Countour Lines not loading - Tried Evrything

[Aidas Pusch]

So, I own a HTC One with Android 4.3, and I frequenlty use the Osmand app (free version, up-to-date), because I like the offline map function and I like the great detail found in the maps. I never had trouble donwloading or using the regular maps.
Recently I bought the Contour Lines plugin, since that's the one thing I am missing in the app so far, and downloaded the correpsonding Contour Lines file to my region. The regular map I (succesfully) use is Canada 'British-Columbia northamerica.obf' and the Contour lines map I downloaded was 'Canada british-columbia-SW northamerica.srtm.obf ' since I live on Vancouver Island in the Victoria Area.
When I loook at 'Data Management' the 'World basemap' and 'Canada British-Columbia northamerica.obf' are both displayed in bold font, while the contour lines map 'Canada british-columbia-SW northamerica.srtm.obf' is not, from which I take it is not loaded properly?

I have:

• the plugin activated in my pluigns settings, also tried reinstalling the app itself and the plugin
• the map in the SRTM subfolder of the app.
  
• tried looking around the BC area of the map to see whether it displays countour lines in any other area, but that's not the case
• set my 'Show contour lines' setting under 'rendering attributes' to 11, but changing that didn't work either.
  
• Also, I don't know if this matters but there is no tickbox next to 'show contour lines'.
  

I appreciate your help,
Spadress

[Max1234Ita]

Hi
just a check: maybe you have activated some overlay map which is preventing you from seeing contour lines?
You can easily check this from Map screen, just press the Menu button and open the Map layers section, Overlay Map option.

If the list is somewhat populated, you can try switching off all overlays, or adjusting each layer's transparency.

Unfortunately I don't remember what is the position of contour lines in OsmAnd Map Layers stack (should be the topmost?)), there was a post explaining that... I'll try to retrieve it.

Regards,
Max - Italy

[Aidas Pusch]

Okay, so I activate the Online Maps Plugin, then check the map layers, I can do that.
So, Both Underlay Map and Overlay Map offer me 2 options, MapNik and CycleMaps and then it also says 'Install More' as a third point, none are selected.
Now, I'm not sure what you want me to do next, should I select one of the maps, and if yes, which one?

Also I found a couple more things that might be useful, see "First Edit" of my original post.

[Max1234Ita]

The idea would be to deselect everything, so you are not seeing anything than the contour layer.
But I don't think this is the solution, I have tried on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S Advance) right now: I had Hillshade Italy Europe enabled ; Tried changing its transparency but the contour lines remained visible.

In my cell, I can hide them by setting higher values for Show contour lines option...
It's normal not to have any tickbox there, it's a link to a menu where you can define the minimum zoom factor where the lines will start being drawn (in my device I've set '14', so at zoom of 14 or more I can see them).

Think it's a configuration problem, though,I'm posting post below the configuration I have for my "Car" profile (Menu -> Configure Screen): try to replicate it and see if something changes for you.

Map rendering:

•     Map Style:   default
•     Day/Night map: Day

Drawing attributes:

•     Show contour lines: 14
•     Rendering mode:  car
•     Hide polygons:  Disabled
•     Hide boundaries: Disabled

Here is my configuration for Map layers menu (Menu button -> Map layers):

•     Map source:Offline vector maps (btw, I can see a 'Hillshade Italy europe" entry there, anyway, I've not selected it)
•     POI...    Disabled
•     POI labels: Disabled
•     Favorites:   Enabled
•     GPX track:  Disabled
•     Transportation stops:   Disabled
•     Hillshade layer:   Enabled
•     OSM bugs:   Disabled
•     Overlay map: Enabled (Hillshade Italy europe)
•     Underlay map: disabled
  

Another thing you can try is the following: I had some troubles with this plugin, and it solved for me.

•  - Close OsmAnd, by exiting with the small "x" button on top of the main menu (this will close background tasks also)
•  - Uninstall the Contour Plugin
•  - Open OsmAnd and verify thet contour lines are effectively gone (don't worry, maps are still in their place)
•  - Exit OsmAnd again, by pressing the "x" button.
•  - Install the Contour Plugin
•  - Open OsmAnd and check if something has changed.

Hope this can be useful to you.

Regards,
Max - Italy

[Max1234Ita]

On Saturday, June 14, 2014 12:37:13 AM UTC+2, Max1234Ita wrote:

The idea would be to deselect everything, so you are not seeing anything than the contour layer.
But I don't think this is the solution, I have tried on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S Advance) right now: I had Hillshade Italy Europe enabled ; Tried changing its transparency but the contour lines remained visible.

