UI-View MapTool

by pd0rhm@amsat.org ( UI-View is written by Roger Barker G4IDE )

Using MapTool Menu Options Installing MapTool Error Messages Settings (.INI file) Release Notes

MapTool is an add-on for UI-View(16) and UI-View32.

It creates UI-View maps using the mapblast site. Starting from a centre's latitude and longitude a bitmap is downloaded from the mapblast site, and the INF file is created.

You have the option the change the scale and size of the map.

Disclaimer, important restrictions: This program may not be used for commercial purposes. The author can not be held responsible for any damage as a result from the programs output

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Steps for creating the map file:

In the textboxes right of Lat and Long enter the latitude resp. longitude of the center of the map you want to create
(Use decimal degrees in stead of degrees.minutes),
Select the scale of the map (Scale of map),
Select the size of the map (Size of map),
Use the Preview button to preview the in your internet browser (optional)
Choose a name for the map file
(Use the Backspace key to delete characters if needed),
Enter a title for the map,
Enter the folder to store the map and .INF file, if you specify an invalid or empty folder MapTool will use the last valid folder instead
Press the Create Map and INF file button.

At this point the request is done at www.mapblast.com , you will see an hourglass during the download of the map.

If you do not specify the Map folder your map- and INF file are created in the Windows temp directory, so the last thing to do is to move the files to the maps folder of UI-View. (On some versions of Windows it may be hard to find the Windows-Temp directory; if you enter %TEMP% in the address bar of your explorer it will take you direct to it.)

Some tips for using MapTool together with UI-View

Set the Extra maps path to the Windows-temp directory
Use MapTool to create a map
With UI-View32 do 'refresh map list' , and reload the map
With UI-View(16) exit UI-View(16) and restart it (the map list is now refreshed) , and load the map

Using batch input

MapTool can take all input via the commandline. The program does not display it's window, so I called this the batch mode of operation.
How does this work? You open a DOS-box and start maptool by typing maptool followed by all input that you would normally enter in the MapTool window. Here is an example

maptool 52.971 -0.046 480*600 20 kilometers Mymap001 My map title

New in V1.0.9:

maptool 52.971 -0.046 480*600 +4000 kilometers Bigmap01 My big map title

It takes some getting used to, but if you make a mistake MapTool will let you know...

Here are all the command line arguments

Argument	Meaning	example
1	Latitude	52.971
2	Longitude	-0.046
3	Size of Map (as it occurs in the list)	*480600**
4 + 5	Scale of Map (as it occurs in the list) , if the first character of argument 4 is a + (plus sign) , then your are free in picking your map scale (it is not limitted to the list you see when using MapTool interactively)	20 kilometers +4000 kilometers +2000 miles
6	Name of mapfile (max 8 characters)	Mymap001
7 *	Map Title (max 30 characters)	My map title

Information on the MapBlast URL

The following is a quote from an article I used to create the program.

Use the following type of URL to get GIF street maps from MapBlast,
which can then be easily imported into all kinds of GPS software....

http://www.mapblast.com/myblast/mPrint.mb?CT=xx.xxxx:yyyy.-yyy:zzzzzz&PW=wwww&PH=hhhh

Where:
xx.xxxx is the latitude in decimal degrees of the center of the map
-yyy.yyyy is the longitude in decimal degrees of the center of the map
(negative for Western hemisphere)
zzzzz is a scale factor, equal to 320,000,000 * degrees of latitude /
pixel
or 2,880,000 * kilometers / pixel
wwww is the width of the map in pixels (1,280 is the maximum width)
hhhh is the height of the map in pixels (1,024 is the maximum height)

Here's an example:
http://www.mapblast.com/myblast/mPrint.mb?CT=38.89793:-77.03620:12800
&PW=1024&PH=960

gives you a 1,024 x 960 color pixel map, centered on the White House
(Lat: 38� 53' 53" N Lon: 77� 2' 10" W)
The scale is 25,000 pixels per degree of latitude (320,000,000 / 12,800)
or 225 pixels per km (2,880,000 / 12,800)
This works out to 362 pixels per mile

If you add "&grey.x=0" to the URL, you get a grey-scale map.
Add "&bw.x=0" for a black-and-white one.
Just right click and "Save Picture As..." a GIF file.

