Gps Visualizer: A Web-based Mapping Tool

[gpsvisualizer]

(I posted this message a couple days ago in the "GPS Units and Software" forum, but it occurs to me that this might be a better spot for it, so please pardon the redundancy if you've seen this already.)

 

GPS Visualizer -- http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/ -- is a free web-based program that takes your GPS data and generates customizable maps or profiles in standard browser-viewable SVG format.

 

Here's some of what makes GPS Visualizer so useful:

• It's free. (But donations are warmly welcomed!)
  
• It accepts a wide range of input file formats, including, of course, geocaching.com LOC files. Both tracks and waypoints can be plotted, and you can plot multiple sets of data on a single map.
  
• Geocaching waypoints are clickable and take you back to the relevant page on geocaching.com.
  
• You have a wide range of choices for background maps, including:
  • 30-meter Landsat imagery for the entire world
    
  • Street-level maps for Europe and the U.S.
    
  • Aerial photos and USGS topo maps for the U.S.
    
  • Excellent digital background maps for Canada
    

  [*]The maps are interactive: labels can be moved or removed, and the backgrounds' position and opacity can be adjusted.

  [*]It's platform-independent (works great on both Mac AND Windows), because it runs on-line.

  [*]The output is in the form of vector drawings (SVGs) that can be scaled to any size and/or edited in a program like Adobe Illustrator.

  [*]The owner (that's me) is responsive to problems and suggestions for improvement, at least when I have time to work on it.

Again, the URL is: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

 

Have fun, and please let me know if there are any problems.

 

Adam Schneider

http://adamschneider.net/

[+IMLost]

Wow!!! That is really cool.

[gpsvisualizer]

Wow!!!  That is really cool.

Do you suppose you could add a mention of GPS Visualizer to your "Northeast geocaching" site?

 

Adam

Edited April 13, 2004 by adamschneider

[+buck09]

About once a week I use GPS Visualizer to plot out all my cache finds and then I post them to my web site. I heard about it on the Wisconsin Geocaching Assoc's web forum.

 

Here's my map as of a week or so ago:

[+Team DEMP]

Again, the URL is: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

I'm getting a 404 error - is it just me (at work) or is it a site issue? Looks neat and I'd like to check it out.

[gpsvisualizer]

I'm getting a 404 error - is it just me (at work) or is it a site issue? Looks neat and I'd like to check it out.

It's not just you. I just found out I'm losing my dedicated server, and I'm investigating other possibilities. Try again, either now or in a few minutes, and it should work again.

[+Team DEMP]

Wow - this is neat

[Nick_T]

I've got several uses for this at work. Thanks for posting it up. This looks like it could used with the non-techies I work with. For what I need this will beat the crap outa Arcview, loads faster.

 

Nick T

[+IMLost]

I added your site to the links section of Northeast Geocaching site. You have mail.

[gpsvisualizer]

I wonder who you have to sleep with to get a link on geocaching.com... I've written to them twice and never heard a peep back from them.

Edited April 14, 2004 by adamschneider

[+Markwell]

Now that is SOOOOO cool. I had a track log that I had downloaded for other purposes and a set of waypoints. Everything looked better than I ever could have imagined. Very sweet.

[gpsvisualizer]

Tell your Chicagoland friends, Markwell!

[+TeamK-9]

This could turn out to be VERY useful...

[+Markwell]

Tell your Chicagoland friends, Markwell!

Not just Chicagoland, Geodashing and Geo-Golf. With games that depend on how close you got to the coordinates instead of if you found the thing at an actual spot, I already download tracklogs and do calculations based on them. This adds a nice visual representation to that.

[gpsvisualizer]

Not just Chicagoland, Geodashing and Geo-Golf

Markwell, are you able to add links to those pages, or should I contact Scout[at]GPSgames.org?

[+Markwell]

Scout. I'll post to their forums to announce it, though.

[gpsvisualizer]

Okay, I'll give it a couple days and then check with "Scout."

[gpsvisualizer]

Just thought I'd let people know that GPS Visualizer is now living on its new server, and things seem to be working fine... but PLEASE let me know if anything goes wrong.

 

(One ongoing glitch is that the high-quality digital Canadian maps are unavailable, but that has nothing to do with my server.)

[+programmer64]

Getting a cannot find server message oops, nevermind. I like it. Gotta play around with it awhile though see what it can do Edited April 17, 2004 by programmer64

[+Hard Oiler]

(One ongoing glitch is that the high-quality digital Canadian maps are unavailable, but that has nothing to do with my server.)

That's real sad - they were excellent. What type of source maps are you looking for - maybe we can find an alternate.

[gpsvisualizer]

(One ongoing glitch is that the high-quality digital Canadian maps are unavailable, but that has nothing to do with my server.)

That's real sad - they were excellent. What type of source maps are you looking for - maybe we can find an alternate.

The data I was using before was from the National Topographic Data Base (NTDB) by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) -- and I was getting it straight from their server. Now, when I try to send a request, it returns some kind of database error that suggests they're having software or hardware problems at the moment. I hope it's just temporary problems, because those NRCan maps, for all their slowness, are wonderfully detailed and amazingly accurate.

 

I sent a message to the guy in Sherbrooke who's supposed to be the contact person for their map server, but I haven't heard anything. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

In the meantime, of course, I'd welcome any suggestions of alternate sources for Canadian maps. (And don't suggest the "Toporama" site, because that won't work; it doesn't let you specify coordinates to generate images on the fly.)

[gpsvisualizer]

Good news! Less than 10 minutes after posting that last message, I found an alternate NRCan server that contains exactly the same data.

 

It's still slow as molasses, but it DOES work; I've re-enabled all the nifty Canadian background map choices.

[+Hard Oiler]

I've re-enabled all the nifty Canadian background map choices.

That's great! No slower than the last source - and government does tend to move at the speed of molasses here

[gpsvisualizer]

So far so good... and the original source is back up as well. At least we know they're not planning on taking them away any time soon. (We hope.)

[apogee]

One problem I seem to have with Visualizer - and it's a great tool, btw - is creating a map for two waypoints close together. No matter how I adjust the Margin:, Show waypoints: and Single-point map width: parameters, it draws a thin rectangular box with one waypoint at the top and the other at the bottom. If only a single waypoint is entered, a normal map is displayed. The only workaround I've found is to create additional waypoints to define the map perimeter.

[gpsvisualizer]

No matter how I adjust the Margin:, Show waypoints: and Single-point map width: parameters, it draws a thin rectangular box with one waypoint at the top and the other at the bottom.  If only a single waypoint is entered, a normal map is displayed.  The only workaround I've found is to create additional waypoints to define the map perimeter.

"Single-point map width" is never considered if there's more than one waypoint.

 

What you need to do is specify a very large "margin" and a relatively small "maximum dimension." For instance, let's say you have two points that are more or less at the same latitude, so you've been getting a skinny horizontal map. If you make the max. dim. 100 and the margin 200, your points will be 100 pixels apart, but the overall map will be 500 pixels wide and 400 pixels high -- which is probably closer to what you wanted.