Notice Anything New? Recent UI updates
Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work implementing a wide range of UI updates. A couple of key themes will stand out: consistency and usability. Our goal is to make the mobile app and website feel more aligned—both in how they look and how they function—while ensuring they’re more intuitive than ever. While individual changes might feel a bit different from what you’re used to, we encourage you to keep an eye on the bigger picture as we continue to evolve.
You can find these on both web and the mobile app (if you aren’t already using the app you can find it here: https://caltopo.com/appstore). Ensure you are on the most recent version of the app on your mobile device, currently you should be on 1.18.
You likely noticed a few of these, however some changes may not have been quite as obvious. We’ve compiled these updates in this blog, including links to the user guide so you can learn more.
- Terrain Shading (previously known as DEM Shading)
- This is a team favorite. Terrain Shading has a whole new interface (and name)! We find the new version to be more intuitive, and let’s face it, more attractive to look at. One note, to save to your account now you select export at the top right.
- More information included on this update in our recent LiDAR import blog post as well: LiDAR Import Blog Post
The new face of Terrain Shading
- Line Profile
- Web: The line profile on the web now includes grade and total time.
- Mobile: The profile on mobile is now interactive like the web. As you drag your finger along the profile, a dot will move along the line/track showing the location corresponding to the selected spot on the profile. We also re-sized this window to allow more of the map viewer to be seen at the same time. We love this update!
- Settings/Display options combined on Mobile
- This is a small change, but was intended to streamline your experience when looking to update settings on the app. Previously the mobile app had two settings menus, now all settings are under the same menu!
- Live tracking and Shared Locations (team accounts only).
- Both received very minor process changes in saving/ending the tracking, and streamlining where a track saves.
- The biggest change here is not visible, but a lot of work has gone into improving how tracking works, the level of accuracy, and how the app works when backgrounded on your device.
- A common question we get on tracking is “why are there straight lines in my tracks”. This is typically related to battery management settings on the device. Click here for more information.
- Range Rings, Sectors and Bearing Lines
- Another exciting improvement! Range Rings, Sectors and Bearing Lines are all now interactive; they can be moved around with your cursor or finger to get them where needed.
- You can still add these tools at specific coordinate locations/measurements on the map, or edit their location/measurement by changing the appropriate field in the edit window.
Interactive Range Rings. Bearing Lines and Sectors got a similar update.
- Navigation changes
- Combined and simplified options, including a more concise “swap direction” when navigating along lines and polygons, or to a point or marker.
- Viewshed
- Added the ability to edit the coordinates/location of a view shed layer (interactive like range rings, sectors etc.).
- Layer legends on mobile
- Removed an unnecessary screen to get you to the legends faster!
Along with the changes mentioned above, we have been working hard on generally improved functionality, some of which is not visible. This is an ongoing process and much of what we are doing is laying the groundwork for future work. Keep an eye on the blog here and our social media (Facebook and Instagram) to stay up to date.
As always, if you have any questions please send us an email at help@caltopo.com, or leave a comment below. Happy Mapping!
These are some great updates. Thank you!
Would love to see some customization options to the “crosshairs” feature. At least the ability to change it to a color – other than grey. It is so hard to see with many layers as a background.
How often is the GPS image data updated? We have been on searches where the surrounding terrain looks nothing like the terrain on your app.
The update frequency will depend on the layer: https://training.caltopo.com/all_users/base-layers/layers.
https://help.caltopo.com/hc/en-us/articles/5379607151259-Map-Layer-Data-Updates
What layer are you using?
Depends on where I’m searching. Typically map builder topo or map builder roads.
Check the links in my last comment for more information on when we import data for each layer.
Thanks!
I LOVE the new UI for (DEM) terrain shading! Having recently created a map of the Truckee River Watershed, representing different color schemes for a variety of terrain features, such as elevation, drainage channels, peaks + basins, etc. the sliders provide a much easier way to develop specialized gradient and color schemes. On the flip side, I did appreciate the numeric dialogue for adjusting color hue and tonal value. Coming from an art & design background, having the ability to precisely adjust color RGB + K through a 1-255 value is very useful. In my illustration and photo software, I have the ability to save these values as a “swatch” to load in future instances. CalTopo has a set of default color swatches readily available to assign to map object, yet, I will put in the request to (eventually) develop and save my own swatch library. For now, I am super glad to be able to save these as customizable map layers!
Thanks for continuously updating! The interactive profile on mobile adds huge functionality that’s been a long time coming. I have noticed a bug in the navigation – sometimes when I press “swap direction” the blue highlighting disappears entirely. Thanks for working to maintain my favorite computer product in existence!
Can we please get some options to customize our own UI? I don’t really like the new “point info” thing, because it turns what was once two clicks to get to a full weather report from NOAA, into three. Additionally, I don’t like the new transform menu. I feel like it breaks my workflow, as before the menu was in relation to my cursor, now it’s locked to a spot on the page. If we could customize the menu that pops up when you click on stuff (hide some behind a menu, keep others always easily accessible) that would be fantastic.