Looking for maps



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Todd_run

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Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second part
contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore the
second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).

I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or location
of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let me know! You
can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.

(Okay, here's where the self-promotion begins!) The reason I want these is for a free software
program that I've written. The program allows you to load a map, set the scale, and measure routes.
I've been using it with maps that I've downloaded from Yahoo maps and a map that I got permission to
use from an organization in Illinois.

I'm working on the next version of the program which will allow you to save routes. I want to demo
this by having various races routes - having actual races, instead of random maps and routes seems
to make more sense. It will also help test and verify the accuracy of the programs ability to
measure distances.

(Here's where the self-promotion gets really thick - parental discretion is advised). The name of
the program is Route Ruler. Again, this is a free program - I'm not trying to make money off of
this. If you want more information (including an explanation of why it's a free program), go to
http://routeruler.sourceforge.net. You can download the program for free.

If you are a race director, or know one, and have a scale map of an event, please let me know
(again: todd_run at yahoo dot com). If you see a map online, let me know and I'll contact the event
coordinator to get permission to use it.

If you do happen to take a look at Route Ruler and have any suggestions, I'm always looking for ways
to improve it. While I've written this for personal use, it seems a waste to not share it with
others, and making improvements will make using the program more enjoyable for me as well.

Thanks in advance, and sorry about the self-promotion!

Todd todd_run at yahoo dot com
 
Todd,

TopoUSA is pretty good for these purposes, so long as the races are in the USofA.

It provides, distances, profiles, 3-D rendering, grade info, elevation gain, distance spent
climbing, etc.

US$99.99

REgards, Chas.

On 26 Jun 2003 08:31:11 -0700, [email protected] (Todd_run) wrote:

>Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second part
>contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore the
>second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).
>
>I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or location
>of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let me know!
>You can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.
>
>(Okay, here's where the self-promotion begins!) The reason I want these is for a free software
>program that I've written. The program allows you to load a map, set the scale, and measure routes.
>I've been using it with maps that I've downloaded from Yahoo maps and a map that I got permission
>to use from an organization in Illinois.
>
>I'm working on the next version of the program which will allow you to save routes. I want to demo
>this by having various races routes - having actual races, instead of random maps and routes seems
>to make more sense. It will also help test and verify the accuracy of the programs ability to
>measure distances.
>
>(Here's where the self-promotion gets really thick - parental discretion is advised). The name of
>the program is Route Ruler. Again, this is a free program - I'm not trying to make money off of
>this. If you want more information (including an explanation of why it's a free program), go to
>http://routeruler.sourceforge.net. You can download the program for free.
>
>If you are a race director, or know one, and have a scale map of an event, please let me know
>(again: todd_run at yahoo dot com). If you see a map online, let me know and I'll contact the event
>coordinator to get permission to use it.
>
>If you do happen to take a look at Route Ruler and have any suggestions, I'm always looking for
>ways to improve it. While I've written this for personal use, it seems a waste to not share it with
>others, and making improvements will make using the program more enjoyable for me as well.
>
>Thanks in advance, and sorry about the self-promotion!
>
>Todd todd_run at yahoo dot com
 
"Todd_run" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second part
> contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore the
> second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).
>
> I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or
> location of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let
> me know! You can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.

Todd,

While training for a marathon earlier this year, I was planning a trip out of town and needed to
maintain my training on an unknown course. I used Terraserver http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ to
bring up satellite images of that location that I had planned to run. I zoomed to the highest
available resolution then saved the image with a screenshot or a save as...command. The advantage of
a screenshot is that it will include the graphical scale at the bottom of the image. I then compiled
the image sections into one large image (I prefer Photoshop for this process).

The only drawback is that there may be portions of the route that are obscured by foliage. You can
always switch to the USGS topo view but the map may be 15 years or more older than the photos.

I used Autocad to overlay and scale the compiled image into a drawing. I then drew a continuous
line along a proposed route. The program allows the properties of the line to be viewed as a
total length.

This technique also allows you to measure a course along a trail or path that is not accessible by
car to measure distance.

I will try your program with the images I already have to see how it "measures up" ;-). Is there any
limit to the image size/resolution?

Mike
 
"Mike R." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> "Todd_run" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second
> > part contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore
> > the second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).
> >
> > I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or
> > location of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let
> > me know! You can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.
>
> Todd,
>
> While training for a marathon earlier this year, I was planning a trip out of town and needed to
> maintain my training on an unknown course. I used Terraserver http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ to
> bring up satellite images of that location that I had planned to run. I zoomed to the highest
> available resolution then saved the image with a screenshot or a save as...command. The advantage
> of a screenshot is that it will include the graphical scale at the bottom of the image. I then
> compiled the image sections into one large image (I prefer Photoshop for this process).
>
> The only drawback is that there may be portions of the route that are obscured by foliage. You can
> always switch to the USGS topo view but the map may be 15 years or more older than the photos.
>
> I used Autocad to overlay and scale the compiled image into a drawing. I then drew a continuous
> line along a proposed route. The program allows the properties of the line to be viewed as a
> total length.
>
> This technique also allows you to measure a course along a trail or path that is not accessible by
> car to measure distance.
>
> I will try your program with the images I already have to see how it "measures up" ;-). Is there
> any limit to the image size/resolution?
>
> Mike

Mike,

Sounds like we both did the exact same thing to measure running routes. Only difference is I use
Microstation instead of AutoCAD.

