EOTopo 2023 Preview Avail Now

Thanks Wayne but possibly can't help you out with the request. Once we get the map ready for release to the app it will be ready for all.

Brilliant, thanks. I'll fix that today. Keep it coming :)
MM

PS EDIT: Stephen, do you have recent first hand knowledge of the Moonamang Rd extent of the tar north? From the satellite maps it appears only to go to Marralum? The extension of seal also seems to take a slight deviation, and is called Legune Rd from there but the unsealed part exists too. The new tar part didn't exist on OSM but I've added it to our own roads database for appearance in EOTopo 2023.

From Kununurra, we only went a few kilometres into the NT, then turned back, but the bitumen kept on going into the distance.

One of the other roads I can not compared is the loop road around Litchfield.

I was using your 144k and the Hema 150k last year, a new bridge had been built and a new road has been built for the new bridge.

My moving maps were showing the new road well off from what we were using.

I will dig out my track log and email it to you so you can overlay on your new map to see if you have that new section.

Cheers

Ok sure, but the raster 144K maps were discontinued long ago so would be many editions behind what is being used in the Traveller app. So I would expect the 144K map you had is possibly not representative of the dataset we have been using for a good few years with EOTopo 2021. EOTopo 2021 is a 2K Topo scale - much more zoom/detail than 144K or 150K so any errors in alignments are very obvious.

So yes, if you upload the Track Log it you can select the EOTopo 2021 base map so you can see if your tracking followed that alignment and if there is anything there to adjust.

Hi Stephen,
Regarding Heading Rd north of Renmark, we are using the data for that from OSM. I checked the tags in OSM on this road and as you say it reflects "paved" to the lookout, then "compacted" from there to the river. In our stylesheet we treat "compacted" the same as "paved" which we represent with a solid line. However if OSM had this road surface listed as "gravel" or "unpaved" it would appear on our maps as a broken line.

The road surface type definitions are many and it depends on the stylesheet used by the publisher how they are treated on the map. We treat compacted, paved, concrete, asphalt, cobblestone, etc. all as a solid line as it indicates that the road surface has been improved and is modified and is not a raw, natural untreated road surface. Those surfaces are displayed with a broken line. eg. gravel, dirt, sand, grass, and unpaved. The majority of road surface types in the data sets are defined as simply "paved" or "unpaved" but occasionally you get one that has a particular definition like "compacted". Its all in how we treat that definition in our stylesheet.

I am a contributor to OSM so if you have local knowledge and think that compacted section should be redefined to gravel or unpaved I can do that.

I noticed that that section of road is OSM also has a different name - and could be an error? The data shows it changes name at the lookout from Heading Road to Harding road, and the Lookout is labelled as Hardings Lookout..... is this a data error? If so and you have local knowledge you can contribute this change to OSM yourself but in fact, I am a registered contributor and can do that if you can verify this for me.

As far as I can remember, it was signposted “Headings Cliff Road”

As for the Lookout, it is definitely “Headings Cliff Lookout” named in honour of the Heading family that donated the land to be used as the lookout.

I now see what you are referring to with the road styles, but novice like me and if it was the first time I saw the map, I would have related the solid red line as all bitumen, as there is no indication that the road will go from bitumen to dirt from the lookout.

I have also sent you an email with my track file for the Litchfield section I was talking about.

Cheers.

Thanks for the reply Stephen,
Yes I had my suspicions with the naming I will sort that. I will fix it at the data source.
As for the road styling - the surface tag is compacted and this surface type is a considered "sealed" but let me know if this is incorrect and if the surface is actually better tagged as dirt or gravel then I can fix that at the source which would be reflected in our styling output and would change it on EOTopo 2023. EDIT to ADD: I've decided to change the source as discussed to "unpaved". Naming also fixed.

I did get your email with the Litchfield section, and can happily confirm this is already correct in EOTopo 2023.

Appreciate the interest, if you have any more please continue to let us know.
Regards Michelle

Michelle,

From what I’ve read elsewhere, the bitumen road from Kununurra mentioned above, does in fact go right to Legune Station.
Linda & I travelled it as far as the Keep River bridge, an impressive structure, back in May 2022.

Other research indicated the bitumen was to extend to a prawn farm situated past Legune, but as this enterprise has been deemed to be not financially viable, am not sure if further work was carried out?

Bob

Not at all too late - we can change anything but I'd like to check what you're viewing first. Can you give me an area for example that you're looking at? I know the online output display on the website is a little different to the end product that is downloaded in the app but David will know how to interpret that based on looking at your example. Just tell me the name of the area/location and we'll check it out. Thanks.

