seem to occur if the leftmost tile being loaded is empty (seems to be specific to jpg maps as well), deniska - any ideas, or is it just me?

(2)
Name change (if you can do better with something that abbreviates to GMDL I'd welcome suggestions), and I would also like to know if people have an opinion about switching away from Google Maps to Local.Live as the navigation basis for the app, given Microsoft's much better attitude (un-watermarked and unlimited satellite imagery, documentation on how to pull tiles, support of TerraServer-USA, and tools like MapCruncher).


zsc, the POI and directions columns no longer auto-size, and name is the first one. There's also a button to remove duplicated for POIs. About the wiki - just click edit next to the section you want to edit, make sure to use preview and have a read of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

UK Topo NPE maps - having the tiles aligned does cause a very noticeable offset at the edges of the map (tested on a 8 to 2 of London), so now you can either have the option to be aligned of better GPS compatibility (or wait until the server starts accepting lat/lon requests).

AZImmortal, I think Map This! uses the MIDPOINT marker to treat the point differently, so it needs to be there - either way directions are changing for the next version, so I will wait until that is out to see how an upcoming turn can be implemented (have you tried setting WARNINGDISTANCE= in mapViewer/system/config.txt to a larger value to get a similar effect?). Alternatively I can stick whatever fits onto the same line as the distance remaining, something like this: 0.1mi - Turn left at Ea...

PSPLawyer, it looks like the dlls are not where they should be, could you post the whole text of the error, also do your directory contents/structure look like this:

../Geodata & Map Download & Load.exe
../Geodata & Map Download & Load.pdb
../icons/..
../usgs_tiger/..
../config.txt
../resources/..
../geodata/..
../ZipForge.xml
../zlib.net.dll
../ZipForge.dll
../Geodata & Map Download & Load.vshost.exe


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People seem to be already way ahead of me with scanning Russian topographic maps: http://velotourism.ru/navigator/topomaps/index.html seems to have extensive coverage and there are select better quality ones at http://mapy.mk.cvut.cz/news.htm guess I'll post up anything I do convert to GPSFS

Another great job in7ane
Got a Question are we able to use to the map from Mapking or OZI for PSP
how should it be convert and what are the tools needed to convert them .
sorry for asking
thanks a million

Chrislim, OZI Explorer: File/Save Map To Image File and then processing the file in MapCruncher should work, Mapking ( if http://www.mapking.com/en/ ?) seems to be a vector map format - so if there is no export to bitmap option you could try taking a whole lot of screenshots (maybe you can get the window to be large enough to show the full map at closest zoom and then take a print screen of the active window).

in7ane, here is my structure:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s.../structure.jpg

in7ane, here is the error message in word format:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1Z3BEIVB

in7ane, the above issue are now moot: Your new release fixed the problem. I noticed you put the GMDL folder as the first folder and main directory and I think this may have been a factor in correcting the error I was always getting. This time I used winzip with success and didn't have to use winrar.

PSPLawyer, others, the exe needs to be in the same directory as the two dlls and the following directories:

../icons/..
../usgs_tiger/..
../resources/..
../geodata/..

and config.txt if you use it

@in7ane, I've actually been using Live.Local for my maps download instead of Google. With Live.Local, I can get better zoom for satellite/aerial images for the US, though elsewhere in the world, I think Google still has the upperhand. I live in Los Angeles and Live Local coverage is pretty good. However, I've been checking out maps for Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Google has pretty good Satellite images of the area.

Global Maps Download Tool (GMDL)...how's that?

@zsc, I too am in Los Angeles. Do you have a good Los Angeles or Los Angeles and OC map to share?

My Los Angeles map is two-fold. Central and out towards Pomona and my other map is of Santa Monica and Valley. I'd like to have just one map of Los Angeles.

THanks.

@in7ane: Did you even check out my version of your app? I mean, you didn't comment about my ideas, i try to help, but all the changes i made to make your app BETTER are voided everytime you release a new version, since you don't use them...

Actually, why making it "open source" if you don't take the benefit of what other try to do for helping?

ThaNerd, thanks for the contributions - it takes time to dig through the results of diff though, and MapCruncher support was too neat not to release immediately, anyway I think I've found all the changes now so I will release a new version tomorrow morning after moving them across. Change by change comments coming later :)

To in7ane

Thanks for your big work..
This program simply super..
I have made already a map of city from PNG file and tomorrow her I shall check up with GPS-290
But there is one big problem - the program does not work with photos more 9000х9500 pix...
It as can be corrected that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by in7ane

AZImmortal, I think Map This! uses the MIDPOINT marker to treat the point differently, so it needs to be there - either way directions are changing for the next version, so I will wait until that is out to see how an upcoming turn can be implemented (have you tried setting WARNINGDISTANCE= in mapViewer/system/config.txt to a larger value to get a similar effect?). Alternatively I can stick whatever fits onto the same line as the distance remaining, something like this: 0.1mi - Turn left at Ea...

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Hi in7ane, I never took notice of the warningdistance value before, but now that I've played around with it I see how it works. Is this value measuring in a specific unit? If it's not too much trouble for you to implement, I think that putting the upcoming turn information into the same line as the distance remaining would be handy, even if it needs to be truncated for longer street names. I like knowing what the next turn should be as early as possible.

http://www.in7ane.com/psp/gmdl0.4.7b.zip

AZImmortal, upcoming directions are in, check List Upcoming to activate.

ThaNerd, the changes were percentages in download and 2nd try download and a change to the preview html - those are in. Let me know if I missed anything.

zsc, thanks - Global Map Download it is.

