• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

Caltopo, Geospatial PDF's, and ForeFlight

cubflier

MEMBER
Palmer, AK
As a side effect of another project I'm working on I ran into a ForeFlight capability that I wish Garmin Pilot could do. It is the incorporation of Geospatial PDF's as map overlays. Has anyone tried this on ForeFlight before? I'm new to it but it does look a bit more detailed view than I'm used to.



It looks promising if it's useable.

Jerry
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0006.jpg
    IMG_0006.jpg
    77.6 KB · Views: 263
  • IMG_0005.jpg
    IMG_0005.jpg
    85.8 KB · Views: 269
Last edited:
Good info! Topo maps were one of my biggest disappointments in Foreflight and one of the reasons I kept GP.

For comparison, screen shots from my iPhone.

IMG_0327.JPG

IMG_0328.JPG


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0327.JPG
    IMG_0327.JPG
    338.5 KB · Views: 269
  • IMG_0328.JPG
    IMG_0328.JPG
    306.3 KB · Views: 251
Last edited:
Good info! Topo maps were one of my biggest disappointments in Foreflight and one of the reasons I kept GP.

I went with GP for the same reasons. However, the topo shading lacks the detail I wanted. I have bought the topo disk for my 660 which is fine but it would be nice use maps that CalTopo can generate on the ipad as an overlay given the ipads size and resolution. The detail of these Geospatial PDF's are quite amazing compared to the pilots terrain shading. The pictures I posted aren't doing it justice.

Part of the purpose of this thread was also to give a thumbs up for CalTopo. The mapping capabilities of CalTopo is worth a try for any pilot especially if backcountry skiing is in the mix.

Screen Shot 2019-10-12 at 9.03.49 AM.jpg
This is photo shows slope angle shading as an overlay on a USGS topo map. To have this combination available in the GP app would be quite meaningful. Another feature in CalTopo that I'm finding useful is the ease at which you can create a detailed route through terrain and export it to a Garmin device. It does a better and cleaner job than the two mapping products (InReach Maps, Basecamp) that Garmin provides.

Jerry
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2019-10-12 at 9.03.49 AM.jpg
    Screen Shot 2019-10-12 at 9.03.49 AM.jpg
    276.7 KB · Views: 316
Last edited:
I'm playing with Caltopo but it isn't intuitive on a smart phone. I'll try later from a desktop. I agree that in a scale less than 2 miles GP topos aren't good. When I do ground-based stuff I've been using Gaia.
 
Here is another comparison between Foreflight with a Geospatial pdf overlay vs the Garmin Pilot app in the same area.



These are linked images so you can see the difference in the terrain detail difference in the two apps. Keep in mind the Foreflight with the overlay will only show the map you have selected and I would imagine there are size limitations to the PDF overlays. Toggling the overlay on and off in Foreflight is quite simple incase you want to fall back the underlying chart for aviation specific information. I did talk to Garmin about the possibility of including this feature and they seemed interested especially since Foreflight is ahead of the game here.

The colored lines are detailed terrain routes that are divided into one mile segments numerically. Making these types of routes is quick and easy on CalTopo as compaired other options out there. The GPX output that comes from CalTopo imports directly to Garmin devices without any goofy auto-label clutter that is characteristic of some of the other options out there.


Jerry
 
I love the topo maps as an option to review terrain in a given area. Can you point out the link to where you are getting the files and cost?

I played with the layers feature in Foreflight which allowed me to create a "skin" to place over the Sectional map rather than replace the Foreflight like the topo map does. I made float plane guides for the states of MN and WI with some notes on the lakes and color coding if operations are used. I found the flags I put on each to create a note with that skin are a bit hard on the eyes on a large view but when you scale down in actual use in the plane they aren't that bad. (There is alink under float operations to download the map files I created)

The sky is the limit with adding data to Foreflight. I am working on scanning and uploading a pdf file that will display the State of MN info page for each airport.

From Foreflight: Plates & Airport Diagrams (BYOP): The “Bring Your Own Plates” feature allows you to import PDF files that you can access in the Plates view or in the Airports view under the Procedures tab. Files imported this way behave the same as procedure plates and airport diagrams downloaded through ForeFlight, including support for georeferencing if geospatial PDFs are used.

The State of MN guide has really good intel on cars and restaurants and hotels as well as camping info and airport contacts and should be handy addition to have in the cockpit. I am trying to get this done in the near future.

I would like to see a sticky file here on the forum where we can upload Foreflight files for other SC.org guys to use. Heck we could even customize a BYOP to include if there is a SC.org guy in the area around an airport if you get in a pickle and need a helping hand.
 
