Topics

1

Troubles & Questions / Search and Rescue Grid Overlay

« on: May 16, 2014, 20:37:06 »

I have a KMZ with the search and rescue grid system in it. See the image below, showing a little bit of the grid in Arizona. Importing it results in 14000+ points and 8000+ tracks (!!). Not practical. Can anyone think of a way I could overlay this grid system in Locus?

2

Free chat / The "Menion Look"

« on: March 30, 2014, 23:00:07 »

I have changed my avatar here to one that is looking down and away like menion 

3

Troubles & Questions / HTML in KML <description> element

« on: March 25, 2014, 05:34:59 »

What HTML is allowed in KML <description>?  For example <iframe>? HTML canvas? What will display when point info box is opened in Locus?

4

Wishlist / Locus Actions - Visual feedback

« on: March 25, 2014, 04:56:24 »

There should be some visual feedback for large Locus Action downloads... The user just doesn't know if anything is happening until it is completed. If downloading and installing large map set (1Gb) then he is worrying if it is actually happening.

5

Wishlist / Locus Actions...<action>restore</action> etc.

« on: March 25, 2014, 04:54:43 »

It would be amazing if Locus Action could download a Backup Manager file and restore things. Maybe <action> could be restore|settings, restore|points-tracks, restore|icons, restore|all.

6

Troubles & Questions / Locus Actions - Google Drive?

« on: March 25, 2014, 04:49:52 »

Maybe this is a wish list. Locus Actions will save my soul. I have 15 tablets to set up with maps, points, and settings. Now I realize I can set things up so the newbie users can do this with Locus Actions, fantastic!

I have the files (some over a gigabyte) to download on Google Drive. However, it appears that a Google Drive URL won't work?If the link is of the form locus-actions://https/drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ykixwFeOisY1RhZnpvV0czTUk/edit?usp=sharing it seems that Locus says "problem with file xxxxxx". If I move everything over to DropBox it is OK (both the locus-actions://.../xxx.xml link and the <source> link in the XML itself both DropBox.

I can move things to DropBox, but it is 12 Gb (lots of map tile sqlite DB files). Am I making a mistake with Google Drive or are the URLs that they use not working with Locus Actions?

7

Troubles & Questions / Course Bearing Display - True or Magnetic?

« on: March 25, 2014, 02:03:11 »

I always run with Settings, Sensors, Orientation, Use true bearing set to OFF (unchecked), for magnetic bearings etc, as we are using this for aviation. I think that the course on the Course Bearing Line is still in true and not in magnetic.

By the way, the course bearing line is the single most useful tool in Locus, at least for us! I will find a location, center it, then tell my pilot the course and distance ("turn right heading 230, we are 12 miles from xxxxx"). I have been subtracting the 12 degree variation to get it right.

8

Troubles & Questions / Altitude in exported KMZ

« on: March 22, 2014, 19:11:01 »

I imported some simple waypoints from KMZ. These waypoints do not have any <description> at all. They show OK including linking to the style and icon etc.

These waypoints have no altitude info - just longitude,latitude in <coordinates>. So I edit these in Locus and Fill Altitude. This works OK. Now the waypoints show their altitude when their box pops up under the X.

Now I export these to back KMZ (without asking to insert the formatted description). The exported KMZ does not have the altitude in <coordinates>. Remember, Description is empty from no <description> in the imported KML. The filled altitude is indeed a permanent part of the waypoint as exiting and restarting Locus shows the filled altitude is still there in its internal data for that waypoint.

If I include the formatted description option in the export, then it puts some HTML into a new <description> element added to the KML. Within this HTML is the altitude.

I believe the altitude, if available (!), should be exported as the third part of the <coordinates> element, and it must be in meters.

9

Troubles & Questions / Course/Distance in track-up mode

« on: July 06, 2013, 06:25:39 »

When in track-up mode,  the course/distance to screen center from present position becomes unreadable unless the screen center is for a position behind you.  If you are 'far'  behind or off to the side of the screen center, the numbers are off screen.

10

Troubles & Questions / The Locus/data/import folder needs .nomedia

« on: July 05, 2013, 17:56:36 »

The Locus/data/import folder needs a .nomedia file. I imported several KMZ sets of waypoints with special icons. The icon images were stored by Locus (during import?) in folders below the import folder. They showed up in Gallery as a bunch of albums named "files". Needless to say I wasn't interested in those PNG icons in Gallery :-)

  -- Bob

11

Information / Using MOBAC for offline maps - finer points (Revised August 2014)

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:36:27 »

Once you have created your offline maps using MOBAC, there are a few things to be aware of.

