Updated Feature: Improved Map Layers UI and the New Layer Catalog
Update 1/13/26: We’ve received a lot of thoughtful feedback on this update, and we appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to share their experience. Matt Jacobs, CalTopo’s founder, has added a detailed comment in the thread below with more context on the changes and how we’re responding so far. Please continue to share your thoughts in the discussion.
This week, the Map Layers menu got a much needed overhaul! We also added a new feature to both the web and mobile app: a Layer Catalog. You’ll probably notice the difference right away as it’s a whole new look, but there is also a lot of new functionality we hope you will enjoy!
But don’t take our word for it- move the slider on the image below to compare the old Map Layers menu (on the left) with the new version (on the right).
So what has changed?
The biggest functional change is the addition of the new Layer Catalog. The layer catalog allows you to choose which layers and overlays are always visible in the right hand layer menu when you are in the map viewer.
This could be useful in a myriad of different ways. For instance, I don’t need to see the avalanche/winter specific layers while I’m on a backpacking trip in the heat of the summer months. The layer catalog allows me to hide those until I need to see the forecast/avy observations layer as winter gets started where I live.
Why is this awesome?
While many of our layers are available globally, there are a few that are location dependent. Some users have expressed the desire to hide layers that aren’t available in their location, in order to slim down the layer menu. Additionally, educators teaching new CalTopo users how to navigate may find that the extensive layer list can be overwhelming as they get started. Now you can slim down the layer menu to show only what you will use in the near future and to simplify the look of the interface.
The CalTopo team is really excited as adding the layer catalog also gives us the ability to add additional layers in the future, without overwhelming the layer menu. Keep in mind, if you like and use all the layers, you don’t have to hide any of them!
Regardless of why, you can now choose to hide layers from your view. You can always adjust (or re-adjust) this for the season, map or activity on the fly if you previously hid a layer that you now want to use, on both web and mobile.
How to use the new Layer Catalog
To open the layer catalog you will select the “settings” cog in the upper right corner of the layer menu. This opens the catalog page, and from here tapping on any layer will enable/disable that layer’s visibility on the menu in the map viewer. A green “eye” icon indicates that a map layer is enabled on the layer menu. While a red “eye” icon with a slash through it indicates it is disabled. Click anywhere on that layer to change visibility.
Once in the catalog, you may notice that there are a few colored description tags on many of the layers. These highlight some features that may be helpful in determining which layer is a best fit at a high level glance. To dig in deeper you will want to select “more info” to expand a more detailed text description of the layer. If you ever need more information on a layer you can also find details in the user guide here: Base Layers and Overlays.
What else has changed?
Other updates to the Map Layers menu include thumbnails showing a quick glance of what each layer and overlay look like, as well as some reorganization of the order in which layers and overlays appear. You will immediately see the new layer menu and catalog on the web. If you don’t see it on your app make sure that you are on the most recent version, which is 1.24.1.
You can find more information on using the layer catalog and new UI in the CalTopo user guide here: Layer UI. If you have feedback or questions on this please leave a comment below on this blog, or email us at help@caltopo.com.
Happy Mapping!
Sorry, this is awful. You went from clean and readable to…not. Can’t believe anyone requested this.
I agree!!
Yes, 100% agree. Alignment between mobile and desktop isn’t an organic goal, desktop is for power users–this powered down, not up.
I couldn’t agree more.
I agree! I HATE it.
Agreed. I sent them that same message by email the day it came out. The new layout is a frickin nightmare, much more cluttered and complicated. What were they thinking? Caltopo must have been purchased by a private equity firm. In fairness, Caltopo responded to my email to them but I have been to P.O.’d to read the email. Honestly, its that bad.
Agreed 100%
Another agree. I’ve used this platform for years as my main tool to build orienteering courses and train hundreds of people how to use map and compass and gps. I had to switch back to google earth last week, I spent five hours trying to get the same level of functionality from the new menus. I love this platform so much, it’s completely changed how I move in the outdoors, and I’m devastated to see it so difficult to use. Caltopo: we love your product, please let us use the legacy version!!!
Change can be challenging, so I get there will be a learning curve. Will the User Guide be updated to help with the new GUI? One thing I just stumbled onto is if you want to delete a Base Layer, you have to drag the Base Layer you want to keep to the top of the menu, and any other ones will now have the red X available to delete it.
