Introducing Boyds Map of the Pines XT

Boyd

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The paint is literally still wet on the new site, but it's up, running and appears to work. My definition of "map" here includes not only the visual elements, but data on two million features that's updated in realtime - "XT" stands for "eXTreme". Hopefully it will be intuitive, just zoom, drag the map around and watch what happens. Here are a few links to get you started. If you just enter the basic URL, you get a topo of Bear Swamp Hill - the spot where McPhee's iconic book opens.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines

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Contrary to what I said in the Rowan map thread, I made a new map that shows parcel outlines overlaid on the 2007 aerials (I used those simply because I already had them, which made the job pretty straightforward). Here's an example from Retta Heights. Notice that this parcel is one of a group of lots listed on an another parcel. If you look on other sites, I don't think any ownership data will be displayed. As mentioned elsewhere, I have identified 64,000 of these "orphan" parcels that are missing from other sites. I use the terms child, parent and orphan when discussing these - but I just made those terms up, so don't expect anyone else to know what they mean. :D

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#17/39.432772/-74.875665/parcels07/0/0/

retta.png


The 2021 LIDAR map also shows parcel boundaries for zoom levels 15 - 17 (and my 2020 topo shows them at level 17). Note that the historical town name is shown in this example. Historical features was the last dataset I put together (finished it this morning) and by then, I just wanted to get it out the door. I may add more features in the future.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#17/39.769233/-74.681049/lidar2021hd/0/0/

hampton.png


There are about 4,500 historical features, most of which are historical building locations - things that aren't there anymore. They could be ruins, cellar holes or nothing at all. Watch that data field as you explore the map and you may find a few. Again, the orange text indicates data from a "parent" parcel.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#17/39.682901/-74.575365/midatlidar/0/0/

washington.png

There's a sharing button that works just like the "sync" app, a button to show info about the site and a help button. The preferences (wrench) button allows you to choose which of the data fields will be displayed. Turn off the stuff that doesn't interest you, it will improve performance, use less data and help fit everything on smaller screens (if your screen isn't big enough, you can scroll the sidebar to see the rest of the data).

Speaking of small screens, I have built basic mobile features into this app but not spent a lot of time on that. There's no setting for mobile use, it automatically changes layout when detecting a small screen.The buttons are a little on the small side but still usable. The layout automatically switches between portrait and landscape mode, with the data fields on the bottom in portrait (I think it looks better in landscape on my phone). Some older/smaller phones may not be usable if the screens are too small. Use the preferences to turn off some datasets to help it fit on a phone.

The map menu is in the usual place, there are about 50 maps covering the Pines. 3d view and 3d maps aren't supported, but the regular 2d Mapbox maps are there. There's a map info button next to the map menu and you can click on the blue bar above each dataset to see info and metadata for it. You boundaries are constrained (more or less) to the pine barrens, if you try to drag the map beyond the invisible bounds, it will snap back.

Have only played long enough to confirm that it works - now it's your turn to put it through its paces. This is still a big experiment for me, it uses my own proprietary API for fast streaming of map data without the overhead of searching a database or performing calculations on polygons. It works fine on my home server and network but it remains to be seen how it performs "in the wild" on the internet with a bunch of other users. It is a bit slower to respond than my home server, but I expected that.

Let's see how well this works for everyone. If it appears stable, in a few days I'll add a button to the main boydsmaps app that will take you to the same spot on the new site.

Now it's your turn... check it out. What do you think?

Oh - by the way - the first time you visit you'll need to agree to the terms of use. With all the data that's being presented, and all the opportunities for errors, I felt I needed a little "CYA". :D
 
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bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
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Pines; Bamber area
Boyd, I see some discontinuity within this lot, leading me to believe there may be more. See the data difference at different points in the lot.

Edit: I did find more. Take a break Boyd, walk away from it for awhile.
1680472958243.png
 

Boyd

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Take a break Boyd, walk away from it for awhile.

:guinness:Just had some pizza and a beer, heading out for a little walk now. Post a link of any problems that you find and I'll take a look. I can say, however, that it works best if you go "low and slow" - zoom in and move the map slowly to see the most accurate data. Your screenshots don't show the zoom level, but I'm guessing it's 14 or 15? Where I've seen problems a couple of times is zooming out pretty far and moving the map a lot, then zooming in.

