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Transparent Maps

Started by maps4gps, February 08, 2009, 06:36:46 AM

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maps4gps

Has anyone had experience with transparent maps for a large area in MapSource? 
MapSetToolKit will only make a dummy or quad outline 'preview' map if the .img files are transparent.  This is not too helpfull in MapSource, as by the time the data shows for the individual quads (contours in 30x60 quds) not much more than a single quad is showing for selection.  When zoomed out, the main reference to which quad is which is the coordinates of the selection cursor location.
Oz has said it would be OK to place this data set (2.2Gb) on the server in two (or more) sections, but I have been concerned about the selection process in Mapsource.

maps4gps

First used 23,21,19,18 which I was told was standard for Garmin maps - but when the base map came on the contour lines were staying on as far out as you cared to zoom.

Switched to 23,21,19,17,16 so the contour lines turn off when zoomed out.

Either way the 'preview' map at most has the quad outlines; no data can be put into the preview map if it is set to transparent.

jbensman

I have found for transparent topo maps (at least around here), the upper two layers are useless.  When you zoom out far enough for them to display they do not give you any meaningful information and clutter the map.  So I delete those two layers so there are only two levels of topo lines.  I also set it so the topos/hydro stop showing above the .5 mile zoom.  I found anything higher than that just clutters the map.  Maybe those higher levels are useful in the mountians, but they are not around here. 

I found these levels work best:  24 22 17 16

I also wish map makers would also make a version of thier maps that were transparent topo/hydroloy so you could use them as an overlay for CN and have street navigaiton with the maps.

maps4gps

When I changed from 23,21,19,18 to 23,21,19,17,16 the 17 level was to block the index contours from showing when the base map was on.  Level 17 has no data, and 16 says when to switch to the built-in base map.  Using 23,21,19,18,17 might also have done this.

When I was creating the transparent contour mapset, I considered including hydrography and GNIS points.  Decided against it as CN appears to have hydro (but does not look very detailed), the Ibycus maps have hydro from Census, and GNIS is recently changing 3 or 4 times a year.

Does hydro in a transparent layer conflict with hydro in a non-transparent layer?  Has anyone tried this?

I remember a post (somewhere) saying you could set up navigation to a location in CN, swithch to another mapset, and the 'approx routing' would be used with that mapset.  Have you tried that? 

jbensman

I have only done transparent maps for small areas.  I prefer them as you can use CN for navigation.  You cannot use road navigation in the other maps.  You can also turn off and on layers.  So I really like them.  But having a map for MapSource that shows everything is also nice.  So I think having both is a good thing.  I have not done any of the large scale mapmaking, is it difficult to also make a transparent map for hydrology/topos, and a POI?  I also think having a separate transparent trail map is the way to go so that can be updated on a more regular basis.

But back to your question, the hydrology in City Navigator sucks.  In some places it is OK, but generally is is not very good.  So having the high quality water data is a great advantage.

There is just one problem I have found with having hydrology, it draws on top of the roads in City Navigator.  In most places that is not a problem.  But in some places it is a major problem.  When you have a big water body like the Mississippi River or big lake, the transparent water layer covers up the road and you cannot see it.  It will still autoroute, it just does not show.  The way I deal with it is I manually go through and remove the big bodies of water like the Mississippi River and big lakes.  (Smaller water bodies also draw on top of the roads, but they don't cause a problem.) City Navigator already has them (but CN has low resolution data)-so removing them from the transparent map does not cause a problem.  When CN and the transparent map both have the water feature, they both show and there is no problem except sometimes a stream that is just a line will have two lines since CN uses low resolution data and the maps use high.

Masettoolkit has some new settings for draw priority that I do not understand.  Can those settngs be used to make the roads in CN draw on top of the hydrology in a transparent map?  Or is there any way to get the roads to draw on top of the hydrology.

I also want to say how great it is that there are so many Garmin users working on providing such great products!

maps4gps

It is not difficult to make another map which only has contours, hydro, and POI/GNIS but will take nearly as long to go from .shp files to .mp files, then to .img files, and then bundle everything.  Oz might not have room on his website for so much nearly identical maps

I agree on the trails.  Until we have a source which has most of them, it will be a work-in-progress.
And as a seperate map, they can be made very prominent for when you wish to see them so.

My first effort, extended from the local area was transparent because that worked best with a  geologic map as non-transparent.

Polygons over lines sounds like a draw priority issue.  Standard cartographic/GIS practice is to draw polygons then lines then points.  I have not tired anything with draw priority.

I considered seperate mapsets for different types (and chanability) of features, but considered having to build a 'map' in MapSouce by going to 3 or 4 mapsets and selecting the same area in each would be asking a lot of the average user.  With only the quad outlines for selection purposes in transparent mapsets, it would also be user unfriendly - hardly anything would show in MapSource until you zoomed in to a single 'quad' or less.

I do not recall if you mentioned it; what area are you interested in?

maps4gps

Quote from: jbensman on March 02, 2009, 10:59:21 PM
I also wish map makers would also make a version of thier maps that were transparent topo/hydroloy so you could use them as an overlay for CN and have street navigaiton with the maps.

Oz has just mentioned on another topic that: 'the US & counties is transparent; it should show over the top of city navigator.  You can actually navigate with city navigator when the ohio topo is on top; since the ohio map doesn't have routing it will default to city navigator.  You just won't be able to see the map (but the route should appear on the ohio topo).'
  See the 'Is Ohio topo transparent' topic