TrailRunner Developer RSS Feed

TrailRunner 1.7 - Alpha Builds

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-05-07T21:22:04+02:00

I now have closed primary development on TrailRunner 1.6 and have started to focus on TrailRunner 1.7 as the next major release build. If you use 1.7 preview builds you will get independent update messages for new versions meaning that 1.6 will only display bugfix updates for 1.6, the equivalent goes for 1.7.

What's new in 1.7 so far:

Merge
Rewrote the merge elements algorithm to be more stable, faster and to support more operations to be undoable. It's not complete yet but given the fact that this is extremely complex, I am very happy with what I have learned and was able to dig out as the current core. Also reduced the geographic snap-in grid from 20 meters to 10 meters.

Get the latest nightly from the Release Cast

I am impressed

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-04-27T19:10:05+02:00

Do you also dream of a time when topographic maps are available for free and the quality would almost be better than commercial alternatives? The time has come. Left you see the region where I do most of my "home runs" on google terrain maps and right the same area on openstreetmap.org. What a detail, how nice…

TrailRunner 1.7 - Leopard only

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-03-16T13:31:39+01:00

From the statistics I can see that 100% of all regular users have upgraded to Leopard. So I made the decision to make TrailRunner 1.7 Leopard only and to remove all compatibility code from there on. Complaints?

TrailRunner 1.6 - New Layout Mimic

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-03-15T22:14:01+01:00

Release v216 already brought the first major rewrite of the layout track and layout route mimic. v217 will bring the next level, the adjust route mimic.

Mostly important, the stupid you first have to create a network of tracks and then think of your routes limitation is now gone. All first time users have only their route in mind and don't care a straw about any conceptual limitations in TrailRunner. So I finally removed another annoying limitation: Just press the green New Route button and start creating your route while in reality you create a track and concurrently add it to the piggyback route. The Layout and calculate routes chapter in Help has a video tutorial illustrating this:

Changing the course of a route is an old, yet one of the first features, of TrailRunner — though most users might not be aware of it. It's simple: Drag any way-point that's part of the routes course onto another free way-point and reroute the route over that point. The new behavior is that while you are dragging you get a visual preview of what the result of the reroute will look like. As with the new layout engine, undo should now be fine with this operation too. Have a look:

TrailRunner - GPSies - Panoramio : Get the Picture

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-02-24T21:05:08+01:00

You might have already found this out but one of the niceties with the GPSies integration in TrailRunner is photos at Panoramio right along your track.
Just publish your route as a public weblog entry or directly display the route at GPSies and check the Panoramio checkbox.

Help !!

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-02-09T17:04:54+01:00

This time I'd like to place a call into the TrailRunner community. A call for your help.
In the past, TrailRunner became more and more feature rich, not yet over-loaded but pretty complex. And TrailRunner has conceptual limitations by it's nature of being freeware using free services and a single person background (me).
My development cycle goes from answering support emails, fixing bugs, developing new features, documenting features and back again.
As you might have noticed I tend to develop features with the highest request rate first. But this ignores a great number users: The first time users. And to make TrailRunner bigger and better, we need helping them to get onto the trail. And that's what I am asking your help for.

Tutorials
Currently I have set up three tutorials, one for each technical target group. But when Steve Jobs explained us all in his keynote that the Amazon Kindle will fail due to the fact that no-one is reading anymore, he was quite right. Written tutorials are good for those that take the time but nothing for a first time user. They want video tutorials. But video tutorials are double the work, or even more.

Assistance
Many software packages try to solve the learning curve problem by providing assistance like tip of the day, warning messages with the obligatory "don't show this anymore" checkbox and the glorious MS Office paper-clip assistant. I already have added warning messages on key usage trails but that's far from being perfect. I started on a tip of the day system but haven't completed this yet.

Forum
In the age of internet it looks like every software package is required to have a forum. But at least after a month you need a forum administrator — and that's me. So I ignore the whole forum demand and keep focused on my feedback mails, unless I would know there would be valuable and useful support content growing in the forum content, without my intervention being required.

All in all, my questioning is, who would like to help me out by:
Extending, refining and completing Tutorials, possibly by creating a video Tutorial.
Giving me pointers on where first time users (like you once where too) would get stuck in the application and what tips of a day would help to get further.
Making suggestions on forum topics that might help new users to get valuable information that is generated by other users, and not moderated by myself.

If you have the time and ability, please drop me a line. Didn't you not always want to use iMove and didn't know what for… Here you go (maybe).

US Army Topographic Maps

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-29T00:01:55+01:00

If you live outside the western countries that already offer topographic map services TrailRunner can use, you might want to take a look at the topographic map collection of Perry-Castañeda Library of the University of Texas at Austin. They provide tons of topographic maps created by the US Army. The map above depicts the Ivory Coast in West Africa, a place I've been to years ago.

It would be great if someone could tile these into a common web service format. But until that is done, you can manually add the maps to TrailRunner and calibrate them.

> US Army Map Service Topographic Maps
> Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

TrailRunner 1.6 - SOFTPEDIA "100% CLEAN" AWARD

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-26T17:47:06+01:00

I am not sure what it's worth, but mac.softpedia.com found TrailRunner to be free of any malicious code like spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors.

What's more interesting is the fact that softpedia published some screenshots of TrailRunner depicting a map snapshot of a region in Romania near the river Prut. Looks like globalization also caught the software review industry…

> mac.softpedia.com
> Softpedia Screenshot
> Wikipedia Prut

TrailRunner 1.6 - Value Ranges

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-25T01:02:45+01:00

This one was highly requested — you'll have it. It's one of those features I had on my list for months but more important features and bug fixes had to be done first.
But finally, here you go: move the mouse over the chart and value range overlays will show up.
I personally like interfaces that look nice and innocent but get decent as soon as you dig into them. This one is a good example.

TrailRunner 1.6 - Community and tracks nearby

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-20T02:05:27+01:00

You still might know GPSies from one of my previous posts. GPSies is a site that stores and visualizes running courses or Mountain Bike Tracks users have uploaded to share. TrailRunner now integrates with GPSies in two ways:

Display weblog tracks
Every weblog entry now has a new link that displays the attached route at GPSies. This makes it convenient for your visitors to quickly investigate the route and not just download the GPX or KML files.

Find Tracks Nearby
For the current location in your document, TrailRunner opens a new browser window and displays what GPSies has to offer for this region. To do this, use File > Show nearby tracks
When GPSies has opened, you'll find a search pane on the right that will show you routes nearby. If you have found a route that is of any interest to you, download the route. Drag the downloaded file onto the TrailRunner application icon in your dock and you can merge the new route into your main document.
I have the strong feeling I don't have to tell you how cool this is.

> http://www.gpsies.com

TrailRunner 1.6 - Improved Polar Workout Import

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-09T01:35:40+01:00

Good news for Polar RS200 and TrackRecord users. I Improved the import process. Now the workflow is much simpler:

- Press the import button
- Use TrackRecord to read in your workout data
- Quit TrackRecord
- Press the continue button in TrailRunner
- Select workouts to be imported and assign routes.