DennyPSP, MapCruncher? could you post/link to the source image(s) - guess you can cut them up if the limit is on the individual image, if it is on the total map size - create two maps and then combine the tiles (you may have to sort out overlap by hand or I can try and write an app to combine maps).

I just tried it out and it's just what I was looking for, thanks in7ane. However, it seems that there's a bug where all of the Midpoints are using circle icons instead of the normal waypoint dots (either that or the Midpoints are now using the path point icon).

AZImmortal, check Legacy Mode - however the directions file will then stop working with next release of Map This!, I think.

@in7ane thanks for the info for using OZI Map for PSP
will checkout the MapCruncher

To in7ane
Thanks for your hard works
the new version of gmdl0.4.7b.zip
Got the MapABC (China )in it
I am going to do a map of Beijing
thanks a million
you are great man
cheers

@PSPLawyer, if I remember correctly, my map of LA covers zoom 8 -> -1, x=87, y=204. However, I only got detailed zooms of the 5x5 grids centered on the grid below the one that covers Downtown. The size of the map is almost 800MB.

I'm thinking of making a better, more detailed map, but so far, the file sizes have exceeded the 1.9GB mark my mem stick can handle.

This is what i'm thinking of doing next, 8->-2 zoom, x&y same as above, covers detailed zoom of only 5x5, same as above. For this man, i'm thinking of splicing both MSN and MSN hybrid images together. I'm going to download both with "No GPSFS" checked and replace certain tiles with the MSN hybrid images.

@in7ane, does that sound possible? replacing individual image file with another. If I make the two maps with the same criteria, it should be fine right?

@PSPLawyer, so yea, that's what I got now and what i'll be doing. If you still want to take a look at it, i'll figure out a way to upload it to a server or something, it'll take a few days to do so, upload speed aint that fast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zsc

This is what i'm thinking of doing next, 8->-2 zoom, x&y same as above, covers detailed zoom of only 5x5, same as above. For this man, i'm thinking of splicing both MSN and MSN hybrid images together. I'm going to download both with "No GPSFS" checked and replace certain tiles with the MSN hybrid images.

@in7ane, does that sound possible? replacing individual image file with another. If I make the two maps with the same criteria, it should be fine right?

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Make sure you don't mix jpegs with pngs in one map..

thanks for the heads up. I wasn't sure what you meant so I did a test run with a small map.

MSN => PNG
MSN Hybrid => JPEG

I'll probably create a batch action within photoshop to convert those PNG's into low quality JPEGs. So far with the small map I made, the streets (MSN & MSNh) lined up...as they should. This is goin to take some time, a 1->0 map contains 20 images. The batch action won't take long, though the manual copy&paste will, especially since I gotta figure out what to replace. Maybe I'll just make the whole -1 zoom level to be MSNh and leave the rest as MSN.

To in7ane

This map (45MB) in PNG not working in MaPCruncher
http://ifolder.ru/1182006

Thanks for your idea. bu a can`t combine maps.
I was slice map for 4 part and MapCruncher be worked with 1-4 part..
How i can combine part of maps in MapCruncher?
Help please, we have many map of OziExplorer but when save map in PNG - file made is big, not worked in MapCruncher.

As I to choose zoom which to me it can is necessary the program creates very much a big map of city approximately 700 MB, the some people zoom to me are not necessary to remove as them in MapCruncher?

DennyPSP, just add another source map - if you place them all in one layer they will get rendered into one directory. (keep in mind that if you are using topomaps.ru maps you will need to cut off the sides beforehand though).

About moscow2004-big.png, that specific file may be corrupted since the one from http://gps-map.net/karty-ozi-explore.../moskva-5.html seems to be bigger (however it still doesn't load - may be a ram limit or you can try and e-mail the MapCruncher people to ask them if there is a limit for how large an image you can use).

With zoom - you can set the closest zoom (you will have to do it for each source image) in the Source Info tab in MapCruncher.

see: http://research.microsoft.com/mapcruncher/tutorial/

To in7ane
I did as you speak - all parts of map in one layer, but they are not combined also each piece of a map is in the window.. I shall make video and I shall show if not clearly...

http://gps-map.net/karty-ozi-explore.../moskva-5.html this is my map moscow2004-big.png just little slice.
I write the mail to MapCrunchers people...

DennyPSP, try clicking on the layer name (eg. New Layer) - it should show all the segments that you have in it together.

@in7ane

What i changed is documented in "ThaNerd-Changes.txt" in the folder with all sources... Most of the work was about changing the "Anchor" attribute of most controls so that they move/resize along when enlarging the window...

@in7ane
I just tried setting up a small route in my home town in Germany and noticed that it only works with google.
If I try to use map24 (de.map24.com) it does not work; probably because the "Get Values" button is not active so I cannot get the values and thus no waypoints are generated.
Is there a way to fix this?

http://www.in7ane.com/psp/gmdl0.4.8b.zip

ThaNerd, those are in now (please confirm if you have time). Thank you very much going through all of that and improving the interface. And sorry I messed up on the updates. A good thing to come out of it though - zsCompare does wonders for carrying over stuff.

Also, continuing on from MapCruncher tests: http://www.in7ane.com/topomaps/ but making online maps is sidetracking from the psp a bit I guess (once I have more area covered and properly aligned I'll make it into a source).

rhygin, you have to search for the directions within the map24 site then click list - it rips them out of the webdocument.

in7ane, sorry I did not have much time this week to code nor respond to posts...
could you post an example of a map that crashes the program? - you mentioned it ~ 2 pages back...

@in7ane
That is exactly what I did but I always get a popup window with the message:
There are 0 POIs