Hi Mark! The userguide has been updated: https://training.caltopo.com/all_users/getting-started/map-tour#right.
The first layer cannot be deleted, but you can either change it from the drop down to the layer you want, or drag and drop to change the order. Just like in the old interface though you cannot have Caltopo open without any layer.
Hi Rachel, thanx for the quick response! I was misled by some of the little “tutorial” vids referring to the old GUI. I should have gone all the way down to the Right Side menu shown in your link. Looks great.
I certainly like the awesome ability to hide unwanted menu items as well!
Thanks for pointing out those old GIF’s/Videos! We will work on getting those updated as well. We appreciate the feedback and comments!!
Thanks, I like the changes
Thanks David! Glad to hear.
Really? What is there to like about it. Seems most people feel the new version is cluttered and less efficient.
Well, you are in the minority. What is there to like about it?
I appreciate the effort which went into this major update, however it was sprung on us without any warning. We have +100 people using CalTopo and we didn’t have an option to train our people or even notify them of this change. This means some of them discovered it on a mission and didn’t know what to do. In future it would be good to give your user community advance notice of any major changes. Is there a way we could continue to use the old application until we can hold a training for our people?
Thanks for taking the time to share this feedback. We understand how disruptive it can be to encounter a significant interface change unexpectedly, especially when you have a large team relying on CalTopo in active, time-sensitive situations. We will continue to look into ways to improve communication around major changes in advance.
While the new map layers UI replaces the legacy version and can’t be easily switched off, we’ve updated the documentation to reflect the new UI, which should help with training and onboarding your team: https://training.caltopo.com/all_users/getting-started/map-tour#right. In addition, there are in app notifications visible to all users that highlight the changes and should help ease the transition to the new UI.
We appreciate you calling this out and we’re grateful for your feedback as we continue to improve both the product and how we roll out changes.
I agree.
This might be headed in a direction I like – more control over the map appearance. However – have these features been user tested before launch? They appear not to work (in Chromium Arc browser at least)
“A green “eye” icon indicates that a map layer is enabled on the layer menu. While a red “eye” icon with a slash through it indicates it is disabled. Click anywhere on that layer to change visibility”.
In my tour of the new features the green eye, red eye do not do anything. I’ve started with a new map and reset to defaults and still no changes. For example I’d love to integrate the 10 foot contours so i can gauge and count the elevation of a tough canoe portage I’m planning – something I was able to do easily in the previous GUI, but now am not able to activate. (Paid membership – so everything should be working). Fixing the location in the stack order of shaded relief has also notably affected the appearance of my existing maps in a not good way – the shaded even with opacity set low overwhelms the details of the map layers beneath it vs the other way (relief at 100% with detailed maps stacked above at 80%.) which is how I previously set it.
I see now, the green/red eye just allow you to customize whats in the sidebar. So no functional changes other than the stacking order of the shaded relief is now fixed above all others. Now I’m stuck trying to figure out the “More Layers in Catalogue” selection which takes you to the sidebar customizer – but doesn’t actually turn anything (roads) on or off on that baselayer.
Hi Kenneth,
It sounds like you are in the layer catalog. The catalog will show you all layers available. Here you can turn certain layer visibility off or on. Then when you go back to the layer menu, your curated list will appear.
The “more layers in catalog” is showing you that there are more layers available if you want to turn them on. If you click that it takes you to the catalog to enable or disable layers.
I respectfully second the request to put the Shaded Relief layer back to where it can be a Base Layer OR just re-add it to the list of available Base Layers if that is easier.
Red and Green, what could go wrong. Anyone colour-blind having an issue with it…
Yeah, they obviously did not think this whole thing through AND kept it secret. Who were the commercial beta testers?
The layers are not not toggling on and off with the green/red eye.
Please send us an email at help@caltopo.com.
The green eye/red eye only toggle whether the option to turn these layers on and off exist in your mapbuilder sidebar. After you build your sidebar with the layers you might want, you then toggle them on or off in the sidebar.
Awful. Cluttered, not intuitive. Now I have to scroll so much more often to find the layer I’m looking for. A simple check box is so much more intuitive than an eyeball. And we simply don’t need icons of the different maps, it only takes up room and is just one more thing we have to interpret while navigating this new tool bar. Please give us an option to show the legacy version. Again, cluttered, confusing, not intuitive.
