SportTracks and Maps

[gerhard]

This section covers map related questions for SportTracks

Question:

How can I see my activity with GPS on a map, it is all white background?

Answer:

Select the Triangle on the right hand side of the Route title bar and select a map.
If you have selected a map and still get no maps, just a rotating arrow to the left on the title bar, check that your firewall has not blocked SportTracks from accessing internet.
Another reason could be that the map provider has detected "abnormal" map access behavior from your IP address and blocks access. (The Apply Routes plugin can help then, see below.)
It also happens that the map provider changes the access methods, requiring an update in SportTracks (or a plugin).

[gerhard]

Question:

Will maps work when I am offline?
The mapprovider has updated the maps in my area, how can I get the update?

Answer:

SportTracks saves map tiles in a cache (some exceptions for 3rd party map plugins). See this link for location:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTr ... php?t=4290
So if you have viewed a certain map type on a certain map level in a certain area, you can see the map when you are offline.

[gerhard]

Question:

Why do the satellite map disappear tile by tile when I zoom?

Answer:

Because you try to zoom to a level that do not exist in that area. ST first shows tile available from the previous level, but the map provider supplies updates with empty map tiles. You will see a similar message when using Google Maps directly.
Just zoom out, the map will not be more detailed anyway.

[gerhard]

Question:

What maps are available for SportTracks?

Answer:

By default, SportTracks includes Google maps, Satellite and Street. This works for most of the world.
ST also support Terraserver maps for USA.

In addition there are a number of map plugins, see the Plugin Catalog:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/plugins/

One of the most prominent is Apply Routes (AR) that supports a number of map providers:
* Google: Street and Satellite (same as ST default, but often work when ST default fail), but also other map types like Hybrid, Terrain and projections to Sky, Mars, Moon etc
* Google Earth (requires GoogleEarth Browser Plugin)
* MS Live Maps - Better than Google Maps occasionally
* OpenStreetMap (with several different layers)
* Geoportail (France)
Note That AR maps will not save map tiles in a cache, so the maps will not work offline.

Other mapplugins provides map for specific areas like the Swedish and Czech map plugins.

For custom maps, see next post:
viewtopic.php?p=23131#23131

[gerhard]

Question:

Can I use my own maps with SportTracks, like digital maps and scanned maps?

Answer:

SportTracks 1 had this possibility, but it is not available for SportTracks 2.
The Earth is round and a map flat, there are number of ways to project maps (about on per country in addition to a number of global projection).

old_man_biking's OziExplorer plugin can use maps created in OziExplorer as well as custom maps. Note that the map projection is assumed to be WGS84, so national maps may have some distortions. Works well for most smaller maps though.
Some info to convert maps to supported format:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTr ... php?t=1582

markw65's Apply Routes supports maps with custom projections (using GDAL), but there is no GUI to calibrate maps:
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTr ... sc&start=0

The ST user Monshi is writing on a plugin that will allow you to use custom maps with SportTracks. The plugin uses a library (called GDAL) that can handle a lot of different map projections and file formats. (Many countries in the world have their own standards to represent a round world on a flat map.) It handles digital maps without calibration, but can calibrate maps too.

Some digital maps are protected by encryption or have an undocumented formap. For instance Garmin's maps in the img format are normally locked. Few applications can convert the format to something other applications can handle. Tools that may handle Garmin: http://www.geopainting.com/en/ http://www.anpo.republika.pl/download.html#gmaptool

[gerhard]

Question:

How can I compare several activities on one map?

Answer:

Use plugins:

old_man_biking's DotRacing plugin is excellent to compare activities with.

Trails plugin (map and graphs), Overlay plugin (map and graphs) and Unique Routes plugin (map and summary only) all can display several activities at the same time on the map.
Trails plugin can also compare sections of an activity to the same section in the same or other activities.

markw65's ApplyRoutes plugin has an option "AR - Send Activities to Routes View" that let you compare activities, even virtual racing in Google Earth. In ST3, the ActivityPage can be used too.

(ST2 only) dobrou Extensions can also use GE to display activities (and dot-race).

You can also export activities to Google Earth

[gerhard]

Question:

Can I replay my activities on the map?

Answer:

old_man_biking's DotRacing plugin was made for this reason

Apply Routes allows you to replay the activities in Google Earth:
Select an activity, select "AR - Routes" in the Daily Activity Summary Title Bar, select "Map Type: AR - Earth", click on the start sign and select Start Simulation i the popup.