Menu options

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Menu	Option	Purpose
File	Create UI-View XTR file	This option creates an XTR file. If you have UI-View32 the XTR file is created in the UI-View32 folder. The next time you start UI-View32 you should find the menu option for MapTool in the *File* menu. If you are running UI-View (16bit), MapTool can not detect where UI-View is installed; it creates the XTR file in the folder of MapTool. To complete the XTR setup you should: copy the XTR file to the UI-View(16) folder, check line 2 in the file and convert long pathnames to short ones. ( example : change C:\program files\maptool to c:\progra~1\maptool ) (for more information on the XTR please see documentation UI-View)
	Exit	Exit the program. All settings are saved, all windows are closed.
Distance Unit	Distance Unit = Kilometers	This sets the list of MapScale to kilometers
	Distance Unit = Miles	This sets the list of MapScale to miles
Help		This will show the online help information.
	About	This will show the About screen
	Check for Update	This option will check on the internet if a new version is available. If this option fails to run the best place on the internet to check for updates is the uiview group at yahoo

Installing MapTool

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You install MapTool by extracting the files from the selfextracting ZIP archive to the default folder.

If your install file is named UIMapToolvvvInstall.exe you have a full install, all updates will be named UIMapToolvvvUpdate.exe

where vvv the the version number.

Error messages

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Error message	Meaning
Another instance of this program is already running	You tried to start MapTool while it is already running
The XTR file for MapTool is created in the UI-View32 folder. After restarting UI-View32 you can start UI-View MapTool from the UI-View File menu.	You just created the XTR file for UI-View32
Cannot find the program folder for UI-View32 (or you may be running the UI-View 16bits version), so the configuration of UI-View MapTool cannot not be completed The XTR file is created in the UI-View MapTool application folder ( .....).To complete the XTR setup you should: - copy the XTR file to the UI-View(16) folder, - check line 2 in the file and convert long pathnames to short ones.example : change C:\program files\maptool to c:\progra~1\maptool	You just created the XTR file on a system where no UI-View32 software was found. It is asumed that you have installed UI-View(16). Follow the instruction in the message to finish the XTR file.
The map files are: MapFileName.gif and MapFileName.INF." they are saved in the directory (...)	This message tells you that your files are ready
The file (....) already exists! , do you want to overwrite it?	Anwer Yes if you want to overwrite the existing mapfile. Answer No if you want to keep the existing file. In this case you have to choose a new filename for the map
The file (....) is only .... bytes in size. you may discard this file.	The gif file was not downloaded correctly. The reason maybe that you are behind a proxy or firewall. Check you connection to the internet.
Latitude should be between -90.0 and 90.0	You made an error with the latitude input
Longitude should be between -180.0 and 180.0	You made an error with the longitude input
Invalid batch input (your batch input)	Correct your batch input, it is not correct

Settings (.INI file)

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Most of the values and options you enter in the MapTool screen are saved in the MapTool.ini file.

When you close down the program these values are saved.

When you start MapTool again , these values are restored from the MapTool.ini file.

