UK/Eire Contour map updates
  
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UK/Eire Contour map updates

 
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GSV Three Minds in a Can
Guest
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 5:08 pm    Post subject: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
If anyone here is using the UK/Eire contour mapping, I just thought I'd
mention that there is now a 1.2 update which fixes some really dumb
smoothing that was done in 'void' areas (where there was no SRTM height
data). For most of the UK this isn't a big deal, but for some of the
hillier bits (Skye, for instance) it results in radically different
contours in certain areas.

Note that the contours in those areas are still =entirely fictitious=
(no DEM data = no real height!) however the new fiction is more in line
with believable geology than the old fiction was. Just don't go betting
your life on the data.

This update incorporates the (unannounced) 1.1 revision, which moved
several summits in line with where the OS trig pillars are known to be.
Many summits are still only 6-figure Grid references (so may be out by
100m each way).

General place names are derived from US Geographic Intelligence data ..
it has been mentioned to me that spellings hop about from Gaelic to
English and back again, and that Dublin has been moved many miles from
its real location (for security reasons. 8>.) .. however the place names
are really only there so you can select the correct 1-degree-square
contour tile, if you want to know where Dublin really is, use the Garmin
base map!

The SMC webmaster has the revised data, although I'm not sure if it is
loaded onto their website

http://www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm

yet (not having access to broadband [Thanks BT] I'm not in good shape to
download it and check it), however I do know that it's online at Luke
Mallet's mirror site:-

http://www.lukedesigns.co.uk/maps/contour_maps.htm

And finally, if anyone is actually using any of the South Shropshire
rights-of-way/mapping data, that's been extended and updated too (I've
done nearly a 12th of the County now .. 777Km of ROW .. 4,000Km of
walking) accessible via

http://www.quik.clara.co.uk/maps

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Contact recommends the use of Firefox; SC recommends it at gunpoint.
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Nigel Cliffe
Guest
Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:29 pm    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
Quote:
If anyone here is using the UK/Eire contour mapping, I just thought
I'd mention that there is now a 1.2 update which fixes some really
dumb smoothing that was done in 'void' areas (where there was no SRTM
height data). .........


Thanks for the update.

One minor request for future ones; could the hill summit file 13900003 be
made available with an optional different icon please ? Such as 0x6600.
Reason being screen clutter; I'd rather have just a small spot for a summit
than a pretty mountain shape which can obscure other stuff.

I can (and have) fixed my own copy with an edit in GPSMapEdit, recompile,
and then recompile the PV file (otherwise MapSource gripes at loading the
0.4Mb map into 24Mb of memory), but if others would like these alternative
visuals they may find the compile cycle too complicated.

If/when there are zillions of other features visible on maps for Garmins, I
might want to distinguish the features with Icons, but for now I'd rather
have maximum screen visible.


regards,

- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/
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David Lee
Guest
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:06 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote...
Quote:
If anyone here is using the UK/Eire contour mapping, I just thought I'd
mention that there is now a 1.2 update...

Thanks for that - I use your contour maps regularly and was just about to
reinstall them as MapSource is telling me that some of them have got
corrupted when I try to upload to my Vista - so now is the perfect time to
upgrade them!

I haven't yet tried using your Shropshire maps but I only live in Malvern
and it must be about time for another Shropshire walk - so any time now...!

Cheers

David
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GSV Three Minds in a Can
Guest
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 12:16 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
Bitstring <dlqbqe$8cn$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <me@privacy.net> said
Quote:
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
If anyone here is using the UK/Eire contour mapping, I just thought
I'd mention that there is now a 1.2 update which fixes some really
dumb smoothing that was done in 'void' areas (where there was no SRTM
height data). .........


Thanks for the update.

One minor request for future ones; could the hill summit file 13900003 be
made available with an optional different icon please ? Such as 0x6600.
Reason being screen clutter; I'd rather have just a small spot for a summit
than a pretty mountain shape which can obscure other stuff.

I'll think about it .. in the meantime you are welcome to make the
alternate version available (as long as you abide by the GNU open source
license terms - mainly don't charge for it). Since it's only one .img
file and associated tbg/previews I imagine it's pretty small.