Agreed!
I agree!!!!
Agree, this is NOT AWESOME!
1000% agree.
Yep!
Totally agree
One more “agree”. Change is hard but after using it on both the web and in the field on my mobile, I think the new UI has real drawback.
I like the layer catalog and the ability to decide which are visible on the sidebar or not. I do not like the icons, which in my opinion add no clarity nor do they save time because the icons appear to be screen grabs as opposed to true “pictographic” icons which are easy to recognize (think the floppy disk icon that is the ubiquitous “save” command in apps). The result is that the icons just take up valuable space and add clutter, as others have mentioned.
Back to the main tab, the “red highlight” around layers to show that they are “on” is much harder to see – and easier to miss – than the old checkboxes, particularly at night in the rain on your phone.
I agree that an alternate UI should be availble for those who want it. Keep the layer catalog (it saves time and cleans things up!), but have an alternative main tab UI that replaces the layer icons with an “on/off” checkbox.
And lastly, thanks for supporting the community with improvements to an already awesome product!
100% Agreed. What a mess.
Can there be an option to use the legacy view? I really dislike this. It’s very cluttered and if you are used to what the layers are (don’t need a picture preview) I feel like this is just a downgrade in useability.
I agree!!!!!
Please this: I’ve used this for sar and fire for close to 10 years and the new system is unusable.
Honestly this is a pretty disappointing update. It might be nice for new users who have trouble understanding or recognizing that certain layers exist, but this update is a downgrade for experienced users. It would be great if you could toggle between the old menu or the new menu options. Issues include: hotkeys that can easily be accidentally pressed without realizing, much harder to quickly see what layers are toggled on and off, and the need to scroll to toggle layers on and/off (especially when you accidentally hit a hot key), and having to visit settings to toggle layers on and off. Again I can see how this might be useful for the recreational version and expanding visibility, but for the professional/SAR version this is a big downgrade in functionality. Similarly, for major UI upgrades, it would be great if there was a heads up for Team users. It’s a real bummer to jump into operational mode only to discover features you need are now buried in a menu!
Max – would you mind emailing help@caltopo.com with an example screenshot showing what the UI looks like with the layers you’ve enabled, and particularly which ones are visible with and without scrolling? We’re still working on some options internally, and would like to validate what things are looking like for users with significant scrolling. Thanks.
Really don’t appreciate these new image icons next to every layer. Makes the panel completely cluttered and now I have to scroll down and up twice as much because everything can’t fit. Completely cancels out any use the new layer catalog may have. Also, the subtle shading of the layer tabs when selected isn’t enough to visually differentiate them as being selected. What was wrong with a simple check box? I doubt that is accessible?
Please add the functionality to allow a more compact view, an option to remove the thumbnails? Also, there is no thumbnail loading for any of my map sheets so what’s the point of even having them there?
Exactly. I emailed them the same thing. It seems that such a train wreck is impossible unless it is a feature…meaning they knew what they were doing and did it anyway without involving any of their commercial clients. So, the curious question is WHY? It doesn’t take a “Brain Scientist” or “Rocket Surgeon” (pun) to figure out this was a huge step backward. So, why did they do it? My guess is that there is a monetary interest involved and for at least certain segments of users, CalTopo would be losing market share to firms like OnX. I prefer – well, I “preferred” CalTopo over OnX because CalTopo could do anything OnX could do and perhaps more, and more easily for someone that knows what they are doing. Seems to me that “dumbing down” the UI and cluttering it with pretty but useless images is a strategy one would employ only if the firm felt it would be helpful to attract new users. Personally, I don’t think it is any simpler or better but is certainly “cuter” and might be better suited to marketing promotions, while taking a step backwards in function. My honest opinion, nothing more or less.
Albert – would you mind emailing help@caltopo.com with an example screenshot showing what the UI looks like with the layers you’ve enabled, and particularly which ones are visible with and without scrolling? We’re still working on some options internally, and would like to validate what things are looking like for users with significant scrolling. Thanks.
Please implement a feature where we can toggle between the UIs. The new version is way too cluttered. Before I could see all the options on my screen at once, now I have to scroll multiple times to find what I’m looking for. I love Caltopo and use it year round, but really hate this UI change. Sorry.