Assigning a route will then merge the workout recordings with the TrailRunner route, giving you a good overlay of both.
And this also answers one of the most frequently asked questions: TrailRunner requires your Polar recordings to contain distance information. If that is not the case, the workout can't be imported. The reason is that TrailRunner is distance based and not time based. To overlay a distance based route with e.g. heart-rate information, the workout recording must be in the same unit meaning to be distance based too. This is a core concept and a time based approach will never be implemented into TrailRunner.

Have fun with another preview release:

> Download

TrailRunner 1.6 - Export and Retrace

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2008-01-09T01:17:27+01:00

The next major release step will bring a highly requested and an intuitive new feature.

The former is a new route export pane. It will appear on Send To GPS and Save as GPX, will let you select more than one route to be exported and has the following options:
Boundary route: The idea behind this is to get all crossings exported without exporting the whole track network. As a track network is not part of the conceptual background in GPX files, this "pseudo" route will act as a hull around the selected route. Unfortunately my Garmin ForeRunner is not able to display more than one course at a time but it might be useful in other cases.
Compression: If you export more than one route into a GPX file the amount of data might overrun your devices memory limits. Compression might help to reduce the amount. A visual preview of the selected track depicts what the compressed track looks like.

The latter new feature are track animations and a route slider. If you previously selected a checkpoint in the left hand table and used the arrow-down key to browse through the course of your route (what I do to memorize the course before I go out, even though you have electronical cheat sheets like NanoMaps and Send To GPS) TrailRunner will now retrace the course of the track segment up to the next checkpoint. Additionally, the new route slider at the bottom of the map lets you browse through the course of the route much the same way as coverflow in Leopard does with files.

If you are a thrill seeker or would like to be a cheer leader, download a nightly build here:

> Download

Enjoy!
At this point I'd like to thank everybody who gave me feedback and motivation for the TrailRunner project in the past year. The project still satisfies me very much and we'll see many more updates in the future. All the best to everybody for 2008…

QuickTutorial: Using TrailRunner with your Polar RS200

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-12-19T13:10:23+01:00

To import workouts from your polar heart-rate monitor into TrailRunner, please follow these steps:

In TrailRunner Preferences > Synchronize : Select TrackRecord as your Helper App
Press the download Button to get TrackRecord from bluecrowbar.com
Close Preferences and open your main TrailRunner document.
You might in advance create routes that reflect the courses of the workouts being imported. To learn how to create routes, first read the QuickGuide Tutorial
Press the Import (from heart rate monitor) Button in the upper tool-bar.
TrackRecord will start up. Import your workouts and Export the Sessions to your Desktop. (Please make sure that you use the english date format: mm/dd/yy when you export your files)
Now drag each exported workout session onto the main TrailRunner window, the import pane on the left will open.
Select a matching route and press the add Button.
A new diary entry will be added combining the information from the selected route and the imported workout

TrailRunner - One of the Best Mac-Software?

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-12-08T11:07:10+01:00

Heise.de sucht für ein Themen-Special nach den besten Programmen für Mac OS X. Wer mithelfen möchte, dass der TrailRunner mit dabei ist, der kann über ein Online Formular bei Heise für den TrailRunner votieren. Würde mich freuen !

> TrailRunner im Heise Software Archiv dort dann auf die Bewertungsskala klicken (erfordert leider eine Registrierung).

Heise.de is looking for any best Mac software. If you would like to vote for TrailRunner, click the link above and use the rating tool on the listing page. Related to this I would also be happy if you could help pushing votes for TrailRunner on iusethis. Click the badge below (unfortunately requires a registration too)

TrailRunner SneakPeek — Contour Overlay and Terrain Map Source

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-12-02T13:37:43+01:00

Today I added a contour layer to background maps. The contour data comes from the same USGS data source as the already known elevation download. But the transparent overlay is something being calculated and provided by Jonathan Stott from www.earthtools.org.
Earthtools is a cool service anyway. Hopefully it will stay free for a long time. As long as it is, enjoy the contours.
The display settings you'll find under Document Settings > Additional Settings > Contour : Show/Hide
The examples above show a region with the contour overlay applied to three background map sources. On the right with satellite imagery and left with openstreetmap.org. As a sidenote I realized that openstreetmap really gets a momentum. I am very pleased for the quality and detail the service now offers. As maps at openstreetmap.org change often, please regularly empty your map cache.
File > Consolidate > Empty Caches
The other news are terrain maps from Google. As you can see in the middle image, also with overlay contours applied.

> www.earthtools.org
> www.openstreetmap.org
> maps.google.com

Polar HRM2 workout import

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-11-08T00:19:27+01:00

From build 192 on the Polar HRM import will work better but should still be considered as experimental. I now import the [IntTimes] block and then, if a [HRData] block is available, merge the additional data in. What surprises me is that the data in HRM files are very inconsistent. On the one hand in the leading part of the file the workout duration says to be e.g. 0:41:20.0 but the last Interval ends at 0:44:49.5. Also if the recording interval is set to every 5 seconds and you multiply the number of [HRData] sets by 5 you also get more seconds than the given workout duration. Next, the [Trip] duration is totally off any other values one can accumulate. At last, the file doesn't contain calories burned but only your weight and VO₂ max. So I have to calculate the calories myself. All this means that you will never see identical values for the same data.
To retrieve HRM files from your watch, try TrackRecord or use some PC Software. TrailRunner Preferences now has TrackRecord added as a helper application for the import button. Use Import or drag a HRM file onto the TrailRunner dock icon. Anyway the workout import pane will open. To connect the workout with a route, select one in the routes list and add your workout to the diary like shown in the example below.

> TrackRecord - Polar RS200 SonicLink™ for MacOS X

New iPods and NanoMaps

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-10-26T00:33:52+02:00

The new iPod models (nano and touch) have new screen resolutions. So I updated the Library for the new models. To change the export screen dimensions, go to Preferences > iPod and enter the values for your model there. BTW, one feature downgrade requested and build into TrailRunner 1.5 can also be set here: Disable the rotate NanoMap into direction of heading.

About NanoMaps
NanoMaps describe a route in a very compact and portable way to stay on track – without using an expensive GPS-Unit. NanoMaps depict every waypoint on your route with a snap-shot of the map-area around it. Additionally the map is rotated in a way that the direction you are coming from is always at the lower edge of the screen. The orange arrow then shows you the direction you should turn to. The biggest benefit is, that even if you did not put every possible track into your map you can still see that there are other tracks at a crossing.
Because it is not possible to have subfolders in the nano Photo-Library, green squares with a readable route-code in the overview mode help you to find the route you are looking for.

TrailRunner 1.5 — Bye bye calibration points

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-10-22T21:34:15+02:00

What's new
TrailRunner 1.5 is a heavy rewrite of all core components dealing with maps and geographical coordinate systems. Hopefully resulting in a much simpler user interface but in any case much better for me to maintain as I squirted out some complex crap code that's not needed anymore.
In previous versions of TrailRunner the most complicated thing was to understand what to do next with an empty document in front of you: The solution was calibration and loading of maps. In TrailRunner 1.5, new documents now automatically show a regional background map of an area nearby your current location. That's not patent pending but clever enough to make you feel home. The task following is to zoom in to the exact location and to start creating your personal trail-network.

