Offline GPS maps in Palm Pre

(*forward)

 maptool on pre
mobile atlas creator on windows:

 Posted 05 June 2010 - 04:24 PM
Offline GPS maps in Palm Pre is working perfectly through the following process:- No more missing calls if using GPS w/ Google Maps !

Download MapTool (available free in the app catalog) or download ipk from precentral or attached here: public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif de.metaviewsoft.maptool_1.0.1_all.zip

Download Mobile Atlas Creator from this site: mobile atlas creator, or attached here: public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif Mobile Atlas Creator 1.7.zip

Install Maptool (MT) IPK on Pre. Then Unzip the Mobile Atlas Creator (MAC) on your PC in any folder and run the exe (or jar if in linux)
Move around to the city you want the maps for (use cursor keys to move around; click on the map once if cursor keys are doing zoom in/out instead of panning)

Mark a rectangular area for the whole city after zooming to appropriate level (11 works for me).

Click on left panel to 'select entered coords' for the area marked.

Select 'Google Maps' as the source

Select appropriate zoom levels which you want to use (16 works best for me, so i usually select 15,16,17 - initially just select 16 to try out as higher numbers have zillions of map tile files. After selecting these levels it'll show you the no of tiles to download.

Give some name if you want in 'Atlas Content' section and click 'add selection'

Select 'OSMTracker Tile Storage' as the output format

Give a output folder by clicking on 'settings' and going to the 2nd last tab. Then you can give proxy etc if required. Pl note that the default no of threads is set to 4 and some ISPs restrict the no of requests/sec so you may need to reduce it if you get failures or a message in your browser (while MAC is downloading tiles) that no of requests per second exceeded.

Now click Create Atlas and it'll download the map tiles. If MAC gives a dialog box that downloading of some tiles failed you can click retry a few times (you've click pause/resume after retry as it remains in paused mode after clicking retry) or click ignore/continue or just tick the 'ignore all errors box'

Once done, open the output folder & browse inside 2-3 levels till you find the folder Google Maps. Copy this folder to the Pre USB Drive / (root - top level) as .MapTool

This folder will have subfolders like 15, 16,17 etc. Download other cities you want and copy them also over the same folders.

Run the MT on your PRE and go into preferences and select 'offline' as the renderer.

You will now be able to see you GPS location on the Map w/o turning on the data (provided you are in the same city for which you downloaded the maps !).GPS will take a minute to get first fix. MT will also show the GPS error (for eg if you are inside a building with bad GPS signal reception) and elevation etc.

Here's a screenshot of maptool on pre and mobile atlas creator on windows:


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Sharing MMR (mumbai) & NCR (delhi) downloaded maps (googlemaps) in case someone wants (around 100 MB - zoom levels 11 to 17)


http://www.4shared.com/file/SmnIW0Hh/NCR__MMR_-_rename_to_MapTool.html