Author Topic: Handling of two POIs at the same spot  (Read 5879 times)

CoolP

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Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« on: December 09, 2011, 10:03:23 pm »
Still enjoying this neat tool.  :)

I wonder if there is a way to enhance the display of two POIs at the very same location. They come up from time to time and seem to cause a fight when it comes to display priority. The downside of this is that I can't read any of it.
So maybe there is a way to stack them vertically or so, so both names can be read.

Here's an example shot. Edited. Here's a better one.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 10:11:31 pm by CoolP »

virtuali

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Re: Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2011, 11:01:42 pm »
Most of the cases when several POIs are located exactly in the same place, are because they are stored in the database with not enough precision, the most common issue is when the data only has Degrees/Minutes with Seconds truncated to zero.

These POIs are assumed to be "inexact" by XPOI, and there's an option for choosing what to do with them, look in the options screen for "POI with inexact coordinates", there are 3 options:

- Ignore ( will just skip the POI not displaying it)

- Use Inexact coordinates ( will display the POIs with the coordinates they have )

- Spread Randomly ( will move each POI a small distance in random direction, in order to not have them clustering together )

The "Spread Randomly" option is the default, and is what should fix your issue. In fact, I've went to Geonames.org and checked your location:

http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_-37.733_145.5.html

Guess what, nearby "Wandin Yallock Creek", there are 3 mountains "Warramate Hills", "Steels Hill" and "Briartys Hill", all three listed as Lat/Lon S 37° 44' 0''. E 145° 29' 0'', so they are all missing the Seconds information, that's why they clustered together, so XPOI will treat them as being inexact, and should be able to spread them apart if you use the "Spread Randomly" option.

It seems that in this case, it's not just geonames.org that has the data truncated, but also Google Earth and Bing Maps all indicates all 3 POIs with truncated coordinates, and it seems quite common for that area, I guess it's the original data source that is not accurate enough.

If you can find correct coordinates for those 3 mountains (maybe on a real map ?), you could edit the Geonames data yourself, so anyone will get it corrected, both all the other XPOI users, but also anyone in the geographical community using geonames services...to be able to edit data on geonames.org, you will need to create a free account on that site.

« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 11:03:52 pm by virtuali »

CoolP

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Re: Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2011, 11:11:38 pm »
Ah, now I understand the manual's text about this. I will try that option but, first of all, thanks for that super fast answer of yours.
And thanks for the information on the account over there.

Edited. I just saw that the option is already running.  :-\


I will toggle it, maybe it changes things.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 11:14:50 pm by CoolP »

CoolP

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Re: Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2011, 11:21:19 pm »
Strange. Things don't change. I get this image, no matter what setting I have.



Even 'ignore' shows those POIs. Maybe that's the clue on this.  ???

« Last Edit: December 09, 2011, 11:25:15 pm by CoolP »

virtuali

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Re: Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2011, 11:45:47 pm »
Maybe it's because you have 3 points in the same spot, so only one was dumped.

CoolP

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Re: Handling of two POIs at the same spot
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2011, 12:03:59 am »
I don't know. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes. Would there be a way to improve the situation? If XPOI would spread those points too, I could read them. The location mismatch happening when spreading them isn't important, but the names would be nice.
Although, as this is a rare thing to happen, I'm complaining on a high level.

Second option would be the mentioned vertical sequence.

So if they have that hill and a restaurant on it, plus a monument, this may happen, yes?
« Last Edit: December 10, 2011, 12:11:14 am by CoolP »