WA8LMF Home Page | Main Ham Radio Page | Main Links Page | Updated  31 December 2021  

Notes on Installing and Using UI-View

Invalid & Changed Items In Distribution File  | Windows Vista-7-8-10 IssuesAdd-Ons  |  Installing and Using Precision Mapping with UIview32   | Installing and Using PA7RHM Map Server | Using MapPoint with UI-View |   FAQ  
(Links jump to points further down on this page.)

All discussions below apply to the final 32-bit release of UIview (Ver. 2.03). They DO NOT apply to the older and much more limited 16-bit version (which will work with Windows 3.1 if anyone still cares!).  Note that confusingly, the 16-bit version has a seemingly higher version number (2.39).   Don't be fooled -- all the advanced plugins require the 32-bit Ver 2.03!

The 16-bit (Windows 3.x) version is totally freely downloadable and usable as-is without registration. The 32-bit version requires registration to acquire the key number needed to unlock install and run the program.  The registration, once a USD $15 charge, is now completely free.  See the UI-view.net website for details.  Many of the more advanced add-ons, including Precision Mapping zoomable maps, will only work with the 32-bit version.

Note that the 16-bit version will not work at all with Windows Vista, Windows 7, or later.  Along with support for the classic Windows .hlp  help files, Windows Vista and later have dropped support for any 16-bit programs. (This also includes many older supposedly-32-bit Win95/Win98 programs and hardware device drivers, that often contained chunks of 16-bit code recycled from their Windows 3.x predecessors.)
 

*** Important !!! ***

Roger Barker G4IDE, the author of UIview, died abruptly of cancer in later 2004.  At his request from his deathbed, the source code for the program was destroyed, making updates impossible.

The main UIview program has now remained unchanged for NEARLY TWO DECADES. It is an "orphan" frozen in time as of  14 April 2004 during the "Windows XP era". This is long before Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 appeared

Even so, it is STILL the most fully-featured APRS client, and one of the few that can  provide fully zoomable, scrollable dynamic mapping WITHOUT an Internet connection.  [The other two are APRSpoint (Discontinued due to it's dependence on Microsoft MapPoint which was discontinued in 2013), and YAAC which is under current development.]

Uiview can be made to work with Windows Vista, 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, either 32- or 64-bits, but it IS NOT a mindless  "just run SETUP and accept the defaults"  undertaking.  See Vista-Win7-8-10 issues below. 

An increasing number of out-of-the-box defaults and settings are outdated.  Fortunately, many of these can be changed after the initial install.     Here are some of the changes & updates you need to make after installing the program.

 

Undertow Software's  Precision Mapping 9.0 (discontinued as of April 2014 with no replacement apparent.) is widely used for fully scrollable zoomable street-level maps of all of the U.S. and Canada inside UIview, using the Precision Mapping Server 9.0 plug-in for UIview.

As of fall 2021, the Undertow Software website has disappeared from the Internet - the company appears to be defunct.

CLICK HERE For details on using the most recently discontinued  Precision Mapping 9.0 with UI-View.

  
Precision Mapping 9 can now provide scalable, zoomable maps OUTSIDE of North America using vector data from external sources.    Details here:

PMapEuroMapSamples\index.htm

 

IMPORTANT!

Undertow Software shut down the RegisterMyApp.com activation website as of 1 March 2020.  You can no longer activate a newly-installed copy of Precision Mapping 9.0.

If you only want to use Precision Mapping 9.0 with UIview (not use Precision Mapping standalone), activation is NOT required.

Just run Precision Mapping once after install, dismiss the prompt to activate, and close the program. It will now work with UIview and the PMap Server 9.

[This workaround WILL NOT WORK with any older versions of Precision Mapping such as Ver 7.0 (discontinued in October 2006), Ver 8.0 (discontinued in April 2009), and Ver 8.1 (discontinued in November 2011). ]

 

 

Invalid & Changed Items in Ver 2.03 Distribution File

UIview Related FAQ

A useful FAQ (Frequently Ask Questions) for UIview is located on M0CYP's website here:

    http://www.apritch.co.uk/faq_uiview32.htm

 

UI-View Add-Ons

Although the main program is unchangeable, Roger provided and documented an API (Applications Programming Interface) that allows external programs to exchange data with UIview.  Details on this interface and code samples are located in the subdirectory \DEVELOP, located under the main UIview32 directory.   As a result, add-ons for UIview to continue to be developed.  Some examples are:

These (and many other UIview add-ons) are located at:
     ff  

 

These are only a sample of the add-ons available for UIview. Many more are described and linked from the main UI-view.net website.

