Bearing and Range information, marker projection

[Rivalarrival]

1. When creating a marker, in addition to the latitude and longitude displayed at the bottom of the screen, I would also like to see the compass bearing and range from the origin point (center of map when new marker button was pressed) to the crosshairs. Rough example here:

2. I would like to be able to create a marker by entering bearing and distance from the current map center.

I am a hot air balloon pilot. I can't steer my aircraft; I can only follow the wind. I would like to be able to center the map on my desired landing point, then, using the wind speed and direction, project a marker upwind to a launch site from which I can reach that landing point.

Other potential uses are for triangulation tasks, such as fire spotting, balloon chasing, storm chasing, search and rescue, and all sorts of land nav functions.

Thanks for an incredibly useful app.

[androidseb]

Hello, thank you for suggesting this idea !

This looks a very specific use case, but maybe one that could be assessed with the workflows feature I'd like to bring on soon...

I'm not sure I understand the difference between 1. and 2., could you clarity this further?

How would the bearing and distance help you if simply saved inside the marker's description? How would you then use this information ?

[Rivalarrival]

I'm not sure I understand the difference between 1. and 2., could you clarity this further?

My explanation wasn't clear. My bad.

• In case 1, two points are known; bearing and distance are unknown. I need bearing and distance.

• In case 2, one point and bearing and distance are known; the second point is unknown. I need a marker projected at that second point.

Sidenote: it would be useful to me to be able to project negative distances. Wind direction is always given to a pilot as the direction the wind is coming from, not the direction it is going to. In a 360°wind, I will be heading 180°. Entering negative miles is simpler than adding or subtracting 180° from the direction given.

How would the bearing and distance help you if simply saved inside the marker's description? How would you then use this information ?

I don't need the bearing and distance saved to the marker. I need to be able to compare them to the wind direction and speed, acquired from external sources. I might be looking to flyover or land at the marker, or avoid an obstacle at the marker.

Projecting the winds from each of a variety of possible launch sites, I can select a launch site with a favorable flight path, and then mark the expected landing area and share it with my chase crew.

[androidseb]

Thanks for the additional explanation, I think I get it now.

By the way, in case you didn't know, you can currently already measure the distance between two points by starting to draw a line, as you place points, it will display the total distance of that path, so you can manually measure distances between two (or more) points like this.

About the two use cases you listed:

1. two points are known; bearing and distance are unknown. I need bearing and distance.
2. one point and bearing and distance are known; the second point is unknown. I need a marker projected at that second point.

I recall some users asking for the ability to compute the bearing between two points... However, thinking about this more, I don't see a good way to introduce these two use cases you described in the app as static features without "cluttering" the app for most other users.

That being said, this sounds like a perfect use case for custom workflows, a feature I would like to start working on soon: https://github.com/androidseb/mapmarker/issues/70

I've added this use case there, I'll try and see if I can address it with workflows.

Right now, I'm still thinking about how I'll build out the feature, but it could be something like:

• Use case 1: create a workflow based on the currently selected point POI, when starting the workflow, you have to select a second point, at which time you compute bearing and distance and display them into a message dialog (that you can dismiss or copy text from)
• Use case 2: create a workflow based on the currently selected point POI, when starting the workflow, you are prompted for a bearing and a distance (possibly negative), after which a corresponding point POI is created at that distance with the provided bearing

Note that for now, these are only high-level thoughts, this might take a different form or not be possible at all, but I'll know more when I get to building this Workflows feature, so I can't promise anything.

I'll post further messages on this Github feature idea entry when I know more, stay tuned :-)

[Rivalarrival]

A much more common use case for this sort of capability is triangulation: plotting lines from multiple known locations along known compass bearings, to locate a visual landmark such as smoke from a forest fire or crash site.

I've been looking for mapping tools offering such a capability for a long time; the only one I've found with this capability is Backcountry Navigator, which doesn't seem to be in active development any longer.