Lake Torrens/Frome SA for example Michelle.

But I don't want to impose my preferences on others, was more a "testing the waters" (or not) comment.

To be consistently accurate all salt lakes would need a tag. Many do obviously have (plenty of) water in them at times.

Salt Lakes form part of the "non-perennial" water bodies data. The stylesheet applies a light blue colour to this data element currently, similar to how it was in the 2021 edition. What you see in terms of tags and outlines, shading and labels varies based on the zoom level. I don't see any issue this end, but please feel welcome to take a screen shot as it might be different on your end (for whatever reason) and send to me via the suggested email I gave at the top of this thread. Thanks. MM

It's light blue here? Not "bright" blue?

Nice that the copy/paste worked for images on the forum. Three thumbs up from me. Or was that just because it was an 'internal' action?

Btw there is a large blue polygon near Lake Wallace in western NSW (SA border region) which looks like an artefact.

Could be device specific. When I wrote bright I meant the shade was quite strong especially for that category, approaching (maybe 80% of) the blue bands for forum replies.

This particular lake is a perennial one, so unlike Lake Frome it has a slightly different blue (darker). But ah yes we've just review that is indeed some sort of error, an extra data feature that shouldn't be there. Fixed thanks. If you find any more like that let us know.

Also, Lake Frome is also a reserve so there are 2 data elements here being green for parks/reserve layer and blue for the water body layer so could be slightly altering your eye's perception of it with green/blue overlayed - if you zoom back out to level 5 through to 6 Lake Frome will only show the parks/reserve layer (green), as water bodies don't start appearing until level 7. And 2 types of blue for the perennial, non-perennial. In the app, you can see the legend for all elements by going to the map layers tool - and selecting the Dynamic Legend, - then when you click any area of the map, it will show all data layers being represented at that specific spot you have clicked.

Here's EOTopo 2021 in the app, with dynamic legend ON and clicking the blue area showing Lake Frome. In this map, the data was Native Title and non perennial. Native title is represented in a pale hue of brown/yellow/tan.



I can't give you a screen shot of EOTopo 2023 with the dynamic legend as I don't have a working version of the map in the Traveller app yet. But I can see that the data has changed and Lake Frome is now a Reserve/Non-Perennial. Gets complicated but thanks for taking a look and taking the time to give feedback. Cheers MM

Hi Guys,

Just my “two cents worth” is it possible to use a light pink with white “dashed” horizontal lines across it to signify “salt” lakes?

Macca.

Yep same today.. was working yesterday. Today I get the same as you.

Guys,

Try it now - I was updating the style sheet. You may need to clear some browser cache as I typically do not use a cache busting rendering function for this as it does not change much (except for now).

David

Hi David, I tried again, (a bit after 2pm) unfortunately with the same result. Blue Screen when trying the 2023 preview

In one browser (Brave) I cleared the cache & tried again , but this time even the current EOTopo wouldn't load properly. All I got was this.



but got the normal EOTopo in Firefox in which I hadn't cleared the cache



???

I see by your screen shot that you are only zoomed in to 4.1 Try zooming in to 8.1 and the differen layers should start to appear.

Thanks Dick, I'd tried that & it only enlarged what you can see in my first screenshot - ie no further layers appeared.

Note that this is only in Brave (Chrome) since I cleared the cache as suggested here.

In another browser, Firefox, which has the same blue screen issue with the 2023 preview as Brave, but in which I did not clear the cacheEoTopo looks like it always has (with layers).

Help!

I now have EOTopo in my Brave browser again. How is a complete mystery to me, it is not the result of anything I have done.

However the 2023 preview that others here appear to be enjoying is not there for me - as I described in my first post above.

And 'kaboom', just like that, this morning all is normal, AND I now have the 2023 preview (& very nice it is too!).

Thank you if you changed something to make it possible David. It makes no sense to me that I couldn't see it previously in different browsers, but ..........well I can now!


EDIT: Have just spent a while having a look around on the preview ....Wow! It looks great - a huge improvement! Love it!

Yep it was me that broke it yesterday. e said we would not update the base data for the preview - but I did and I stuffed it up and had to do it twice (takes a few hours) it was finished last night about 8PM my time and I cleared the cache and everything should be right now.

David

Much better, and more appropriate particularly for salt lakes imo David.

I stumbled on a nice clean way of posting screenshots yesterday Jim. It was from EO to EO forum so may not always work. This sample from SMH did.