Tim (CAD Jockey)
 
"Mike R." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> "Todd_run" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second
> > part contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore
> > the second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).
> >
> > I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or
> > location of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let
> > me know! You can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.
>
> Todd,
>
> While training for a marathon earlier this year, I was planning a trip out of town and needed to
> maintain my training on an unknown course. I used Terraserver http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ to
> bring up satellite images of that location that I had planned to run. I zoomed to the highest
> available resolution then saved the image with a screenshot or a save as...command. The advantage
> of a screenshot is that it will include the graphical scale at the bottom of the image. I then
> compiled the image sections into one large image (I prefer Photoshop for this process).
>
> The only drawback is that there may be portions of the route that are obscured by foliage. You can
> always switch to the USGS topo view but the map may be 15 years or more older than the photos.
>
> I used Autocad to overlay and scale the compiled image into a drawing. I then drew a continuous
> line along a proposed route. The program allows the properties of the line to be viewed as a
> total length.
>
> This technique also allows you to measure a course along a trail or path that is not accessible by
> car to measure distance.
>
> I will try your program with the images I already have to see how it "measures up" ;-). Is there
> any limit to the image size/resolution?

There is no limit, however the only formats that I know work are gif, jpeg and png. Right now, Route
Ruler will do all the measurements for you - you just provide the image and the set the scale. It
also allows viewing the distance in multiple scales (ie., Meters and Miles simultaneously). Sorry,
here I go with the shameless self-promotion again.

Eventually, I'd like to automate the entire process that you mention above so that Route Ruler takes
care of downloading, including grabbing multiple images and tiling them together. Of course, it will
be quite a while before I include this functionality since I program this in my spare time which is
pretty limited.

Mike, if the map you have works, and you'd like to send me a screen shot of it loaded in Route Ruler
(with a Route drawn on it?), I can put it on the web site. Thanks for your feedback!

>
> Mike
 
On 26 Jun 2003 08:31:11 -0700, [email protected] (Todd_run) wrote:

>Fair warning: While the first part of this post is a sincere attempt to seek help, the second part
>contains shameless self-promotion. If you're offended by that sort of thing, please ignore the
>second part of this post (I'll warn you before it starts!).
>
>I'm looking for electronic maps of races. The maps needs to be to scale, but the length or location
>of the race is not important. If you have seen, or see any such maps online, please let me know!
>You can email me at todd_run at yahoo dot com.
>
>(Okay, here's where the self-promotion begins!) The reason I want these is for a free software
>program that I've written. The program allows you to load a map, set the scale, and measure routes.
>I've been using it with maps that I've downloaded from Yahoo maps and a map that I got permission
>to use from an organization in Illinois.
>
>I'm working on the next version of the program which will allow you to save routes. I want to demo
>this by having various races routes - having actual races, instead of random maps and routes seems
>to make more sense. It will also help test and verify the accuracy of the programs ability to
>measure distances.
>
>(Here's where the self-promotion gets really thick - parental discretion is advised). The name of
>the program is Route Ruler. Again, this is a free program - I'm not trying to make money off of
>this. If you want more information (including an explanation of why it's a free program), go to
>http://routeruler.sourceforge.net. You can download the program for free.
>
>If you are a race director, or know one, and have a scale map of an event, please let me know
>(again: todd_run at yahoo dot com). If you see a map online, let me know and I'll contact the event
>coordinator to get permission to use it.
>
>If you do happen to take a look at Route Ruler and have any suggestions, I'm always looking for
>ways to improve it. While I've written this for personal use, it seems a waste to not share it with
>others, and making improvements will make using the program more enjoyable for me as well.
>
>Thanks in advance, and sorry about the self-promotion!
>
>Todd todd_run at yahoo dot com

Have you ever looked at Microsoft Streets & Maps? I use it to map out bike routes. Works
pretty slick.

~Matt
 
MJuric wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

>
> Have you ever looked at Microsoft Streets & Maps? I use it to map out bike routes. Works
> pretty slick.
>
> ~Matt

Thanks Matt, but the idea is to make an Open Source (free) option.
 
On 30 Jun 2003 16:57:35 -0700, [email protected] (Todd_run) wrote:

>MJuric wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>
>> Have you ever looked at Microsoft Streets & Maps? I use it to map out bike routes. Works
>> pretty slick.
>>
>> ~Matt
>
>
>Thanks Matt, but the idea is to make an Open Source (free) option.

I understand. However I was thinking that you could use Microsoft to create the maps you
wanted adn then incorporate the maps into your software. You wouldn't be using the software
in yours, just the product product produced by Microsofts product. Of course I coudl be
missing what you are looking for.

~Matt
 
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