Maps, Maps and more Maps

[lilbitmo]

Ok all you techie's out there, I read the information below on another website and while I understand some of the dynamics behind it, but I sure would like to get a complete education on how all this works.

First here's the link to the website http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthread ... _#Post7073 This is a board for the Whitney Area and the person that designed the software or "author" as he calls himself designed something called Gmap4

I am the author of Gmap4 which is a 100% free no-ads full-screen enhanced Google Map viewer. It includes detailed topographic maps (courtesy of www.mytopo.com) for the USA and Canada. Gmap4 runs entirely online. There is nothing to buy, nothing to download, nothing to install.

In addition to surfing topographic maps, you can also view data from the following types of files: GPX, KML, KMZ, TPO & Google MyMap files.

You do need to place your GPX, KML, KMZ and TPO files online before they can be displayed by Gmap4. The easiest/fastest way to place files online is via Google Sites (free). Don't be shy. You will find hand-holding-step-by-step instructions in the Gmap4 Help file.

Here is the general recipe for building a URL to display a data file with Gmap4 (do not include the quotes, these are not real links):
For data files showing locations in the USA or Canada:
'http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... _your_file'
For data files showing other locations:
'http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... _your_file'

Below is a link to the Gmap4 homepage. Check out the 'Examples' button and the Quick Start section of the 'Help' file.
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.html

Finally, if you run a website where people file trip reports you could consider allowing Gmap4 to run in an iframe. Your users could include a 100% free interactive map with their GPS track and waypoints along with the rest of their trip report. Gmap4 has a liquid design and will look decent in an iframe down to 400px by 400px. For examples: Search the Trip Report forum at http://www.nwhikers.net for 'Gmap4'.

Enjoy,
Joseph

Can we start a thread to teach some of us how to best use the various online free softwares for mapping hikes like Google Earth and ACME Mapper 2.0, similar to what Hiking Jim did with all the stoves? I can read paper maps all day long and can get the softwares to give me the basics but things like Mapper 2.0 always get's messed up when I try to email it, it changes the markers around and things like that and I get hung up with some of the add-ons and such with these two softwares online.

I used to have the Garmin 60CS but it's somewhere under the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite (don't ask) and was getting fairly familiar with that software and it's add on's.

I see folks posting tracks and maps from Spots and other GPS's and would love to learn those softwares as well?

The more I learn, the safer I can be

[simonov]

I'm not going to address the Gmap4 stuff. It looks like one of a variety of online mapping services that have popped up in the last few years (and I wish I had thought of doing this long ago).

But here's a quick primer on how they are doing this.

GPS devices collect data and can export it in a simple text file. Basically, this text file includes longitude and latitude (or UTM) and maybe altitude information, as well as (in the case of a route or track) distance traveled information as well. The information is stored in a simple "flat file database" format. The easiest way to visualize this is think of a spreadsheet with several columns, such as NUMBER, LONG, LAT, DISTANCE, etc. The rows under those columns would be the actual data for the GPS track.

It's actually a bit more complex than that (check out the official GPX 1.1 Schema), but that is the gist of it. If you have a GPX file handy, open it up with a text file viewer or MS Word and see what's in it. It's just a list of waypoints.

Each item of data in the file is surrounded by tags defining what it is. For example, in the GPX schema definition, you'll see this tag:

Code: Select all

By defining all the elements in the file with these tags, it makes it very easy for all kinds of programs to interpret the data and display it in whatever way the programmer can come up with.

It is also easy to convert one file format (say, GPX) to another (KML, for example). That's what the GPS Visualizer does. One of the most useful conversions is GPX to KML (or KMZ, a compressed version of KML), which allows you to plot GPS data with Google Earth. This is what I do most of the time; I don't use any of the other cool GPS plotting applications out there.

Of course, you can also convert a KML file to a GPX, etc.

To give a personal example of how this all works together, I can use the National Geographic TOPO software to map a route and then save it as a GPX file. Then I can use GPS Visualizer to convert the GPX to a KML or KMZ file so that my route can be mapped visually on Google Earth.

Applications like Gmap4 are doing the same thing, in software, and showing and sharing the results in interesting ways.

[Ze Hiker]

i think these are somewhat relevant, more for hike-planning:

http://hikingscience.blogspot.com/2010/ ... pping.html

http://hikingscience.blogspot.com/2010/ ... pdate.html

If you have a gps w/ its software, you'll be able to download the track recording (assuming you set that up on the device) into the software. I would export as a .gpx file from there, but if that option isn't available, then I would use GPS Babel to convert (tons of different formats). Then you could use the various websites to display it for others to see.

I'm not sure if that's really addressing what you are asking though. ACME is decent for planning, but you could do the same (create waypoints) in google Earth (with topo overlay) and routes to put on map to print or put on your gps device.