Quote:
I can (and have) fixed my own copy with an edit in GPSMapEdit, recompile,
and then recompile the PV file (otherwise MapSource gripes at loading the
0.4Mb map into 24Mb of memory), but if others would like these alternative
visuals they may find the compile cycle too complicated.

If/when there are zillions of other features visible on maps for Garmins, I
might want to distinguish the features with Icons, but for now I'd rather
have maximum screen visible.

Oh, there are a zillion visible features available, they just aren't
there in the contour mapset. I used a couple of dozen in the South
Shropshire set.

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Contact recommends the use of Firefox; SC recommends it at gunpoint.
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David Lee
Guest
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:16 pm    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote...
Quote:
...
And finally, if anyone is actually using any of the South Shropshire
rights-of-way/mapping data, that's been extended and updated too (I've
done nearly a 12th of the County now .. 777Km of ROW .. 4,000Km of
walking) accessible via

http://www.quik.clara.co.uk/maps

The South Shropshire maps are a problem on the monochrome etrex Vista (and
presumably related etrex models). The problem arises from Garmin
incompetence/stupidity and is exactly the same on Garmin Metroguide maps!
Block shaded areas show up on the etrex as 50% grey shading which makes
reading the footpaths etc very difficult. Areas include Clee - "State Park"
shading (0x1e) and Wyre Forest (and other woodlands) "Forest" (0x50).
Forest shading comes out as blotchy 50% grey tree symbols on the etrex and
horizontal brown hatching in MapSource (quite a distraction in MapSource as
well).

Unfortunately Garmin failed to add the facitity to turn off National Park
shading on the Vista and stubbornly refuse to fix the problem with a
firmware upgrade.

My solution for Metroguide maps has been to hack the img files with a hex
editor to break the polygon shading. I keep a backup of the original files
so that I use the shaded versions in Mapsource but replace them with my
hacked non-shaded versions when I want to upload maps to my GPS receiver.
Not very convenient but it works. This is fine for large National Park
areas where the shading is pointless at the usual scale, however indication
of smaller areas of woodland is a very useful aid to navigation and so the
best solution for the Shropshire maps would be to use a shading that didn't
obliterate other mapping detail so disastrously on monochrome receivers - if
one actually exists.

David
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GSV Three Minds in a Can
Guest
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:27 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
Bitstring <saOdnZclQPMoAxzenZ2dnUVZ8t2dnZ2d@eclipse.net.uk>, from the
wonderful person David Lee
<davidlee_malvern@dont.use.this.bit.hotmail.com> said
Quote:
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote...
...
And finally, if anyone is actually using any of the South Shropshire
rights-of-way/mapping data, that's been extended and updated too (I've
done nearly a 12th of the County now .. 777Km of ROW .. 4,000Km of
walking) accessible via

http://www.quik.clara.co.uk/maps

The South Shropshire maps are a problem on the monochrome etrex Vista (and
presumably related etrex models).

OK, I can fix that - I'll just move the polygons to a separate .img file
and then you can turn them on/off like you can parish boundaries,
contours, etc.

On the 60C (colour) which I use it's possible to follow FPs etc. just
fine during the day, but I've noticed, even there, that when it goes
into 'sunset mode' the forest area symbols suddenly become overpowering,
and following a FP (or anything else) through a forest after sunset is a
PITA.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I'll try to get a revised version up on
the website by month end (you'll know it because it will have a new .img
file - probably 1000017.img, which'll have the polygons in).

I won't move the lakes, since footpaths through lakes (yes, there are
some, at least in theory) =should= be hard to follow! One day I must put
the open access land in too (but Garmin don't have a perfect polygon for
that).

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Contact recommends the use of Firefox; SC recommends it at gunpoint.
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GSV Three Minds in a Can
Guest
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:08 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
Bitstring <dlt6cu$2vg$1$830fa795@news.demon.co.uk>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <me@privacy.net> said
<Snip>
Quote:
One minor request for future ones; could the hill summit file
13900003 be made available with an optional different icon please ? Such
as 0x6600. Reason being screen clutter; I'd rather have just a
small spot for a summit than a pretty mountain shape which can
obscure other stuff.