Option to turn off or get rid of the thumbnails please. As a pro user I find them annoying and unnecessary
Completely agree.
Concur
I like the idea of being able toggle on/off and don’t mind so much the UI change. With that, it is a bit annoying that all of our custom layers are not in any specific order, certainly not alphabetical as it was prior to the change.
Charlie, not having the custom layer alphabetical was a bug that has been fixed on both the web and the app now.
I’m a reasonably competent computer user and love maps, mapping programs, and GIS. While I could adapt, I’m not excited about it. I’m sure some people will like this new look, but the original look worked well- it was clean and simple. It was easy to use without scrolling. This new look is clunky, big, and obtrusive. Perhaps you could allow us to have a choice? There are a lot of competing platforms out there. If this is what you’re offering now, without warning, I’m inclined to head elsewhere.
I’m in the middle of multiple projects, take a few days off, fire up Caltopo and…what the hell ? I reboot. Same outcome. My initial feedback is, not positive. For desktop users who squeeze every ounce out of CalTopo to produce professional trail development maps, this hurts. Qgis anyone?
Agreed 100%
Please add option to use the old user interface. The update is cluttered and not user friendly.
Aw, I’m sorry, and I want to be supportive of progress, but I have to agree that this new UI is an unwelcome surprise and an overly complex and cluttered nightmare. One of the things I like best about CalTopo versus certain competitors is (or was) the simple, intuitive modular layer interface. This feels like a big misstep.
Would be great if as part of selecting personalized layers, you could choose a default combination to always load when starting a map.
The ability to customize the layer menu is great, but agree with others that the thumbnails add clutter and extra space, now I need to scroll more than before to access fewer layers/overlays.
I can’t seem to find the NAIP imagery? Is it no longer included? Though 10 years old it has been the most useful for me to see environmental and geologic features. Thanks
Click on the gear icon, go down to “Additional Imagery”
NAIP layers are still available . We now have a Layer Catalog where you can hide and unhide layers. The new user interface has a default set but you can unhide the layers you want and hide others that you do not need or use. Here is more info on our new Layer Catalog. https://training.caltopo.com/all_users/getting-started/map-tour#right
Marc
Thanks. Missed it staring at all the thumbnails that look alike 🙂
I must be weird………….I like it.
Bro! since you like it and you get it, can you please show me how to find the shaded relief?
Good morning Felipe, you asked, “can you please show me how to find the shaded relief?” and I’d be glad to assist!
In the Map Layers section, the first group is your Base Layers. On the old layout your Shaded Relief was one of the Base Layers. But now Shaded Relief is located directly below the Base Layers section, you’ll see Normal, Enhanced and Terrain options there, and then the opacity of the Shaded Relief.
So to quickly get back to how you were using it on the previous version, just click “Normal” under “Shaded Relief” and set the Opacity to 100%.
I find this is a step backwards, I cant find things right away, the view is not helping and doesn’t look clean. Could you just please take it down and leave it how it was?
The Desktop Regression: Why CalTopo’s 2026 UI is a Functional Downgrade for Power Users
The January 7, 2026 update to the Map Layers menu is a textbook case of UI parity at the cost of UX utility. While the new “Layer Catalog” might simplify things for a casual user on a 6-inch phone, it has effectively lobotomized the desktop experience for those of us who use CalTopo as a high-density GIS workstation.
To the dev team: I know the goal was “clean and visual,” but here is why this update is a massive step backward for your core power users:
1. Architectural “Dumbing Down” (Mobile-First on a 27″ Monitor) We have traded a lean, readable text-list for giant, touch-friendly thumbnails and massive white space. This is a regression in data density. On a desktop, we don’t need “curated” galleries; we need a high-speed, low-friction way to toggle data. Forcing us into a secondary “Layer Catalog” window just to see our options adds unnecessary cognitive load and functional latency to every planning session.
2. The Subscription Flicker & Feature Gating As a long-time legacy subscriber ($20/yr), this update has introduced a frustrating race condition. Google layers load from the cache, only to be yanked away 1.5 seconds later once the backend entitlement check realizes I’m not on the $50 “Pro” tier.
If you’re going to deprecate web-based licensed layers for legacy accounts, don’t hide the “Google” section from the catalog entirely. It makes the UI feel broken rather than tiered.
