Messages

Based on the discussion here: //http://forum.asamm.cz/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=769 I decided to split the UK parking. What I can do in this respect is very limited, but the Cloudmade site does have separate POI categories for England, Scotland, and Wales (also Northern Ireland, but I did not download that one). The only split I can do for England is a simple N-S (or E-W, but that makes little sense) so I split it on a line just south of Birmingham that does not go through the center of any major town or city. The S England category is still big, about 17000 points, but it's more manageable.

Note: when I imported it counted up through all the points OK, but then I got a FC warning (3 times in fact). Just select "wait". It will work eventually.

I in last version improved a lot speed of loading and unloading of points, so I hope you fell it a little when you manage so much points at once

Yes, I did notice that in fact. Thanks  

I have tried to find a way to split the very large category into smaller ones, but without success. I would need to split it using a bounding box, and I can find no tool that will do that  

I don't have a category with 10000 points, but I tried turning two on, one with 5760 points and one with 6174 points. I don't see the missing names problem. If I turn them on from the data manager screen I do see another problem, that I mentioned above: if I back out of the data manager screen too fast then I get a FC warning. If I select "wait" it's OK though, so not a big deal. If I turn them all on from the "points" tool on the right panel it says "working" for a while, and they turn on.

I do also have a category with 34500 points. I can't turn all of these on though. Locus does not seem to like such a large category very much (It even took a very long time to import the points). If I go into the category from the data manager it takes a little while sometimes, during which time the phone screen is black. Then I can turn on some of them (say the first 100), and exit. I get the same FC issue as above, but if I wait it works OK. And I do not see the missing names. When I selected all the points I could exit the category OK, but no matter how long I waited I couldn't exit the data manager. Eventually I gave up, and killed Locus. If I try to turn them all on from the right panel it says "working" for a long time, and then Locus Force Closes (no option to wait). I think the time taken to enter the category is related to the number of points already turned on, because when I turned on all of the points in one of the 6000 point categories and then tried to enter the 34500 point category the screen went black for so long I gave up and killed Locus. I guess if you have a real need to see 34500 possible parking places all at the same time, Locus might be the wrong app.  :roll:

I think there must be a relation to the number of POIs;

I have very many POIs. I have one category alone with over 34000. But I do not see this problem. I have never tried turning them all on at once though. Are you doing that?

As a side note, when I select some POIs in a category with a very large number I do sometimes get a FC message. If I select "wait" the POIs show up OK on the map, so this is not a big issue, but since the subject has come up I thought I would mention it.

I have now also tried these:

US National Map Gazetteer (Geographic Names Service) //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/geonames/MapServer/WMSServer. This works very nicely, and allows you to overlay anything from the geonames database on the map.

Scanned Topo Maps: //http://raster.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/DRG/TNM_Digital_Raster_Graphics/MapServer/WMSServer. These work, but they are of course just the same as the ArcGIS topo maps. So not so useful after all. If we could make a WMS layer semi-transparent they might be more useful.

Transportation: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/transportation/MapServer/WMSServer. Nice. Allows an overlay of roads on satellite images. The lines are very thin and hard to see though. Is there anything that could be done to improve that?

Ecosystems: //http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/arcgis/services/ecosys_US/MapServer/WMSServer. This works, but it hides the underlying map. We could really do with the ability to make a WMS overlay semi-transparent. I have now noticed that the weather radar hides the underlying map for the same reason, which makes it much less useful  

FWS Wetlands: //http://137.227.242.85/arcgis/services/FWS_Wetlands_WMS/MapServer/WMSServer. This works well, but don't turn on the metadata layer. If you do, then the underlying map is hidden (the transparency problem again).

Structures: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/structures/MapServer/WMSServer. This works. It shows you schools, police and fire stations, etc The icons are very small and hard to see though.

Government units: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/govunits/MapServer/WMSServer. This works. I think the most useful feature is that it allow you to overlay zip codes on the map.

I also tried a large scale version of the National Hydrography Data: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/NHD_Large/MapServer/WMSServer. The link for this is from a different source. It works (although, as with transportation, the lines are rather thin and hard to see), except at the largest scale. If you enable the layers at the largest scale Locus shows "Unknown Problem".

For the US, go here: //http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/example/services.html
Each link will take you to a maps service. Most, although not all, have WMS services.

There is an online viewer here that allows you to play will all the layers to see what might interest you: //http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/beta/

Of particular note
NEXRAD weather radar: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/NEXRAD_Weather/MapServer/WMSServer

I have not tried all of these. Of the ones I have tried some work, and some don't.
For the NEXRAD radar I get three layers, but only the first one works. The other two cause an "Unknown Problem".
The USGS National Hydrography Data works great: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/nhd/MapServer/WMSServer. This shows you streams, rivers, etc, with the direction of flow.
The Vector Base Map - Large Scale works: //http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/TNM_Vector_Large/MapServer/WMSServer. This gives a nice overlay for a satellite image.
BUT The Vector Base Map - Small Scale does not show anything at all: //http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/TNM_Vector_Small/MapServer/WMSServer  WHY?
The Contours - Small Scale also does not work. It just overwrites the entire map with a uniform color. //http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/TNM_Contours_Small/MapServer/WMSServer This is a real pity, because a contour overlay would be really nice  :cry:

I notice that the last two are listed as "tiled" rather than "dynamic". Perhaps this has something to do with it?

I'm going to try a few more, especially the scanned Topo maps (it would be great if that one works!)

A note for Menion. This is really a full vector map of the US. And it's public domain. You can use any of the information available from here for anything you like.

I have figured out what is going on. I do not have Locus Free on my home screen, only Locus Pro. But since I knew I had run Locus Free earlier, after recording I selected it from the recent apps list (an act of laziness!). If I do that I always get the track save screen again. If I go to the actual Locus Free app and select that, Locus Free opens fine. After I have done that the icon in recent apps of course opens Locus Free normally again.

So Locus Free now has a split personality  

I just rebooted the phone and tried again. Same thing, except that this time I manged to save many 0h:0m:0s tracks.

Also, if I turn off the GPS in system settings and then try to record using the widget I get a FC. After that the widget is dead.

The intermittent FCs have gone for me too, but I have found another problem. I tried a recording. Starting the recording from the widget worked fine. When I stopped it I got the expected "save" screen, changed the name, and selected OK. But now if I try to start Locus Free it shows the same save screen again (with the exact same default name with the same time in it, so it's not a new track). So I saved the track a second time. When I did that I briefly got a recording notification, and then Locus Free exited (no error messages, just an exit). If I look in Locus Pro, the first track is correct, but the second one has a time of 0h:0m:0s and a distance of 0m. I then tried going into Locus Free again, but I got the same save screen again! So I saved the track a third time, got the same brief recording notification, Locus Free exited, but this time no track was saved at all. After that, every time I started Locus Free I got the same thing. If I select "Cancel" instead of "OK". Locus Free also exits.

Next I started a new recording from the widget. It started recording fine (which surprised me a bit - I was expecting it to do something bad at this point!). When I stopped the recording it saved fine, as before (with a new default name, so it's now a new track). Then I could exactly repeat the sequence above, except that I managed to get it to save two additional 0h:0m:0s tracks rather than only one.

"Settings", "Map", "Show labels". Set it to "On hover".

Bad news. I Installed 1.8.11.1, and put the widget on the screen. I get intermittent force closes. This has happened 6 times, including twice after rebooting the phone, and with nothing else running.

also question on all: what are main information you want to see on a widget? Also, it interesting for you to have for example two sizes? One wide (as current) and one half only with start/stop button for example?

Yes, I would prefer a 1x2 widget. But I would prefer that the top and bottom of each half have separate functionality, so that all four functions are still available. This should be possible, because Weatherbug has a 1x1 widget for which tapping the bottom gets you a configuration screen, and tapping the top takes you into the app. Having said that though, assume that my vote doesn't count for much. I will almost certainly do all my recording from within Locus anyway, even if the widget is available.

Another minor problem. When I import the attached POIs I get a Force Close message at the end. If I select "wait" the points import OK though. I noticed this once before when I imported a large number of points.

Edit: I just tried importing the POIs again, and got the same thing. So for me at least, this looks to be reproducible.

And, if I try to rename "CA Peaks" to "cCA Peaks" the POI category just disappears, with no error message  

I take that back. The category dropped off the bottom of the screen. It seems that all the categories starting with a lower case letter are listed after all the categories starting with upper case letters (i.e. it's not strictly alphabetical).

I created a category called "CA peaks", and then tried to rename it to "CA Peaks", and I get "Unexpected problem". Even exiting and restarting Locus does not fix this. I can rename it to "CA peakss" though. I get the same error if I try to rename "CA Peaks" to "cA peaks". And, if I try to rename "CA Peaks" to "cCA Peaks" the POI category just disappears, with no error message  

Not that big a deal (especially at this point, since I have not imported any POIs into the category), but I thought I would report it.

OK. Sounds good to me then