Usability of map offset.

Alexey shared this question ago

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In my cases sometimes I need to make map offset and/or overlay offset. It is really hard to make it right with setting offset as a distance units. Please make it more usable. It can be + and - buttons with according to axis or slide the overlay by a finger. The main problem is that I need to set offset, press set and then repeat this action until it's done. It is really hard to figure out the offset by this method. It will be more usable if map or overlay will move in a real time, not after press SET. It takes a lot of taps to do this in a current way. Or it can be a method in which I set point on a map, set point on an overlay and then superimpose overlay on the map by overlapping this points.

Or I use some button to set a point under crosshair then I move map to set crosshair on the same point of overlay and it shows distance in units I need to set.

AFAIR there is a way to use a picture as overlay by settings points of bindings.

Thanks a lot.

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Menion ●

Hello Alexey,

this function is really really old and to be true, I was already thinking many times to completely remove it. So I have to ask, what is your use-case, why do you want/need to use this function?

Jiří M. aka Menion

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Alexey ●

Thank you a lot for paying attention to my question.

I am using Locus Pro as a main program in my hobby metal detecting. And a lot of other guys I know use it too for this purpose.

I am using an old maps. I binded each as a one big picture. Maps are scanned with all their defects as seams, folds and inaccuracies. For example I have a map made in 18 century. They are topographic but needs to be offseted in according with a real circumstances. Some of inaccuracies caused by binding software (I use Global Mapper). I use static objects like churches, ravines as points of bindings. And this can cause map deformations.

After Map binded with GM I export it in a third party program (Sas Planet) as tiles. Than I export it to sqldb and import to Locus Pro. It is really hard to correct map after described subsequence of operations.

Other case. When I am in place of interest I can detect that an old road was 100 m far from it's map location. But problem is I can't see this road in a forest. It was not in use for a hundred years. So I need to offset map and than I can make route and use voice guidance.

I always recommend Locus Pro as the best software of its kind.

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Menion ●

Hello Alexey,

hmm thanks for detailed description. Do you have also some original raster image in JPEG or PNG format? If so, maybe you should give a try to function called "On board calibrator". This allows calibrating such image (map) directly in the Locus Map. The map is then split into tiles and saved as KMZ file in Locus/mapItems directory. So you do not need any 3rd party app and such KMZ map is then usable in many other apps, like Google Earth for example.

Anyway, your use case makes sense. To be true, I hope there will be an easy alternative solution, because as I wrote before, "Map offset" usability is really bad, I know. But it's usefulness is quite low and based on our stats, it belongs (make sense) to one of the least used features. So the motivation to spend time on improvements is really really low. Sorry to write this and thanks for understanding.

Jiří M. aka Menion

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Alexey ●

I know about function "onboard calibrator" and I use it instead of offset. I just take a screenshot of my phone and than use it. But problem is I don't have original pictures (I can find it) but they can be very big such as 1 Gb or maybe bigger. That third party software I use on my PC as a main program to research maps. It allows fast switching between any kind of online maps and I have a lot of rare maps in it.

Ok I undetstood. Nobody use this function and there is no need to support it in a future.

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Menion ●

Ah understand. Right, on-board calibrator is made rather for smaller maps or took photos directly by the device.

"Nobody uses it", I would rather say it is used rarely. This function was made maybe 8 years ago mainly for the China users, where Google Maps had some weird random offsets, and users needed this function to fix it manually. As I see in starts, for the last 30 days, for example, "track recording was used by 150k users and "Map offset" by 1.4k (I've expected less to be true). Creating a more user-friendly UI with some directly visible effect on the map etc. is maybe a day of work and unfortunately, I do not have it right now. Thanks again for understanding.

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