Without warning, MyTopo.com tiles are not available as of Monday, Nov 21st.
This will not affect your previous downloads, but new preview or downloads will refer you to Trimble's apps.
I have talked with MyTopo and have not resolved the situation. Since they have been bought up by Trimble, they would like to put other outdoor apps out of business and drive traffic to Trimble apps. They will not provide their maps even if you or I are willing to pay.
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UPDATE Nov 22nd
We are now offering USA Topo Maps, hosted by ArcGIS, as an alternative to MyTopo. Please use this source and you will probably like it.
Learn more about it here:
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=99cd5fbd98934028802b4f797c4b1732
If you were using MyTopo maps in Canada, there is already a good alternative: NRCan topo maps of Canada.
Comments
57 comments
Hopefully you can resolve this soon... OpenCycleMaps do not have near the details and zoom layers, and the old USGS maps are what made this App useful for me.
I just noted the issue too, got the email with the "update" actually and went to check it out.... Yes, I'm having the same issue, though it would appear the couple areas that I downloaded to my SD card are still viable... although without any further tiles. MyTopo wants you to "Buy" another app. in order to have access to the data... Great, a week after I pay $10 to have this for hunting over the next two weeks... the primary map source I was planning to use goes AWOL!
I guess I'll have to go though and see if this other suggestion works for my needs, but after getting this sorted out to use MyTopo it really sucks.
Lastly, I don't see a "choice" for maps suggesting "Microsoft Research Maps-> USGS Topo OR OpenCycleMaps....??? I do have the USGS Color Aerials & Small Tiles, but neither of those do a damn bit of good for TOPO sources. So all I have is "pictures" available to me, NO TOPO's what so ever but the three or four I downloaded when I paid for the app and was trying to figure out how it worked. Are these other sources going to be available "Shortly...???"
Just for the sake of mentioning it.... "Google" is the topo driver they are using for their "Free" online topo maps that they want you to use. SO.... that bares asking WTF... Android Phone, Google OS and Sale of this App through Market.... why is My Topo all of a sudden screwing us? Something Stinks in Denmark and its not the fish...
Jeremy, your idea sounds viable.... if we could actually pull the files off our SD Cards? Although I'm in Upstate NY, and don't have any plans for going to Idaho any time soon, but a means to share tiles in the mean time with others "could" be helpful to some I suppose.... but when I downloaded the app, there was not all that many "Pro" users as I recall... 10K isn't all that many users in the big scheme of things.
"Something stinks in Denmark" is just a phrase.... one of the Countries known for "stinky" fish, although I understand it is an aquired taste from Viking days.
I like Jeremy's idea about sharing files. I have most of western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico & most of Arizona.
I have a large portion of western Montana (the Bitterroot Mountains and Valley) to share with anyone who's interested. Just give me upload access to a server and we can start our own community map service. If any of you want them right away, send an e-mail to will@willandwendy.com, and I'll zip them up for you.
You recommend the use of OpenCycleMaps but that name does not appear under US/Canada map sources.
OpenCycle is under worldwide because it is worldwide.
USGS Topo and BW Aerial are under "Microsoft Research Maps".
To get to either one, you need to choose menu --. Maps then click the button that says "Choose Map Source".
All the tiles you need are under bcnav/tiles/mytopo. Organizing them is a different story. The file names are not user decipherable.
I suspected that "user decipherable" was going to be the operative issue here.... I've poked around in the 'OS files" on my phone before, sort of like looking into the C:/ drive on Windows.... "undecipherable" is the operative word, or Do Not Touch more factually. Not to mention you can name your "saved" tiles anything you want, that said I hope it still can be workable somehow. Either that or "someone" needs to figure out a way to make something happen; a topo app without functional topos isn't what I paid for a week ago.
I have the maps along the Continental Divide Trail for Colorado and New Mexico and am happy to share. Anyone have Wyoming and Montana?
jimboatpct@gmail.com
In some ways, the USGS Topo (under Microsoft Research Maps) is faster because the tiles are four times as big.
