Some time ago in a new version of Locus we introduced a complete portfolio of outdoor maps of the German-Austrian cartography publishing house Kompass. For Locus, this event was one of the most important milestones, meaning connection of the latest mobile orientation technology and quality map data of a renowned traditional producer.

Briefly from history

The first hiking map sold under the trademark Kompass was issued by Heinz Fleischmann, an engineer from Munich, in 1953. It covered area of Berchtesgaden - Bad Reichenhall, was drawn in detailed 1:50 000 scale and contained a decent amount of  useful information for hiking and mountaineering, ski route tips, pubs, shelters and other facts. At that time it was a great success and meant a humble start of one of the biggest cartographic publishing houses in Europe.

Only after seven years Kompass founded a branch in Innsbruck (AT) and presented 33 outdoor titles. The house gradually became an acquisition of  the company Mairs Geografischer Verlag and its headquarters moved to Innsbruck in Tirol. 2003 meant the beginning of digitization and Kompass for the first time issued maps on a CD, fully optimized for GPS use. Since 2009 it produces also cycling maps and until now the total of their outdoor maps amounts to more than 700 titles, covering areas from northern Denmark to Canary islands.

[caption id="attachment_9999" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Map of Bad Reichenhall outskirts today[/caption]

What are Kompass maps like?

They are significantly very clearly drawn, with splendid readability and unprecedented accuracy. Locus provides them in 4 zooms that can be of course freely resized - 10, 12, 14 a 15. Besides the background topographic layer the maps contain hiking paths of various difficulty (marked by full, dashed and dotted line), both local and transit cycling routes, symbols of tourist facilities (huts, pubs, hotels, shelters etc...), natural, cultural and technical points of interest. Terrain is defined by contour lines in 20m equidistance and also by shading.

[caption id="attachment_10000" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Map in doubled largest scale[/caption]

How can I get Kompass maps?

All Kompass maps are available in Locus Store (Menu > Locus Store > Providers > Kompass). They are sorted by countries within which they are offered as ready-made packages or you can define a custom map crop. Prices vary according to the package (covered area) size, the free selection is offered for 9 LoCoins per 100 map tiles. Kompass maps can be found in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Czech republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

We wish you a lot of pleasure on your journeys with Kompass maps!

Článek Kompass as the definition of outdoor maps over 60 years se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

It's not so long ago when we informed here about the release of 3.19 version, full of changes, fixes, and above all, new maps of U.S. Nevertheless, we had something left in a drawer so we decided to release another version right after two weeks. 3.20, again, is mainly about new maps, this time of Europe and Middle East.

Kompass is not Compass

Two different map publishers, first seated in Innsbruck (AT), second in Krakow (PL). Phonetically indistinguishable names may be confusing but each company provides map coverage of different areas:

Kompass

One of the biggest European cartographic publishing houses offers in Locus digital maps of Austria, Germany, northern and middle Italy, Sardinia, Corsica and other areas. See the mapsheet overview:

The maps excel in  clean and clear drawing and are zoomable in several levels. They display marked hiking paths, cycling routes and symbols of tourist facilities and attractions. Kompass maps are available in the form of offline packages, containing particular map area, furthermore, it's possible to define your own custom map crop and zooms.

[caption id="attachment_9897" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Via Ferratas at Lago di Garda[/caption]

Compass

Traditional Polish hiking maps producer has prepared almost whole portfolio of their maps for Locus, including the most attractive locations of Poland and partially also of western Ukraine. The maps are available in individual map packets:

Maps are drawn in one scale, basically 1:50 000, and other zooms are, therefore,  rendered as its augmentations, respectively diminutions. Anyway, the maps are structured very nicely and in great detail. They contain network of marked hiking and cycling routes, horse-riding routes and sailing routes on the big lakes of the North. Of course, complete tourist facilities and natural and architectural attractions list is included.

[caption id="attachment_9898" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Beskid Makowski mountains[/caption]

Hiking for free in Israel

Very accurate and detailed hiking maps of the lands of our biblical predecessors are provided by the Israelhiking map server. The maps are based on OpenStreetMap and include also terrain shading. The map covers complete area of the state of Israel including Gaza strip and the West Bank:

The map is available in Locus Store in three versions - hiking, MTB and hiking trails network without background that can be displayed above any other map of the area through the  Map overlay function. All maps can be downloaded to offline for free.

