PDA TileManager Documentation
This is a short manual for PDA TileManager which explains the basic steps for using it.
Settings
First you should define the basic settings for PDA TileManager. Go to Menu->Settings to open the settings screen shown below:
The following settings are available:
| Base Path: | This is the base path for downloading the tiles. If you use Run.GPS then this would be something like\SD-Karte\My Documents\Run.GPS\map_images. Do not append a backslash. The easiest way would be to select the path with the Select Button. |
| Maps.xml File: | Run.GPS uses a maps.xml file for configuring the different map sources. If you are using Run.GPS you should use its maps.xml configuration file. Search for it in \SD-Karte\My Documents\Run.GPS\. PDA Tilemanager ships with a simple maps.xml file if you don't have Run.GPS. For more information about the structure of the maps.xml file see below. |
| RunGPS Trainings Path: | If you use Run.GPS you can select the directory for your trainings here. This path is normally something like \SD-Karte\My Documents\Run.GPS\users\uv-user\. When you have selected this path correctly you can load a track directly from a Run.GPS training without the need to export it first as a GPX file. |
| Fuzzy: | If a trackpoint of your gpx file is near the edge of an OpenStreetMap tile then PDA TileManager can download the nearby tile. With this value you can control the behavior of this function. A value of 0 disables the function totally. The maximum value of 1 will additionally download all tiles that lie around a tile with a trackpoint on it. A value of 0.5 means if the trackpoint lies left of the center of the original tile then the tile left from it will be downloaded, too. If you use the "Tile Preview" (see below) you will better see what this option will do. A good value is 0.4 |
| Optimize Tracks: | Here you can enable or disable trackpoint optimization. The value you enter here is the minimum distance between two trackpoints which will be used for calculations. Trackpoints which lie closer together are discarded while loading the gpx file or a Run.GPS training track. The value depends on the maximum zoomlevel you want to download. If your maximum zoomlevel is 16 than values about 300-400 are a good choice. If you want to download up to zoomlevel 17 then you should half this value. If you want to download only up to zoomlevel 15 you can double this value It is highly recommended to leave this option enabled because it speeds up operation of the program significally. Be aware that the optimization is done while loading the gpx file or while loading a Run.GPS training. |
maps.xml
The maps.xml file consists of one or more <mapSource> elements. Each <mapSource> element should have the following sub elements:
| <name> | A name to identify the configuration |
| <dirname> | The subdir name for the tiles. This subdir is added to the base path. |
| <copyright> | This is a copyright text and is not used by PDA Tilemanager. |
| <minZoom> | The minimum zoomlevel for this configuration. |
| <maxZoom> | The maximum zoomlevel for this configuration. |
| <urlPattern> | A URL which is used for downloading the tiles. The variable $z is replaced by the zoomlevel. The variables $x and $y are replaced by the tile coordinate. |
Main Screen
On the main screen you can choose the action to be performed. This is done by just selecting a tab. You can choose from one of the following actions:
GPX
On this tab you can choose the gpx file for which you want to download the OpenStreetMap tiles. Just press "Open GPX file" and choose the file.
| File: | The filename of the current file |
| TrackPts: | The number of trackpoints found in the gpx file |
| Optimized: | The number of trackpoints after optimization |
| WayPts: | The number of waypoints found in the gpx file |
Area
On this tab you can manually enter the coordinates of a surrounding bounding box of the area you want to download.
| Min Latitude: | The minimum latitude of the bounding box. |
| Max Latitude: | The maximum latitude of the bounding box. |
| Min Longitude: | The minimum longitude of the bounding box. |
| Max Longitude: | The maximum longitude of the bounding box. |
If you load a GPX file or a Run.GPS training then the fields on the area tab are updated to a bounding box around the track.
Circle
On this tab you can enter a center point and a radius of a circular area you want to download.
| Latitude: | The latitude of the center of the circle | Longitude: | The longitude of the center of the circle |
| Radius: | The radius of the circle in meters. |
If you load a GPX file or a Run.GPS training then the fields on the circle tab are updated so the circle will nearly contain the track. This is not calulated exactly but is somehow guessed for speed reasons. So its possible that the track is not completely surrounded by the circle.