Edit: Maybe this page can help? https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/osmand/contours/osmand/ZmQltT8ss-U/kxGC26__hlMJ

Max - Italy

[Aidas Pusch]

• Okay, so first of all, as I said, no Underlay or Overlay Maps were selected, and to be honest, I don't usually have the online maps plugin activated, so usually the option isn't even there, so that could never have been the issue, but thanks for the suggestion.
  

• Also, as I mentioned in my original post, I already tried around with reinstalling the app and the plugin, I have reinstalled both, and reinstalled them one by one, while leaving the other one untouched, nothing worked.
  

• As to the post you linked, they didn't really seem to have an issue with the map not being loaded at all, which is happening in my case, keep reading and you'll see why.

So, I realized that you can't edit post here, so I'll just add my new findings here:

While looking at the map in the Data Management menu, I noticed something: The regular vector maps, that are loaded and work, are displayed in bold font, but the not-working not-loading contour lines map is not (See screenshot #1). My guess is that, the bold font means, that the app has succesfully loaded the map.
I then also noticed that when you click a map that's displayed bold, the app will give you additional info about the app. The info that I got for my map 'canada british-columbia northamerica.obf' can be seen in Screenshot #2. The info makes a lot of sense, it first says " X Data: canada_british-columbia" and then some coordinates.

My idea was, maybe If I try around with filenames and folders, I can get the app to treat the contour lines app like a regular offline vector map, and then I will possibly be able to see that additional info for the elevation lines map aswell. So, at first, of course it didn't work, because the app, like I said, will only give you additional info if the map is loaded (and displayed in bold). But when I moved the map out of the 'srtm' folder and renamed the ending from '.srtm.obf' to just '.obf' it worked. The app now treated the contour lines map like a regular map and displayed it in bold font,  it didn't show any contour lines though, but that's not what I was going for anyway. The additional info was sort of strange though, It consisted of Numbers and letters, and then the usual coordinates. I just thought that was strange, since the additional info of the regular map seemed to make so much sense. The exact additional info can be seen in my last two screenshots (#3 and #4)

I hope this is useful

[C G]

Have you checked in 'Map layers'→'Map source...' that the map source is "Offline vector maps"? If another source (online maps) is used, contour lines are not displayed.

[fredf]

Yesterday I purchased the Contour/Hillshade plugin and spent 1/2 an hour trying to install just the Contour lines part - with no sucess so uninstalled it and hopefully got my money back.
This is way too complicated. One should not have to scan various posts like this one to try to figure this out.
I suggest that the Wiki be updated and made more intuitive as how to accomplish the installation.

[Aidas Pusch]

Okay, it's been a while since I posted this, and a lot of things happened in the last couple weeks that prevented me from dealing with this issue. First of all, I lost my old phone, and therefore until I got a new phone, a couple days ago, there was no way to experiment and/or try suggestions to see whether they help.
Now, coincidentally, I got the same model again, I now again have a HTC One (M7), and was suprised to see that even on the new deviec the issue is STILL THERE!
I am starting to think this is an issue of the map, and that the Contour-Lines Map is corrupt. I therefore ask someone else to download the same map (British-Columbia_northamerica.obf + british-columbia-northmerica-SW.srtm.obf) to see if this is a courrupt map issue.
I am also somewhat suprised that I keep getting suggestions to do the same thing over and over again, It's not like you can read my previous posts? For example, C G 's suggestion to check my map layers has already been made by the user Max1234lta, and, as I posted in response to the first suggestion, I not already had Online maps deactivated, which means that Oflline Vector maps are the default map anyways, but I also turned the plugin on, double checked my settings and reported and I still get that suggestion?
I understand that noone with the know-how to fix this has noticed this post yet and I understand that it seems like there is nothing you as a reader who doesn't have this issue, can do, but at least, if you're already reading this, read it right, and don't just make some stupid standard suggestion assuming I am just an amateur who messed up his settings. For the record, with this particular map, I have never seen any contour lines, except when I looked at the online map "cycle-maps" which I then turned off again, because I don't like online maps. So if it never worked, I can hardly be my fault, right?

To fredf: there is such a post, there is nothing you have to install, just open Osmand and download the correct map, the plugin appears in the Osmand-plugin list automatically, and also activates automatically, at least in my case. To donwload the map just go to Data Management and select the contour lines category, find your area, and you SHOULD be good to go, but as in my case, there might be another issue that has something to do with the map file itself.

To do my part of the work, I am going to donwload a gigabyte worth of maps from an area I will never need maps of, to see whether that works. I will be easily able to tell by whether the contour lines map is displayed in bold font or not.

