On-line tool for plotting Canada caches

[gpsvisualizer]

I've updated my free on-line mapping program, GPS Visualizer, so that it now directly supports plotting .LOC files from geocaching.com. (It also supports various other file formats for both tracks and waypoints.)

 

The URL: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

 

(Someone suggested that I should post in this forum because sometimes Canadians feel shortchanged by software that stops its coverage at the U.S. border. Well, here's your chance for revenge: the Canadian background maps available in GPS Visualizer are excellent. Just be aware that sometimes the NRCan server is excruciatingly slow, and sometimes it's down.)

 

Please let me know if you have any problems... and have fun!

 

Adam Schneider

adamschneider.net

[+Hard Oiler]

This is a neat application. In addition to LOC files it works with GPX files from Pocket Queries. I used Watcher to filter and fed the resultant GPX file to GPS Visualizer using the NRCAN and NRCAN+Landsat basemaps. Very simple, very quick and the results are certainly good enough for a caching expedition. I've included a couple of screen shots below for a 3x2km map section. Haven't tried tracks and routes yet but judging by the cache waypoints being dead on I expect the same for tracks. Nice to see a mapping application that includes Canada That blank white space on the left edge of the NRCAN map is the USA - Turning Point 211 is a virtual point on the border in the St Clair river. In GPS Visualiser you can click on the cache and it takes you to the cache page.

 

"If you don't know where you are going, then it doesn't much matter where you are." - Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass

[+PDOP's]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hard Oiler:

Nice to see a mapping application that includes Canada That blank white space on the left edge of the NRCAN map is the USA

---

 

It is nice to see - usually the blank white space on mapping programs is Canada

 

Thanks for the review and screen shots HardOiler.

 

PDOP's GPS Pages

[+DirtRunner]

Totally and 100% super cool. Until I saw your application I was printing out mapquest maps and taping them to one another to see the best approach.

 

You totally rule.

Thanks

DirtRunner.

 

Your not first...But you could be next.

[SombreHippie]

That's exactly the kind of thing I've been searching for the last few weeks!

 

It sucks being poor and non-American when you need these mapping do-dads!

 

A great serial killer once said, "Beauty is only skin deep. Trust me, I've looked..."

[gpsvisualizer]

Glad you guys like it... but thank NRCan, not me, for the high quality of the data.

 

(By the way, eventually I'm going to make a stand-alone background tool for people who have handheld GPS software and just want to throw a map on there.)

 

And, SombreHippie, trust me, sometimes it sucks being American too.

[+balloonatic]

Whooooooooo!

 

This rocks!!

 

Can't wait to load my track log from a flight in Morrin Alberta last year. I landed back at the launch site after climbing up to 10,000ft. and making a big figure eight in the sky.

 

Thanks for the cool stuff!

This does some stuff that Ozi won't do as well.

[gpsvisualizer]

That'll be interesting; I've seen a lot of glider flights posted to GPS Visualizer (because it supports International Gliding Commission log files), but no balloons yet. If it turns out well, can I put it on the "examples" page?

[+FarSideX]

Very nice page! I like the link for the Mac support poll Where are you getting the raw data for NRCan Political background maps? I am working on a project that could make use of that data! It would save me a lot of time as I was doing a lot by hand.

 

FarSideX

 

Took tupperware container - Left nothing.

[gpsvisualizer]

I'm getting the maps straight from the NRCan server. It wasn't completely straightforward, though; I had to dig the necessary URLs out of the CubeWerx "CubeXPLOR" demo at http://demo.cubewerx.com/demo/cubexplor/cubexplor.cgi.

 

FarSideX: if you want more info, e-mail me. I'm also working on a little program whose entire purpose is fishing out background maps; maybe that would be helpful for whatever project you're cooking up.