CartoMobile supports a variety of mechanisms for using image data as a Base Map (see our article on Base Maps), and there are a variety of commercial and free sources for these various mechanisms.
Recently, the folks at MapQuest have also made available an OpenStreetMap-style tile server using imagery from a variety of sources. Thanks to them for providing this service. If you want to make use of their service, follow these steps:
- Create a new map or edit an existing map using Change Map in the gear menu
- Tap Add Custom OSM Server to add the new Base Map
- Type a label in the Layer Label box
- Type the following into the URL box:
http://oatile1.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/sat - Tap Done
When you re-enter the Map, you will now have access to this layer, courtesy of the folks at MapQuest.
They also have a differently-styled street map available using their data, which you can enable by following the same steps as above, and using:
http://otile1.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/osm
as the URL
This didn't seem to work for me. I tried on my iphone and it seemed to cause a colossal crash which required a restart. On my ipad it just doesn't bring up any maps.
tried that lURL
http://oatile1.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/sat
and all it came up with was
Sorry - we haven't been able to serve the content you asked for :-(
I didn't have any problems getting the mapquest tiles to show up using the instructions above. I did have some trouble a few days ago when looking at this, so they may have had some systems problems. The alternate OSM tiles don't seem to be working today (giving an error message).
Keep in mind that going directly to the URL in a web browser won't yield a correct result, as it is just a tile server, so you need to provide a valid tile address in order to get anything of use back. For example:
http://otile1.mqcdn.com/tiles/1.0.0/sat/15/5240/12661.jpg
Hi Gaige. I've not used a tile server before. How do you locate and request the tile you're after?
Cartographica and CartoMobile should automatically select the right tiles as part of using the tile server. This is how we access OpenStreetMap tiles or any other system that complies to that "standard" for naming. Basically, the tiles are defined as {z}/{x}/{y}.jpg where z is the zoom level (power of two), and x and y are the tile coordinates.
However, you should never have to find the tiles yourself, as the Cartographica and CartoMobile will do that.
Hi Gaige.
I'm still baffled by this. Is there a way to point Cartomobile at the server you're suggesting such that it will "draw down" the aerial photography just as it does with OSM, or do you need to locate it in Cartographica and then cache it or something?
If it's as simple as turning up on site and drawing down aerial imagery as we do with OSM would be super-useful for us when surveying trees.
Cheers
Scott,
I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say "draw down" here, but I just verified again that this works here by following the directions at the top of the page. Basically, this provides a tiled satellite layer using the MapQuest imagery, exactly as the OpenStreetMap tiles are provided in CartoMobile.
Note that there is no way in the current version of CartoMobile to download tiles pre-emptively so that you can work offline. In order to work offline, you've got to get a non-tiled image source and load that up, such as a GeoTIFF, geolocated JPEG, MrSID, etc.
-Gaige
I was able to access the MapQuest imagery on the iPad; and it worked fine.
Nice additional capability.
I will be trying it on my iPhone shortly.
Jim
I was able to access the MapQuest sat imagery on my iPhone; and it worked just fine.
Kudoos to CartoMobile!!!
Jim