We’re continuing to improve and test our SPOT tracking software, and plan to introduce SPOT specific features in the TopoFusion app itself sometime in the near future.
The latest event to sign up to be tracked is the Tybee 500. It’s a 500+ mile endurance sailing race that runs the length of Florida and more. It’s the longest sailing race in the US. Over 6 days a total of 24 teams will test themselves. The race started this Monday (5/11/09) and runs until Saturday.
The Keys 100 Reef Run will start Saturday morning April 25, 2009 from the Islander Resort in Islamorada, Florida and finish at Smathers Beach in Key West, Florida. This race replaces the Hogsbreath race of years past. Several boats are already in position at the resort, to start on this forecasted 100km (80 mile) sled ride to Key West. Live tracking on the internet will be provided by TopoFusion.com for teams equipped with SPOT Satellite Messaging Units.
The race is for two person crewed spinnaker equipped catamarans up to 22 feet. Awards for the Keys 100 and 2008 Endurance Series will be made at the Grand Key Doubletree Resort by the pool deck at 7:00pm.
Sponsors will be the Islander Water Sports and the Tybee Island Sailing Association. The race is the weekend after the popular Miami-Key Largo and would also be a great practice race for the Tybee 500.
We here at TopoFusion are looking for other races and events interested in SPOT event tracking. Contact us if you are interested — we’d love to hear from you.
We’ve always been racers here at TopoFusion. Whether on the bike or on foot, we like to support the local community. Recently we’ve cranked out a few course maps for local events. First is the Spring XC Classic, right here in Tucson. We believe in rewarding athletic excellence, so we’ve donated $350 in prize money to the overall winners (male and female) of the race. It should be a good race, with some classic desert trail and beautiful Tucson weather.
Also happening on the same day is Epic Ride’s Whiskey Off Road. Fast becoming one of the country’s premier mountain bike events, this year is sure to be a good one. As usual, TopoFusion took care of the course mapping, but regrets not being able to participate due to the Spring XC race.
For all the maps (all good examples of what TopoFusion can do) head over to:
We’re happy to announce the release of version 3.74 of TopoFusion Pro. Atop the feature list are new and improved Canadian Topo maps. TopoFusion was one of the first mapping apps to include downloadable topographic maps for all of Canada, and now we’ve gone a step further with these new maps, available courtesy of WMS-Toporama on GeoGratis (official public announcement of this new server hasn’t even been made yet).
Quite a difference in clarity and added info. Perhaps the best addition is that of elevation labels on the contours (which were absent on the old maps). Check them out by downloading the latest TopoFusion Pro, or for registered users, check your purchase email for download instructions.
The AZT 300 (race site) starts Friday, April 10th at 9am. It’s a self supported 300 mile race along the Arizona Trail. This year you can follow all the action using a new SPOT tracker, right here on TopoFusion.com.
SPOT units (official site) are a combo GPS unit and satellite messenger. They send out a GPS point every 10 minutes, to be collected, analyzed and presented on our web tracker, all in real time. It should provide some entertainment for those not fortunate enough to be out there on the trail with us (TopoFusion author Scott Morris will be participating in the event).
TopoFusion is proud to be a sponsor of the 2009 Cascade Cream Puff 100. The Cream Puff is one of the oldest and most challenging 100 mile mountain bike races in the country. We’ve taken care of the course mapping for this year’s event. Here’s a sample of a color aerial overview map:
TopoFusion author Scott Morris raced the CCP back in 2001, placing 9th. “It was one of the most brutal days I’ve ever had on a bike.”
For more course maps (including printable with full directions and an awesome 3D map) head over to the TopoFusion Event Mapping page:
Mike Curiak set off earlier this week to ride the 1,100 mile Iditarod Trail to Nome, completely unsupported. He’s carrying a SPOT GPS/satellite tracker.
We here at TopoFusion are pretty excited about his trip and have set up a tracking page to track his progress:
We’ve leveraged some TopoFusion technology to compute distances and speeds, all computed on-the-fly, as the SPOT points come in. You can see his track history, distance traveled, speeds and all that good stuff.
We’ll be continuing to develop the SPOT tracker as his trip proceeds. We’re also looking at adding SPOT tracking to the TopoFusion application itself. We’re hoping to see a lot of these features go into tracking self supported events as the Arizona Trail 300 and Tour Divide (the Tour Divide crew have been pioneers of SPOT tracking, and we are working with them) later in the year. If you’re interested in advanced SPOT tracking for your own event or trip drop us an email or get in touch with the Tour Divide folks. We’d love to see this technology used on other cool trips / events.
Finally, we’ll be posting text updates supplemented with TopoFusion generated maps, charts and playback videos over at Mike’s blog: http://lacemine29.blogspot.com
We’re pleased to announce the release of a new version of TopoFusion Pro. Version 3.70 features an array of improvements, new features and fixes.
New and improved PhotoFusion
TopoFusion was one of the first pieces of software to place photos using GPS tracks, and we’ve further improved all the photo display/geotagging/handling options. Most significantly, the software can now read and write coordinates into photo headers (EXIF). With PhotoFusion’s straightforward setup, this makes it one of the easiest options available for geotagging your images. TopoFusion’s display of photos and the user interface has been significantly improved as well.
We’ve added four more states to the Color Aerial Tileset. This brings us very close to covering the entire United States with high resolution imagery. Alaska, Washington, Georgia and West Virginia are new in v3.70. For more info, see Color Imagery. Remember you can also add your own servers using the WMS server feature.
Download
Head over to the Download Page to try TopoFusion out, free of charge.
Registered users refer to your registration email for the download link, or go here to request your code and the download URL.
Check out this combo of TopoFusion’s playback feature with some helmet cam footage, courtesy of Mike Curiak of Big Wheels.
Though only a GPS single track is being played back, the video was done with TopoFusion’s Multi track playback function, so that the “on screen” stats of speed and grade can be displayed as the simulation proceeds.
Keep in mind that the GPS unit is on the rider in front of the camera, not the one with the helmet cam, so the GPS track tends to go around the corners a bit before the camera gets there.
