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Notes on Installing and Using UI-View

Invalid & Changed Items In Distribution File  | Windows Vista and Win7 IssuesAdd-Ons  |  Installing and Using Precision Mapping with UIview32   | Installing and Using PA7RHM Map Server | Using MapPoint with UI-View    (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 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 UIview.org website for details.  Many of the more advanced add-ons, including Precision Mapping zoomable maps, will only work with the 32-bit version.

Invalid & Changed Items in Ver 2.03 Distribution File

Roger Barker (G4IDE),  the author of UI-View, died in late 2004.  At his request, the source code for the program was destroyed, making impossible changes or updates to the final release (Ver. 2.03) of the program.   The main UIview program, as distributed, is now an "orphan" frozen in time as of  14 March 2004, with an increasing number of defaults and settings becoming outdated.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.

IMPORTANT NOTICE-

Undertow Software's Precision Mapping 7.0 (discontinued in October 2006), 8.0 (discontinued in April 2009) and 8.1 (currently available) are widely used for fully scrollable zoomable street-level maps of all of the U.S. and Canada inside UIview. 

The current version of Precision Mapping (8.1), works with UIview via the same PMap Server 7 plugin developed for the earlier versions.  However the installation procedure is different.

CLICK HERE For details on using Precision Mapping 8.0 or 8.1 with UI-View.

CLICK HERE for details on using the older (discontinued) Precision Mapping 7.0.

[ Precision Mapping 8 and 8.1  use newer versions of the Precision Mapping Mappro71.ocx Active-X control used in Precision Mapping 7.  This control is used by Precision Mapping in it's stand-alone mode (located in the main Precision Mapping program folder). The .ocx is also used by PMap Server 7.0 for UI-View to access Precision Mapping data inside UI-View. ]



 

 

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:
     http://www.apritch.myby.co.uk/addon.htm  

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

Using The PA7RHM Mapserver for UIview

Chris van Gorp's PA7RHM mapserver automatically captures and calibrates maps from Microsoft's Expedia on-line mapping service for use with UI-View. You can zoom out to regional or country level or zoom in to street-level anywhere in North America or Western Europe.  The appearance of these maps is almost identical to images produced by the local programs MS Streets&Trips (North America), MS Automap (Europe) and MS MapPoint for both regions.   It can produce views elsewhere in the world but these will be simple outlines of national borders and provinces with cities shown as simple point objects.  No roads or hydrographic features show.

Operation with 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 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.

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. MS Streets & Trips or Autoroute will not work with UIview. Click here for more information and details about MapPoint.

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 hundreds of megabytes of RAM on broadband connections with port 14580 selective filtering of the Internet stream, UIview and UI-Point have no problem keeping up with the Internet data.