I'll think about it .. in the meantime you are welcome to make the
alternate version available (as long as you abide by the GNU open
source license terms - mainly don't charge for it). Since it's only
one .img file and associated tbg/previews I imagine it's pretty small.

Quite happy to make it available under those terms - afterall I've done very
little work to it ! Total file size (three files) appears to be around
450kb as a zip (or 860kb uncompressed). Just needs a very simple README
adding.

Where would you recommend that I send it ?

Ah, now that's where the work comes in .......

--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Contact recommends the use of Firefox; SC recommends it at gunpoint.
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Nigel Cliffe
Guest
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:08 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
Quote:
Bitstring <dlqbqe$8cn$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <me@privacy.net> said
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
If anyone here is using the UK/Eire contour mapping, I just thought
I'd mention that there is now a 1.2 update which fixes some really
dumb smoothing that was done in 'void' areas (where there was no
SRTM height data). .........


Thanks for the update.

One minor request for future ones; could the hill summit file
13900003 be made available with an optional different icon please ? Such
as 0x6600. Reason being screen clutter; I'd rather have just a
small spot for a summit than a pretty mountain shape which can
obscure other stuff.

I'll think about it .. in the meantime you are welcome to make the
alternate version available (as long as you abide by the GNU open
source license terms - mainly don't charge for it). Since it's only
one .img file and associated tbg/previews I imagine it's pretty small.

Quite happy to make it available under those terms - afterall I've done very
little work to it ! Total file size (three files) appears to be around
450kb as a zip (or 860kb uncompressed). Just needs a very simple README
adding.

Where would you recommend that I send it ?

I could put it onto mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com for example, or email it to the
various owners of the current "contours" distribution websites.


( I might play some more with the levels, the file in question appears to
have two active levels in it. Having the summit icon at the closest zoom and
the small spot further out may be a better compromise).


regards,

- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/
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Kirby James
Guest
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:12 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
David Lee wrote:
Quote:
The South Shropshire maps are a problem on the monochrome etrex Vista (and
presumably related etrex models). The problem arises from Garmin
incompetence/stupidity and is exactly the same on Garmin Metroguide maps!
Block shaded areas show up on the etrex as 50% grey shading which makes
reading the footpaths etc very difficult.

Hi David,
I've experienced the same problem with the B&W Vista - I live near
Dartmoor and find I have to adjust the contrast to try to visually
separate roads and tracks from the Park background. I also had the same
problem when travelling in Califormia - where I found myself in the
Pacific half the time. Regards Kirby
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David Lee
Guest
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 1:08 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
Kirby James wrote...
Quote:
David Lee wrote:
The South Shropshire maps are a problem on the monochrome etrex Vista
(and presumably related etrex models). The problem arises from Garmin
incompetence/stupidity and is exactly the same on Garmin Metroguide maps!
Block shaded areas show up on the etrex as 50% grey shading which makes
reading the footpaths etc very difficult.

Hi David,
I've experienced the same problem with the B&W Vista - I live near
Dartmoor and find I have to adjust the contrast to try to visually
separate roads and tracks from the Park background. I also had the same
problem when travelling in Califormia - where I found myself in the
Pacific half the time. Regards Kirby

Apparently other Garmin receivers have the facility to turn off National
Park shading but somehow this got overlooked in the etrex range.

I got totally exasperated in North Wales, continually switching between Land
and Water contrast desperately trying to get the most readable display
(failing miserably on a sunny day) and so determined to sort it out once and
for all.

The known part of the Garmin img format specification is documented on
Source Forge (http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=507154) by
"Mechalas" (who is also a regular contibutor to this NG under another
user-name) and this greatly helped me to sort out how to turn off the
shading of park areas by editing the img files using a hex editor. It's a
while since I did it so I would have to hunt out my notes if you want some
details of how to do it yourself. However it wasn't difficult and I keep
copies of both the original maps and the hacked ones without the shading so
that I can have "clean" versions for uploading to my GPS but then restore
the ones showing park areas for use with MapSource on the PC. I "doctored"
all the UK map tiles containing Park and related area shading including
Dartmoor.

