Range rings, radius circles, circles of distance
Range rings show a set of concentric circles labeled by distance from a central point, sometimes with radial lines, for judging distance and angle from a geographic location. Keywords: Range rings, radius circles, circles of distance
My DeLorme GPS has these. Garmin doesn't appear to. A quick web search will turn up so many hits that I think the message is clear. Range rings are SO much more useful than scaling lines on a map device. While they are useful on a paper map because you can't draw and erase circles all over your map, there is no excuse for not having them on an electronic device.
Even with paper, during search and rescue (S&R), we will draw them on maps, knowing that the maps will be tossed at the end of the event.
For groundwork, I find the radial lines useful. For cycling and driving, not so much. Toggling either on|off would be useful.
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Thanks for posting - I can definitely see how this would be a helpful feature.
Can I ask you to comment or vote on the official feature request for adding area and distance rings here: https://help.gaiagps.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360020282854-Circular-areas-to-help-save-lives-and-find-the-missing
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I see that that link is to an iOS specific requests...I hope that my request here is distroed across all platforms. I certainly want to see it on 'Droid and the desktop, not just iOS. Nonetheless, I cross-posted.
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I will follow the link given, but would like to add in here as well. I would love to see this feature added. I use Gaia in an offroad application where you cant necessarily look at the screen long enough to see what zoom level you are in and what the scale is to see how far your next waypoint is. Being able to set a ring at say .5 miles and 1 mile gives you a quick and easy visual to judge distance by.
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Range rings from your current position would be very useful for so many reasons already noted above. Would love to see this integrated!
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The implementation in the iOS app "Topo Maps" by "Mappendix Limited" is particularly well done. There is a cross hair overlay on the map at screen center (very thin vertical and horizontal lines that intersect at screen center with a tiny circle at the intersection). There is an on-screen button to toggle ranging circles. When the ranging circles are toggled on, they center at the current screen center. Depending upon zoom level they might be every 1000 ft, every 2000 ft, 5000 ft, 10000 ft, 20000 feet, etc. I would probably have it go 1000 ft, 2000 ft, 1 mi, 2 mi, etc. In addition to the range circles, as the map is scrolled, there is a range line drawn from the ranging circle center to he current screen center, and the map displays the distance and bearing up at the top.
It's a particularly fluid interface for estimating a route - simply place a range circle, move to a "waypoint-ish", keep the distance in mind, toggle range circles off and then back on, and then start the next segment.
The "Topo Maps" app is no longer under active development (the last release was 3 years ago), but it has served me well for the last 6 years. Phil Endecott did a pretty good job on it.
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A number of us have asked for this a long time ago (years?). Sadly, a number of decent "real user" suggested improvements just don't seem to make it into builds. Leveraging user input, GAIA could have been a premier app, instead it seems bogged in lethargy.
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Over a decade ago, my first iphone gps app had ranging circles and it was free. They worked perfectly. As a hunter, I could sit in my spot, look at the ranging circles as I zoomed, and say "well, that's an easy 80 yrd shot there, a harder 200 yrd shot there, and a house at 400 yards there, so no shooting in that direction". Also the quickest way to find out how much farther you have to go.
I really liked that feature...
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