Now that .gpx import is working I needed a really big trip to do some stress testing.
Ann and Bob Sherer publish a set of .gpx routes and tracks along the ICW. For reasons unknown to me, these have come to be known around the web as the Bob423 tracks.
I imported these to DeepZoom by just dragging and dropping one or more .gpx files onto the right side panel. Next I converted the tracks to routes using the handy new button on the Tracks panel. Finally I adjusted some of the departure dates to form a reasonable itinerary, and voilà, we have a trip!
The resulting 1067 nMi trip from Norfolk to Key West has seven routes, many thousand waypoints, and a trip duration of 44 days at 6.5 knots with several layovers.
Tip! You can adjust the starting date for all routes in a trip in one operation. Click “today”, +1, -1, or the calendar icon to change the start date for the earliest route and all other routes will be modified to the same relative time offset.
GPX and KML files can now be imported en masse. Drag and drop one or more files (or click on the input field to get a file open dialog).
You can either add them all to the existing Trip, or create a new trip.
Added Export of loaded trip to .gpx file (in Downloads directory). At present, route departure time and speed are not included. I’m trying to figure out which of the numerous competing .gpx extensions to support. If you have any requests or advice on this topic, please let me know.
This is mostly a fit and finish release. Lot’s of UI and perf improvements plus a new display of relative positions of earth, sun and moon. This animation, like everything else in DeepZoom is
linked to the timebase. The timebase is accessed by clicking on the time readout at the lower center of the screen.
Added “Find” to Trips page. This will show a list of all public trips within the current view. Filters are available for “power”, “sail”, “kayak”, and “swim” along with sorting by name, length, duration, and stars.
Added trip id to url so forward and back browser buttons work.
Bug fixes
Fixed longstanding bug which could cause hangs, especially on Cordova demo trip.
Pilot Charts show probabilities of wind strength and direction for a particular location and time,
to help plan optimal sailing routes.
Historically, these charts were derived by manually collating the logs of thousands of vessels transiting the oceans over the last few hundred years.
Below is an excerpt from a traditional pilot chart for a portion of the southern Pacific ocean during the month of February.
Each windrose covers a 5°x5° area. The length of the barb indicates the percentage of time the wind blew from that direction,
and the barb style indicates the strength of the wind.
The Pilot Charts layer lets you plan a route based on historically measured wind speeds
and directions. This layer shows a probability windrose on a color coded background.
The background shows mean historical wind speed along with arrows showing mean wind
direction for each 14 day period.
Superimposed on this background is a windrose which shows the percentage of time the
wind is blowing from each of 16 cardinal/secondary/intercardinal directions. The length
of each bar shows the percentage of time the wind blows from that direction averaged
over a 14 day period. The length of the colored rectangles within each bar indicates the
percentage of time the wind blows with each velocity range.
Columbus trip 1
Here’s a trip showing how Columbus travelled to the Bahamas on his first voyage.
The bar from due east ending in the number “42”, indicates that the wind was blowing from that
cardinal direction 42% of the time. The wind was under 20 knots about 40% of the time, and there was
an easterly component virtually all the time.
Columbus was likely sailing straight down wind most of the westward voyage.
Entropy levels of 100 world cities by the orientation of streets.
Most ordered streets: Chicago, Miami, & Minneapolis.
Most disordered: Charlotte, Sao Paulo, Rome & Singapore. Paper:
You can now show the following for each leg of a route:
route leg length
Magnetic compass heading
True compass heading
Each of these can be enabled/disabled individually (see the settings page). The magnetic course value is derived from the World Magnetic Model (currently WMM2020, valid from 2020-2025).
Bug fixes
MAJOR performance improvements in route editing on phones and mobile devices.
DeepZoom was designed for trips on the water. But you can also use it for
driving, hiking, and biking trips.
Here’s an example of a multi-modal trip, biking from Blaine, WA through the
San Juan Islands. Each terrestrial leg is a separate route, and each ferry ride is a separate route.
To create terrestrial routes, first define start, end, and waypoints as you normally would with
aquatic trips. Then on the routes page, change the mode of transit (driving, walking, biking),
and your route will be converted to the new mode.
If you need to change the route, the easiest way is just to convert back to the original “great circle” or
ship/plane navigation mode, add or change waypoints, and then convert back to driving, walking, or biking.
DeepZoom works worldwide for trip planning. Here’s an example of transiting the Cape Cod Canal
when the current is flowing at peak velocity.
When you save a trip in DeepZoom it resides in the cloud. You can specify whether it can be viewed by the general public
or only by persons with whom you share a link.
In either case, just copy the link and share it with anyone you want:
Historical pilot charts
Pilot Charts show probabilities of wind strength and direction for a particular location and time,
to help plan optimal sailing rout...