Metroguide Europe maps are easy to decrypt and analyse but I'm not sure
whether you can so easily get at the US versions - AFAIK Garmin maps
requiring unlock codes are more strongly encrypted.

Cheers

David
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Jonas Lonnroth
Guest
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:08 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
"David Lee" <davidlee_malvern@dont.use.this.bit.hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:1pudnQx4xpl_KR7eRVnyug@eclipse.net.uk...
Quote:
Kirby James wrote...
David Lee wrote:
The South Shropshire maps are a problem on the monochrome etrex Vista
(and presumably related etrex models). The problem arises from Garmin
incompetence/stupidity and is exactly the same on Garmin Metroguide
maps!
Block shaded areas show up on the etrex as 50% grey shading which makes
reading the footpaths etc very difficult.

Hi David,
I've experienced the same problem with the B&W Vista - I live near
Dartmoor and find I have to adjust the contrast to try to visually
separate roads and tracks from the Park background. I also had the same
problem when travelling in Califormia - where I found myself in the
Pacific half the time. Regards Kirby

Apparently other Garmin receivers have the facility to turn off National
Park shading but somehow this got overlooked in the etrex range.

I got totally exasperated in North Wales, continually switching between
Land
and Water contrast desperately trying to get the most readable display
(failing miserably on a sunny day) and so determined to sort it out once
and
for all.

The known part of the Garmin img format specification is documented on
Source Forge (http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=507154) by
"Mechalas" (who is also a regular contibutor to this NG under another
user-name) and this greatly helped me to sort out how to turn off the
shading of park areas by editing the img files using a hex editor. It's a
while since I did it so I would have to hunt out my notes if you want some
details of how to do it yourself. However it wasn't difficult and I keep
copies of both the original maps and the hacked ones without the shading
so
that I can have "clean" versions for uploading to my GPS but then restore
the ones showing park areas for use with MapSource on the PC. I
"doctored"
all the UK map tiles containing Park and related area shading including
Dartmoor.

Metroguide Europe maps are easy to decrypt and analyse but I'm not sure
whether you can so easily get at the US versions - AFAIK Garmin maps
requiring unlock codes are more strongly encrypted.

For modifying the way less strongly encrypted Garmin Maps present
cartographic features, you might want to try the tool developed by iQue
users. It won't work with Bluechart, unfortunately

Link:

http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/Modify_Maps_v.103.zip

Also see Rich's feature map at the home page. It shows the codes for
available Garmin cartographic features. It should be possible to get ride of
the awful forest blotches. You can also enhance paths by using some other
line feature. The advantage is that you can process several img files in a
batch.



Regards

Jonas Lonnroth
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David Lee
Guest
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:08 am    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
Jonas Lonnroth wrote...
Quote:
For modifying the way less strongly encrypted Garmin Maps present
cartographic features, you might want to try the tool developed by iQue
users. It won't work with Bluechart, unfortunately

Link:

http://rwsmaps.griffel.se/Modify_Maps_v.103.zip

This page doesn't appear to exist :-(

David
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Nigel Cliffe
Guest
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:29 pm    Post subject: Re: UK/Eire Contour map updates Reply with quote
GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:
Quote:
Bitstring <dlt6cu$2vg$1$830fa795@news.demon.co.uk>, from the wonderful
person Nigel Cliffe <me@privacy.net> said
Snip
One minor request for future ones; could the hill summit file
13900003 be made available with an optional different icon please
? Such as 0x6600. Reason being screen clutter; I'd rather have
just a small spot for a summit than a pretty mountain shape which can
obscure other stuff.

I'll think about it .. in the meantime you are welcome to make the
alternate version available (as long as you abide by the GNU open
source license terms - mainly don't charge for it). Since it's only
one .img file and associated tbg/previews I imagine it's pretty
small.

Quite happy to make it available under those terms - afterall I've
done very little work to it ! Total file size (three files) appears
to be around 450kb as a zip (or 860kb uncompressed). Just needs a
very simple README adding.


Zip file now posted on mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com



- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/
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