[Xastir] Is there a way

[Jason Hitesman]

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Curt, WE7U wrote:

> On Thu, 24 Jun 2004, Jason Hitesman wrote:
>
>>To create local maps from Tiger (and Terraserver/Toposerver) data
>>easily?  Say for example to have xastir cache the maps used in "Map
>>Display Bookmarks" so the next time the map bookmark is pulled up the
>>map will be grabbed from a local cache instead of reloading the same map
>>from the internet again and again?
>
> Watch your ~/.xastir/tmp/ directory when you turn on Snapshots.
> Xastir will create a PNG snapshot and a .GEO file to go with it.  Is
> that good enough?  Move that set to your Xastir maps directory and
> you'll have it.

That's VERY helpfull!  Would it be possible to create a function in the
program to automate that?  Say a "Create new Map" option in the Maps
menu which asks for a map name and location then moves the current
snapshot over?  Or even better have it create a new snapshot without any
stations displayed then move it over?

> Yes, that's been asked for before.  My personal view of the online
> maps is that they're ok for occasional use, but not intended to be
> the do-all/be-all of mapping in Xastir.  For that you go to local
> maps, where you have a lot more control and speed.

I agree with the idea that internet maps should not be considered the
"do-all/be-all" but it seems like it would be nice to be able to more
easily use them to create local maps.  The internet maps in xastir were
something that really appealed to me as they made it VERY easy to get up
and running quickly compared to the other APRS software I tried
(espically since I haven't found a good source for local maps on the
other packages.)

>>Then again I haven't had much luck at all with local maps so there must
>>be something I'm missing.  I grabbed the pre-prepared TIGER maps
>>mentioned in the README.maps file and put them in my maps
>>directory...the directory I put them in shows up but the maps don't.
>
>
> Try reindexing all, or if you don't want to do that, "touch" the
> files so they have a new date and reindex new.  Make sure all the
> files and directories are readable by the user you're running Xastir
> as.

Did that but they still didn't show up :(  Just the directories.  The
permissions are all set as described in the README.maps file and the
files are there but only the directories show up.  The snapshot I moved
did show up so at least it's working for that much.

>>There are .dbf .prj .shp .shx files but they don't show up.
>
> You just need Shapelib for those.
>
>>I also
>>tried grabbing a DRG for my area and the .fgd and .tif files are there
>>but they don't show up in the map chooser either.
>
> You need libproj, libtiff, and libgeotiff for those.  You might try
> the example geotiff file I have on one of my sites to see if your
> libraries are correct.  You may have gotten a geotiff file that has
> been screwed with, and is therefore not in USGS DRG format.  Try
> these files:

I had to ditch the DRG I had grabbed - it probably was corrupted.  Once
I added it to the Linux box Xastir would segfault trying to reindex the
maps :(

>>I've compiled in everything except GDAL/OGR (and would have added that
>>except the remotesensing CSV server says there is no repository for gdal
>>when I follow the instructions in the INSTALL file :(
>
> They're working on the server.

That's what I figured.  I had to get most of my sources off wetnet
originally because the remotesensing server wasn't responding at all.

For the record here's what Xastir shows I have compiled in:

Built-in map types:
       gnis   USGS GNIS Datapoints
        map   APRSdos Maps
        map   WinAPRS/MacAPRS/X-APRS Maps
        pdb   PocketAPRS Maps

Support for these additional map types has been compiled in:
        geo   Image Map (ImageMagick library, many formats allowed)
        geo   URL (Internet maps via libcurl library)
        shp   ESRI Shapefile Maps (Shapelib library)
        tif   USGS DRG Geotiff Topographic Maps (libgeotiff/libproj)
        xpm   X Pixmap Maps (XPM library)

This is on my Linux box.  I've got the same setup on my Cygwin as well
but I'm pretty much sticking to the Linux now.  It ran over 12 hours
without crashing so the memory fix must have been what was causing my
problems!

Thanks for all the help getting started here.  Hope my questions aren't
too common or anything, so far the responses have been VERY helpfull.
- ----
Jason
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