[caption id="attachment_9899" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Hiking map[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9900" align="aligncenter" width="350"] MTB map[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_9901" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Hiking trails for overlay[/caption]

That's all about maps and now let's talk about some news in the app control:

Finally, routepoints/viapoints distinguished when drawing a route!

The problematics of points creating a route in Locus may seem a bit tricky - Locus as a global app reflects a few approaches at once and not always it's simple to tackle them right and to explain everything precisely. Many of you were puzzled by the bunch of icons above the route points after manual drawing without router's assistance. We had no clue how many users draw routes point by point and primarily we promoted the option of router-assisted route drawing planning. However, upon your numerous requests we re-assessed our approach and the result is as follows:

• a normal manually inserted route point that is depicted as a green dot on the line during the drawing is left WITHOUT any highlighting when the route is saved. Such a route point tells Locus just to "draw the line this way" and it doesn't matter if you draw the route with or without router's assistance. Navigation along the route announces in this case only direction changes and distances (e.g. "after 200 meters turn right") and when recalculating the route with the point priority the route is directed right to the final point.
• if you want to insert a point with some additional information to the route, like "good pub" or "my buddy's cabin", and want Locus to navigate you through this place (viapoint) even when the route is recalculated, add it with the + button and then tap it with your finger again - the green dot turns BLUE and the point is ready for further editing.Save the route, icons with arrow show above the "blue" points.Tap to select the point, choose "edit" and you can change its name.If you have TTS (text-to-speech) set in your voice navigation, the voice notifies you of such a point (e.g. "after 200 meters good pub"). Of course, other navigation commands remain the same.

As you know, that's not all - other changes and improvements are listed in  the changelog that can be viewed from the main menu > about app.

Enjoy!

Článek Map avalanche is rolling on – Locus Map 3.20 is here! se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.

In the middle of the summer we set off to a Locus testing trip to the Austrian Alps and by the way we had a nice motorbike ride along their curvy mountain roads. Or was it the other way round? ;)

As decent motorbikers we had to boost our equipment before the journey so a robust quality phone mount was the number one on our specs list. We've tried many cycling phone mounts with plastic foam side holders (a cheaper version) but after the experience we recommend to spend a few more bucks on the RAM mount that can be seen on the photo. It holds the phone firmly not only in high speeds but also in sharp turns and on bumpy roads!

We used Locus Map as offline navigation for the whole trip and as we didn't want to spend money on Austrian highway ticket, we set Locus Map to navigate along toll free roads only. We got fond of riding local roads so much that we set the toll free navigation on even when traveling back via Germany and Czech republic where motorbikes aren't charged for highway use. Thus we enjoyed the moto ride much more than if we chose fast (and not much comfortable with our low wind shield), straight and boring highway route.

The next day we got off to a hike in the mountains to stretch our limbs stiffen from a long motorcycle ride. Locus Map ways of course with us. We recorded the whole trip with the track recording function. You can check it on the picture below. We recommend this route for the moto as well as the tarmac road is almost parallel to the hiking path. Our bottoms were a bit sore from the previous day so the hike was an obvious choice of the day.

If you'd like to use Locus Map on a motorbike, we strongly recommend touchscreen gloves. We had ordinary gloves without the touchscreen coating which was pretty uncomfortable - we had to put them off every time we wanted to use the phone. The moto touchscreen gloves offer is nothing to write home about - actually, we spied out just one model, leather. We prefer leather-free clothing (and gloves). If you happen to share a tip on good textile touchscreen moto gloves, we'll appreciate it and all Locus Map moto community as well!

Maybe it looks like we've just discovered America but we recommend water resistant phone (or at least case) for motor biking. Again, we didn't have it and according to Murphys laws it started to rain heavily on the third day of our trip. We had opportunity to find out thoroughly that our waterproof riding suits are NOT waterproof and the phone with Locus Map navigation started to misbehave after the first contact with rain drops. The procedure then was following: stop the bike (preferably under a bridge), take the glove off, pull the phone out of the pocket, look where to go on, put it back to pocket, put the glove on, and move on in the downpour.

Do you use Locus Map when (motor) biking? Share your experience or your favourite routes that you would like to recommend to other Locus Map users!

Článek Locus Team on a motorbike in Austrian Alps se nejdříve objevil na Locus Map - mobile outdoor navigation app.