Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Ranges Database


Skywalker

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

since I started this project at the GV, I thought to start a similar one here as well.

I'm compiling a database for European ranges, to be used with personal navigators and/or Google Earth.

I will output the DB in the following formats:

- TomTom binary (.ov2)

- TomTom itinerary (.itn)

- Smartpath binary (.ovr)

- Destinator Comma Separated (.csv)

- NavMan Comma Separated (.csv)

- Garmin Comma Separated (.csv)

- MioMap Comma Separated (.csv)

- GPS eXchange format (.gpx)

- Navio Ascii (.asc)

- Generic Ascii (.asc)

- Google Earth (.kml)

Now I was contemplating the idea of doing it on a worldwide basis, and post here files for each main zone: N.America, S.America, Europe, Australasia.

If you wish to contribute to this idea, please post here:

- Range name: as it appears on most match brochures.

- Range coordinates (Longitude, Latitude): in E/W xxx° yy' zz"; N/S xx° yy' zz" format, or E/W xxx.yyyyyyy°; N/S xxx.yyyyyyy.° format.

- Range Website URL (if available).

Actual Database:

Europe: Europe.zip

- Finland (3)

- France (3)

- Germany (12)

- Italy (8)

- United kingdom (20)

South America: S._America.zip

- Jamaica (1)

Thanks in advance to all those who will help.

Edited by Skywalker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Luca -

Would it help if USPSA added ICBM coordinates to it's club database, and provided a feature where you could extract the data into your conversion program? This way, you could get regular updates of the source data for the US from a central source.

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rob,

it would be great, but I'm no USPSA member (up to now) and I guess I won't be able to access any USPSA website area to get updates.

Basically, wherever you will include the above data, I guess I'll be able to extract it and use in the Ranges DB.

If you're willing to, we can work out the details.

ICBM ??? The last time I heard of this acronym, it stood for InterContinental Ballistic Missile... :unsure:

Edited by Skywalker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rob,

that's great.

If I can get a sample of the list (could you point me to the correct USPSA page?) and an idea of the coordinates format, I can surely put up a DB for USPSA. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I'm ready to add GPS cordinates to the info USPSA clubs can add to their profile, however, I don't know enough about GPS to know which coordiate type to use. I could use Latitude/longitude in hr/min/sec, GPS coords, or decimal lat/long. I don't think I should use decimal since because of the precision issue (I like resoliution to the exact second, and decimal values can round off to fractional seconds).

Obviously, data extraction can present all formats.

I'm interested in which format will be easier for users to deal with when entering the data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Rob,

either Lat/Lon in XX.XXXXX° or XX° YY' ZZ" format can be decently accurate.

At least this is the format my editor allows me to enter data.

I have a slight preference for the first format, since it allows me to copy and paste from text or textboxes into the DB editor.

Anyway, for comparison, I can pinpoint a location on Google Earth, let's say N 45° 49' 18" E 008° 33' 34", which can be converted into N 45.82167° E 8.55944°.

Now the distance between these two pinpoints will only be 1 and 2/3 feet, thus the conversion from either format (XX.XXXXX° or XX° YY' ZZ") to the other will only move the exact point location of less than 2 feet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Rob,

either Lat/Lon in XX.XXXXX° or XX° YY' ZZ" format can be decently accurate.

At least this is the format my editor allows me to enter data.

I have a slight preference for the first format, since it allows me to copy and paste from text or textboxes into the DB editor.

Anyway, for comparison, I can pinpoint a location on Google Earth, let's say N 45° 49' 18" E 008° 33' 34", which can be converted into N 45.82167° E 8.55944°.

Now the distance between these two pinpoints will only be 1 and 2/3 feet, thus the conversion from either format (XX.XXXXX° or XX° YY' ZZ") to the other will only move the exact point location of less than 2 feet.

The data export from the USPSA system, as well as the club display, will have all useful formats (I'll add any needed)

I know the difference is tiny - I'm just consider "seconds" to be the lowest "natural resolution" for coordinates hence my preference for those as the native units. But.... I could store the XX.XXXX format as two floats rather than 6 tiny ints, so it's not obvious :).

I'll probably let the user enter in either, but only store in one standard form.

Which form do you internally store your coordinates in? I'll use that as my storage format as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which form do you internally store your coordinates in? I'll use that as my storage format as well.

At present I use the one that's used by most navigators, which is XX.XXXXX° (5 decimals).

Thanks for your hard work! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be adding the ability to store coodriantes to your club profile on USPSA.ORG soon (probably this weekend).

Once that's done, I'll set up a system so Skywalker can download the entire USP data direclty.

But, there is a catch -

Club data is maintained directly by the club contact, and a club profile is created only by that individual. If you want your club's coordinates on the auto-feed, and on-line in the clubfinder, you'll have to create/edit your profile. The link for this is on the classifier services page in the left menu column, and uses the same password as classifier and local match results uploading.

I'll post an annoucement in this thread when I have it ready.

ps to Skywalker: Would you like an FTP area on www.uspsa.org you can use for directly uploading the databases you publish?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, coordinates have been added to the information you can add to your club profile.

Currently, coordinates may be entered in decimal form (I'll add an option to enter data using Deg Min Sec when I have some time) and are displayed on the club finder in decimal format, Deg/Min/Sec format, and as a link to Google Maps.

And no, it's not necessary to take a GPS out to your club to get coordinates. If you download Google Earth you can browse the globe, find you club, and read off the coordinate. Please use the entrance to your club rather than the centroid of your property, since the intent is for this to assist in navigation.

Once we have a decent quantity of coordinates, I'll add a "bulk download" feature that Skywalker and anyone else who is interested may use to import this data into other systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got my Garmin GPS this year for the purpose of finding gun clubs when I travel to matches. Until you have traveled with a GPS you will be wondering how you ever got around without one. This is a great idea that I thinkg will really catch on as GPS' become more popular. Thanks once again to Rob and Skywalker for going over and above what is expected to get something like this going.

Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once we have a decent quantity of coordinates, I'll add a "bulk download" feature that Skywalker and anyone else who is interested may use to import this data into other systems.

Rob, either that, or the ftp route, would be fine for me.

And, of course, thanks for your hard work on this! :)

Yeah, but what datum should we use?

Shred, I didn't mention anything about this because, apart from a few hard souls that use personal datum for navigating particular areas of the globe, almost every GPS I know of works with WGS 84.

I suggest using this one as the reference geoid representation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Major Update!

N. America section: 9 new USA ranges. N._America.zip

and something tells me we've got Flex base covered... ;)

S. America section: 1 new range (from Argentina). S._America.zip

African section: 1 new range (from Namibia). Africa.zip

AustralAsian section: 1 new range (from Australia). AustralAsia.zip

Rob, any news on the "bulk download" feature?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...