CalTopo.com will get you to their site. CalTopo is a map generating tool so you can explore it's features to get the feel of it, then construct your own map set and down load it to Foreflight. There are plenty of youtube tutorials to get familiar with the CalTopo interface. There is a very small learning curve. I would start at CalTopo.com. Orient the map to your location. There is a search block to speed that process. Once you are in your local area then explore the preset layers available. Then customize a map to the look and feel that suits your need. From there you hit print. There are two options that will overlay in Foreflight. They are Geospatial PDF and MBTiles. I would start by printing to a Geospatial PDF. Next step is to copy it to Foreflight via email or iTunes. iTunes needs a connection but is so much easier than emailing files and copying via Foreflights share sheet. Furthermore, you can copy very large files via iTunes, whereas, email provider limitations kick in quite early.

Once you have done this you just tap the layers icon in Foreflight and you are there. A note about MBTiles. This is the real way to go, however, there is a bit of complexity in understanding exactly what's in the MBTile structure. Ultimately a merge of the MBTile databases is necessary and that's not for everyone I would assume.

I agree with your comment on a sticky type of repository.

CalTopo is basically free but if you want to do any real huge map down loads a subscription upgrade is a good idea. Keep in mind that you could do a one time upgrade, make all the maps you want, and be done.

Here is an example of the MBTile format in action.



Good Luck and let me know how it works for you.

Jerry
 
Last edited:
Here is a screencast video of an mbtiles file as an overlay. I'm slowly assembling more coverage area to see how large a file the iPad can handle as an overlay. This one is about 100mb. I pruned out the higher zoom levels so that it will snap into view only when you zoom the screen in. The goal is to put the entire state of Alaska on it with another less cluttered (than sectionals) transparent layer of airport facilities and the like.

One of the issues is that Caltopo limits the down load size to about 50mb worth of tiles and assembling them into one file requires a small amount of programming to merge two database files correctly. So far so good. I hope there is an interest in this stuff from Garmin Pilot users. My discussions with their tech support indicates an interest but they are not going to do it unless their customer base is interested.

Jerry

 
Jerry it looks like you just created a service business.
Pilots tell you the areas they want, you compile them and prune them, email them back.
3 Beers per map and your afternoons are booked.

Pb


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org
 
Jerry,

Fyi, here's an iPhone screen shot of the Gaia open hiking map. I can add several overlays with adjustable transparency. These map apps are getting really good. The strength of this map, and probably the CalTopo map, is it can be zoomed in close. Garmin Pilot blurs out below the 2 mile scale.

IMG_0442.JPG


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0442.JPG
    IMG_0442.JPG
    245.3 KB · Views: 212
Foreflight, Caltopo, Google Earth, Sattelite pcs etc for off airport flying

I went with GP for the same reasons. However, the topo shading lacks the detail I wanted. I have bought the topo disk for my 660 which is fine but it would be nice use maps that CalTopo can generate on the ipad as an overlay given the ipads size and resolution. The detail of these Geospatial PDF's are quite amazing compared to the pilots terrain shading. The pictures I posted aren't doing it justice.

Part of the purpose of this thread was also to give a thumbs up for CalTopo. The mapping capabilities of CalTopo is worth a try for any pilot especially if backcountry skiing is in the mix.

View attachment 45131
This is photo shows slope angle shading as an overlay on a USGS topo map. To have this combination available in the GP app would be quite meaningful. Another feature in CalTopo that I'm finding useful is the ease at which you can create a detailed route through terrain and export it to a Garmin device. It does a better and cleaner job than the two mapping products (InReach Maps, Basecamp) that Garmin provides.

Jerry[/QUOTE
Hallo Jerry,
taking your Rainy Pass picture as a trigger (flying through there with more detailed info definetely helps...and I used the same picture) here is what I did to get geo information as detailed as possible over and above what is offered commercially...
So far I used Foreflight and the Alaska Gazetteer as navigation base for cross country and off airport in Alaska.
What I have come up with is basically cutting Alaska into 5 regions and building my own "electronic-region-map" by using Excel and the topo maps of the 50ies to the 80ies of the government which are 1:250.000 up to the last corner in AK and which show very good detail as compared to Alaska Gazetteer. These maps "cut together" in excel get supplemented by caltopo, sattelite pictures,Google Earth Screen Shots and real fotos of the location and all sorts of sources and downsized to thumbnails which I can resize if needed - in offline modus. With the additional bonus of using the other Excel tables and add cabin infos, glacier maps, tide schedules etc.
So Foreflight I use for navigation and excel "region-map" down to the last detail of my interest such as Icy Bay landing spots for example - see attachment - with guyot glacier landing spot in expanded mode...
An integration or overlap with foreflight would be nice but I am not sure worth the effort - as I typically do not need the GPS dot once on that level of detail...
The I-Pad then "only" needs to cope with the 500MB of one of those region-maps...excel example Wrangells Icy Bay.JPGCurious about what you guys think about it
Best regards
Axel
 

Attachments

  • excel example Wrangells Icy Bay.JPG
    excel example Wrangells Icy Bay.JPG
    171.2 KB · Views: 294
Thank you for the updates everyone. I'm working with CalTopo to gen a detailed map around Icy Bay and McCarthy. Very helpful when doing sight-see flights to see creek and detailed peak/lake names.
 
