Topo Maps - explanation

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Pete99999

32 posts

Geek

#165698 17-Feb-2015 19:32

Hi

I have downloaded Backcountry Navigator to my phone and to my android tablet. On the Phone I have the paid version, on the tablet the free version. In both cases when I downloaded it I selected NZ Top Maps. In both cases I have found that some topo map detail is downloaded to the device and works off the internet but most detail is not downloaded. It seems to be very difficult to work ouk what has been downloaded and what has not been downloaded. I am particuallry interested in the topo maps for the Marlborough Sounds and the Wellington area

I see that there are sites like MapToaster who will provide you with NZ Topo Maps for $100-$200. There's also another site with a similar charging policy. Then there is LINZ who appear to charge nothing.

What I would like to do is download all the NZ topo maps so that I can use them offline easily. Failing that I would like to at least easily know which maps are downloaded and which are not.

I am very confused. Could somebody explain or point me to an explanation of

1. Why cannot I download all the topo maps from the free sites?
2. Should I purchase the Maptoaster set and be done with it?

If I have a complete set of maps, can I get BackCountry Navigator to use them or do I need some other software? I quite like the look and feel of BackCountry Navigatori

frankv

5680 posts

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#1241151 17-Feb-2015 21:53

1. You can download all NZ topo maps from LINZ. It's a *big* download though, especially at 1:50000 scale.
2. Probably not.

I don't know BackCountry Navigator. And it all depends on what format that will understand.

I had a look at their website, and they say you can use aerial photos, which implies it's a raster format. It also appears that it has a bunch of preconfigured "Map Sources", plus it has a 'beta' "Custom Map Source" feature.

Maybe you can tell it about LINZ's site as a "Custom Map Source" and it will load maps from there, maybe not. Maybe it will handle whatever format MapToaster offers, maybe not. But these are really questions to address to BackCountry Navigator's support.

Pete99999

32 posts

Geek

#1241242 18-Feb-2015 07:58

OK. I went to:

http://www.linz.govt.nz/land/maps/linz-topographic-maps/map-chooser

I guess I would download the maps as GeoTIFF - it looks like there are about 40 maps and each one might be 100 MB so a total of 4 GB

I guess the think to do would be to download one and play around with it

Thank you

rp1790

738 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1241252 18-Feb-2015 08:26

Pete99999: Hi

I have downloaded Backcountry Navigator to my phone and to my android tablet. On the Phone I have the paid version, on the tablet the free version. In both cases when I downloaded it I selected NZ Top Maps. In both cases I have found that some topo map detail is downloaded to the device and works off the internet but most detail is not downloaded. It seems to be very difficult to work ouk what has been downloaded and what has not been downloaded. I am particuallry interested in the topo maps for the Marlborough Sounds and the Wellington area

I see that there are sites like MapToaster who will provide you with NZ Topo Maps for $100-$200. There's also another site with a similar charging policy. Then there is LINZ who appear to charge nothing.

What I would like to do is download all the NZ topo maps so that I can use them offline easily. Failing that I would like to at least easily know which maps are downloaded and which are not.

I am very confused. Could somebody explain or point me to an explanation of

1. Why cannot I download all the topo maps from the free sites?
2. Should I purchase the Maptoaster set and be done with it?

If I have a complete set of maps, can I get BackCountry Navigator to use them or do I need some other software? I quite like the look and feel of BackCountry Navigatori

Been through this exercise, and using these sort of programs is a pain to get the "free" maps. Very big downloads and you're never 100% certain it's actually downloaded or cached. What I would strongly recommend is Viewranger, you can buy the premium version of NZ Topos and download them so you are 100% offline for about $30-$40NZD (I think). These are the LINZ NZ Topos and Viewranger is what a lot of SAR teams use...it's very good.

JessieB

37 posts

Geek

#1241253 18-Feb-2015 08:26

What about trying a different app? On the iPhone I use iHikeGPSNZ (cost about $10) and it then easily allows the downloading of selective maps from LINZ, for free. They do not consume much space at all.