On Wednesday, June 11, 2014 1:13:41 PM UTC-7, Aidas Pusch wrote:

[HaFi]

I can't help you, but I can say, you are not alone. I never managed to see contour lines, too (germany) and gave up a long time ago (osmand free, -nightly build, -plus, smartphones SGS2, SGS4).

[Aidas Pusch]

So what can I/have to do to get a developers attention with this issue? It is obvious that there is nothing I or the other users who responded so far can do. I looked for a contact for Osmand, you know email of a developer or something like that, but this google group seems to be the only thing there is when it comes to support and reporting issues.

[Aidas Pusch]

There is a big update to this story! I have found what my issue was, and while it was a simpler mistake on my side, there is still athing or to that lead to this issue and should be changed or somehow made easier to understand. It turns out, my theory that loaded maps are displayed in bold was wrong. The problem essentially was that I, living in BC, assumed I needed the SW map of BC. But, since no contour lines appeared in my area, I assumed they weren't working. Instead they were working bot only covered a apart of the map west of me, that I never looked at in zoom level 11 or above (the only way to see contour lines). It was even difficult to find out that this was the case, because I had to browse the map in zoom 11 for a long time to find the part of the map that had contour lines displayed.

I attached a picture where you can see where I lived (Red X), where the BC border is (orange line), and what area the canada_british-columbia-SW.srtm.obf map covers (blue line). I created this picture using the osmand app, marking the corners with favorites, then taking multiple screenshots, merging them and putting them on top of a screenshot of a BC map, but it would be nice to have an easier way, to essentially see the same thing. 

How could we find a better solution to display which area contour lines are covering, above level 11, so this can be avoided. It could just be a orange coloured overlay, showing which area has contour lines and which doesnt, similar to how you can see )in OSMand what area is covered by the offline maps you've downloaded. Developers, please implement this, it would saev a lot of people a lot of confusion.

[Max1234Ita]

Hi Aidas,
I'm glad it works for you too! :-)

Sometimes we go crazy about strange problems... and the solution is the simplest ever. The hard part is to understand it!

Regards,
MAx

[Scott MacDougall]

Aidas Pusch <spadress@...> writes:

>
>
>
> There is a big update to this story! I have found what my issue was,
and while it was a simpler mistake on my side, there is still athing or
to that lead to this issue and should be changed or somehow made easier
to understand. It turns out, my theory that loaded maps are displayed in
bold was wrong. The problem essentially was that I, living in BC,
assumed I needed the SW map of BC. But, since no contour lines appeared
in my area, I assumed they weren't working. Instead they were working
bot only covered a apart of the map west of me, that I never looked at
in zoom level 11 or above (the only way to see contour lines). It was
even difficult to find out that this was the case, because I had to
browse the map in zoom 11 for a long time to find the part of the map

that had contour lines displayed.I attached a picture where you can see

where I lived (Red X), where the BC border is (orange line), and what
area the canada_british-columbia-SW.srtm.obf map covers (blue line). I
created this picture using the osmand app, marking the corners with
favorites, then taking multiple screenshots, merging them and putting
them on top of a screenshot of a BC map, but it would be nice to have an
easier way, to essentially see the same thing.  How could we find a
better solution to display which area contour lines are covering, above
level 11, so this can be avoided. It could just be a orange coloured
overlay, showing which area has contour lines and which doesnt, similar
to how you can see )in OSMand what area is covered by the offline maps
you've downloaded. Developers, please implement this, it would saev a
lot of people a lot of confusion. On Sunday, June 29, 2014 3:50:38 AM
UTC+2, Aidas Pusch wrote:So what can I/have to do to get a developers
attention with this issue? It is obvious that there is nothing I or the
other users who responded so far can do. I looked for a contact for
Osmand, you know email of a developer or something like that, but this
google group seems to be the only thing there is when it comes to
support and reporting issues.
>
>
>
>

Hey Aidas,

Thank-you very much for figuring this out; it's been driving me crazy
for the last few days, and then I found your posts :-). I also live in
Victoria and just presumed that my area was SW British Columbia, doh! I
did check some other areas of BC when I couldn't see the lines, but just
the 'lower mainland' and of course they didn't show up there either.
Actually, if you draw a line down the centre of the province we are east
of it. It is unfortunate that the contour lines maps don't show you a
preview of the area they cover, but I guess in a lot of other parts of
the world (smaller countries than Canada, ie. most of them, lol) it
isn't an issue...

Thanks again!

Scott