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Locus Map - help desk Topic Question Locus Store and its content - maps, routes etc.

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Category Locus Store and its content - maps, routes etc.

Tags Bulgaria mountains map, OFRM Geotrade

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Subscribers 2

Votes 1

Detailed maps of Bulgaria?

Aleksandar Milutin Veljković shared this question ago

Answered

I wonder if you could expand the maps offered in Locus store by some very detailed and successful Bulgarian maps? Before all, the free https://map.bgmountains.org/ is a natural candidate to be included in Locus, especially due to the fact that it's free of charge. Another good map to include would be the OFRM Geotrade map, which is a commercial product, but I'm sure you can work out with the company a possibility of a Locus subscription.

The same question

Replies (4)

Petr Voldan ●

Hi,

thank you for the question. We've already been in touch with BGM maps. They wanted to generate offline vector maps but I don't know if there is any progress. I'll contact them to get more info.

OFRM Geotrade - would you please send me more info about this product? Publisher?

BTW: is there another map publisher of good tourist/cyclo maps Bulgaria, please?

Thanks, Petr

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Aleksandar Milutin Veljković ●

For the OFRM Geotrade map, the company site is https://karta.bg. They also have an online map on the website, and they sell versions for Garmin devices, as well as installation in Basecamp. So I suppose it shouldn't be a big problem for them to compile a map in a Locus compatible format, except if they, as a Garmin dealer in Bulgaria, don't want to make competition for the hardware they sell. BTW, they already have their own Android app, it's called Wild Maps. It's not bad (even has a 3D mode), but I'd still like to integrate that map in the Locus collection and not use a separate app, if anyhow possible.

I use both BG Mountains and OFRM Geotrade maps for exploring Bulgaria, but I tend to rely more on the OFRM map because the trails that are in the map are simply more relevant. BG Mountains has loads of material, but there you often stumble upon some deprecated trails, or trails that simply don't exist in reality, and also the categorization of trails tends to be somewhat inaccurate (which isn't entirely unusual for an opensource map with thousands of contributors).

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Petr Voldan ●

Hi,

I'm sorry for the late response. It really seems that the BGM publish the their maps as offline vector map. There is a response from BGM

map file can be downloaded via this link:

bgm.uni-plovdiv.net:40158/mapsforge/bgmountains.map

Styling and DEM files for the shader can be downloaded via:

http://bgm.uni-plovdiv.net:40158/mapsforge/BGMountains_mapsforge_allfiles.zip

Please note that an update of the .map is available every 3-rd day of the month. Styling and DEM .zip is being updated infrequently, typically semiannually.

Please test if maps are useful for you

Thanks

Petr

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Aleksandar Milutin Veljković ●

Thanks Petr! Just remind me in which folder do the DEM and Mapstyles subfolders go? The same one that holds the .map file, or some other?

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Petr Voldan ●

Please copy the DEM .hgt files into location /Locus/data/srtm

Thanks, Petr

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Aleksandar Milutin Veljković ●

Thanks, done! So I have now all the maps in Locus (except the karta.bg, which has it's own Android app, for now), and have been looking at my data collection and areas which I know relatively well to compare. The impressions are more or less similar like before. BG Mountains is by far the map with the most trails in it, but the accuracy problem (sometimes walkways are marked as driveways, sometimes the opposite, and there are loads of trails in it which actually don't exist in reality at all, probably deprecated and overgrown) makes it very unreliable for use. Although it might be useful in conjunction with other maps, as an extra overlay layer. BTW, it's also badly compiled, having the elevation lines only in a small quadrant of northwest Bulgaria.

The best solution at the moment actually seems to be the (OSM based) standard LoMap of Bulgaria, which has accurate and clearly depicted data, and can work great in overlay mode in conjunction with satellite imaging, giving you about the most landscape info that you can possibly get. If the karta.bg map becomes available in some format readable by Locus ok, and if not, using it on a secondary device paralel to Locus running on the main device is also not a bad solution (I usually use both phone and tablet while navigating through the wilderness, it's great to have two entirely different maps available at the same time).

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Petr Voldan ●

Thank you for the summary. Trail that don't exist is probably worse situation then missing trails in the map. As I think about it the best option is to improving/mapping for OSM :)

Thanks, Petr

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Petr Voldan ●

The Garmin maps are supported only partially in the Locus and the imported Garmin map wouldn't be ideal. Is the karta.bg really the best option for tourist/cyclo maps Bulgaria, please? I mean is there for example any other publisher of standard paper maps that publish also good tourist/cyclo maps?

Thanks, Petr

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Aleksandar Milutin Veljković ●

These are the only two high detail maps of Bulgaria that I know of. If you find some other, please let me know.

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