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OK, I've seen the signs and messages about Android file management issues coming up. But I haven't paid enough attention and been proactive, the process to futureproof things never seemed straightforward to me (other things going on in life forcing me to deprioritize this for a long time) and I am now in a situation that I probably could have avoided. But is there anything I can do now to minimize damages?

The situation:
I have been using Locus for many many years and have a large number of custom tracks and points, custom offline and online (provider) maps. I use these a lot and make additions often.
Suddenly some time ago, everything custom was gone. (I am not totally surprised because I was dreading this because I hadn't put the time into learning about the change that I recognized I should have.)
I am on Android 14 since some recent time. I am pretty sure that I have had some backup set up to run at regular intervals, internal to Locus and backing up to Google Drive probably. But I don't think(?) it backed up the massive (multi-GB large) custom offline maps I have made.

What can I do (if possible) to recover as much as I can of what I had? (What should I not do, that could make things worse?)

How should I set upp things to run well from now on?

Sorry to be the one to come with a self-afflicted mess and ask for help. I am really thankful for your advice and afraid that if I start trying to fix things myself it will not work out well.

I am trying to set up a custom <provider> for maps with small local coverage. It uses a tile URL structure that I am not used to, despite having successfully added a lot of custom providers before. I am grateful for any help or insight.

The tiles are stored on blob.core.windows.net as 1024x1024 PNGs, like this:
https://[provider name].blob.core.windows.net/map-tiles/[map id]/[32 digit hexadecimal, seemingly random(?!), zoom level identifier]/[number representing X position]/[number representing Y position]/1024/1024
(no file extension)

Zoom level identifiers are different for every map. For one map, from far out to close, they are:
9913132abc9e4eccbb0ba46e32b46f37
0097d70a2b6b4501b76ca538c98ca8ce
707a0e89c7a346cfbe522572b1bdfd6d
56918450a00a49fbb5a3e3e290511ebd

To further illustrate the naming, this is a 3x3 grid of tiles with everything up to and including the zoom level identifier ("707a0e89c7a346cfbe522572b1bdfd6d") cut off:
[...]/3072/2048/1024/1024 [...]/4096/2048/1024/1024 [...]/5120/2048/1024/1024
[...]/3072/3072/1024/1024 [...]/4096/3072/1024/1024 [...]/5120/3072/1024/1024
[...]/3072/4096/1024/1024 [...]/4096/4096/1024/1024 [...]/5120/4096/1024/1024

This is a 2x2 grid of tiles on the next (closer) zoom level ("56918450a00a49fbb5a3e3e290511ebd"):
[...]/9216/7168/1024/1024 [...]/10240/7168/1024/1024
[...]/9216/8192/1024/1024 [...]/10240/8192/1024/1024

The tile reference system for every zoom level seems to start in the (local) top left corner at [...]/0/0/1024/1024 and then the X and Y position indicators increase by 1024 for every tile (becoming rather large numbers in the bottom right at closer zoom levels).

I can live with creating a unique provider ID/"map" for every zoom level, which seems necessary? However, even with that I can't see how I could get the rest of the <url> code right.

I can find my way around the reference system without much difficulty, using multiples of 1024. But since the tile indicators are just related to the upper right corner of the local map, not to any global system, how can Locus know where to look for a specific tile? Could the "overall" position be part of the 32 digit hexadecimal number somehow?

Have you seen this before? Do you have any suggestion on how to wrap this into a Locus custom <provider>?

Hi!

I have a map from a custom map source that I would like to view in a 3D map environment like Google Earth (pro) on Windows (or Android, but I think that is much harder if at all possible?). I am already using it as an overlay with other maps in Locus, and have downloaded it as a personal SQL map.

I have seen people doing similar things (external overlay maps shown as clinging-to-ground in Google Earth) with a service called CalTopo (https://caltopo.com/). They add a custom layer with the map URL (similar to Locus custom map sources) and then if you are a paid subscriber to the service you can get a live link to a Super-Overlay (https://developers.google.com/kml/documentation/kml_21tutorial#superoverlays) KML file (served on the caltopo.com site) which can be added to Google Earth to serve up layer tiles. (see example images at http://help.caltopo.com/kb/basics/google-earth-integration) But I don't know if this program could really do what I want, I would much rather have a local file that I could add to Google Earth. And also I would rather not mess around with other programs since I like Locus so much.

Is it possible to export a saved map to KMZ to open in Google Earth? Would it otherwise be an idea for future functionality for Google Earth integration? Or is there some better way to do this? (Long-time wish is of course 3D display support in Locus, but that is another feature request/wish already. )

Here are some more example images using CalTopo to show the Strava (no longer possible for detailed zooms after Strava requiring login!), just to show what things can look like in Google Earth:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oUDVQnvwy0gvpzyxIZzf22sjWgVkHFq5gbBftTuYoDU/

There are some Swedish government provided WMS maps for bike routes that I would like to use in Locus.

All technical information about them is available from here:
https://maps.trafiken.nu/mapservice/

They are used for presentation in several formats on different pages of this site:
https://trafiken.nu/goteborg/cykelreseplanerare/

I am able to add the WMS versions in Locus with these URLs:
https://maps.trafiken.nu/MapService/wms.axd/bkgnd_map_view  (background map of Sweden and northern Europe)
https://maps.trafiken.nu/MapService/wms.axd/gbg_bicycle_view  (data available in a large area around Gothenburg, Sweden)
https://maps.trafiken.nu/MapService/wms.axd/sthlm_bicycle_view  (data available in a large area around Stockholm, Sweden)

As far as I can see they are WMS version 1.3.0 which as far as I understand is supported by Locus Pro.