Hey Nathan, can you work with the free topos available here: http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/maplocator/(xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_48&uiarea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=%24ROOT)/.do
They appear to be .pdf files with an attached .xml file that has the geo info coded in them. I guess they call them GeoPDFs?
Yes, this does stink.*
USGS topo maps are supplied by an agency of the U.S. Government, and should be freely available to all U.S. taxpayers. I can understand having to buy printed versions, or even paying a little for the hosting of digital ones, but this stunt by Trimble is just rude, draconian, even. They could have at least given some warning. I will not by buying any Trimble apps, now or in the future.
Alternatively, I think that an open host of topo maps would be great, and could serve not only CritterMap software customers, but anyone who wants digital USGS topo maps. We should figure out a way to do that.
* Incidentally, the phrase "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and "Something Stinks in Denmark" is a reasonable modern-day translation, no matter where you are.
Have you looked at http://www.esri.com/data/free-data/index.html? Can you somehow implement this into the app?
>Seronac, its good to know where a phrase in the lexicon comes from... its been a Very Long Time since I read Hamlet, doubtless one of the places I came across it originally. Though the fermented fish the saying hearkens to originates well before Shakespeare's day. Thanks for the refresher....!
More on topic though, I've gone back through reviewed & dabbled with the Microsoft/USGS topo server and so far it does seem to work, though I have yet to confirm the data or the ages of the quadrangles I'm specifically interested in. I know some of them can be wildly out of date, especially in areas with rabid building/land speculation going on... So I'm going to hold judgment on that aspect for now, but the server is undoubtedly "slower" on the couple maps I did download this morning.... Appreciably so unfortunately, but not unworkable with my home Wi-Fi/Broadband connection. What it will be like on Verizon 3G out & about may be another matter entirely I'm afraid.
Yep, MyTopo gone bye-bye. The data on my Droid X2 seems to be primarily organized in numeric folders
which probably correspond to the map magnifications shown on the BC Nav menu bar, top right corner of display.
I only use mags 13-15 for best detail, nothing below that. All my maps are for central and northern New Mexico.
We could post notice of our map collections online and make contact offline to swap data.
Have any of you used "gMapMaker" for downloading desktop maps? It has a system of entering lat/long corners
as parameters for almost any size desired maps. BC Nav's system of dragging across the screen is pretty useless, such tiny maps,
lots of screen dragging. If we could get a mechanism similar to "gMapMaker", we could have all the USGS topos
we need downloaded much faster. I know, some are older data but your alternative (MyTopo) is now entirely gone.
So, choose, older data or none?
P.S. could someone tell me how to get the double line spacing out of this, back to single space?
About oldness: Mytopo is just as old as USGS Topo, although MyTopo did enhance them with forest service data that isn't quite as old. When our forest service overlays are ready, they will be closer to equal in oldness.
The GeoPDFs, however, are newer. Although it is unfortunate that the USGS has chosen an unfriendly proprietary format for it, we are working on the best way to crack that.
Esri maps are a top candidate. I almost included them already, but they changed their terms to 'no caching'. However, they are trying to sell their Android SDK, which claims it can do offline stuff. If I can resolve that, we may see them soon.
USGS Topo works OK for me, except that the maps are distorted - stretched horizontally.
On my PC I sometimes use topo maps from http://mapper.acme.com, and see that those maps still work, and still have the MyTopo watermark. Maybe BCN could get access to that data, somehow.
It would be great if you could set up a deal with DeLorme to sell their maps. I'd be willing to pay for them and they would fit my needs but I'm not sure they would offer enough detail for some users though.
All in all though, while I have to say this GPS set-up is "nice" but you should always be ready & able to kick back to Old School map & compass... Hard copy maps & a good compass never go down or have profit driven motivations restricting their access. The use of a phone app is fraught with problems in the long term, when it really counts a printed medium is the only way to go.
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