Nexus 7, GPS Essentials, KMZ file maps, view position offline?

[Andrew Davis]

Hi there,

I am new to this group.  I will be leaving on a long paddling trip down the Susquehanna River and want to use digitized versions of the river trail maps either on a handheld mapping GPS (expensive) OR I am thinking of purchasing a Nexus 7 (relatively inespensive) and using my scanned maps on that device.

My goal is simple.  I want to be able to turn on the device (with cell or wifi connection) and see where I am on the scanned river trail map.  I don't need any tracks, routes (The river is my track!), or waypoints.  I just need to see where I am on the scanned map.

The crazy thing is...  I can buy TWO Nexus 7s for the price of a good handheld GPS.  

Please tell me that this is possible!  See the attached map in .jpg format to understand what I want to view on the Nexus 7.  Is GPS Essentials even the software that I need for this purpose?

Thanks,

Andy Davis

[Michael Schollmeyer]

Hi Andy,

Custom maps are not supported at this time. You could use one of the existing maps and prefetch all map tiles that you need. This will not contain your placemarks, though.

The difference in price between a Nexus 7 and handheld GPS is huge, but they will be waterproof, have a sunlight readable display and long lasting batteries. To be fair, you'd need to compare the handheld GPS with outdoor ruggedised devices.

Cheers, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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[Eugen Gruenwald]

Hi Michael,

 

I’m a newcomer and want to clear up some points, that I could not find in manual:

 

1.      Bold Cursor points my location during my tracking

2.      No customized maps  (But what about a customized map which was created over Google map template. For example, some areas on Google maps have white spots and I have filled this spot with my own draw map, so it is integrated with Google map)

3.      Supported maps: Google, Mapquest, OSM

 

Is it correct?

Sorry for these obvious questions.

Evgeny

[Michael Schollmeyer]

1. The blue arrow is your current position. If you create cursors in portable maps, they will not move when you move.

2. If Google adds your data into their slippy map server, you will see it. Give it a try.

3. Yes

There are plans to support GeoPDF, GeoTIFF and BSB and also plain JPG files, whenever I find the time to roll this out...

Cheers, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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[Esben]

Hi Andy,

I too have been looking for this functionallity and not found it in GPS Essentials. (which is my favorite GPS app, by the way).

However I believe that the app: Custom Maps can do exactly what you need. 

It is very simpe to use. I prefer to use Google maps on my PC to overlay a map image and save it to kmz-file. Then upload to my android and open i Custom Maps-app.

Custom Maps is very basic and just shows your location, speed and distance to the center of the map, it can not plot tracks and other things that Essentials can.

Perhaps the developer of GPS Essentials could look at the kmz display functionlity of Custom Maps and implement something similar, that would be a great improvement indeed!

I believe that Custom Maps is open source, check it out: (http://www.custommapsapp.com/welcome).

Regards,

Esben

[Esben]

Correction : Use Google Earth (not Google Maps) to overlay images and create kmz-files

[Michael Schollmeyer]

Could you share such a KMZ file here, please? KMZ support will be in the next release, maybe I can add map overlays...

Cheers, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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On 14 Nov 2013, at 10:02, Esben <jacobs...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Correction : Use Google Earth (not Google Maps) to overlay images and create kmz-files
>

[Esben]

Yes of course I can share a kmz.

This is an example:

I have screen-dumped a section of Google Maps to a jpg-file. (my town, Køge, Denmark)

Then in Google Earth, I have selected 'Add image overlay' and used the jpg. 

Then I set transparency to 50% and adjust the image frame to fit exactly over the Google Earth map.

Then select 'Save Place as' and so creating the kmz-file.

This file can be opened in Google Earth and you can reedit the map overlay by selecting properties for the place: 'Koege_town_image_overlay'

By the way, I can easilly do without the option to do this image calibration inside the app, since Google Earth does it so well. 

Looking forward to the future kmz-support in Essentials! All I need is to open a kmz and see my position on top of my own custom map-image.

I hope this is usefull.

Best Regards,

Esben

[Michael Schollmeyer]

Thanks, that was helpful. I never realized it is so easy to do this in Google Earth. I'll check if I can add this to the next release...

Cheers, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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> <Koege_town_image_overlay.kmz>

[Michael Schollmeyer]

Another thing that should work with G4 now: www.mictale.com/articles/g4isout

Cheers, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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