Eliminate / Start Hold ... style for boulder topo

[brendanheywood]

Some bouldering guides have heaps of overlapping sequences. they give a number to each hold and then give a sequence for each hand and foot. can be pretty contrived but thats what they do:

eg

http://www.thecrag.com/route/145583301

probably a long way down the track

[scd]

so if you work out a different eliminate style (eg one less move) could we regrade the boulder :)

[brendanheywood]

yep!

check out the bouldering guide for KP for examples:

http://www.jottie.com.au/bouldering/KP/KP_Boulder_v1_C.pdf

[brendanheywood]

From: https://www.thecrag.com/discussion/589144617/route-descriptions#m594292554

So here is what I think I'll be adding to the topo tool (eventually):

1) ability to draw arbitrary text labels anywhere on a topo. This is generic and would be to name a track, point out a birds nest, or in this case add some numbers. There won't be anything special about the numbers, the main benefit is that they are drawn on by the tool, and so can be hidden on demand, or stacked in the right order with other features.

2) add a new segment style for routes similar to the dotted 'hidden' style, called something like 'Not shown'. You want to use this eliminate style on just one part, or the whole topo. To make things clearer I would rename 'hidden' to 'obscured' to differentiate between 'you can't see the route in this photo' to 'I want the line to be hidden'. This new style would have other uses too, eg when there is a person in the topo and you don't want the line to be drawn over them. This line won't be drawn on the topo unless you select the route / hover the route etc and then it appears. This way you have a single clean topo with just the numbers (which works when printed etc) but get the added benefit of the highlight when online. When you highlight a line, the text labels will be on top of the line.

Agree with Will: anything else like 'Left foot' or 'match' or 'no heel hooks' should just be in the description, I can't see a useful way of adding this to the topo and it's low value.

[brendanheywood]

Part 1 is #1614

Part 2 is this card,and is fairly easy and I can add it without any backend changes

[nicHoch]

As some boulders are very specific defined (eliminations) where exactly to start where to finish ... it would be good to add more specific boulder point types.

Most of them should not define where the routes (line) is seen but should be more floating around (next to the line).

As a full block with many "marks" might become very unclear. The additional points should only be visible if the route is selected.

All lines

One selected:

The icons for the point types are open for discussion. In this example Blue stands for start red for "do not use".

see also: #1614

As the list of point types might become very long we could think about different editor modes (perspectives) for different gear style of routes (boulder, trad, sport ...).

Like the renaming of "hidden" and "obscured*

[killakalle]

@nicHoch I would prefer circles that are not filled, so you can see the underlying shape or hold. You may even want to consider whether to enable drawing polygons. Then you'd be able to include/exclude complex shapes (ledges, edges, ....). But maybe that's for later if the feature is being used a lot and people demand further enhancements.

While you're at it, would you mind considering artificial wall boulder topos, too?

Many examples on: https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/spain/valencia-cuenca-area/area/2912905038

I would hope for the following functionality in the topo editor:

• circles: to define included holds
• ability to change size of each individual circle: because pictures come in different zoom levels or angles and holds come in different sizes
• different colors of circles: at least two different colors to be able to tell apart start/finish holds from regular holds
• ability to undo easily: if you circle the wrong hold, or a circle is not placed exactly

I think it would also be nice if topo images could somehow be re-used.

At the moment, I upload a new image for each boulder problem that I want to create

PS: I've tried a number of different boulder topo apps. The one I like best for its simplicity and ease of use is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asturias.pablo.pasos I use it to create the boulder topos and then upload the result to theCrag.