We just wanted to let you know we are still on track for a release in March (end March) prior to
Easter. Fingers crossed for 2 weeks time...
As of today, we just commenced recompiling the road data after a week of revisions to road data, trek route revisions, and a new extraction of the latest
Places database. We have done this task 4 times so far in preparation of the 2021 edition (Dec, Jan, Feb, and now March). Each time it takes 2 weeks for our servers to run the program that builds the (millions of) map tiles for each zoom level although the Feb compilation was the first time we had ever built the full Vector set to Level 18 - this was the most challenging part of the process to build
EOTopo 2021 as task we have been dreaming of for the past 2 years. It was such a relief to get to that stage and know this was a viable product for our customers this year.
The Dec, and Jan builds were
test runs to develop our Vector output protocols, and to review/revise the stylesheets so was more about the process and look than the content.
The Feb build was the first full dataset with the updated content completed through to level 18 which enabled us to look at the overall product and verify a finished product.
Since we knew we had the technology and process in place, we made the public announcement in February that
EOTopo 2021 was imminent and now we have just been manually analysing/error checking the final result. As a result, we made the decision to make further updates/changes so we have just spent the last week making significant changes to the road data.
So, we are now regnerating the mapset again. All it takes now is awaiting 2 weeks for the software to build the final mapset and then we can move to public release. Everything else is in place ready to release once the map generation is complete. So we will announce that when we can. The program to build the mapset takes approx. 1.5 - 2 weeks to run but it is not a finite thing - we just wait for it to progress through to completion. So please be patient - there is nothing we can do to speed it up but we believe we are on track to ensure you have the maps before
Easter.