Using The PA7RHM Mapserver for UIview

Chris van Gorp's PA7RHM mapservers automatically capture and calibrate maps from online mapping services for use with UI-View. The PA7RHM Mapservers are downloaded from PA7RHM's website at:

     http://pa7rhm.nl/ 

The actual download page for all his programs is:

     http://pa7rhm.nl/index.php?menu=Software&submenu=Downloads

 

An older version of his mapserver captures maps from the Expedia website. The appearance of these maps is almost identical to images produced by the local Microsoft programs Streets&Trips, Automap or MapPoint.  (Expedia is essentially the on-line version of MapPoint.)  It produces street-level detail in North America and Europe.  Elsewhere in the world only basic outlines of national borders and provinces show, with even large cities shown as simple point objects.  No roads or hydrographic features show. This older map server is downloadable at:

     http://www.pa7rhm.nl/downloads/setup_pa7rhmsvr1014.exe  

 

The latest version of his mapserver, released at the end of 2014, captures maps from the Open Street Maps project. This improved server can produce detailed down-to-street-level maps nearly anywhere in the world. More information on the new mapserver is here:

     http://www.pa7rhm.nl/downloads/Howto_Install_Use.pdf     Warning: Direct link to a PDF file. You may want to RIGHT-click and "Save as" a local file on your computer rather than open it in a web browser.

Page 36 of the February 2015 "QST" magazine has a detailed write-up on the new mapserver.

 

Operation with the older mapserver on a live Internet connection, is very straight-forward.  Just install the program from the downloaded setup file, and then select "Map Server by PA7RHM" from the UIview "Load A Map Dialog."    Configuring it to capture maps for use off-line (i.e. without an Internet connection) is a bit more involved.

The mapserver saves captured maps in UIview's optional "Extra Maps Directory".  It won't save any maps until you define such a directory in UIview.  The original intent of this optional directory was to allow the storage of large archives of static (non-zoomable) maps on a CD-ROM instead of filling up the UIview "\maps" directory on your hard disk.   For application with the PA7RHM server, this directory has to be on a hard disk (or other writable device such as a USB flash drive) since it needs to be writable.

  1. From the Windows File Explorer, create a directory for additional maps. It can be located under the main UIview directory, or somewhere else you prefer on your hard disk. Since you will want to edit files in this directory and delete unwanted views, it may be convenient to place this directory directly off the root of the drive instead of nesting it inside many layers of subdirectories. 
     
  2. In UIview (not the map server) pull down "Setup, Miscellaneous Setup" and locate the "Extra Maps" box at the bottom of the screen. Click the "Browse" button and navigate to the directory you created above .
     
  3.  Every time you zoom or scroll the PA7RHM server screen, a new pair of files (GIF image and INF file) with matching random-looking alphanumeric-string base file names will appear in this directory.  These random-looking names will now show up in UIview's "Load A Map" dialog after you do "Map, Refresh Map List".
     
  4. The names that show in "Load A Map" are not the file names. They are text strings contained INSIDE the .INF file for each map. Open the .INF file with Notepad or other basic text editor, and edit the third line to something more descriptive such as "Denver Metro Area" or "Westside - Street Level".  The string is completely arbitrary and can be anything you like. When you refresh the map list, you will now have more meaningful map titles.
    .
  5. You can quickly accumulate hundreds of maps, since you get a new map-and-inf pair every single time you zoom or scroll. You will probably not want to leave the "Save Map Copies" mode left turned on in the PA7RHM server very long. You will also probably also want to select just a few views to keep,  and delete the rest.  Use an image-management thumbnail-and-viewer utility such as IrfanView to preview and delete files. Or as a last resort, open the GIF images in your web browser for a quick view.
     
  6. To use the stored maps, you don't run the server at all. Once they are captured and stored, the maps are just like any other static map, such as the ones that came with UIview.  Just do "Map, Load A Map" in UI-View and select one of the stored static maps. If you have captured several maps that cover adjacent areas with some overlap, and UIview is set to track a particular station, UIview will automatically try to select the map with the best view of the station's current location as the station  moves.
     
  7. The Expedia maps, like maps generated by MapPoint, are projected on a non-rectangular grid to minimize distortion when the earth's curved surface is displayed as a flat image.   The disagreement between UIview's simple rectangular x-y grid "non-projection", and the curved, projected view generated by MapPoint, is insignificant at city, county or district level.  You WILL see significant error in the placement of APRS symbols, away from the map center, when the map is zoomed out to beyond 75 miles (120KM) or so.
     
  8. An alternative to the 'RHM server, that WILL produce rectangular-grid "non-projected" maps that align perfectly within UIview,  is the Universal Maps Downloader tool reviewed here on my web site. This program can capture satellite or street maps from Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps or Open Street Maps at a wide variety of scales.   Note that you WILL have to do some simple math to convert the coordinates produced by this program in degrees-and-decimal-degrees to the degrees, minutes and decimal minutes format used by UIview. 