Really enjoying this topic!! I have been playing with different ideas for getting topographic maps in the cockpit on my iPad and I am intrigued by Jerry's work with the MBTiles. Definitely going to look into that in more detail.

For those that are interested here is what I've been doing the last couple years; downloading the topographic maps I want to my iPad with the Gaia GPS app. I've had the Gaia app for quite a while and was using it primarily for hiking, but I've found it to be pretty functional for flying as well. You can choose a map layer you like (I use the USGS Topo by ESRI and USGS) and then download an area for offline use. I normally reduce the quality slightly to save space and make the downloads quicker. For example, at 1:192,000 scale or zoom level 12, you can download almost the entire state of AK at under 2GB total. But you don't need to do the whole state, just select the area or areas you want and download. There are several other layers and of course more resolution if you want/need it. You can also import waypoints, make folders, and all kinds of other functionality.

Once I have Gaia set up the way I want I can "app switch" between ForeFlight for the aeronautical information and Gaia for the topographic info. My primary use of both apps is for work in helicopters. ForeFlight works great for ferrying and flying around controlled airspaces and Gaia works well in the field when I need more detail.

Some downsides to using Gaia:
  1. The requirement to app switch, which on occasion can be glitchy. Occasionally I have to quit the app and reload, which can be annoying in flight!
  2. Sometimes Gaia auto-zooms to a level which might be good for walking but is WAY too tight for flying!! This requires zooming back out a bit to find a useable distance.
  3. These days Gaia is a subscription service, so it costs a bit every year.
  4. The Gaia app on a tablet or phone is pretty good, but definitely not excellent. Their website platform leaves a lot to be desired.

Hopefully all this adds to the options for those looking to use topographic maps in the cockpit.
 
Gaia is a nice app but it doesn't cut it for this type of application in many ways. I have a pro subscription to Caltopo so I can down load larger areas in MBTiles format. I forget if a free user can download in this format but if you can then download an area and move it to FF and you will see the advantages. It's not the most user friendly process but it's not terribly technical either. To make it really nice you trim out the lower zoom levels 1-9 leaving 10 and above. This will allow you snap in and out with the zoom finger gestures.

Right now I run a 1 gig size MBTile with Avalanche danger slope angle shading on USGS map. I can still have aeronautical info overlaid on top of that which is nice. If I want see the underlying FF Topo or Sectional Chart just zoom out snap back to FF layers view.

It sure is handy and rises above the momentary novelty of so many of these other techno fad apps.

Jerry
 
Hey Jerry,

I am really happy to have stumbled across your posts with the MBTiles and I'm in the process of working it out. I do like CalTopo a lot since discovering it a while back, it has many advantages over Gaia GPS for sure, and I like the feel of their website much more.

I've just started playing around with the MBTiles, you can definitely download them up to a point with a free CalTopo account. I do have a couple questions too actually; are you making multiple MBTiles and loading them as a content pack in FF? Or maybe you were able to just make a single MBTile that covers all the areas you want? Also, how are you trimming the zoom levels? When I save a MBTile it is only giving me one zoom level to choose from and no options to trim.

I did send one over to FF and I'm having a few problems with it so far. The tile does not disappear unless I deselect it from the Aeronautical layers. Also, once it is on the screen when I zoom out it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Much bigger than the actual tile I saved and once it is there it blocks the sectional that is underneath. Anyhow, like I said I've just started trying to figure it all out, but if you have some more tips they are greatly appreciated!

Orin
 
Using Caltopo's print feature to download to MBTiles file there should be a target zoom layer selection box on the left. I go to zoom level 15. You can trim the lower zoom levels 1-10 with a program call DB Browser for SQlite using sql commands. I have a small program that I wrote to do it that I could share with you off line (pm). I do combine multiple files as Caltopo download limits even at the pro level the amount of tiles to be down loaded. The file I run has 71000 tiles in it. Trimming the lower zoom levels will fix the problem of having to deselect Aeronautical layers. My MBTile file is always running on my iphone and ipad and I just use zoom to get in and out of that layer. It's pretty slick.

