Center on GPS: the incredible shrinking box

[kconover]

One of the things that I dislike about GPS tracking in MapTech Terrain Navigator is that the map constantly moves as you move across it.

Street Atlas has always had a superior method of recentering the map as you move across it - mostly the map stays still and your GPS position moves across it. Than, as your GPS position gets about 1" from the edge, the map suddenly moves to recenter on your GPS position. I loved this, it allowed you to look at the map and get a good idea of the terrain ahead. In particular, you could use the arrow keys to move the map "ahead" a bit, and at long as you didn't put your GPS position closer to the edge than 1", the map wouldn't recenter immediately.

Basically, there was an invisible box, with borders about 1" in from the edge of the screen. As long as your GPS position was in this box, the map wouldn't recenter.

But in the new SA2009, the invisible box, instead of extending to within an inch of the edges, seems to be a tiny, 1" box right in the center. So the map is recentering much more frequently. And I can't use the arrow keys to move the map "ahead" without it snapping back.

Is this a bug or a feature? If it is a feature, how do I turn it off?

[Dan Lawyer]

I ran into the same thing, since I don't really like the Nav mode that much. I couldn't really find a way to get the old way back when not using it. Anything that causes the map to be repositioned, such as zoom to turn, rotate in GPS direction, etc (features I like), will cause this re-centering of the GPS symbol quite often. If you turn all these features off, and reduce the magnification to 50 or 75%, then zoom out more, you can get more distance traveled between refreshes, but it's still no where near what it used to be.

That said, it was also a big complaint about DeLorme products for years, that the GPS symbol would get too close to the edge before it would re-center and folks wanted to see ahead, not where they were they had been. So DeLorme really can't win on this one! Then again, they could just let us control it, by giving us an option to set that would refresh the map when it got xxx distance from the edge of the screen;>)

[xapie128]

Is this a bug or a feature? If it is a feature, how do I turn it off?

I can't answer your "bug or feature?" question, but I can tell you how to hack it to meet your needs . . .

Using regedit, go to

Code: Select all

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DeLorme\SA2009\DeLormeComponents\DeLorme.SA2009.GPS.1

Find the DWORD named RecenterThrehold (note, "Threshold" is misspelled with no "s").

The default value is 150 decimal. Use a higher value and the green arrow will move closer to the edge before re-centering. I'd suggest you try 500 decimal and see how that works.

For those who want to keep the arrow in the center, use a low number like 3.

A couple of notes:

• The normal disclaimer applies: DeLorme does not endorse hacks, perform at your own risk
  
• This hack is for SA2009 only, older versions use a different key and DWORD value name

Finally, I agree with your suggestion and think it would be nice if there was a pull-down where we could just select the auto recentering threshold without hacking.

[Dan Lawyer]

Good catch xapie...this old man is getting slow as I would have looked for this in my better days Since you found it, add this to the Tips & Tricks, it will be handy.

The 150-200 setting works pretty good. Much over that and it will drive right off the screen. I tested the 200 setting and it worked good for Nav Mode in 2D and doesn't seem to effect 3D at all.

This setting wasn't in SA2008, so I can only guess that it was new due to the Nav mode feature in 2D as the info windows reduce the usable map space, so they had to do something to allow for this. Try 200, but play with it at different zoom levels. If you want more "see ahead" space, drop it to 150 or less. Remember you have to restart the program after registry changes, as it loads these values at startup. This is unlike modifying the options, which are in the registry, but updated in the loaded values instantly.

[kconover]

I've settled on 630. On my laptop, this gives a bit bigger of a "box" (a bit smaller margin around the edges) which is how I like it.

[djstern]

I noticed that AutoPanTolerance shows up in SA2009+. If that don't do the same thing it used to do in 2008 and prior, what does it do now?

[MattMiller]

Could you please tell me if there is a Registry adjustment/hack for SA2008 and what that would be and its location?
THANK YOU!

[xapie128]

Could you please tell me if there is a Registry adjustment/hack for SA2008 and what that would be and its location?

Here's the registry key:

Code: Select all

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DeLorme\SA2008\DeLormeComponents\DeLorme.SA2008.GPS.1\Prefs

Then edit the value of the DWORD = AutoPanTolerance

The default is 10 (decimal), changing it to something higher (try somewhere between 30 and 50) should do the trick.

Tip: You can experiment with it by playing back a previously recorded GPS log.

[MattMiller]

THANK YOU !!!!