New to the program, thanks for the Beta test acess

[Daniel]

Just trying to fill in the blanks here: Every time I download a tile
to view on my phone, it gets cached into local memory so that next
time it won't use wifi/cell tower to view it, correct? My
understanding is that it gets stored locally to the phone and should
remain until I manually clear my phones cache...?? how about the next
beta version install?

Is there a way to download an entire map by chart number? Like
Baltimore harbor (Chart# 12281)?

[Andrew Johnson]

Hi Daniel,

The app caches charts in two ways:

1) Every map tile you view (up to the last 1000) gets cached to your local SD card. Each tile is 256px by 256px, so a tile is most of the screen on most devices.

2) From the Main Menu, you can select "Download" and download whole sections of tiles (up to 10,000 at a time). This feature should let you grab maps that span multiple charts in a single download.

Also, a couple of notes:

• These caches don't get deleted unless you delete the app entirely, or clear cache via settings and delete your saved map sections. 

• Cached maps don't (unless we screw up) get lost between upgrades.

• We'll clarify this in the manual... we like to add the manual at the end so testers don't have a crutch, and we can see the real flaws and unintuitive parts of the app.

• You can't cache charts by number now, but we have thought about adding it. Try out the current download feature and let us know if you think chart-by-chart would be better, or good to also have.

Regards,

Andrew

[Daniel Dunn]

Thanks for the tips. 

I'll try the select and download feature.  Does it automatically get every tile in my selection area select at different zoom levels or just my currently viewed zoom level?

My first exposure to nautical navigation was primarily chart by chart.  I would plan ahead the area I would be at and probably travel, download and print it.  In my 'brain groove' it would be more intuitive just to select the the map numbers to download, let the phone sit there and then I would know that I already have these tiles downloaded in the area's I've chosen.  But that is just me.  I'm intrigued to see how the preferred method will work now that I know what how it was programmed to work.

Keep up the good work.

--
Daniel Dunn

[Andrew Johnson]

Daniel,

The download screen has a slider that lets you pick the maximum zoom level, and it basically downloads all levels up to the max you choose. To download a map (this will be in the manual):

0) Find the area you want on the map.

1) Select Download from the main menu.

2) Select the max zoom you want on the top slider.

3) Draw a box with your finger, and press download.

Notes on this:

• each zoom level will roughly quadruple the size of the download, so you can get deep maps, or broad maps
• the downloads will continue in the background if you background the app
• later, we plan to let you download all maps along a route, instead of just boxes... we might do some named area downloads too potentially

Regards,

Andrew

[Ben]

I had a quick question on this same topic.

If I download a map, will the program automatically attempt to load a
cached map before going to the cell towers? Or do I have to manually
open the map I downloaded in order to "force" the program to use that
instead?

Thanks
Ben

On Aug 17, 5:22 am, Andrew Johnson <and...@earthnc.com> wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> The download screen has a slider that lets you pick the maximum zoom level,
> and it basically downloads all levels up to the max you choose. To download
> a map (this will be in the manual):
>
> 0) Find the area you want on the map.
> 1) Select Download from the main menu.
> 2) Select the max zoom you want on the top slider.
> 3) Draw a box with your finger, and press download.
>
> Notes on this:
>

>    - each zoom level will roughly quadruple the size of the download, so you

>    can get deep maps, or broad maps

>    - the downloads will continue in the background if you background the app
>    - later, we plan to let you download all maps along a route, instead of

> >>    - These caches don't get deleted unless you delete the app entirely,

> >>    or clear cache via settings and delete your saved map sections.
>

> >>    - Cached maps don't (unless we screw up) get lost between upgrades.
>
> >>    - We'll clarify this in the manual... we like to add the manual at the

> >>    end so testers don't have a crutch, and we can see the real flaws and
> >>    unintuitive parts of the app.
>

> >>    - You can't cache charts by number now, but we have thought about

> >>    adding it. Try out the current download feature and let us know if you think
> >>    chart-by-chart would be better, or good to also have.
>
> >> Regards,
> >> Andrew
>

> >> On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Daniel <thedunns...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> Just trying to fill in the blanks here: Every time I download a tile
> >>> to view on my phone, it gets cached into local memory so that next
> >>> time it won't use wifi/cell tower to view it, correct? My
> >>> understanding is that it gets stored locally to the phone and should
> >>> remain until I manually clear my phones cache...?? how about the next
> >>> beta version install?
>
> >>> Is there a way to download an entire map by chart number? Like
> >>> Baltimore harbor (Chart# 12281)?
>
> > --

> > Daniel Dunn- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[want2...@verizon.net]

Silly question once saved did you load map to main map

Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless

-----Original message-----

From: Ben <bmy...@gmail.com>
To: EarthNC Android Beta <earthnc-an...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 24, 2010 12:27:56 GMT+00:00
Subject: Re: New to the program, thanks for the Beta test acess

I had a quick question on this same topic.

If I download a map, will the program automatically attempt to load a
cached map before going to the cell towers? Or do I have to manually
open the map I downloaded in order to "force" the program to use that
instead?

Thanks
Ben

> > Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 4:26 PM, Andrew Johnson wrote:
>
> >> Hi Daniel,
>
> >> The app caches charts in two ways:
>
> >> 1) Every map tile you view (up to the last 1000) gets cached to your local
> >> SD card. Each tile is 256px by 256px, so a tile is most of the screen on
> >> most devices.
>
> >> 2) From the Main Menu, you can select "Download" and download whole
> >> sections of tiles (up to 10,000 at a time). This feature should let you grab
> >> maps that span multiple charts in a single download.
>
> >> Also, a couple of notes:
>
> >>    - These caches don't get deleted unless you delete the app entirely,
> >>    or clear cache via settings and delete your saved map sections.
>
> >>    - Cached maps don't (unless we screw up) get lost between upgrades.
>
> >>    - We'll clarify this in the manual... we like to add the manual at the
> >>    end so testers don't have a crutch, and we can see the real flaws and
> >>    unintuitive parts of the app.
>
> >>    - You can't cache charts by number now, but we have thought about
> >>    adding it. Try out the current download feature and let us know if you think
> >>    chart-by-chart would be better, or good to also have.
>
> >> Regards,
> >> Andrew
>

[Andrew]

It will automatically use cached tiles where it has them stored locally.

FYI, we pull the most up to date NOAA charts as they become available. We are going to implement functionality to warn you about maps that might be out of date later, but for now, to get new charts, delete the saved ones if you are concerned about having the latest.

For anyone who doesn't know, NOAA publishes new charts on a rolling basis - some charts get updated on any given month, and we pull the latest. If you have older charts on your plotter, they might be different in places.

Sent from my mobile

[Ben]

Perfect, thanks for the info!