Reloading the page generally fixes that kind of problem. But even so, I wouldn't be surprised to have it throw some bad data from time to time. A smaller subset of parcels would be more accurate (for complex technical reasons), but that would mean dropping down to something like 600,000 parcels. I initially spent a lot of time creating different versions of the map within that limit and wasn't satisfied, it's just not enough to adequately cover the region. So I went all out for the 2 million limit, just to see how well it would work.

So, lets see what everyone's experience is. If there are a large number of errors, such that it can't be trusted, I will pull the whole thing and write it off as a bad job! :D
 

bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
14,567
4,740
Pines; Bamber area
Yo, you're right, if you go lo and slo it's consistent. I can live with that. All I have to do is move slowly aound a bit when I use it, just to confirm I'm good.

As to the zoom on my first post, I only zoomed out to snip it while getting the whole lot and the data panel to show you side by side.
 
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Boyd

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Cool. But seriously, post a link when you see a problem. As I've said, this is still in the experimental stage and I want to make it as robust as possible. I'm sure there are also some outright errors in the "child" parcels, that part was hard. Check the child against the parent like this and let me know if you find errors.

parent.png
 

Boyd

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Another thing you could try is turning off some datasets. That speeds things up and uses less memory behind the scenes, because the data maps are aren't loaded or initialized when they are turned off. I like to think of the sidebar as a "kennel" with nine cages, and when data is flashing across the sidebar, all the dogs are barking and it's deafening! Get rid of some of the noisy dogs and you'll hear what your favorite puppies are trying to tell you. :D

OTOH, it can be very satisfying to hear all the dogs bark together in perfect harmony.
 
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Boyd

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That's interesting, should be an easy fix (famous last words). Everything should fit without scrolling, this is what it looks like in the Mac version of Edge. But I also get your same issue in the Windows version. Does it work properly in Chrome or Firefox? (does on the Mac)

Screen Shot 2023-04-03 at 11.32.14 AM.png
 

Boyd

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Could use some more tweaking, looks ugly with the scroll bar, but it should fit now. In doing this, it messed things up on the Mac for me :bang: but I think that's fixed now.

Screen Shot 2023-04-03 at 11.57.46 AM.png
 

Boyd

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Was just looking BTW, and the site is very slow for me in Edge on Windows. I am running it in a Virtual Machine, so that might be an issue but I wouldn't expect it to be (I do lots more demanding things than that in a VM). It might be that Edge or Windows is downloading some update or whatever.

Anyway, it's much faster for me in the Mac version of Edge, moves smoothly and updates the sidebar quickly, which seems weird to me. Does it seem very slow on your PC (I would describe it as "laggy", it moves in a jerky way and slowly updates the sidebar).
 

bobpbx

Piney
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It works now, thanks. This below is all I've decided to show unless I'm particulary interested in something. This site is very fast on edge, no problems.

1680541467490.png
 
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Boyd

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Makes sense. But - ugh - the header is messed up also in the Windows version of Edge. But fine in the Mac version of Edge, WTF is it with Microsoft? :argh:

This is what it should look like.

Screen Shot 2023-04-03 at 2.04.25 PM.png
 
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Boyd

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Think that's fixed now. You might have the usual cache issues if it doesn't change for you. Here's what it looks like now in Edge on Windows. The issue might be that it allocates room for a scroll bar, even though none is needed.

Screen Shot 2023-04-03 at 2.19.39 PM.png
 
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Boyd

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Found a bug - in the preferences, the buttons for Natural Heritage and Historical were mixed up. If you turned off Natural Heritage, it stayed on while Historical Features was actually turned off and vice-versa. That has been fixed. :)
 

bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
14,567
4,740
Pines; Bamber area
Found a bug - in the preferences, the buttons for Natural Heritage and Historical were mixed up. If you turned off Natural Heritage, it stayed on while Historical Features was actually turned off and vice-versa. That has been fixed. :)
I'm good, turned both off anyway.
 
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Boyd

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One thing you could do, if you also want the option to turn everything on sometimes, is set it up that way in Chrome. Each browser has its own set of preferences, so you can set them differently.
 
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