3. Functional Friction in the “Stacking” Logic The new stacking mechanic is objectively clunky. Requiring a user to drag a layer to the top of a list just to reveal a “delete” button for the layer underneath is a bizarre choice that ignores decades of standard UI logic. It turns a one-click task into a multi-step drag-and-drop chore.
4. Locking the “Power User Escape Hatch” By moving Custom Map Sources behind the Pro paywall and replacing the “Type” dropdown with an “Auto-Configure” black box, you’ve killed the flexibility that made CalTopo superior. Power users want to manage their own tile servers without being gated by a simplified mobile wrapper.
A Request for the “Nicely” Part: We love CalTopo because it was the “professional’s tool” that didn’t treat its users like they were browsing Instagram. We understand that Google APIs are expensive and that mobile-web parity is a development goal. However, UI parity shouldn’t mean functional regression. The Solution? Give us a “Compact Mode” toggle in the settings. Let us opt out of the thumbnails and the catalog pop-ups so we can get back to high-density, high-speed mapping. Don’t let CalTopo follow the “enshittification” path of other mapping apps—keep the power in the power tool.
Wow, that was a lot more eloquent than my non-tech savvy complaint that “this sucks” and “they must be doing it to fight market share loss to “cuter” apps like OnX”. I think we kind of landed on the same thing, but you said it so much better. Um, I think, so, but I’m not sure I understood half of it. LOL.
I think this new management is probably better for new people, and worse for experienced ones due to it taking up more space. It’s not done by anyone with an eye for UI, but that’s expected. I was on their mobile plan for a while recently, but needing to restart it all the time + lack of optimization for large datasets caused me to cancel and I don’t have the mobile app installed anymore to test against (I was denied a refund, but my sub was stopped from renewing at least), but some quick thoughts on sloppy implementation here.
With a cheap plan I don’t need more layers than I have on screen on a 16″ laptop with HiDPI 2056×1329 equivalent resolution. Some obvious design / interaction flaws IMO:
* the focus for active layers is too subtle
* icons for layers are so zoomed out they’re useless for identifying them but take up space. someone took the worst lessons of macOS 26 menus?
* drag targets for baselayers are improperly sized, they should take up the full vertical width of the layer object
* opacity sliders are outside of the layer box/border, but overlays have select menus inside borders. pick one of the other, don’t randomly change design patterns – interactive elements of layers should be dealt with consistently.
Another miss, if you are logging in on multiple computers, you have to set your layer preferences on each one. This personalization should be tied to the account, not a cookie on a computer. So glad my app doesnt auto update and I can still use the old UI.
After playing with things to get used to the new UI, a few things stuck out that dont seem to make things easier or simpler for users:
– Slope Angle Shading and Gradient Slope Angle Shading are now 2 different overlays (that can be turned on at the same time), when they could have been combined (like before) into “Slope Angle Shading” with a toggle to choose between Gradient or Fixed.
– same thing as above for contours. If all are selected with the green eye, it pretty much takes up the entire menu, and results in more scrolling. This could be a dropdown/toggle just like many of the other overlays
– some overlays have a drop down to choose options which is housed in the glowing box showing its selected, but for base layers the slider is not housed in the box, which isnt as intuitive, especially if you have multiple base layers selected, its not very clear (like the overlays) what slider is attached to each baselayer.
This is going to be a big help for me.
Being able to turn off the layers that aren’t available for my region will remove a lot of clutter I had beeen dealing with.
Additionally, all this work went into new spiffy icons and eyeballs, but we still don’t have the much requested preset layers feature. We get an update we didn’t request but can’t get a feature that the program used to have (in a limited fashion.) Give us three preset buttons, A, B and C, that gives us three preset layers of our choosing. Thank you.
Good idea. Sounds like a fair request.
The new map layers update is awful. Please allow us to switch back to classic. I love this app and happily pay for it but this change is not helpful. People have repeatedly asked for the preset layers to be returned and Apple Car Play functionality but this is what the focus was on?
Please give us the option to switch back to the old map layers interface. It was much more user friendly for desktop users. When AGOL implemented a big overhaul to their map viewer a couple of years ago, I hated it in the beginning, but at least they notified users well in advance of implementing the new version and gave us the option of continuing to use the classic version. Even today I have the option of switching back to the classic version if I choose to.
