Rob has done it again. I made a suggestion about exporting GPX files and the nice little “triangle points value” icons used in SOTAMapping and Rob has implemented in no time.
The Export of summits feature
From the main screen, click “export” in the bottom left.
Pick the association (you can do multiples, but suggest you start with one)
Pick the region (again you can do multiples)
Pick GPX as the file type.
The Download Icons button appears to the right of the Output format drop down. If you click on this you get a zip file containing the png graphic files for the 1,2,4,6,8,10 point “triangles” used on the SOTA Mapping pages. They are in three sizes; small (14x13 pixels), medium (20x20 pixels) and large (30x30 pixels).
Click on the “create file” and you get a zip file of the GPX for the region(s) you have exported.
The nice little feature is that the WPT entry for each summit contains the SYM tag. Each SYM tag matches with the appropriate basic points value for the summit. eg a 2 point summit is tagged SYM SOTA02 /SYM, a 10 point summit is tagged SYM SOTA10 /SYM.
So you now have separate Icons for each summit points value and each GPX WPT entry has the right SYM entry matching its points value.
By renaming the icon file size you want to SOTA01, SOTA02 etc. and putting these png files in the icons directory for you mapping application, it is fairly simple to import the summits, with icons for each summit showing points values.
Thought for a minute Rob had solved my problem - summit icons for Memory Map. Sadly not. I wonder if anyone can help - MMap requires the following:
• The image must be 32 by 32 pixels in size.
• You must save it as a 16-color bitmap. (ie, 4 bits per pixel)
• The color white is transparent. If you need an opaque white in your icon, use an off-white or light grey color (eg, RGB values 254,254,254).
• The color black (RGB value 0,0,0) must be in the palette, even if it is not used.
• The center of the icon at pixel location (15,15) represents the actual location of the mark/waypoint. You should indicate this spot the image to help select and position the mark.
• The name of the icon in the Waypoint symbol list is taken from the name of your BMP file.
• If your image editor allows bitmap compression, you must turn it off and save as an uncompressed bitmap.
Image editing software and me don’t get on too well!
Karen, it would seem I spoke too hastily! After trying - and failing - to produce a stylised peak+points graphic file acceptable to MemoryMap (which program I today downloaded and installed), I have given up. I’m so surprised that a program like that would insist on a single file format like BMP, and only 16 colours at that! It should, IMHO be able to accept files in at least a couple of formats - PNG and GIF, 256 colours, and BMP if they insist on it.
They don’t anywhere give an indication as to which 16 colours are acceptable to them - I did try many combinations, including the old VGA 16-colour palette which one used to use under DOS (ahhh, those were the days!). Programs used to create my test BMPs: Photoshop, GIMP, Windows Paint - all failed to produce a file of reasonable clarity, while being acceptable to MemoryMap. I did manage to produce a couple of test files which could be imported into MemoryMap - just to see whether ANYTHING at all was accepted - but they were not usable as working icons. I’ve been using these and similar programs for over twenty years creating graphics for the web, and this is the first time I’ve been stumped like this. Maybe somebody else out there has managed to do this???
The funny thing is, when one looks at the list of standard icons available within MemoryMap, one sees many - those at the top of the list - which have definitely more than 16 colours. In any case, and from the point of view of a programmer, if the program insists on such a restrictive icon format, it should offer an in-built icon editor, so that users could easily create their own icons, which would then be guaranteed to work.
So, sorry if I raised your hopes too high; maybe better luck next time…
Just arrived in here and I see I’m a couple of minutes too late! I’ve actually now worked out how to create icons for Memory Map using GIMP, and will be making those available shortly in the SMP. I’ve also written a guide as to how to achieve this in Open Office .odt and MS Word formats for others to follow.
It’ll be interesting to see what Carolyn’s come up with
the file has been sent to your gmail account which we found on QRZ.
Hi Rob,
the file I supplied to Karen is an .mmo which contains a bit more than just the icons. However, I can provide the icons (or a template) if it helps :o)
Karen, well I stuck with it and I’m pleased to be able to say that Memory Map symbols/icons are now supported in the SMP Export Summits, and have been tested with a GPX file of all GM summits in Memory Map European Edition v5.4.2.
As Gerald mentioned earlier, clicking on the Download Icons button in the SMP main page Export window will give the user a ZIP file, now containing graphic files not only in PNG format (for e.g. Mapyx), but also new BMP files for Memory Map.
