Maps

Cumulus uses the same sets of maps as KFLog does. They are freely available for download at www.kflog.org/maproom. For maximum results, you need all the different kinds of map files you can get there.

There are:

• Ground Maps with streets, highways, cities, rivers, lakes, and terrain data with elevation information.
• KFLog Airspaces, Not more supported! Please use other sources, e.g. OPENAIR.TXT
• KFLog Airfields, Not more supported! Please use welt 2000 as source Welt2000

The maps can be installed in any of three places:

• In $HOME/maps/. This is the preferred location. an own directory in the map setting configuration page.
• In the installlation area, normally under /opt/cumulus/maps.
• Anywhere, e.g. on a MMC. Under Maemo (Nokia Internet Tablet) it is recommened to use this location because the internal memory is limited)

If the maps are installed on the MMC the user must setup the path to the map root directory in the Map Settings configuration page (Setup->General Setup->Map Setting). Use the Maps button to navigate to the appropriate root directory under which the maps are to find. If there is no path setup the maps are searched only under $HOME/maps and /opt/cumulus/maps. But these directories are unsuitably for the PDA.

The map data have to stored in different subdirectories under the selected map root.

• The ground data files have to be put into a subdirectory landscape.
• The airfield files have to be put into a subdirectory airfields.
• The airspace files have to be put into a subdirectory airspaces.

See below for more information on these map files.

If you experience memory problems running Cumulus, you can choose not to install certain map sets. You could for instance skip the terrain maps. This will disable the display of terrain features (the isolines), but it will also save memory and reduce map loading and drawing time. It is advisable at least to use the Ground maps, because you will end up with a blue background otherwise, which is not very helpfull in navigation.

The maps you install are not projected. This is done on loading. Because this is a computationally complex operation, the resulting maps are stored again with a .kfc or .txc extension. For many maps, these files are a bit smaller than the original files. The next time Cumulus needs to load the file, it first tries to load this compiled file to improve speed. In the Map Settings page you can modify the behaviour of Cumulus for map projection and map compilation.

OpenAir SUA map files

Cumulus supports the commonly available OpenAir SUA file format for airspaces. Just put the map files in the subdirectory airspaces and make sure they have the .txt extension written in lower letters.

In addition to the OpenAir files themselves, you can add a file to configure the mapping of airspace types from the OpenAir file to the types Cumulus uses. Cumulus uses the following types:

• AirA
• AirB
• AirC
• AirD
• AirElow
• AirEhigh
• AirF
• ControlC
• ControlD
• Danger
• Restricted
• LowFlight
• Tmz
• SuSector

Example: Sourcefile=openair.txt, Mappingfile=openair_mappings.conf

The mapping file must be placed in the same directory as the OpenAir file is contained. The used syntax in the file is simple. Empty lines and lines starting with # or * are ignored and can be used for comments. The rest of the lines should contain entries in the form key = value, one entry per line. The key is the airspace type in the OpenAir file you wish to map and the value is the corresponding Cumulus type you wish to assign. The default mappings are:

• A = AirA
• B = AirB
• C = AirC
• D = AirD
• E = AirElow
• F = AirF
• GP = Restricted
• R = Restricted
• TRA = Restricted
• Q = Danger
• CTR = ControlC
• TMZ = Tmz
• W = AirEhigh
• GSEC = SuSector

You only need to define the values you actually want to change in the file. These instructions will overwrite the default mappings.

Example: CTR=ControlD

This statement changes the assignment ControlC to ControlD.

Consider that the mappings are case sensitive!

Usage of Welt 2000 airfield data

Cumulus uses for airfields the welt 2000 data base. These data are provided by Michael Meier as one big file here.

Just install this file in the subdirectory airfields and make sure that it carries the name welt2000.txt. Because a welt2000.txt file covers the whole world, the amount of data to be read in must be limited in a senseful kind. Cumulus provides for that two ways:

• Filtering by countries to be defined under the configuration setup of Airfields. See Airfields for more information.
• Filtering by countries to be defined in a configuration file with the name welt2000.conf. See below how to do that. That is an old option and should not more used. Please make your filter definitions via the cumulus GUI as described above. Note! A filter rule setup via the GUI will overwrite the rules defined in the configuration file.

One disadvantage of welt 2000 is that it knows only three types of airfield elements (Airfield, Glider Field, Ultra Light Field) but cumulus a lot more. This lack can be overcome by an additional provided mapping. You can map short names or ICAO identifiers of the welt 2000 file entries into other cumulus map elements by using a simple syntax to be defined in a configuration file. The configuration file has to carry the name welt2000.conf and must be located in the same directory where the source file welt2000.txt is to find. The file provides the following syntax:

• A comment line starts with a # hashmark or a $ dollar sign and ends with the newline.
• FILTER countries=country_1[,...,country_n]
  This line defines a country filter rule. Several countries can be entered after the equal sign in one line as list separated by commas. The country identifiers have to be coded according to ISO-3166. If such rule is defined, only the listed countries will be extracted from the welt 2000 source file. That should be the common way to get the desired subset of airfield data from the whole source. It is possible to define more than one filter rule.
• MAP_SHORT_NAME short-name=map-element-of-cumulus
  This line defines a rule for mapping of a short name (first six left standing characters) of a welt 2000 entry at a special cumulus map element.
• MAP_ICAO icao-sign=map-element-of-cumulus
  This line defines a rule for mapping of an ICAO identifier of a welt 2000 entry at a special cumulus map element.

• IntAirport
• Airport
• MilAirport
• CivMilAirport
• Airfield
• ClosedAirfield
• CivHeliport
• MilHeliport
• AmbHeliport
• Glidersite
• UltraLight
• HangGlider

Short example of a welt2000.conf file:

# Example of a welt2000.conf file, starting with a comment line
$ This is also a comment line
#
# Now follows a country filter definition rule
# Only the coutries Germany, Poland and Czechia will be extracted from the welt2000.txt source
FILTER countries=de,pl,cz
#
# Now follows an ICAO identifier mapping rule
# The german airport Berlin-Schönefeld is mapped at an international airport element
MAP_ICAO EDDB=IntAirport
#
# Now follows a short name mapping rule
# The german military airport Holzdorf is mapped at a military airport element
MAP_SHORT_NAME HOLZD1=MilAirport

Please note the following! If a new welt2000.txt file has been installed the first run of cumulus after that needs a longer time (ca. 20-40 seconds) to extract the desired data from it. Cumulus generates a compressed file of the extracted data reuseable by further runs of it. This file carry the name welt2000.txc and will be reused, so long the original source, the configuration file, the map projection or the home position are not changed. This behaviour minimize the read in time after a restart.

If you make necessary corrections on the data of the welt 2000 file, please report all this changes to Michael Meier, who provides and maintains the source. His email address is to find in the header part of the welt 2000 file.

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