Basecamp Release 3.2.1

[yogazoo]

Link: Basecamp 3.2.1

 

Changes made from version 3.1.3 to 3.2.1:

 

◦Moved the various property tabs to a separate dialog

◦Added swapping the map and data list UI regions

◦Added activity profiles to allow easier changes between common routing configurations

◦Added activity profile selection dialog at startup, improved migration of existing route settings and routes

◦Added dragging photos onto the map views

◦Added dragging files into My Collection and the user data list

◦Added better preserving app state when restarting (selected tool, selected folder, selected view modes, etc)

◦Added support for restoring backups from different computers

◦Added geocache search integration with OpenCaching.com

◦Added photo sharing site upload (currently for Picasa)

◦Added track statistics that correspond to the selection in the track points list

◦Added additional statistics to the elevation profile

◦Added display of elevation profile when batch editing routes or tracks

◦Added heart rate and cadence to the track points list and elevation profile

◦Added route to track conversion

◦Added display mode for geocaches

◦Added the 'Duplicate' menu item for most user data types

◦Added continuation of route/track drawing when switching between tools

◦Added route avoidance checkboxes to the route options (such as 'Avoid U-turns')

◦Added a basic dialog for creating routes

◦Added draw order control for new BirdsEye Imagery that is downloaded

◦Added user selection of application language

◦Added option to restore the application to default settings

◦Added tips dialog when entering full screen mode

◦Added a keyboard shortcut to snap the map back to North up

◦Added file import/export support for the TCX file format

◦Added file export support for tab-delimited and comma-delimited text

◦Added properties and create waypoint commands to the list of POIs that is displayed when hovering on the map

◦Added optional collection of analytics to help us improve the application

◦Added display of the detailed coverage region of card/device based maps

◦Added notification to user when updates are available for devices

◦Added receiving FIT course points and activity data from many fitness devices. These are converted into waypoints and tracks.

◦Added support for the Groundspeak geocaching 1.0.1 extension

◦Changed geotagging photos from a track to add links to those photos in the track

◦Changed to not allow changing the location of geocaches when they are part of a route

◦Changed the divide tool to create a new waypoint or trackpoint at the division point

◦Changed drawing style of routes and tracks to use thinner lines

◦Fixed issue where we didn't always remove all waypoints created as part of a route

◦Fixed issue with adding and removing links on various property tabs

◦Improved find address near center of screen

◦Removed filtered routes

[yogazoo]

This may have already been covered since it's been out for a while and if so I'm sorry to rehash (I did search the forums to no avail).

 

Anyway. Has anyone else had untold trouble downloading Birdseye images? When I go to download a "Highest" and/or "High" resolution tile which should be a few thousand images is showing up as just a few hundred AND the most detailed zoom levels aren't downloading.

 

Let's say I max out on image size for a "Highest" resolution tile and go to download it. Normally it would take at least 15 minutes and sometimes an hour or more to complete the download for that tile. In this new version it takes seconds to download the two least detailed zoom levels and it says it's done without downloading the high res stuff.

 

I've tried this on two different computers now on which I've never had a problem downloading BirdsEye before.

 

Anyone else? Is there something that I'm doing wrong?

[+ecanderson]

Last week I started over with a bunch of my old stuff. I was loading full 232MB~233MB blocks at highest resolution, and it took less than a minute each. Haven't tried any this week, though.

 

As an aside to your original post:

 

• Added support for the Groundspeak geocaching 1.0.1 extension

If there's any evidence that any attribute data is visible, I sure can't see it.

[yogazoo]

Last week I started over with a bunch of my old stuff. I was loading full 232MB~233MB blocks at highest resolution, and it took less than a minute each. Haven't tried any this week, though.

 

As an aside to your original post:

 

• Added support for the Groundspeak geocaching 1.0.1 extension

If there's any evidence that any attribute data is visible, I sure can't see it.

 

I would kindly suggest you double check the resolution of your files. Zoom in and compare the new ones with old ones if you can. The low-detail zoom levels will show all the way zoomed in on the faulty files. If the downloads only took a minute I'd be extremely suspicious. Also a 233mb highest and/or high resolution tiles will have thousands of images so I'd look at the download status view for each tile and double check to make sure you don't only see a few hundred.

Edited July 13, 2011 by yogazoo

[+michaelnel]

Several ongoing threads about this on the Garmin board. Birdseye is badly broken, and Garmin knows about it.

[yogazoo]

Several ongoing threads about this on the Garmin board. Birdseye is badly broken, and Garmin knows about it.

 

Thanks alot for the info! Now I'm really ticked since I just deleted all my old files so I could get the newer tiles with adjustable draw orders.

Edited July 13, 2011 by yogazoo

[+ecanderson]

I would kindly suggest you double check the resolution of your files. Zoom in and compare the new ones with old ones if you can.

Yup. Hadn't used the new *.jnx loads yet, and for all of those, the resolution sucks - loudly. The 232~233MB defined blocks (size as described by BaseCamp during download) are showing up on my Oregon as around 4~5MB *.jnx files each. I have no idea what Michael is talking about, but it sounds like he's a step ahead of me on this. Guess I'd better get over to the Garmin board as he suggests and see what on earth is going on there.