(WMTS versions give errors when I try to add them, as I expected.)

When I use them in Locus they are (as expected) overlaid a background map. The bicycle view maps look good, the background map seems to scale wrongly in some way and looks quite "pixely".

The real problem starts when I want to move the map view around, the WMS overlay moves at another speed scale than the background layer map, creating an unintended "parallax" effect. Very cool to look at but very difficult to use as a map.

Something seems wrong with the scaling of these maps. Is the error on the server side, or is it Locus that does not handle them properly? Or is it something I could fix with settings/customization?


P.S.
I've also been playing around with trying to add the WMTS versions as "normal" custom online maps through XML using provider URLs as examplified below, but I can't get them to work properly and I don't think it is possible really?

Code Select Expand

https://maps.trafiken.nu/mapservice/wmts.axd/bkgnd_map_view?SERVICE=WMTS&REQUEST=GetTile&VERSION=1.0.0&STYLE=&LAYER=bkgnd&TILEMATRIXSET=Default.256.3006&TILEMATRIX={z}&TILEROW={y}&TILECOL={x}&FORMAT=image%2Fpng%3B%20mode=8bit

I would like to set an online overlay layer that i define in custom/providers.xml together with the Basemap Satellite map that is free in Locus store. If I had the provider id of the Basemap Satellite map I think I could do this with setting the background property for my map to that id. But how can I find out the provider id of a non-custom map?
I know I can let the user manually set my overlay layer as overlay and the other map as (background) map, but that is not really what I want to do.
Is this possible?

I use providers.xml for custom online maps. They work fine.

However, for the <mode> string I want to enter words with special characters (åäöÅÄÖ etc) for display in the maps selection interface.

I use the "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>" string in the first line for my xml file.

If I just write the mode strings without any explicit encoding, ("<mode>Björnbärstårta</mode>"), Lotus displays a garbage character where the special characters are supposed to be (like "Bj□rnb□rst□rta").
If I write them with UTF-8 encoding(?) like "<mode>Bj\xC3\xB6rnb\xC3\xA4rst\xC3\xA5rta</mode>", Lotus shows the encoded string as written with slashes and all. I am really unsure if this is how it is supposed to be done, I'm better at maps than strings.

How should I do it properly?

Hi, I've been using Locus for years, but it was a long time since I used the My Maps integration.

I've noted that My Maps / Maps Engine / ... handling has had some changes/problems over the years, but I also see on the Locus Pro page on Play store that it stil has "Integration of Google My Maps (reading and editing)".

However, I can't seem to find the my maps functionality in Locus 3.7.0. I see in the docs knowledge base that I am supposed to access it through Menu -> More -> My Maps, and this is also what I remember, but I can't find the My Maps section there. I also checked to see that the icon is not hidden.

What can I do to see my My Maps data (points with information) in Locus 3.7.0?

[UPDATE to this first post: As can be seen from the posts below, the URL system for accessing Via Michelin map tiles have been reverse-engineered and can easily be put into a simple algorithm. The question that remains is if it would be possible to incorporate support for this (and perhaps other "non-standard" tile server systems) into Locus. That would make Locus an even more formidable tool, IMHO. A secondary question is if, otherwise, any other tool, e.g. MOBAC, could be of help to get a cache of tiles from this type of server.]

UPDATE to this first post: As can be seen from the posts below, the URL system for accessing Via Michelin map tiles have been reverse-engineered and can easily be put into a simple algorithm. The question that remains is if it would be possible to incorporate support for this (and perhaps other "non-standard" tile server systems) into Locus. That would make Locus an even more formidable tool, IMHO. A secondary question is if, otherwise, any other tool, e.g. MOBAC, could be of help to get a cache of tiles from this type of server.

Hi, could anyone say if it is possible to add Via Michelin as a map source to Locus?

//http://www.viamichelin.com/

I've added other 'third-party' map sources by hand before, but they had other 'structure' than Via Michelin, so I'm not sure if it would work.

The Via Michelin maps are excellent especially for France, their Android app is not very good though.

I seem to have stumbled upon a problem.
For Google Maps (Satellite/Hybrid tested) not all zoom levels seem to be available for all locations (I have found this specifically with off-shore ocean areas, but it is probably the case for other regions too).
When doing automated map tile downloading, it seems the downloading will stall when it reaches such a tile in such a zoom level. There seems to be no way to continue past this to get the rest of the tiles available at that zoom level.
For example, I am trying to download map tiles of an area which is a large ocean bay with some islands. If I select the whole area, the first few zoom levels will be downloaded fine, and then it will start fine but always stop on the same point in the first problem zoom level. If I try a more zoomed in level, it will start fine on that level too, but then always stop at the same point. No error message is given beyond the "check internet connection and SD card free space" (both of which have been checked of course). Restarting/continuing downloads will always stop at the same place on the problem zoom levels.
This has been tried with map screen select, area select, POI area, and path selection methods, failing in the same way. I have also tried with the OSM map, which works fine with same area and zoom levels.
If I do manual map scrolling around with the Google maps, I reach a point out in the ocean where the tiles turn grey and are marked "unknown error", I guess this is another sign of the same problem.
This greatly reduces the usability of the map tiles download tool in areas where the desired zoom levels are not available in the whole selected area.
Could this be fixed? Are there any current workarounds? (Except very time consuming detailed area selection per zoom level.)