World View and Resolution Independence
Additionally the map loading process is now simplified and improved for different zoom levels like in GoogleMaps. Before, TrailRunner loaded only the highest resolution maps available, resulting in heavy memory load for overview zoom levels. The new version just loads the resolution you see and the deeper you zoom in, the more detailed maps are reloaded. As caching was vastly improved, zooming in and out will become undisturbing after a short while.
Also the scroll bars have gone. As a document could now cover almost the whole world, scroll bars didn't make sense anymore. To move the working area around, use the hand tool. While using other tools, use the space bar to temporarily access the hand tool.

The working area is now resolution independed. Tracks, way-points and labels now always stay the same visual size even if you zoom down to the ants. Displayed tracks are now visually compressed representations of the original track meaning the more you zoom in, the more detailed the track will be displayed.

Maps and Locations
A new map source was added. OpenStreetMap is an open source initiative where people like you upload their GPS tracks and cartographers create professional grade maps from these. I was having an eye on the effort for almost two years now and this summer seemed to be full of mapping weekends. So use these maps for free and if you are able to, try to contribute to the project. One important thing with OpenStreetMap is that these maps constantly change and as TrailRunner heavily caches imagery, use File > Consolidate > Empty Cache to reload the current visible maps. Visit the OpenStreetMap project page to learn more.

To manually add maps to TrailRunner, just drag images onto the working area and rotate or scale them to the size they perfectly match the background maps. After the map fits well, just add it to the store by moving it to any of the lower layers in document settings.
Dragging new map tiles into the document will now remember the scale and rotation modifications of the previous tile. This makes it much easier if you drag-copy tiles from web applications into your document and have them rotated and resized like the previously selected tile.

Another new feature is the locations pane. You'll find two lists there. The upper one shows all way-points in your document, sorted by distance to the current location. The list below searches an internet database for locations. If you import a GPX file in locations, only the contained way-points and lap-points will be added to the upper list. Both are meant to give you a fast way to navigate around your trail-network or respectively the world.

Important Compatibility Notes
TrailRunner 1.5 will no longer support documents that where calibrated manually. This is due to the fact that the whole manual calibration was crappy and so I removed it. I know that this will cause a lot of trouble to some of you. But on the other hand it caused even more trouble and unsolvable problems to others. Make the world a better place by using the global coordinate system. It's now more straightforward to use.

Because of fundamental changes: DO NOT OPEN DOCUMENTS SAVED IN 1.5 WITH 1.4! Should you need to, always work with copies!

The central data store now only saves personal maps you've imported manually. Background maps loaded from Internet services WILL BE REMOVED and reloaded in the new format. This might take quite long when you first start up with the new version.
The new background maps are cached under Home/Library/Application Support/TrailRunner/GeoTiles. This cache can become very huge. But if you delete stuff from inside there, TrailRunner won't get harmed.

As TrailRunner will remove data from the central data store, you should better make a Backup of it. It's located in Home/Library/Application Support/TrailRunner/GeoBitmaps2.datastore – just duplicate the file and keep the save copy.

Donation Policy Changes
By the official release of TrailRunner 1.5 the fixed donation was increased to 25 Euro (~ 34 USD). That's mainly because I think that the value of the new Release is worth it. Surely, all previous registrations will stay valid.

Where do TrailRunners live?

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-10-03T20:47:05+02:00

As one might expect, the TrailRunner community is very international. Thanks to google, I can present you a Geo Map Overlay for TrailRunners, a graphical representation of the volume of visitors coming from locations around the world. The largest points indicate locations driving the most visitors to the TrailRunner website.
Interestingly most of my visitors come from Europe, something I can also proof by the donations I get. But why is that so? Americans, put your shoes on…!

Walking off fat

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-09-26T12:10:25+02:00

Walking is a good thing. But the sport industry tries to make you believe that equipment is the most important thing. A funny reading is this article: Walker-Auflauf in der Frittenbude (German)

Partly translated: [...] That even walking brings your fat to melting, is one of these ineradicable myths, which walkers believe. And it sounds so beautiful. You get rid off your fat just with a stroll. [...] But the body doesn't let go the fat without a price. He has learned over a million years on how to save surplus calories in areas like belly, legs and bottom — as a reserve for cold winter days. And it takes you one hour of running to make him let go the fat. Meaning you have to wring out every gram which is laborious. Either because the workout is long and slow or short and fast. What's guaranteed successful is fast and long. What's guaranteed not successful is short and slow. [...]

But TrailRunner can help you... well, you already know the rest.

New Localization — Dutch

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-05-22T00:20:53+02:00

With the fabulous help of some users, TrailRunner is now fully localized to German, Swedish, Italian, traditional Chinese (Taiwan), French and (new) Dutch.
Thank you very much Oskar, Pierino, Nitoc, Xavier and Steven.
If you like to translate TrailRunner to your language, please contact me. Still missing are Spanish and Japanese.

Sharing GPS Trails

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-05-22T00:20:50+02:00

The internet and the community behind are a great resource. You already know that. But what you might not know yet are the following community sites where you can upload share and download running, hiking or biking courses. This post ist just to to name my favorites:

Bikely helps cyclists share knowledge of good bicycle routes.
http://www.bikely.com

WikiLoc is a free web app that lets you share GPS tracklogs and waypoints on the web in an easy way
http://www.wikiloc.com

With GPSies you can view and download tracks which have been recorded by a GPS device. Whether you are searching for running courses or Mountain Bike Tracks, with GPSies you can see what Tracks others have recorded. And you can download all the Tracks and put them onto your GPS device so you won`t lose your way.
http://www.gpsies.com

German: Hier findest du kostenlose Touren mit GPS Tracks zu Outdoor Aktivitäten in beliebten Kategorien wie Mountainbiken, Wandern, Reiten, Ski etc.
http://www.gps-tour.info

TrailRunner 1.4 — Sneak Peak (II)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-05-17T21:14:40+02:00

If you are a street-biker you might not need highest resolution maps. If you are a hiker, you will. Are services available for the region you dwell in, TrailRunner 1.4 can now load background maps in different resolutions.

The above map has a street quality resolution and comes from the Microsoft Virtual Earth Roads service. This service is new in TrailRunner 1.4 and covers almost the whole world.

The above map has a satellite quality resolution and comes from the Google Keyhole service. (Please note that the Keyhole service is just a proof of concept and therefore might not cover the area you live in)

This topographic map has a hiking map quality resolution and comes from the german Landesvermessungsamt Baden Württemberg (corresponds to the US Geological Survey in the states)

If you want to be part of the TrailRunner 1.4 beta program, subscribe to the beta-appcast:

http://www.trailrunnerx.com/appcast-beta.xml

TrailRunner 1.4 — Sneak Peak

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-05-13T22:57:19+02:00

TrailRunner 1.4 gets into shape. The biggest change is the new workout analysis chart depicted above. Most importand changes are the following. If you like to joint the Alpha Team, read the Beta app-cast and download the latest version:

http://www.trailrunnerx.com/appcast-beta.xml

TrailRunner 1.3v135 — Put some color on

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-02-18T12:56:10+01:00

Highly requested, finally done. Colorize your tracks with any of the predefined colors. TrailRunner can attribute tracks with soft values like iTunes rating stars, a description text and now color codes. If you mark a track in red because it's dangerous, in orange because it's a hight traffic street or in green because it's a beautiful woods trail ... it's your individual expression.

TrailRunner 1.3v133 — Training Center's best friend

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2007-02-04T23:02:15+01:00

TrailRunner can now directly read the track database of Garmin Training Center. Synchronize your device with Training Center and then press the Import button in TrailRunner to access all workouts ever stored in the Training Center history.
So for whatever obvious features Training Center misses, TrailRunner fills the gap and hopefully takes it a step further.

MapDiscovery 0.5 — Topo Browser

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-12-29T18:22:19+01:00

MapDiscovery gets into shape. I am working on it as an easy way to locate yourself on this planet, and to set a starting point in TrailRunner. Instead of the all so popular GoogleEarth digital orthophoto (DOQ) MapDiscovery is specialized on finding topographic maps available from open WMS Servers. Especially the USGS Topo Maps and the Maps from Catalonia and Germany are such great sources with a detail, most can not imagine if haven't seen yet. So for this and other reasons this small application lets you browse around the globe and inspect the best known map sources I know of. > Download MapDiscovery

TrailRunner 1.3 Beta — Discover your starting point

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-12-25T00:32:38+01:00

TrailRunner goes into the next evolutionary round. The upcoming version includes MapDiscovery to easily spot the point to start from. Hopefully this will make things much less complicated (as long as map coverage for the area you dwell in is good enough).
And this is how it works: Open an new document, select File > New Location. MapDiscovery will open up. Zoom into the location you want to start from and set the location. Now TrailRunner will ask you to download maps for an approximate area of 10 square kilometers. This will take a while but after that your are "up and running". Map Sources available cover: USA, Canada, Catalonia (Spain), Bavaria/NRW/Hessen (Germany), Oberösterreich, and more to come.
Happy Season.
Download the TrailRunner 1.3 Beta

GeoServer NRW

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-12-17T12:24:32+01:00

I am happy to announce that I finally got the GeoServer of Nordrhein-Westfalen integrated as a download source. This will open up a very detailed map coverage for the state in Germany with the highest population. To achieve this, I integrated a great package named proj.4 which is simply a framework to transform coordinate systems from one to another. In this case TrailRunner requires the WGS84 Spatial Reference System EPSG:4326 but the WMS Server of NRW only understands the Gauß-Krüger Reference System EPSG:31466, which is very common in Europe. But even though I can transform points from one coordinate system to another, I still have to rotate each map tile I get back from the server. Mostly by 1.06 degrees. And additionally I have to stretch and bulge the tiles horizontally and vertically to get a perfect overlay with the tiles in the neighborhood. Somehow I have the impression that the WMS server does something weird internally and this is the reason why they are unable to provide the EPSG:4326 projection by default. If someone of my honored readers has any deeper knowledge about what could be going on here, please drop me a line. I would be very thankful to discuss this topic and to find an appropriate solution. The quality, the server can deliver, is really worth the effort.
> PROJ.4 - Cartographic Projections Library

Press Reviews

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-12-04T09:06:04+01:00

In the december 2006 issue of french SVM Mac magazine TrailRunner is being reviewed on page 98. It's a short description on what the application does and for whom it is useful. "TrailRunner se révèle un outil sophistiqué pour l'entraînement sportif e la préparation de parcours".
June 2006 issue of UK MacFormat magazine published a two page how two get directions from your iPod. "Create maps and route plans, then transfer them to your iPod wit this ingenious piece of software". Pages 62 and 63.
October 2006 issue of the german MacLife magazine wrote a News & Trends article about TralRunner and GPS Photo linker. The article is called "Rennende GPS-Fotografen" (running GPS photographers). Page 13.
Frebruary 2006 issue of german c't magazine noted TrailRunner in its New for Mac section. Page 54 announces the new iPod Nano and below an Article about TrailRunner. "Mit TrailRunner kann man seine Laufstrecken planen".

Mapa topografic de Catalunya

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-11-15T20:25:25+01:00

One recent WMS discovery will extend the TrailRunner maps download by maps from Catalunya (Spain). The Institut Cartografic de Catalunya (ICC) provides maps in various resolutions, down to 1:5000. This is by far (yet) the best map source I know of.
If you know other open WMS Servers with good material, please drop me a line.

Mac OS 10.4.8 - the rounding error

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-10-31T19:37:34+01:00

MacOS X 10.4.8 seems to introduce a bug where saving floating point coordinates into a document will round the values. Well, rounding could be a good thing, but in this case coordinates are rounded right after the 4-th digit resulting in a possible 50m difference to the original location.
So after the unwanted rounding has occurred, all coordinates are pinned to the fixed grid of 4 decimal digits, creating interesting "track-jaggies".
Release 119 has fixed this by storing coordinates in double precision. If you can, please reopen a backup saved with a version prior to your update to 10.4.8.
Sorry, it really wasn't my fault (this time)

Special Mention @ MacGeneration Award 2006

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-09-18T18:04:20+02:00

TrailRunner today got a special mention as "meilleure utilisation des technologies Apple" (Best usage of Apple technologies) in the MacGeneration Award 2006.
Read about the winners and the mention:
Français Original
MacNews German

This also is a big thank you to all contributors of feedback and new ideas. Even if we hardly speak the same languages.

Resolution vs. Information

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-08-27T21:30:19+02:00

What you see in the two pictures below is the very same location. In the greater perspective, the topographic TK20 map is absolutely perfect for hiking and route planning. And next, a small keyhole into GoogleMaps at zoom-level 1.
Although the resolution of the satellite images are perfectly fine, it's an overload of information. If you layout a route in the topographic map, it's possible to work in a wide aspect and still find the trails you want. With the satellite imagery, you can pin down to footsteps, but working in high zoom can be very tedious, as you often loose the overall point of view.
The moral: as ever, less is often more.

TrailRunner 1.1 (v106) — Download elevation data

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-08-24T00:46:17+02:00

I must admit that the United States Geological Survey (USGS) is more and more getting my best friend. The scientific agency of the United States government offers many web-based services providing geographical data of the United States and partly about the rest of the world.
The newest discovery is the elevation database. Thanks to the pointer from Mike Jacobsen, TrailRunner now can query the online-database for every single point in your TrailRunner document and will receive the corresponding elevation. Best of all: It seems to cover the whole planet.
To download elevation data for you net of tracks you need a calibrated document. The menu command File > Import > Elevation data from Internet-Service will start the download. As it takes long, you might also check out the same locations in the fresh air, while the download is proceeding.

TrailRunner 1.1 (v105) — Import workouts from the Nike + iPod Sports Kit

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-08-21T00:15:09+02:00

TrailRunner can now import the last workout from your Nike + iPod Sports Kit. For that a new Toolbar-Button is available under View > Customize Toolbar.
The import process is straight forward. You connect your iPod Nano to your Mac. Press the toolbar import button (or File > Import > From Nike + iPod Sport Kit) and a sheet with the last workout data will come up. Optionally select the corresponding route in the list of routes (or create a new one) and press the Add button. Now the diary will come up, containing the new entry. Have fun with this one. If you happen to have problems with the import, please contact me as reading the data off the iPod Nano is done by a hack that might fail.

TrailRunner 1.1 - Charting your Fitness

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-08-05T12:58:31+02:00

TrailRunner 1.1 features an improved diary. In short it's about search, flag and compare.

Chart
In the new toolbar, switch the area above the entries table to display either calendar based data entry fields or a comparison chart.
The chart reflects the current selection in the diary table, displaying at least 10 weeks from the newest selected entry backwards. If you select more entries in the table, the cart will update to the new entries range.
Entries will always display as a grouped value based on the current interval. The base interval is by weeks and can extend to months if you select a big amount of entries.
In the legend on the right you see the overall values for the displayed data. If you need to know the data for one data-point, select it and you'll see the specific values in the lower legend.

Fitness
The fitness is a calculated value based on pace and heart-rate. The main idea is that if you where very fast with a low heart-rate, you're fitter. In the opposite if you where very slow and had a high heart-rate, you're less. This value is just an orientation and does not have the accuracy of the methods used in Polar watches or other bio-medical methods, but it gives a pretty good overall impression.
The scale of the values is in the value range of the polar watches, but that's only a nice coincidence.

Flag
As you are accustomed from Mail.app, entries can now be flagged in the leftmost column. If you start a series of exercises to reach a certain goal, flag the first one. If you had a very nice exercise or competition, flag it.

Search
The search field in the lower right corner will search for diary entries (looks into column route and personal notes) that contain the given search term. The diary table will then only display matching entries.
This provides various ways to tag and filter diary entries, to later compare entries of the same class. Some examples:
To find out how many kilometers you have accomplished with a pair of shoes, tag all entries with a unique tag like xasc06 (your Asics 2006 pair). When you later search for that term the chart legend will display the values you want to know: number of units and sum of kilometers.
To compare your performance in a certain route over time, enter the routes name and the chart will display the performance values.
To make a distinction between running and biking, tag all runs with xrun and all biking exercises with xmtb. Later search for either tag to see a chart with values only of this kind.
If you use a polar watch and regularly measure your OwnIndex, enter the OwnIndex in the personal comment like ownindex:52. Later search for ownindex and see you progress on the measure checkpoints (unfortunately not in the chart but filtered on entries with this information)

Export
Not a new feature but a good place to mention, if you select diary entries, edit > copy will put them as tab separated columns into the clipboard. An easy method to transfer entries into Excel or other analysis tools.

Nike+iPod+TrailRunner

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-08-01T00:14:35+02:00

You might have read the press-announcements for Nike and Apple creating a new extension to the iPod Line. It's a piece of Hardware, basically a smart pedometer inside your shoe and a software update for your iPod Nano. The software tracks the usual data like time and distance and includes some kind of voice comments. Additionally Apple offers a new set of workout playlists in iTunes for your training and inspiration.
The software update for the Nano will include a new menu item, "Nike+iPod," which allows you to choose your workout distance and select your playlist.
Even if it's cool to hear some motivating tunes during your workout, how do you know what the 5 miles course is? It's clear: TrailRunner is the next perfect addition. Could someone please tell Apple and Nike?

TrailRunner 1.0 (v91) - Traditional Chinese

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-05-14T23:12:31+02:00

Even though I should know everything in the application, I do not understand a single word here. In a fascinating fast effort, a very fond user from Taiwan localized TrailRunner to Traditional Chinese and this is how it looks like. Thanks Nitoc. BTW: Currently TrailRunner is available in English, German and Traditional Chinese. If you are interested in localizing TrailRunner to French, Spanish, Portuguese or Japanese, please drop me a line. All you need is a Text-Editor. It's not that complicated and it will make things less complicated for others.
> nitoc@blogspot

TrailRunner 1.0 (v90) - Internet Map Download

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-05-07T16:09:04+02:00

TrailRunner can now download map images from the internet. Main-USA, Hawaii and Alaska have a good quality as they are based on topographic maps from the 60´s. Unfortunately the rest of the world is only covered (yet) with low to mid quality Nasa satellite imagery.
The current implementation is a proof of concept so you might want to try it out and tell me if it is of any use to you. It might make sense if you happen to get a GPX file from somewhere or if you imported some data from your GPS Device and want to look at the geographical region the route is in.
But I expect more map-servers popping up in the near future. There are already some nice ones for Germany but they only support local coordinate projections — to much work to implement a support in TrailRunner yet.
If you have any feedback or some pointers where I could find other servers to include, please drop me a line. For the technically interested, the known services directory can be found in the MapServices.plist inside the Application Package.

And this is how it works for mere mortals: Import any GPX into an empty document or take a calibrated one. Under File > Import you'll find a new menu item to download the map data.

Have fun, patience and a fast internet-connection.

TrailRunner 1.0rc (v88) - Connect your GPS device

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-04-28T21:25:55+02:00

TrailRunner gets more open and is now a team-player with a partner application called LoadMyTracks from cluetrust. This means you are now able to download your tracks from any GPS device, especially the Garmin ForeRunner series. And this is how it works:
First off, you need a calibrated map. Then, connect your GPS unit to your Mac by using one of the recommended methods. Visits the cluetrust website to get more information on that.
Then, go to File > Import > Data from GPS unit.
Now LoadMyTracks will fire up and will download all tracks from your GPS unit. When done, TrailRunner comes up again, asking you what tracks you'd like to import.
The Import can be done in two ways. Import course as one piece or Import and merge tracks. Import course as one piece just imports the track as it is. The good thing about this option is: it doesn't alter or harm your existing tracks. The bad thing about this is that the new track lays on top of any of your existing tracks in the map and has like no connections to the rest. But if you want to extend your net of tracks, and add new crossings and track courses, then you need to use the Import and merge tracks option. TrailRunner then tries to find as much similarities of the new track to your existing ones and will only add courses that are new to your map. Due to the very complex nature of the merging algorithm and sometimes poorly collected data by the GPS unit, this might not always give you results that 100% satisfies you.
At times, you will get tracks that have a course parallel to an existing track but TrailRunner did not recognize that they ought to be the same. When this happens, select the track you would call the master-track — the track you want to keep — and then select File > Consolidate > Merge onto selected track. All tracks that are parallel to the selected one are then reduced onto the master-track.
Please note that all these operations are very complex and therefore I can't give you undo (yet). So you better keep a save backup.
> LoadMyTracks | TrailRunner

TrailRunner 0.9 - NanoMaps

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-04-03T13:45:56+02:00

TrailRunner NanoMaps have been redesigned a bit to match more the visual appearance of Apple iPod designs.

From the original post: After struggling very long on how to describe a route in a very compact and portable way without using expensive GPS-Units which – if running trough the woods – wouldn't really do it anyway, I now added this kind of export. So if you are the lucky owner of the all so cool iPod Nano, this feature really is the best way to stay on track. With NanoMaps every waypoint on your route is displayed with a snap-shot of the map-area around it. Additionally the map is rotated in a way that the direction you are coming from is always at the lower edge of the screen. The orange arrow then shows you the direction you should turn to. The biggest benefit now is, that even if you did not put every possible track into your map you can still see that there are other tracks at a crossing. Because it is not possible to have subfolders in the nano Photo-Library, green squares with a readable route-code in the overview mode help you to find the route you are looking for.
So buy a nano, download some Podcasts, export your NanoMap and have fun with your exercise…

TrailRunner - Google Earth Export

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-03-29T18:27:22+02:00

What you see above is the TrailRunner Route export as a KML file, opened in Google Earth. Unfortunately Google Earth is very inaccurate for any elevation-data. So sometimes tracks seem to float above the ground. But it's fun anyway. Especially to to follow the track in a birds eye view animation.
> Google Earth Download

TrailRunner 0.9 (v76) - Elevation Chart

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-02-24T19:17:30+01:00

TrailRunner has undergone a rewrite of its internal data structure. Before v70 only way-points where able to store elevation information. This changed. Now the first fruit of this effort has come up. An elevation chart for the route description window. The elevation chart is fully interactive, so you can click and drag the selection marker to inspect the course of your route. On the left side you see a small nano-map of the current way-point giving you directions in what direction to turn. It's the same nano-map you can export on your iPod or cellphone. So the new route description window is a good precheck before you leave the house.

Scouting Frankfurt

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-02-23T22:29:04+01:00

Just for those being curious how a big TrailRunner map could look like. Here's a screenshot of my personal map in Frankfurt, Germany. One of the maps I regularly run in (The other one depicted in the screenshots elsewhere is for the Taunus area, a small hillside near to Frankfurt.)
As you can see, there are several "hot-spots" where many tracks and points cluster. Typically these are park-areas with nice route combinations to run in. Other tracks are just for connecting hot-spots for longer runs during a marathon preparation. In the south you see a route-area I sometimes cover when I'm running after work.
So this might inspire you to build your own, very complicated net of tracks, and TrailRunner can help you to make it easy to handle.

TrailRunner 0.9 - Exercise Plan

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-02-22T15:57:33+01:00

The TrailRunner exercise plan is based on a 3 week cycle. The cycle starts with a normal week, followed by a more intensive week and closing with a regeneration week. After this phase the overall intensity is increased by an individual factor like 5% and a new cycle starts.
The intensity itself is the distance in kilometers or miles. Please note, that the TrailRunner exercise plan is a base-plan, so the average heart-rate you should have during the workouts should be in your aerobic metabolism zone. How much you like to increase from cycle to cycle is something you can plan in advance. But an average from 1% to 5% would be appropriate.
What happens here is the following: You set yourself small goals, reach them, breathe a sigh of relief and set the next small goal. Step by step you'll increase the distances you can accomplish and TrailRunners route calculation will help you find the appropriate courses. The following example illustrates this:

Say in the first week you would start off with a distance of 10 Kilometers.
Then the following week is a intensive week. This means the distance is increased by 20% to 12 km
The next week is a recreation weak, with a reduced distance by 20%, so it's 8 km.
Now the cycle is finished and we head into the next phase. The base value of 10 km is now increased by the factor you planned before, say its 5%.
So the first week would start off with 10,5 km
The following week with 12,6 km
And so on. Over the a longer period of time the distances will increase like shown in the chart.

This said, you need to plan every unit per week. Add as many units to the Exercise Plan tab you would like to accomplish per week. Say you might want to have two units per week, you could call the first unit the "during the week unit" and the second the weekend-unit. The increase level for both units could be different. During week might increase by 1% and weekend by 5%.
The Exercise Calendar Tab then shows the concrete distance for one week. When the plan starts, something you set in the Exercise Plan with a given start date, you can add week by week and TrailRunner will calculate the values for you, following the rules given above.
Note: If you plan to use an adaptive exercise plan, that increases by the real values you have accomplished, then do not add all possible weeks in advance. After you have completed a week you can adjust the values of the given kilometers or miles by the real values you have accomplished. Then as you add a new week, the rules will take the changed values into account. For example if you did not make the base value of 16 kilometers but only 14, TrailRunner will not add 5% to the 16 Kilometers but to the 14.
The Exercise Calendar has two Buttons: Find Route and Apply. Find route takes the value of the selected workout unit and starts a find route for the given value in the main window. Apply will take the distance value of a selected route and replace the value of the selected workout unit by that. So the two buttons are something like the in and out of the exercise plan.
The third tab Event Calendar is very simple: Add event dates to it and track how many weeks are still left until the event will happen.

Topozone

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-02-07T16:03:59+01:00

If you live in the US you might want to check out topozone. It delivers the Web's most complete set of digital topographic maps, aerial photographs, and related mapping information to the professional and outdoor recreation communities.
The Web-Service tool combines all available USGS topographic maps in one Interface. Maps scale down to 1:25000 and have topographic altitude information drawn in.
The USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) serves the US by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth.

TrailRunners View Menu now has a direct link to topozone. So if you select a calibrated waypoint, you can check out what map data is available at topozone. The example above depicts the Central Park in New York.
> New York Central Park at topozone

TrailRunner 0.9 (v64) - Weblog

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-01-19T17:49:00+01:00

The TrailRunner Diary has improved, The new version can now be exported as a Weblog. For that you can enter a public comment on a route in the above field, together with a picture and a private note in the bottom field (if you can read any german you will notice this note above being very private). Together with your weblog entries, a route description is also being published as a gpx-file. This enables other users to find routes from other TrailRunners.
Currently the weblog can only be exported to an FTP Server. If you do not like the design of the default weblog, the template is based on RapidWeaver from RealMac, so you can choose any RapidWeaver compatible theme for your personal weblog.

Forgotten Gems

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2006-01-10T18:39:59+01:00

Do you still remember Sherlock, the internet service tool inside your Applications Folder? Well it's still there and it contains a little forgotten gem for all TrailRunners living in California.
AboveCalifornia is a Website and Webservice for Sherlock that features hiking maps for California mountains, campgrounds, ranger stations, lakes, trails and parks. You can also search pictures taken by hikers and even view some VR panoramas and Information from local weather stations.
> AboveCalifornia.com
Disclaimer: Do not steal. If you find any maps featured here useful, buy them.

TrailRunner QuickPick for Backup 3

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-12-13T21:30:38+01:00

To help you keep your personal TrailRunner data safe, I created a ‘QuickPick’ backup scheme for use in Apple’s Backup 3 software. For those new to .mac and Backup, a QuickPick defines a backup plan for a single application. For example, TrailRunner´s QuickPick lets you easily backup your TrailRunner preferences and your personal diary - each of which are stored deep in your users Library folder.

To use the set, copy it to ~/Library/Application Support/Backup/QuickPicks/ and add the QuickPick to your Personal Data & Settings Plan. You find the backup-plan in the Extras folder.

Geodaten wie gemalt

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-11-28T15:48:57+01:00

[Editors note: This post is only relevant for german speaking TrailRunners] Hinweis von einem schweizer TrailRunner, Geodaten für den schweizer Raum. Links ein Beispiel in der Gegend um Bern. Interessant an dieser Geodaten-Lösung ist das Übereinanderlegen von farbkorrigierten Luftbildern mit Vektordaten. Die Komposition sieht daher wie gemalt aus. Kaum zu glauben, welche bunte Vielfalt von verschiedenen Karten-Lösungen im Internet zur Verfügung stehen.
PS: Freue mich über jede Kartenmeldung. Was bisher aufgestöbert wurde, findet man in der Bibliothek.

NanoMaps for Mobiles

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-11-22T00:39:58+01:00

The NanoMaps feature is now available not only for the iPod nano but also for any kind of mobile device with a color-screen – especially for cellphones. To set the appropriate image-size the preferences for export now allow you to set the width and height for the NanoMaps. As a side effect the 320 x 240 resolution of the new big iPod is now supported too. For all who do not know the resolution of their device I started a collection for common devices like the T610 on the left. You can find the list in the Library (Bibliothek). If you did successfully export your directions onto any device that is not listed there, please leave me a note what device you are using and the resolution that fits best on its screen. In general I expect you to transfer the NanoMaps onto your cellphone using the Bluetooth File Exchange Application. Browse your device and drag the images into its pictures directory. My kudos to Ulf - thank you for the hint and keep on running.
> Download Version 0.8.3

Kartenmaterial für Hessen

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-11-17T13:33:00+01:00

[Editors note: This post is only relevant for german speaking TrailRunners] Frisch entdeckt, Kartenmaterial für Gesamthessen. Den GeoServer für Nordrheinwestphalen hatte ich bereits vorgestellt, hier das Äquivalent für Hessen. Inklusive Luftfotos und topographischem Material bis bestimmt 1:5.000 runter. Besser geht es gar nicht mehr. Am Bildrand steht zudem, wie vielen Metern die Bildkante in Wirklichkeit entspricht. Daher ist auch die grobe Kalibration der Karten gewährleistet. Für alle, die in Hessen wohnen und gerne im Wald unterwegs sind, ist das Kartenproblem nun gelöst. Viel Spass bei Routenlegen. Falls es für andere Gegenden Dienste dieser Art gibt, bitte mir eine Nachricht hinterlassen.
> http://lika.hessen.de > Linke Navigation > Hessen-Karte

English Site

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-10-06T01:19:00+02:00

TrailRunner should be fully localized to english by now. The application already was with build 44 but as of now all documentation and help is also available in your language. So feel free to play around with every feature that you didn't find by accident yet.
Actually I prefer the english online-help over the german and I will adjust that it the near future to keep both versions current in content and style.

Öffentliche GeoServer

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-09-21T00:30:00+02:00

Leider bieten GoogleMaps und Microsoft Virtual Earth für den europäischen Raum kaum ausreichend detailliertes Kartenmaterial. Dieses ist aber vorhanden, nämlich in den Landesvermessungsämtern – und das bis auf die Bebauungspläne hinunter. Mit gutem Beispiel geht hier das Land Nordrhein-Westphalen voran. Nach dem offen WMS-Standard kann sich hier jeder die passenden Karten digital aus dem Netz ziehen und verwenden. Zudem ist der WMS-Standard ein echter Standard mit dem verschiedene Datenquellen über ein Protokoll zusammengefasst werden können. Selbst die NASA bietet hierfür einen Zugang auf Ihre Satellitenfotos. Es wird also nicht mehr lange dauern, und der TrailRunner zieht für das persönliche Laufgebiet genau diese Daten direkt aus dem Internet.

> http://www.geoserver.nrw.de/home/gbdaten.html

Flash Earth

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-09-05T23:57:00+02:00

Na, da tut sich doch einiges im Netz. Auch wenn GISWiki zum Herausfinden von GPS-Koordianten bereits eine feine Sache war, Fash Earth hat wohl momentan mit Abstand am meisten Stil. Hier ein Beispiel vom Marais in Guerande (Frankreich). Die Koordinaten im Mittelkreuz stehen unten rechts in der Ecke. Das Format in Sekunden und Minuten (47° 19' 11") kann man so nicht direkt in den TrailRunner übernehmen, aber über "Link to this Location" werden in der Adressleiste des Browsers die Werte trailrunnergerecht in Dezimalform (Breite 47.319732, Länge -2.51186) dargestellt. Jetzt müssen Google, MSN & Co. nur noch eine bessere Qualität der Satellitendaten anbieten und vor allen Dingen Deutschland mal besser im Landkartenstil kartografieren. Ein anderes Internet-Projekt, openStreeMap.org, hat die USA bereits ziemlich gut erfasst. Sicherlich dauert das für unsere Breitengrade auch nicht mehr all zu lange.
Zum Kalibrieren von TrailRunner-Karten ist das alles jedoch schon heute vollkommen ausreichend. Es wird nur immer netter…

TrailRunner 0.7 (v37)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-08-30T22:16:00+02:00

Ein paar interessante neue Features im TrailRunner, wer sie testen will, ist herzlich eingeladen:

Trainingstagebuch: Zum Eintragen und Sammeln von Traingsdaten.
Kartenimport: Jetzt mit mehr als 72 dpi und im Programm drehbar.
Import von GPX-Tracklisten: Erschließt Online Routenportale wie http://www.gps-tour.info
Optimierte Streckennetzkonstruktion: Mit Befehl-Klick direkt an andere Abschnitte anknüpfen.
Mini-Tutorial: Für einen schnellen Start (siehe auch die Screenshots)

Freue mich über Feedback.

> Download | Änderungen

TrailRunner 0.7 (v35)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-08-23T21:11:00+02:00

Der TrailRunner geht in die nächste Runde. Der Import von Kartenmaterial, das Legen eines persönlichen Streckennetzes, das Planen von Routen und der Export/Import von Routendaten ist soweit fertig.

Der Versionsspung auf die 0.7 bedeutet, dass jetzt das Lauftagebuch kommt. In diesem Build noch als schäbiger Prototyp, aber immerhin schon ein Anfang. Auch wenn das mit der Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Mindestvoraussetzung bis jetzt noch nicht wirklich stimmte. Das Tagebuch läuft auf jeden Fall nur mit Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Viel Spaß.

> Download

TrailRunner 0.6 (v33)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-08-15T23:07:00+02:00

Beispiel: Laufrouten bei gps-tour.info

Endlich! Der TrailRunner wird langsam offen. Der Routenimport für GPX-Dateien (XML) und TrailRunner-Routenarchive ist nun (fast) abgeschlossen und die Daten werden schön in das Streckennetz eingewoben. Einen riesengroßen Fundus an Streckendaten gibt es bei gps-tour.info. Übrigens, ist schon jemand glücklicher Besitzer eines Garmin Forerunner?
Bei der Gelegheit sind nun auch die Werkzeuge zum Legen von Streckenabschnitten besser geworden. Man kann nun einen Streckenabschnitt legen und gleichzeitig einen anderen Streckenabschnitt auftrennen, um daran anzuknüpfen.
Wer übrigens noch GPS-Koordinaten zum Kalibrieren seiner Karten benötigt, kann das Online-Werkzeug GISWiki nutzen. Es basiert auf GoogleMaps und zeigt zu einer Position im Satellitenfoto die GPS-Koordinaten an.