[yogazoo]

I love paying for a subscription I can't use. I'm calling Garmin tomorrow to give a piece of my mind. I can put up with alot of bugs and glitchyness in softwares but to not be able to use it? It's like buying a GPS that won't even power on.

[+ecanderson]

I love paying for a subscription I can't use. I'm calling Garmin tomorrow to give a piece of my mind. I can put up with alot of bugs and glitchyness in softwares but to not be able to use it? It's like buying a GPS that won't even power on.

Worse is the time I wasted carefully defining all of those blocks for download. When you talk to them, let them know you're not just speaking for yourself. This bites.

[+michaelnel]

The only way I have found to get the high resolution imagery (that is still lower resolution than maps.google.com provides for free) is to select small areas of no more than 50 - 70 MB. Then start the download. As soon as it starts, see how many tiles it intends to download. It should be downloading several thousand images.

 

If it's downloading hundreds, you hit the bug and will get standard res fuzzball imagery. In one session I was able to do a 5000+ image 71MB download, but then selected another area which it said was going to be 21MB of high res and it downloaded 160 images of low res.

 

Sometimes even if you do manage to get it to give you "high resolution" imagery (I hesitate to call it "high" resolution but that's what Garmin calls it), the download will be extremely slow, like they throttle the bandwidth. One day I downloaded a small segment (74 square km) totaling 4303 segments in Highest resolution. It took almost exactly an hour to download what turned out to be a 40.7MB file.

 

My internet connection tests consistently at 17-19Mbps (very, very fast). That little smidgen of data should have downloaded in seconds.

 

Some folks have asked for a refund on their birdseye subscription noting that it is almost too buggy to use, and Garmin has refused.

[+northernpenguin]

 

Some folks have asked for a refund on their birdseye subscription noting that it is almost too buggy to use, and Garmin has refused.

 

Now that is the part that bugs me.

Birdseye is typically a "failed to deliver" product.... even when it does deliver my Colorado chokes on it. They should be willing to cancel the subscription but I guess since the Birdseye files (that you can manage to download) are unlocked in a way they can't revoke they are assuming you're only cancelling because you got all the imagery you want.

[+michaelnel]

I even suggested that perhaps they extend peoples' subscriptions according to how long the product has been effectively unusable, and they were unreceptive to that idea too. Instead they want us to "Rest assured that we are actively looking into this issue.". That was about a month ago from a Garmin developer.

[+ecanderson]

The only way I have found to get the high resolution imagery (that is still lower resolution than maps.google.com provides for free) is to select small areas of no more than 50 - 70 MB. Then start the download. As soon as it starts, see how many tiles it intends to download. It should be downloading several thousand images.

Boy, am I disappointed. I thought Garmin had increased the allowable size of the blocks that I could select in hi-res mode and increased tile size or something. It sounds a bit hit-and-miss to download the other way. After your post, I did take time to run over to the Garmin site and found the thread covering the Birdseye problem. Lots of unhappy campers there. Understandable.

[+michaelnel]

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=70144

 

Their advertising is really deceptive:

 

"Use your BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription with BaseCamp™ software to quickly transfer an unlimited amount of satellite images to your Garmin device"

 

Notice the words "quickly" and "unlimited".

 

It's not quick, and it's very limited. The only thing that's accurate is the price.

Edited July 13, 2011 by michaelnel

[+michaelnel]

In order to get pretty minimal and incomplete coverage around where I live I have 21 different birdseye downloads, and it took a lot more than 21 attempts to get those 21 files. If it really was "quick" and "unlimited" I would be able to just select what I want in the SF Bay Area and download it in one shot, and get what I asked for.

 

It's Garmin software, and it's typically buggy and broken.

[yogazoo]

In order to get pretty minimal and incomplete coverage around where I live I have 21 different birdseye downloads, and it took a lot more than 21 attempts to get those 21 files. If it really was "quick" and "unlimited" I would be able to just select what I want in the SF Bay Area and download it in one shot, and get what I asked for.

 

It's Garmin software, and it's typically buggy and broken.

 

I'm sure they'll get it fixed... in time. Meanwhile I'm here waiting to use my 12 month subscription and it now turns into an 11 month subscription, 10 month subscription, 9 month subscription, etc.

 

There has to be some head software engineer that oversees this kind of thing. I'm suprised that they haven't applied "pressure" to the actual software engineers to get it fixed at all costs (work late, weekends, holidays, etc). I know if it was my workplace and something was that broken we wouldn't leave work until the issue was resolved.

 

Perhaps the issue doesn't lie with Garmin, perhaps it's on Digital Globes end and there's nothing that can be done on Garmin's side. We just don't know. What we know is that a product we paid for doesn't work as advertised if at all.

[+michaelnel]

Rather than just whining about it here, I just now submitted a support request to address the problem. I'm sure they will tell me they're working on it, but if everyone who experiences the problem (ie: uses the service) would open a ticket, perhaps it would get a little more attention from Garmin.

[+ecanderson]

Looks like they may well have fixed the problem and also increased the selectable area size along the way.