CalTopo is the one mapping app I truly loved, for many years running it was my #1 mapping tool. I can live with the new changes but I’m keenly disappointed. The map layers interface looks and feels clunkier. It doesn’t streamline my experience on the desktop–it does the opposite. Needless thumbnails take up valuable space. Having to scroll to find layers as opposed to conveniently seeing everything at a glance.
Last but not least, I’m disappointed that the devs moved the Google layers to a higher paid tier, and it feels inconsiderate that this change wasn’t mentioned to their customers in the recent blog post as opposed to silently removing them from the Mobile tier subscription.
The removal of Google layers was not intentional- it looks like that is a bug for certain legacy users. Our dev team is looking into it.
Thanks for continuing to improve your product! The UI for new users is not the right UI for expert users. Presets would be helpful to both groups.
Nice way of putting it. Fundamentally my biggest complaint is the fact that the new UI is cluttered, uses vastly more real estate than necessary, and the real estate hogging icons are 100% unnecessary.
There are so many comments here that are more thoughtful than mine which basically consisted of “this sucks” LOL and “why are you taking up so much real estate with icons”.
Like so many others I LOVED CalTopo and deliberately used it over other options that are better known, but no more powerful or less powerful and more cluttered (you know what I’m talking about). BTW, I have a pro level subscription, or whatever it is called.
For at least a decade I’ve told people, use Caltopo (at least at home or office) it is better than OnX, Gaia, or whatever. 80% of the folks I have promoted CalTopo to have never heard of CalTopo. Including field professionals. Now, I’m not so sure I’d recommend CalTopo over the more common options.
Like trying to run a pass happy spread offense in football with the staff from a legacy Big Ten running team without a passing QB or good Pass Defense.
This is by far the worst update I’ve seen from CalTopo.
The “eyeballs” went away and now there are checkmarks for making your selections in the catalogue…….eyeball, checkmark, checkmark, eyeball……..same end when result.
I don’t consider myself a “new user”. Am I a “core power user”? Idk. I’ve been using Caltopo for about 3 years now, regularly, I’m the mapping lead for my county’s SAR team and I can’t find one reason that this new map layer UI would change or alter my perceptions or anything that I’m currently doing in Caltopo. Upon first viewing it, it took very little time to make my selections from the catalogue and then forget about it. I’m not invalidating anyone’s feedback, but I don’t get it either, at least when I consider my own use of it.
If I had to come up with something that I’d like to see different, I’d prefer that when I stack a base layer, that it not default to 100% opacity, I don’t believe the prior UI did that.
The old layers UI was clean and easy to understand with the checkboxes. This looks complicated and “busy” and is frankly rather confusing until you figure it out. We’re going to have to retrain our whole SAR team on how this works, whereas the old interface was simple enough you could pretty much figure it out without instruction.
I appreciate the option to choose which layers show up but I am immensely disappointed at the reduction in density and usability by making it hard to tell which layers are active on the map (just use a checkbox) and the necessity to scroll on all but the biggest screens by adding a preview which is too small to be helpful so is just clutter.
Please add a compact option that is just words and checkboxes, like it has been.
This is the opposite of an “awesome upgrade”. It demonstrates serious lack of understanding/investment in both UX/UI and product strategy.
OK, I am struggling with this and I don’t believe that it’s because I’m simply used to (very) effectively using the old UI – frankly, I think that a large part of my struggle is that this is simply not intuitive to use. Man am I bummed to having to figure this out in the middle of my high use winter season. (For what its worth, I’ve been a happy Pro version user for years, and have always recommended Caltopo to others – I’m not sure if this will continue.) I’m certain that you guys are reading the comments here which are overwhelmingly negative. There is a bias towards negative (vs positive) reviews, but the numbers are pretty negative here. It will be interesting to see what your traffic/usage trends look like. Good luck!
All –
I want to provide a little more context on these changes. Much of the work we do requires finding a balance between different users’ needs, often in ways that are not readily apparent. While this change illustrates a divide between the needs of newer and more experienced users, the intent was not to strike a different balance or shift the focus of our platform.
