Downloading maps GAIA

[Rokwiia]

I'm loving GAIA but still new to it and have a question or two regarding downloading maps. First, where I go, there is no cell service.

1) Does that mean I need to download the map for the area I'm going to otherwise no map will be available to view when in field? All I will see is a blank screen?

2) If I regularly use three or four different maps in GAIA (Open Cycle, USGS CalTopo, Outdoors, etc...) does that mean I have to download each map of that particular area? For example, if I were frequent Area A and I would like to toggle between 5 different maps, I need to download all of those 5 different maps of that Area A?

I can see where this can eat up a lot of space as GAIA has hundreds of layers for any particular location.

 

[Brendan]

Yes you need to download the maps in advance. Yes, you need to download each layer you want to use, but I'm pretty sure you can download multiple active layers at one time. If you don't download, the app tries to use cached imagery if you've looked at a specific layer/area before, but otherwise yes you get a blank screen.

To economize on space, only pick the layers you really need - e.g. Topo, Aerial/Satellite, Public/Private. And, you can pick max zoom level. Dial down the max zoom level just a little and it takes up a lot less space.

 

[Jethro]

Have all the layers you want downloaded for offline use active and they will all download at the same time for the area you choose. I have about 20 maps saved total from PA, WY, CO, and NM. The outwest states have layers: satellite w/labels, private land, public land, GMU, wilderness, MVUM, and USFS 2016. The PA maps not that many layers. Gaia takes up 2.4GB on my phone. Don't know if thats a lot or a little. Download time pretty quick too.

 

[Rokwiia]

Thank you.

 

[corncob]

I’ll add that there’s also a limit on the number of tiles you can download. And some maps have a lot less detail to download than others. For that reason, I generally attack the downloading of a new area like this.

Batch 1:
Neotreks Land Use (my preferred topo for most cases)
Public Land
Private Land
USFS Roads and Trails
MVUM
Big Game Units
Roadless/Trailless Areas
Slope Angle Shading (helps avoid short, steep cliffs not obvious on topo or give second look during topo review)
Timber Harvests (great for identifying clear cuts)
Wildfires (identity open areas)

Batch 2:
Google Terrain

Batch 3:
Google Satellite.

I can do a HUGE area with Batch 1 without a whole lot of data. It gives me a backup if I venture outside of my planned satellite download, or if I’m curious about a distant peak, etc.

Batch 2 and 3 can each require multiple downloads depending on the size of the area.

Doing it this way makes it more flexible, especially if I want to add a new info layer to batch 1 - I don’t have to re-download all the large sat images to keep things clean.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk