Re: A How To - OpenOrieenteeringMapper through OOM to PurplePen

Posted by MichaelRaz on
URL: http://maprun.308.s1.nabble.com/A-How-To-OpenOrieenteeringMapper-through-OOM-to-PurplePen-tp936p973.html

Appreciate the feedback!  Some comments (in no particular order) then another issue I seem to have found:

"- Saved it as a OCAD using latest one (v10). ":  You should have a version 12 option - check the version of OOM you are using.  not sure it makes any difference but...

"- Just looking at it in Google Earth Pro - all the controls are 'pretty much' at the locations I expect from the map.":  I'm hoping you are talking about very small differences here and there, rather than a general shifting?  If you include the KMZ map in GE, the controls should match on that but you may find the KMX does not match perfectly with GE due to mapping errors.  If there is a general shifting of all controls something is going wrong.

"- So I think a usual practice of moving the controls around in the GE and re-saving the KML will work fine.":  In general some adjustment will be needed regardless of the origin of the "paper" map. Small inaccuracies on a map are not generally even noticed by a runner and, in some cases control locations are adjusted (from reality) on purpose (to make them more visible on the map as an example.  Problem with GPS punching is that, on a 1:10000, a 1mm shift in a control is 10m on the ground.

"- I tried using the o-utils but had some problems with them (also found it too fiddly to have to work with an extra zip file)":  I, like you, have my own tools to convert an XML to KML courses so I have not used the O-Util in a long time - I should have checked.  
Despite the XML V3 being georeferenced (lon/lat), the O-Util convert utility pops an error that it is not georeferenced or not UTM.  I now remember running into this in the early days.  I have not figured out the issue with the IOF-XML-V3 but, ages ago, figured out the problem with the V2 export from Purple Pen.  The V2 XML is in UTM which any applications needs to know the zone to be able to use and this is not available in the XML produced by Purple Pen.  If you export a V2 XML, edit it in a text editor and add (second line):

replacing the 18T North with your UTM zone.  With this file the O-Util application will convert to KMLs.  I'm not sure if there is an issue with the KML in that the default PP Start and finish control names are STA1 FIN1 rather than S1 F1.  Need to test that.

Like you, I wrote my own tools to handle a bunch of these things.  Given that we often have multiple courses for a site (developed in a single PP file in my case), my workflow (not necessarily good for anyone else) is:
Export XMLV3 (or the V2 if you provide the UTM zone)course from Purple Pen (including the All Controls).
Drop this on my tool and it pulls out (depends on options selected) the All Controls KML (and, if selected, the KMLs for all courses adjusted with correct Start/finish names and course name to Course1).
I can then adjust the All Controls KML in GE as required and save.  Here is where I initially found it a pain as any of these changes are not in the individual course KMLs so I added:
Drag and drop the updated All controls KML and the original XML where the original XML gets updated with any changes to control locations.  Basically the XML becomes my Master file (as it, unlike the KMLs, contains all the controls and all the courses together) which I can then use to, once again, produce updated Course KMLs. I can also re-sequence the control numbers from 1,2,3 ... for each course (rather than the control codes that will be like 34,53,36 ...).  This makes it much easier for the runner to use HITMO and match the control numbers showing on the apps to the control sequence.