    (A separate tool that converts between all three coordinate formats is downloadable from my website.Download Hyperlink for DegreesMInutesSecondsConvert Utility)  

    Using Microsoft MapPoint with UI-View

UIview can pass it's received position reports to Microsoft MapPoint (either the North American or European version) via the UI-Point "middle-ware" plug-in. Launching UI-Point from the "File" menu inside UIview causes an application that is actually MapPoint minus some of it's toolbar buttons to appear. This modified version of MapPoint, with all of it's normal menu pulldowns replaced with new ones, operates along side of UIview.   Note you must have MapPoint installed before UI-Point will work. MS Streets & Trips or Autoroute will not work with UIview. Click here for more information and details about MapPoint.  

IMPORTANT:  As of December 2014 Microsoft has DISCONTINUED MapPoint.  However copies of the final 2013 edition are still available in many places, including the BitTorrent file sharing networks.

The maps displayed in MapPoint are independent of any maps running normally inside UIview.  UI-Point plots standard UIview icons on the MapPoint display, but alphanumeric overlay characters that appear on top of the base icons on maps inside UIview don't show on the MapPoint display.  None of the other UIview plug-ins or enhancements that add track lines, range circles, weather alerting zones, overlay objects, etc to maps inside UIview will have any effect on the UI-Point/MapPoint display.

Note that APRS position reports received from the APRS Internet system (rather than off-the-air from a radio/TNC) don't appear by default.  Pull down "Options, Traffic Filter" from the UI-Point menu bar. Clear the check box for "Don't Display Internet Traffic". 

MapPoint is a large, resource-sucking, rather slow program. When UI-Point was first released years ago, the author was concerned that the typical PC used by hams wasn't fast enough to keep up with the flood of data from the APRS Internet system, while running the sluggish MapPoint. As a result, he defaulted Internet display to off.  (The over-the-air data rate is only 1200 baud and is no challenge for even slow PCs to keep up with.) Today, with fast PCs with gigabytes of RAM on broadband connections with port 14580 selective filtering (Details Here) of the Internet stream, UIview and UI-Point have no problem keeping up with the Internet data.
 

 

Displaying Stations Tracked in UI-View on External Mapping Programs. 

Although UI-View can only use Precision Mapping internally for scrollable, zoomable maps, it is possible to pass very limited amounts of data to any external mapping program capable of working with a standard NMEA GPS device. 

The obscure UIview plug-in Pos2NMEA (click here to download) will grab the incoming position data for any single specified callsign+SSID in UIview, convert it into generic NMEA format, and then output it to a virtual COM port. 

In turn, the external moving-map program is "fooled" into thinking it is connected to a standard NMEA GPS device in a moving vehicle.  Only position data (and altitude, if it was included in the original APRS posits) is passed to the external program. APRS symbols, comment fields, callsign, etc WILL NOT appear on the external map; only the same kind of cursor and bread-crumb trails that the program produces normally with an attached GPS receiver will show.   This setup works very well to display a balloon with an APRS tracker on a Delorme TopoUSA relief map as it drifts into mountainous terrain, while following it in UIview.  Examples of the track in both UIview and TopoUSA are here on this website.

Since both UIview and the external program have COM ports trying to talk to each other, you need a virtual null-modem (i.e. simulated serial cross-over cable) to connect the two.  The MixW "Serial Port Bridge" does exactly this in Windows 2000 or later, and is downloadable here.  The Serial Port Bridge was originally intended to allow MixW to act as a software packet TNC to external programs (it works perfectly with UIview). However, the Serial Port Bridge (which installs as a virtual hardware device in the Windows Device Manager) will work to connect any two serial-port-using programs in the same computer to each other.

Changing the callsign, whose data is to be passed out of UIview to the external program, requires hand-editing the .ini file that controls Pos2NMEA with a text editor like Windows Notepad. (Pos2NMEA was a quick unfinished hack of a program without a full user interface. You can't change the callsign from a pulldown menu inside the running program.) You can make editing the .ini file more convenient by adding the edit function to the UIview "Files" menu.   Open Windows Notepad and  copy/paste the following four lines into it:

Pos2Nmea_Edit
"C:\Windows\Notepad.exe" Pos2Nmea.ini
False
True


Save the file as
 Pos2NMEA_Edit.xtr . A convenient entry to edit the Pos2NMEA file will appear in the UIview "Files" menu the next time you start UIview.    .XTR files (short for eXTeRnal) allow commands to run external programs to be added to the UIiview menus.  [If your Windows installation is located on a drive other than C: , edit the path above to match.]  An XTR file to run Pos2NMEA is created automatically when the program is installed.  This added XTR just makes editing the  Pos2NMEA.ini  file more convenient.