1. Press your 'PrtScrn' key (take care no personal info shows in the image)

2. In your forum reply window select 'Images&Files' as usual

3. Put your cursor in the URL/Address, paste (ctrl-v) and 'Enter' (your screen dump must be the last thing in your copy/cut cache aka clipboard)

4. In the next screen add your image title/text, click the 'SAVE' button and you will see something like this in your reply: [g i]201920[g i] (I've added a space between the gi so the text shows up in my post)

5. Finish your reply, click 'Submit' as usual, and voila the images appears in your posted reply.

Thanks Bazooka, but I can't access the Help desk, that's the problem.
Pretty sure I can do the screenshot thing, but can't access the Help desk.

Cheers
Jim

Bazooka, that has always been the way to post images to the Forum :)

Personally I never use print screen on a PC because I want to only take a portion so I use the Windows Snipping Tool. It's a free download tool - you then select the area on your screen to copy (rectangle drag) and it is instantly copied to your clipboard to paste into a document OR you can save it as an image format to attach or upload. Snipping tool also offers a few basic tools to allow you to draw lines/circles etc ontop of the image before you paste or save.

Screen shots can be taken on mobile devices and iPads and tablets just by holding down the Power key and the volume down buttons at the same time - takes a copy of your screen and saves it as an image into your photo gallery. You'd be amazed at home many times people think they have to use their phone to take a photo of their tablet screen!!

Hope this helps,
Michelle

Thanks David. Useful tips. I've used the Images&Files facility before to select online and file system images, never thought to cut and paste the clipboard directly into the URL window. I use Irfanview to edit screen shots then save to file. Windows Snipping will save some time.

I have fixed this at the source and will be correct in EOTopo 2023

Looks like the Queensland section is Munga Thirri. But the lower section changes when you zoom.

Might just be me ........ or my old MAC computer !!

Cheers
Jim

I have just seen this Jim but what error are you reporting? I don't see an issue? Michelle

I'll see if I can upload a couple of screenshots .

OK, so when I took screenshots the "problem" seems to have resolved itself, and there's no changes when I zoom. Before, the green patches seemed to be in different places and different sizes, as I zoomed in , but all seems fine now.

So ......... no problem after all.
Sorry to have wasted your time.

Thanks
Jim

Yes, there's A LOT more data now :)

I just checked Wembley, to see if I should start playing golf, and the club house is listed as Wimbley lol

Equinox - LOL you are right the club house was spelt wrong. I have updated this and it will be correct in the release. Pity the entire hole layout for that course has not been fully entered. If I was not spending hours and hours on road network updates I would plug these holes in so you can join and use our app and maps to play the course. Ode to have a clone or more hours per day....
David

Joe we had a data problem last night would you mind checking what you saw again and let us know.
David

Got it Joe - yep the road does not exist at the moment due to the flooding up north. We are keeping an eye on this but now and for the foreseeable time there is NO road there. You can also see the Fitzroy Crossing is now a barge, also because the bridge is gone (and will be at least 12-18 months). The section east from Willaire is also a single lane dirt track (with guided/scheduled east/west travel times) for the Great Northern Highway - this is meant to be re-opening in March at some time....

The roads are very fluid up there at the moment. This is one reason we are holding off a little on the release and/or are looking at a mid year update or similar.

David

Wow, I'm impressed. Didn't realize your maps were going to be so dynamic.

Hi David,

Was the term “the roads are pretty fluid up there at the moment” given the flooding a pun intended?

If not, it was still pretty accurate. :-)

Macca.

Much appreciated - this correction has now been done and will appear in the EOTopo 2023 mapset.
Michelle

Who is this addressed to Jim?
The original post requested that changes be submitted to us via Help Desk which some people have done so you wont see those, but we have responded to all that have posted here too.

We are busy working on the final mapping revisions and hoping for released some time next week. You can expect your next communication from us to come as a Newsletter, plus we'll create a new post in the Forum, and in the Facebook group (ExplorOz Traveller Community). For now, we have no more to say until we get the product finished.... we are flat out busy!

Just yesterday, we removed the 2021 map data from the website display of Places, Treks, Track Logs and the EOTopo page so no need now to switch to Preview, although you are still only getting the working Preview as the final product is not yet "final". In addition, we now have a "new" style for Dark Mode - to view this, click the little half-moon symbol at the top right of the EOTopo map (when shown in the webpages). So this something new for you to enjoy looking at.

None of this has been rolled out to the Traveller app yet in any form, eg. not the webapp. We are working towards this for next week (fingers crossed).

Many thanks to all for your support and updates.
Michelle

Thanks Michelle

It was a general inquiry. There hadn't been any "official" comments lately and I was becoming concerned that something may have happened , private or commercial, that was affecting the website.

Your response has allayed my concerns, and very glad that all is well.
Looking forward to the new release.
Cheers
Jim