To complete the installation of offline maps from MOBAC

• Unless the map type is already syupported by Locus, make sure that you have set up a provider for the maps in Locus (see Custom Online Maps in Locus Help}.
• You do not need to put all of your custom maps into the Locus/Maps folder. You can create new folders under Locus and organize them into groups. In the Maps panel, Personal tab, menu (triple-dot), Add Maps. In the Personal Maps directories list that appears you will see an Add button at the bottom that will let you select a folder containing the .sqlitedb maps. They will appear under a folder category in the Person list.
• Once you have them showing in Locus, for each new map select the menu  (vertical triple-dot) on the right, then Reinitialize Map. You will be asked to select a provider (see #1 above!). When you do this for all of the maps that belong to the newly created set, they will show the provider in the Personal Maps list and they will automatically tile together.

Edit: These are the old instructions. No longer needed.
The Locus SQLite map databases have a table named info. It has one row and the following columns

... deleted ...

The maps that MOBAC produces have only the minzoom and maxzoom columns; they are missing the last 4 columns (center_x through provider). This can cause some odd behavior, and you will not be able to tell the source of the maps in the Locus Personal Map list.

To make these maps just right, you need to add the missing columns, add the INTEGER datatype to the maxzoom and minzoom columns, then put 0 (zero) into center_x and center_y, and fill in the zooms and provider (see below), all on the PC before transferring the map to the Android. You can do this with the free SQLite Browser program (which runs on Windows, Mac OSX and I think Linux).

In the zooms column, you list the actual zooms (zoom level checkboxes) you set in MOBAC when making the map, separated by semicolons, for example, "5;6;7;8;9;10;12;14;15").

The Provider is an integer. It corresponds to the provider ID as known to Locus. To get this for a built-in Locus provider such as MapQuest Classic, turn on map caching if needed then movearound on that map to make a (e.g.) MapQuest_Classic.sqlite file in Locus/mapsOnline. Copy that to the PC and open in SQLite Browser and look at the provider ID. If you put that into your new MOBAC map you will see that provider for the MOBAC map too. For the extra providers that you get via the Locus Map Tweaker, look in the mapsonline/custom/providers.xml file for the provider and lift the provider ID out of there.

Now load the MOBAC map onto the Android device in Locus/maps and let Locus find it. Confirm it is listed in your Personal maps. Now select it and try to get the map display to the center of the region of highest zoom tiles you have. It's tough but it does not have to be accurate. This "map center" is not related to the geo-referencing of the maps. It is just used to decide what other personal maps are "close". Anyway, once you have the new map centered on the display, select the tools icon for it in the maps page, set center, Map Center. Now the center_x and center_y columns will have the right info (as close as you can get it, a topic of another post here). At this point you may want to copy the now-completed map back to the PC for backup.

12

Troubles & Questions / Effect of Sensor: Magnetic Azimuth Using GPS for direction

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:01:55 »

While moving in the car and recording a track, I selected "rotate map" (course up not north up) with the azimuth to Magnetic (Sensor settings, Use True North off/unchecked). Traveling true north on a road that runs true north. The whole map and track, along with the course line, rotated to point in the direction of Magnetic north. So I made some tests. With the map set for "rotate map" and Sensor set for Magnetic North, the display looks OK as long as you are going slow enough (slowly walking) to be using the compass for heading. However, when you speed up and Locus shifts over to using the GPS for course ("heading" but not really, right?) the entire display (map, track, guiding line, course projection) rotates away from "course up" by an angle equal to the magnetic deviation (-14 deg here in Arizona USA, so it rotates clockwise 14 deg). I think this is a bug.

13

Troubles & Questions / Right Panel - Gone!

« on: November 24, 2012, 02:38:45 »

I cannot seem to get the right panel to appear, no matter what I set the hiding settings to (including Never). I have buttons selected for it, and it used to appear, but at some point is stopped appearing. I have attached my settings.

14

Troubles & Questions / Personal Maps - Set Center

« on: November 24, 2012, 02:31:24 »

I have made many maps using MOBAC and for reason they do not have [info]:[center_x] and [info]:[center_y] info. This would not normally matter, but the "quick switch" button uses this info to tell which maps are "nearby", and that's a feature that is important to me. So I have manually tried to get the map center set as best I can. The options available in Locus Pro under Personal Maps toolbox icon "Set Center" include several ways to set the map center, including Map Center. The others aren't at all useful. Map Center is only somewhat useful, and difficult to use. What I need is to set the center of the map based on the highest zoom tiles that are in the database. This is tricky with pinch zooming and panning the map because the coverage changes for each zoom level! Getting the map centered on the coverage of the highest zoom tiles is difficult. Am I missing something? If not, then consider this a feature request: Set Center" - "Center of Coverage"

15

Troubles & Questions / [solved] Dual XGPS-150 Bluetooth GPS, Problems

« on: November 24, 2012, 02:15:46 »

The Dual XGPS-150 Bluetooth GPS works with Locus Pro, and without needing a "helper app" as Dual's instructions for Android says. However, when running with this external GPS, there is no accuracy circle, no "line to GPS" and no "course bearing line". These features are very useful for my application, and the external GPS is preferable because I am running Locus Pro on a tablet in an aircraft cockpit. The Dual can be put on the glare shield above the instrument panel and always gives excellent position with many satellites.

edit:
Reposting this in case it slipped by without seeing it :-)