Pete99999

32 posts

Geek

#1259466 14-Mar-2015 19:59

Thanks I have downloaded ViewRanger. The maps are 3.4 Gb. I'm just waiting for a moment to test it out.

gregmcc

2147 posts

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#1259550 15-Mar-2015 06:24

Buy yourself a cheapie Garmin GPS and you can download Topo and autorouting maps for free from nzopengps.org

no worries about data charges, no big drain on your phone with constant gps use.

Mattnzl

281 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1259554 15-Mar-2015 07:57

Locus is another good free option: http://www.locusmap.eu/?lang=en
It grabs free maps from http://www.nztopomaps.com/ though you are limited to 500 tiles per day, so you can't just grab the whole of NZ in one go but 500 tiles easily covers the areas I want to visit at 1:50000 - does require forward planning though to get the area first, which viewranger full NZ maps avoids.

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Pete99999

32 posts

Geek

#1259563 15-Mar-2015 08:40

Thanks, I did not know that the site existed, and I've looked at it.. The forum is azwesome. It still seems to assume however quite a high level of knowledge. I'll keep reading. For kayaking, do you think I need an electronic compass which I see is the Etrex 30?

gregmcc

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#1259616 15-Mar-2015 11:38

Pete99999: Thanks, I did not know that the site existed, and I've looked at it.. The forum is azwesome. It still seems to assume however quite a high level of knowledge. I'll keep reading. For kayaking, do you think I need an electronic compass which I see is the Etrex 30?

Can't say i've seen a GPSr without an electronic compass, ideally a 3 axis electronic compass is better as it doesn't rely on you have to hold the GPS flat.

It's a piece of cake to install topo maps, simply a matter of downloading from the website, run the installer, run mapsource (Garmin's software) select the map set, highlight the blocks you want to use (or simply the whole country) then send it to the GPS, done!

TinyTim

1042 posts

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#1259645 15-Mar-2015 13:44

Pete99999: Thanks, I did not know that the site existed, and I've looked at it.. The forum is azwesome. It still seems to assume however quite a high level of knowledge. I'll keep reading. For kayaking, do you think I need an electronic compass which I see is the Etrex 30?

The models without the compass (e.g. Etrex 10 and 20) only give you a direction if you're moving (i.e. from GPS). It's a pain. But they're a lot cheaper than the 30!

frankv

5680 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1259870 15-Mar-2015 21:29

Pete99999: Thanks, I did not know that the site existed, and I've looked at it.. The forum is azwesome. It still seems to assume however quite a high level of knowledge. I'll keep reading. For kayaking, do you think I need an electronic compass which I see is the Etrex 30?

What kind of kayaking? The only situation I can think where a compass might be useful to a kayaker would be open-water. In which case Topo maps wouldn't be useful.

Pete99999

32 posts

Geek

#1259884 15-Mar-2015 21:49

Well, the thing is that one might move from say the Marlborough Sounds, where topo is very useful to say a crossing to an more remote island where we might be out of the sight of land at least for a while

Kev49

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1259926 15-Mar-2015 22:36

I've got BackCountry Navigator on an S4 and S5.
I've downloaded all of NZ Topo Maps on each of them. It takes quite a while to download the whole country as you seem to have to select small areas at a time to download. The Marlborough Sounds wouldn't take long at all. Obviously make sure you do this over WiFi as the total download can be quite large. It'll calculate the size of each download for you before you have to start the download.
NZ Topo Maps were one of the map source options in the software and didn't cost anything to download.
The developer is pretty active and updates the software regularly. I'm pretty happy with it. It's worth persevering as it's pretty straight forward when you get the hang of it.

wooda2

35 posts

Geek

#1288120 20-Apr-2015 21:47

You can use Mobile Atlas Creator to make maps for Back Country Navigator and other software. Numerous mapsources including NZ Topo, and you can make maps for small or large areas. I used BCN for a while and it worked really well. Only changed to Oziexplorer cos you can use it on the pc too. MOBAC makes maps for Ozi as well.