TrailRunner 0.6 (v31)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-08-10T23:54:00+02:00

Zwischendurch ein kleines Wartungsupdate nach meinem Urlaub. Kleinere Verbesserungen gibt es beim Drucken der Karte, hier wird wirklich nur der auf dem Bildschirm sichtbare Bereich gedruckt. Beim Zoomen in die Karte hüpft die Anzeige nicht mehr hin und her, sondern versucht immer den "sweet-spot" also den aktuell interessanten Punkt auf der Karte, im Auge zu behalten. Neu ist das (grundsätzliche) Drehen von Kartensegmenten, einen Link zur Online-Hilfe und ein Menüpunkt für Feedback an den Autor, beides zu finden im Menü Hilfe. Viel Spaß…

> Download

OpenSource Geodaten

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-08-07T20:27:00+02:00

Nachdem am Wochenende in Frankfurt die Internationale Wikimedia Konferenz zu Ende gegangen ist, hier ein paar interessante Projekte rund um freie Geodaten:

openstreetmap
Für alle Freaks, die mit Ihrem GPS-Gerät Städte kartografieren. Hier kann man seine gesammelten Werke hoch laden. Leider ist nur USA und nach der Wikimania natürlich auch Teile Frankfurts abgedeckt. Stichwort: GPX-Datenformat

mapbender.org

Eine Firma in Bonn, die sich seit vielen Jahren mit Geodaten beschäftigt, hat hier eine interessante Seite zusammengestellt. Die Daten in der Karte kommen von verschiedenen Servern und werden übereinander gelegt. Dazu gibt es ein Standardprotokoll für die URL, die man an einen Geoserver senden kann. Dieser liefert dann exakt den Kartenausschnitt auf unserem Planeten zurück, für den er Daten anbietet. Das kann eine Weltkarte, ein Wetterbericht oder auch eine Übersicht über Vogelbrutgebiete sein. In der Kombination erhält man eine vollständige Karte. Leider sind die Daten noch zu ungenau und daher nichts für den TrailRunner, aber das kann sich schnell ändern. Stichwort: OGC-Protokoll

[Update]
GISWiki
Über das Online-Werkzeigt GetCoorM ist es möglich, die GPS-Koordinaten zu einem bestimmten Ort herauszufinden, wenn man kein GPS-Gerät hat. GetCoorM verwendet dazu GoogleMaps und gibt beim Klick auf einen Punkt in der Karte die entsprechende Koordinate aus.

GPS-Tour Forum

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-12T22:50:00+02:00

Es gibt bereits eine Community für GPS-Tourdaten auf die ich heute gestoßen bin. Ich versuche also mich hier etwas anzudocken und für die Nutzer des TrailRunners eine tolle Ressource zu erschließen.

> Feierabendrunde in Wiesbaden

Wikipedia Georeferenzierung

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-12T21:48:00+02:00

Bei der Wikipedia arbeitet man daran, möglichst viele Artikel mit Geo-Informationen zu ergänzen. Hier wird sicherlich in Zukunft einiges entstehen. Zudem werden hier einige Geoinformationssysteme gelistet und gepflegt.
> Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Georeferenzierung

Google Earth Hacks

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-11T19:46:00+02:00

Eine neue Website Google Earth Hacks sammelt und diskutiert alle möglichen Themen rund um die GoogleMaps Mania. Dort findet man auch nette Auszüge aus GoogleMaps wie z.B. Teile der Tour de France Strecke.
> http://www.googleearthhacks.com/

TrailRunner 0.6 (v27)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-10T21:28:00+02:00

Der TrailRunner nimmt langsam Form an. Die neue Version kommt wesentlich aufgeräumter daher. Das „brushed-metal Theme” von iTunes macht die Oberfläche viel kontrastreicher und besser erfassbar. Die beiden schrecklichen Reiter Karten und Routen haben endlich ihren Dienst getan (in der letzten Version verschwand zum Glück schon dieser katastrophale Unschärfe-Schieberegler für die Routenplanung). Man findet die Karteneinstellungen (Kalibrierung) und die persönliche Laufgeschwindigkeit nun unter den Einstellungen. Gleiches gilt für die Routenplanung, die sollte nun so gut wie selbsterklärend sein.
Neue Funktionen gibt es eigentlich keine, sondern nur weitere Optimierungen. Mit Alt-Klick kann man in der Karte die Darstellung der Abschnitts-Etiketten durchrotieren. Über das Menü Darstellung und die dazugehörigen Tastaturkürzel können Streckenabschnitte nun direkt bewertet werden.
Nach meinem Urlaub geht's dann weiter in Richtung Lauftagebuch. Viel Spaß beim Planen.

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TrailRunner 0.5 (v26)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-05T19:57:00+02:00

Die neue Version kümmert sich um die Darstellung von Attributen zu Streckenabschnitten in der Kartendarstellung.

Streckenabschnitte kommentieren
Manche Streckenabschnitte mag man lieber und möchte diese – wenn es geht – eher laufen als andere. Dazu gibt man einem Streckenabschnitt eine höhere Wertung. Der Routenautomat bevorzugt bei der Suche Streckenabschnitte mit einer höheren Wertung.
Zur besseren Orientierung bei der manuellen Planung kann man über das Menü Darstellung > Abschnitte mit > … festlegen, welche Informationen in der Kartendarstellung für Streckenabschnitte angezeigt werden sollen. Die folgenden drei Darstellungsvarianten stehen zur Verfügung: Name, Wertung und Distanz.

Man verändert Informationen zu Streckenabschnitten, wie auch zu Wegpunkten, über die Info-Palette.

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GPS-Koordinaten herausfinden

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-04T15:43:00+02:00

Über GoogleMap und auch über andere Dienste kann man einen beliebigen GPS-Punkt in der Karte anzeigen lassen (Beispiel) . Interessant für das Kalibrieren von TrailRunner-Karten wäre nur der umgekehrte Weg. Falls jemand herausfindet, wie man die GPS-Koordinate eines Klicks in eine GoogleMap herausfindet, dann bitte Bescheid geben.

TrailRunner 0.5 (v25)

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-07-01T21:48:00+02:00

Die neue Version bietet im Wesentlichen eine Verschlankung und Verbesserung der Routenqualität bei der automatischen Berechnung. Hat man Streckenabschnitte mit einer Wertung versehen, werden diese nun perfekt so eingebaut, das ein guter Kompromiss zwischen schön und passender Länge gefunden wird.
Neu ist auch das automatische Umsortieren von Streckenabschnitten in eine psychologisch wertvolle Reihenfolge: man läuft auf Umwegen weit raus ins Feld und dann möglichst auf dem schnellsten und direktesten Weg wieder zurück.
Für die manuelle Routenmanipulation kann man jetzt in einer Route einen Wegpunkt auf einen unbenutzten ziehen. Die Route wird dann (wie in der Hilfe beschrieben) über diesen Punkt gelegt.

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Google Earth

berbie.trailrunner@mac.com — 2005-06-29T10:28:00+02:00

Google Earth - Explore, Search and Discover

Heute ging Google Earth online, eine virtuelle 3D Ansicht auf unseren Planeten. GoogleEarth läuft aber (noch) nicht auf MacOS X und (wahrscheinlich) ist Europa nicht (vollständig) kartographiert. Dass man in 3D durch eine Stadt fliegen kann ist schon eine sehr schöne Spielerei.
Bei der Gelegenheit: Der TrailRunner unterstützt bereits maps.google.com und multimap.com, wenn man kalibrierte Karten nutzt.

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