 

I am now downloading a 232MB file that contains not just a couple of hundred images, but rather, 15,000 and change. That's more along the lines of what I would expect if they're working with the original tile size.

 

The 232MB is a huge increase over the previous 70MB or so.

[+northernpenguin]

One nice thing about the 3.2.1 update for us Mac users is that it was simply pushed out to the Mac App store back on July 7, and much easier to update than the previous method was (for Mac users that is).

 

I'll be honest though I don't tend to use Basecamp .... I tend to run MapSource in a VMWare window ....

 

The release notes for the Mac version seem slightly different from that list you posted:

 

Changes made from version 3.1.4 to 3.2.1:

 

General:

Added Activity-based profiles. This allows the user to have different route and map settings for different activities.

Added ability to back up and restore user data.

Added support for reading data from .Fit devices like the Edge 500 and 800 and the Forerunner 310XT.

Added support for updating the firmware in Garmin devices.

Added heart rate and cadence to the track dialog.

Added the ability to export GDB files.

Added analytics to collect application usage statistics.

Removed ability to display marine maps in deference to the release of HomePort.

Added ability to add and move track points using the selector tool.

Changed hand tool to act more like the selector tool when clicking and double clicking on user data and map points.

Folder improvements:

Added folders and subfolders to allow organization of lists.

Add ability to sort user data by date in addition to the current name, type.

Find improvements:

Scaled find to work better with different kinds of search sources.

Added Advanced Find option.

Improved tips in Find when no results are found.

 

Map improvements:

Added Overview mini map, accessible under the View menu.

Added tips to the tool pop up about moving waypoints or shaping a route.

Added ability to configure which map features (POIs and lines) to show or hide.

Added ability to configure the POI icon size.

Added ability to configure the number of labels that are displayed on the map.

Improved 3-D view to hide features that are behind terrain.

 

Improved geocache support:

Added ability to configure what is displayed for geocaches on the map: Symbol, Symbol and Id, or Symbol and name. Use the context menu to change settings for more than one at a time.

Added support for Opencaching.com geocaches.

Added searching for Opencaching.com geocaches.

Added the ability to set the z-order (draw order) of BirdsEye and Garmin custom maps. Note this will only work with new BirdsEye images downloaded for devices with the latest beta firmware.

Improved the ability to track the found status for geocaches.

Added the ability to read the geocache visit status from supported GPSs.

Added the ability to automatically log found geocaches to Opencaching.com

Added a new smart list criteria for geocache find status.

Improved import of geocaches from a GPX file.

Added Date Hidden to Geocache dialog.

 

Fixes:

Fixed issue where quitting the application while reading a map from card could cause a crash.

Fixed issue where disconnecting a device while it was being read could cause a crash.

Fixed rare issue where clicking on the 3-D map with the routing tool could cause a crash.

Fixed issue where importing GPX file with thousands of identically named waypoints could cause a crash.

Change to handle out of memory condition better.

Edited July 13, 2011 by northernpenguin

[+michaelnel]

The 232MB is a huge increase over the previous 70MB or so.

 

It's still a tiny chunk of real estate. Just Lake Tahoe (at the border of California and Nevada) and a bit of land surrounding it is 900MB+ and I'd have to split that into 4 files to get it.

[+ecanderson]

The 232MB is a huge increase over the previous 70MB or so.

 

It's still a tiny chunk of real estate. Just Lake Tahoe (at the border of California and Nevada) and a bit of land surrounding it is 900MB+ and I'd have to split that into 4 files to get it.

Still, better than it was, and the resolution is back without surprises. It will take me well over 20 'blocks' to cover my usual caching area. Downloads as stalling and dog slow again. Guess that means back to business 'as usual' - just bigger.

[+ecanderson]

Of some interest -- it APPEARS that the stalls I was encountering are a function of running BaseCamp over a wireless connection. Although all other network comms are working without a glitch, the stalls seem to occur over the wireless. While talking to Garmin, I got a notion to connect via some Cat5, and the stalls seem to have stopped. I've seen this, although rarely, in other circumstances where an application was running an ACK/NAK protocol of its own over TCP/IP. A single dropped packet can kill the transfer.

[+ecanderson]

Ongoing conversation ..

 

Garmin-Guy tried to replicate my situation. He grabbed an Oregon but was being limited to about 80MB selected areas. Turns out his unit's Birdseye subscription had expired, so he's off trying to find another unit with a 'current' subscription. He was surprised to hear that I was able to select up to 232MB rectangles.

 

Of interest = he also was unaware that we were recently being delivered low res images with highest selected. Guess these guys don't talk during lunch.

 

OK - Garmin-Guy can also select 232MB. Looks like they have increased the selectable area a lot since I last did this.

 

15000 image file completed in about 20 minutes. Resulting file is indeed about 213MB in size as one would expect. Looks like we're good to go (finally). Meanwhile, I suspect that BaseCamp is imposing it's own proprietary file transfer protocol on the process, and that the process is (or is now, under 3.2.1 anyway) not robust enough to manage some number of dropped packets. I'd recommend doing this work over a hardwired connection!