Downloading a map.

[Gordon A]

I have been trying to down load a map of Yate, South Gloucestershire, station and goods shed. As it has been a while since I have used maps as a back ground, I have read and followed Martins tutorial. I get as far as placing a location marker on the map, then grind to a halt. I do not get any further information as in Martin's tutorial.
What am I doing wrong?
Gordon A

 

[Martin Wynne]

I have been trying to down load a map of Yate, South Gloucestershire, station and goods shed. As it has been a while since I have used maps as a back ground, I have read and followed Martins tutorial. I get as far as placing a location marker on the map, then grind to a halt. I do not get any further information as in Martin's tutorial.
What am I doing wrong?
Gordon A

@Gordon A

Hi Gordon,

Welcome to Templot Club.

Do you mean this video?

https://85a.uk/templot/companion/get_map_from_the_web.php

After adding a marker, you need to copy the URL (link) from the address bar of the browser: Click or right-click on it and then click Copy:

Then click on this box and paste in the link you just copied:

Now enter a name for the map in the top box, then select the NLS OS 25-inch maps:

Now click the drop-down box and select Gloucestershire. There are in fact maps of 3 different dates available for Yate, so select whether you need the early, later, or 1920s version.

If you tell me exactly which part of the map you are looking for, and which date, and your model scale, I will do it for you and post the BGS3 file here.

Or someone else will. I've explained all this so many times and still folks get stuck. It obviously needs someone else to write the words.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Gordon A]

When printing out the map for Yate in S7 the pixels making up the map were so large as to give a blurred picture.
I reopened my map, then took the following route: Background shapes / edit / improve image clarity. In image clarity I set the resolution to x4. That improved the background map image. Saved the revised background shape.
Why does the map appear and print in two shades of green?

 

[Martin Wynne]

When printing out the map for Yate in S7 the pixels making up the map were so large as to give a blurred picture.
I reopened my map, then took the following route: Background shapes / edit / improve image clarity. In image clarity I set the resolution to x4. That improved the background map image. Saved the revised background shape.
Why does the map appear and print in two shades of green?

@Gordon A

Hi Gordon,

The map clarity improvements are still largely experimental.

There are 4 different functions available which can be used individually or in combination. The results will be very variable and depend largely on the quality of the the original map. Some trial and error is usually needed to get the best results:

interpolation. The large blocky pixels are the original map data available from the NLS. When viewed in a web browser these are smoothed out by the browser to make it easier to visualise the map. The interpolation function in Templot attempts to do the same when using the maps zoomed-in for track planning over them. There are some settings to try for best results. It's important to bear in mind that this function can't add any extra detail, it simply tries to make the existing detail easier to see.​

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2-tone reduction. This function converts everything in the map to one of just 2 possible colours. You can choose the density threshold at which it swaps from one to the other by moving the slider. You can choose the two colours by clicking the change... buttons. The two shades of green are the default colours. The idea is find settings which make it easy to see both the map and the track templates at the same time, according to your preference for the trackpad colours. There is an option to match the 2 colours to the trackpad, which often works well.​

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low-contrast base shade. This function reduces the contrast of the map so that there is less difference between the map detail and the map background. This can make it easier to do track-planning over the map. You can choose how light or dark you want the results. The default setting is medium grey. The degree of contrast reduction can be increased by repeating this function - with or without a change to the base shade. The results often don't look too promising until you try actual track planning over the map, and then find that the reduced contrast is an advantage.​

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negative image. This functions swaps the map from black on white to white on black. Which might be preferred instead of the above functions (or before or after them). It can be undone by immediately repeating it, which makes it easy to try it just to see if you like it.​

Before clicking the GO button you need to select the required function(s), and make the desired settings for each. The default is to do both interpolation and then 2-tone reduction, which is why you ended up with the two shades of green. If you want only interpolation, click the interpolation only option.

cheers,

Martin.