The followings items are stored in the MapTool.ini file:

Item	Meaning/purpose	Default value
Section [SETUP]
LEFT	Left position of the top left corner of the MapTool window	If value of LEFT is outside screen area LEFT will be calculated so that the window is centered on the screen.
TOP	Top position of the top left corner of the MapTool window	If value of HELP_TOP is outside screen area HELP_TOP will be calculated so that the window is centered on the screen.
MINIMIZED	True if the MapTool window is minimized	FALSE
LAT	Latitude	52.971
LONG	Longitude	-0.046
MAPNAME	Name of the mapfile	MyMap001
MAPTITLE	Title of the map	MyMapTitle
MAPSIZE	Size of the map in pixels on your screen	800*600
MAPSCALE	Scale of the map	10 kilometers
MAPFOLDER	The folder to store the mapfile and INF files , if empty the files are stored in the Windows TEMP (%TEMP%) folder	Empty
DUKM	The distance unit. If set to TRUE the distancve unit is kilometers , if set to FALSE the distance unit is International miles.	TRUE

!!! If you are not sure what you are doing, DO NOT edit the MapTool.ini file !!!

Release Notes

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Roger Barker came up with the idea to create UI-View maps using the MapBlast website. I volunteered to create the program now named MapTool. As a matter of fact I got lots of help from Roger. Bart PA3CSX and Rob were very helpful with testing MapTool

The first released version was version 1.0.0, release date 03-feb-2002

Version 1.0.1 release date 9-feb-2002

Bugs reported

When using International miles the conversion to kilometers was not correct. This resulted in maps smaller than the scale selected.
This bug is fixed.

New features

Updated the documentation with several tips on how to use the program,
Added the information on the MapBlast URL to the documentation

Version 1.0.2 release date 15-feb-2002

Bugs reported

None

New features

Updated the documentation with several tips on how to use the program,
Increased the maximum mapscale to 200 Kilometers or 120 International Miles
Changed the URL from DU=KM or DU=MI to DU=BOTH
This will show both the kilometer as well as the mile scale in the right bottom corner
Added the user input like Lat, Long, Mapscale and Mapsize to the .INF file
User input like Lat, Long, Mapname, Maptitle is saved in the MapTool.INI file, after you start MapTool again these 'last used' values are restored.

Version 1.0.3 release date 4-may-2002

Bugs reported

None

New features

The red cross is no longer present in the center of the map. Thank you Mani DD6ZJ for supplying the information.
MapTool can now work in batch mode. It accepts command line arguments. See the documentation on this.
added "2 kilometers" and "20 kilometers" to the mapscale selection list.
updated the documentation.

Version 1.0.4 release date 11-aug-2002

Bugs reported

None

New features

Added the option to specify a map folder. In previous version the files were saved in the Windows-TEMP dir (%TEMP%)
The following options are now stored in the INI file: Distance Unit, Scale of map and Size of map

Version 1.0.5 release date 14-aug-2002

Bugs reported

The MapFolder textbox was accepts only 30 characters.
This bug has been fixed

New features

None

Version 1.0.6 release date 26-aug-2002
Andreas DK2GS was very helpful with reporting some bugs and testing the fixes

Bugs reported

In some situations with a small mapscale (1 kilometer) the .INF file contained invalid data.
This bug has been fixed

New features

None

Version 1.0.7 release date 27-aug-2002

Bugs reported

The MapBlast.com URL was no longer working due to a change by MapBlast.com.
This bug has been fixed However, it is not guaranteed to be a definite solution

New features

None

Version 1.0.8 release date 28-aug-2002

Bugs reported

The user is not able to select International miles
This bug is fixed

New features

None

Version 1.0.9 release date 10-sep-2003
Special thanks go to Bert of http://www.cachemaps.tk/ for testing this version.

Bugs reported

None

New features

A lot of users asked for larger map scales. It has been discussed that the current borders to the map scale are guarantying a proper display of APRS stations on UIView. This is because due to the curvature of our planet Earth a mile at the top of a map is not a mile in the centre of the map. Now the user has the option to bypass that map scale restriction when the command line option of MapTool is used. Putting a '+' (plussign) in front of the map scale will create a map of that scale. See the Batch Mode section.
Improved the error message if invalid batch mode arguments are supplied.

Version 1.0.10 release date 13-sep-2003
Special thanks go to Rob for spotting the runtime error in the About window.

Bugs reported

When selecting menu Help, About a runtime error occurs.
This bug is fixed

New features

None