Jerry
 
Hallo Jerry and Orin,
very interesting what you are doing - would you be so kind to include a screenshot of your FF result which allows an optical impression on how the result looks like?
Would be super...
Best Axel
 
Hallo Jerry and Orin,
very interesting what you are doing - would you be so kind to include a screenshot of your FF result which allows an optical impression on how the result looks like?
Would be super...
Best Axel

Hi Axel,
I can't take any real credit here...just trying to learn from Jerry! If you scroll up on this thread to post #8 he made a little video that shows the desired result. Basically you can run FF and then as you zoom in it automatically changes over to a topographic map. I'm not there yet...but happy to be working toward it!
Orin
 

A view of the current file I'm using with some explanation of the process. I do not think that this is a process that most will enjoy since there is a bit of effort in the download and assembly process. I'm by no means an expert on this subject and was lucky enough to muddle my way to the end product. It serves a real function in my flying and I'm glad I went through the effort.



Have fun - Jerry
 
Hallo Jerry,
thank you very much for the insight - that is a very nice overlap and integration with FF including traffic.
Maybe the following question is very easy to answer for you.
What I am very interested in is the possibility to include "screenshots" into the FF map or your Caltopo integrated map.
It should be possible to position the screenshot at a place of my interest in a very small size which does not disturb the overall look of the map (especially when down sizing or up sizing). When zooming into the map it should be possible to then resize it to a readable size.
Why is this important to me? I have collected hundreds of interesting places to land for me (mostly places where you find wildlife or trekking options or simply super cool topography to look at etc) and would love to structure it into the FF map for better planning when I am flying through Alaska as I always follow the good weather spots and this can change very quickly with readjustment of flightpath and landing areas as you know.
So far I solved it through a big excel sheet based on old but detailed maps - I also ask myself the question if the FF software would be capable of processing this additional data as my AK-excel maps are on average 600MB heavy...
Any ideas would help me a lot as I love flying there but I am certainly not knowledgable with these software questions...
Best Axel
 
Axel,
I liked your Excel setup, pretty creative way of using that program I thought!! I don't know if this would help but I recently watched a little video about "content packs" with Foreflight. You can create waypoints that have other documents attached to them, like a pdf for example. If you search for "foreflight content packs" in google it should be among the first videos that comes up. Maybe this could help with attaching pictures to specific places in FF? Not sure it does much for the topographics though! Let me know what you think.
Orin
 
Orin - Thanks for the heads up on content packs. Watched that content pack video last night. I agree that Axel's goals might fit into that feature. I'm sure I will be exploring it's capabilities too.

Another thought on the MBTile approach is to look at a program called MapTiler. I have been using the free version to view MBTile files prior to passing them to the iPad but it occurred to me that starting with a geospatial PDF from CalTopo then converting it to MBTiles via MapTiler could be a possible shortcut since you can get more area in a geospatial PDF than an MBTile down load. The paid versions of MapTiler get expensive in a hurry but for $29 you can get one that will let you customize zoom levels which is needed since the free version only allows zoom level 5-10 which have no value.

Have fun - Jerry
 
....content pack video is a real help! Thanks a lot, I watched it.
On a first look - it is doable - however the process is promising a lot of sweat until the data is where you need it. Plus the leeway of failure (ie wrong folder names etc) is pretty big. Looking back on what data amount I would have to tranfer, I am not sure I would get the time off from my other job or family.
The waypoint approach I tested 2 years ago - I did not pursue it because say 30 entries would already block the view of the map with the symbols when you look at Alaska as a whole in FF....(if you watch the content pack video you will get the idea...)
I think I will ask their support team....in todays world there must be the possibility of drag and drop and zoom data (such as a sceenshot) into a FF map and be able to exactly freeze it at the location of the map where I want it with the possibility of zooming it up to a readable size again later on...(so it is getting the right GPS coordinates and folders in the background through some intelligent software...)
Last year I stumbled over a Caltopo-Map with all the off airport landing strips in the Brooks Range, ANWR and Arctic put together by an Outfitter-Flying Service kind of operation- this really got my imagination going - maybe they integrated it with FF or Garmin - I will ask them also. At least I learned that way that the Caltopo approach cannot be so wrong if the local experts up there use it and still rediscover their proven drop off and pick up strips8).
Best Axel
 
I did create a content pack with a single waypoint which was my home base airport PAAQ and used just the navdata folder with an aerial view of Palmer Airport in the form of a pdf. It works fine, just click the waypoint and select the image pdf. I do see your issues with converting a pile of data and the other semi annoying label size issue if you have multiple points close together.

To make the simple content pack I just created a waypoint via Caltopo, exported it to kml, and associated the pdf image to that point by inserting the point name at the beginning of the pdf file name (per FF instructions). It seems like a feature with some potential.

Jerry
 
screenshot

tordrillo mountain lodge garmin inreach data.JPG
....also the possibility to play with the data later for planning and decision making seems really practical...
As I fun fly the area in March and July next year...covid and border travel bans permitting I definitely will drop by to have a closer look
Best Axel
 

Attachments

  • tordrillo mountain lodge garmin inreach data.JPG
    tordrillo mountain lodge garmin inreach data.JPG
    189.6 KB · Views: 123
Back
Top