Update
On this tab you can enter a date. All tiles on storage media which are older than this date will be selected for download.
| Date: | Tiles with a last modification date older than this date will be selected for updating. | Age: | Tiles older than this amount of days will be selected for updating. This field is connected to the above date field so if you change one, the value of the other changes to the corresponding value automatically. |
The update fuction is useful for updating older tiles on your storage media. Since the OSM data changes quite fast you should update your tiles from time to time.
Run.GPS
On top of this tab you can select a month for which the Run.GPS trainings should be displayed. Be aware that you have choosen the correct path for the trainings in the settings. Just choose a training in the list and press Load to load the track of the training.
| Line below Load button: | The currently loaded training. |
| TrkPts: | The number of trackpoints found in the training track |
| Opt: | The number of trackpoints after optimization |
Press "Continue" to go to the download options screen.
Download Options
Here you can set the following options:
| Target | Here you can select a configuration from the maps.xml file. |
| Path | This is the path where all your files will be downloaded to. It is a combination of the basepath in the settings and the path from the maps.xml file. You can change it here to download to another location. |
| URL | This is the URL which will be used for download. It is configured in the maps.xml file. You can make changes to it here. $z will be replaced with the zoomlevel, $x and $y with the tile coordinates. |
| MinZoom | Minimum zoomlevel you want to download |
| MaxZoom | Maximum zoomlevel you want to download |
| Mode | The mode for the analyze process: Normal: All tiles will be found. Only New Tiles: Only new tiles will be found. This is a little bit faster as Normal especially when you have already many tiles on disk. |
Press "Download" to create the tile list and go to the download page. You can press "Cancel" to go back to the main screen or to cancel the analyse process:
Download List
This view shows the list of all tiles to be downloaded. You can unmark a row if you don't want to download a specific zoomlevel. The total number of tiles and the number of new tiles is displayed. If you tap and hold on a row, a context menu opens whith a "Show Tiles" option. If you choose this, you will get to the "Tiles Preview Screen" explained below.
the "++" button selects all rows, the "--" button deselects all rows.
You can choose if you want to download all tiles or only new tiles.
If you press "Download" the download process begins:
After the download is complete (or you canceled the download) a statistics page is shown which will tell you about the number of files downloaded, how much that was in kilobytes and how fast it was. If there were any errors, a list is shown on this page with the information of how often the error occured, the error number and a short description of the error:
Tiles Preview
In this view you get a graphical preview of what tiles will be downloaded.
You can reach the preview page if you tap and hold on a row on the download list and select the Show Tiles context menu.
Blue tiles are new tiles that aren't already on disk. Green tiles have been downloaded before and are already found on disk.
Dark color means that the track goes directly over this tile. A bright color means that the tile was added by the fuzzy logic.
With the "Toggle Track" menu you can display or hide the track.
If you have selected the update tab on the main screen then the colors represent the age of the tile found on storage media. The oldest tiles found are completely red. Tiles downloaded today are green. All tiles downloaded between the oldest tile date and today are colored in a gradient from green over yellow to red.
MapView
From the main screen you can select Menu->MapView to open the MapViewer. With the MapViewer you can show your downloaded tiles and browse around the map.
Items in the MapViewer:
You can drag the map with your finger or stylus around.
With [+] and [-] buttons you can change the zoomlevel of the maptiles. The current zoomlevel is shown near the [+] button at the bottom of the screen.
In the options menu you can activate your GPS-Hardware. PDATileManager uses the Windows Intermediate GPS driver which is available with WM5 and above. If the Option "Center to GPS" is activated the Display is centered to the current GPS position.
If GPS is enabled the upper right corner shows the satellites in use, the satellites currently visible and the status of the GPS fix (red=no fix, yellow=2D fix, green=3D fix).
With Options->Scale you can scale the tiles from 10% up to 200%. Be aware that if you use a very low scale value dragging around the map can be slow because PDATileManager has to load many tiles to create the whole map.
If you press the [>] button, a small panel opens which shows the current GPS location. You can select which mapsource should be displayed, too.