Hi All,
As you have heard about in the past newsletters we have been doing a huge amount of work in our mapping system. At this point we have just released some of the most major updates so far and we are looking for your feedback. The system has come a long long way so to make it easy for you to see some of the major changes I thought I would give you a little script:
Lets start with a trek note - so visit
The Simpson Desert - once the page loads scroll down a little to the Map - you will notice in the RHS pane a sat image with the trek line showing in this same panel a Download button is now installed (members can download the digital data directly from this link and you will receive a file GPX or GeoRSS only at this stage that contains the route lines and the waypoints). Ok so that is one feature - now click on the play button in the Moving map control and it will show Dalhousie Spring hit the stop button in Moving Map so that Dalhousie is shown - on this page click on the title or the more link and you will see directly in the mapping system the
places information about Dalhousie including all photos, temp, time etc. Also all the images - click on one and they will enlarge to the new gallery format and you can move around these images. You can also print and close this information panel. So close the panel on the RHS pane again you will see To Here and From Here you can add driving directions directly to the start point of the trek if you wish (these will be available as a collection of
routes and waypoint in the My Plans system and can be downloaded as a group of
routes), you can also edit the place to provide updates to the text or images.
Now hit the play again the system will move forward to Dalhousie to
Lookout a route section - stop here and you will see the route line on a sat image with some stats about the route (distance, direction etc). Now click on Altitude Profile you will see the true profile for this piece of road - you can also download just this route if you wish.
These features are now available across the entire site for all
routes and
places so move around this trek or others treks and the
places system to get a good feel of the newest updates. The ability to open all this supporting content directly in the mapping window makes the whole process a lot smarter and faster.
Have a play around and feel free to make comments. We have been working on this project for a number of weeks now and have a lot of work to go with the conversion of plotswap to this format and a whole load of work on the upload functions. We will be writing about this in next weeks newsletter however and feedback we can get at this point will help us refine the system before the newsletter is sent.
PS: We are also planning to allow our members to build you own travel map (your Australian travel map) which you will be able to link to your
blogs & photos or print out in large format for the wall at home etc. This will be linked to your profile so allowing you to show the whole world where you have been and if you want your next trip plans. This is however a month or more away at this point but may a
well tease you a little.
Sorry if this is confusing but we are trying to get all feedback so if you are totally confused please let us know and we will try to make it easier. To this end there are little ? icons everywhere to give you some help on the system so please use this and see how you go.
Have a good weekend one and all.
David