I spend four weeks a year teaching hands-on classes to experienced SAR users, and combined with support requests and conversations with recreational educators and others that teach our platform, I’ve noticed a pattern of common issues that affect users at many levels of expertise. Among them:
* Difficulty understanding the set of available layers. What’s the difference between “Global Imagery” and “NAIP Imagery”, and should someone be using the 2013 or 2016 version of FSTopo? Everyone is going to have their own opinions on what should and should not have been moved into the catalog, but trimming the default list helps address this issue while opening the door to adding niche layers more frequently in the future.
* Lack of clarity over characteristics like geographic footprint and downloadability. As an example the contour layer had 5 configurations, but only one of them was downloadable and two of them had limited coverage. Breaking these configurations into separate layers allows us to more clearly delineate each option’s limitations, hopefully drawing an end to support requests wondering why 10′ contours aren’t available offline.
* Hunting for specific overlays. Blocks of text are hard to scan through, and even here at CalTopo HQ we would often accidentally click a soundalike layer – weather shading instead of weather stations, or shared locations instead of shared maps. Thumbnails were added late in this project and I was originally a skeptic. Having used them for a bit, I now find that it’s faster and easier to look for the parcel data thumbnail, than the text “Parcel Data”.
While we will not be wholesale undoing this change and are not able to support old and new versions of the UI in parallel, I’d like to acknowledge some misses on our part and spell out the actions we’ve taken in response:
* We extensively debated the tradeoff between thumbnail size and information density within the company prior to launch, but clearly we got it wrong. Information density has been a hallmark of CalTopo since the early days, but it’s also something we’ve been regularly criticized for. All I can say is that sometimes you don’t know where a line is until you cross it. We’ve dialed back the thumbnail size a fair bit, and while not as dense as the old UI, you can now fit more layers in the sidebar before needing to scroll.
* Thumbnails being visually distracting. In response to this concern, we’ve dialed down their intensity a touch. We’re going to experiment with further reductions, but need to balance that against color being an element we’ve started looking for when scanning the list. We’ve also made the layer sidebar toggle icon permanently visible below the coordinate box. Our long-term goal is for people to be working with larger maps and hidden sidebars more often, this change pulls forward a minimalist version of that future vision, but hopefully one that will help keep layer thumbnails from distracting from the map’s contents.
* The rollout was sudden. We’ve tried to be careful about rolling out changes that we consider to be workflow-disrupting; while the new layer UI moved some pieces around, it did not fundamentally alter the way users interact with the layer stack, and so we did not think it needed the level of care that it apparently did. We’ll be looking at better ways to notify users in advance of future significant UI changes.
I know this isn’t going to leave everyone happy, but I hope it provides some additional context.
– Matt
Can shaded relief be added as base layer? Also, how do you save layer selection so it populates every time map is opened?
If you turn Shaded Relief to 100%, the view is essentially the same as adding it as a standalone base layer. And you can set the default layers for a saved map by selecting the “Keep These Layers” in the Sharing dialog for that map on the web.
Just want to let you know I cancelled my subscription because of this mess. The first thing is what will get me to renew, the second & third would get me to recommend it to others:
1. You currently have the worst of both worlds when it comes to picking layers & overlays. The thumbnails are too small to be visually distinct, while also being so large that it turns into frustrating scrolling when I have a lot of layers. There’s two solutions to this problem:
-Allow for us to disable thumbnails altogether. It’s okay to have some setting buried deeper (the layer catalogue was a good idea) to allow a power user to customize it to what they’d like. This way the default can be useful for a new user, while someone who really knows what they’re doing can customize it to streamline their workflow.
-Replace the thumbnails with graphically designed icons. A good abstraction goes a long way for making things readable. In its current state, the thumbnails are hard to read, and provide no information on their own without a deep understanding of caltopo’s maps features. Thumbnails & icons need to to stand apart on their own to be useful. Currently, the thumbnails are only useful with the “More Info” supporting text, which means we have the functionality of the old design with the clutter of the new.
2. For an experienced user, having different variations of the same map now being considered their own map type is frustrating (example: NAIP false color IR used to be an option of the NAIP data. Now it’s a whole new map type). When you want to take a peek at a map you don’t deem “necessary” to be in your “map pool,” it suddenly becomes a workflow-breaking task to add it and take a look at it. My solution:
-When picking a map that has multiple options (NAIP imagery, historical data, USFS, etc.) retain a dropdown menu for the different types of that map, even if we don’t have that map in our “map pool.” Example: I pick USFS 2016 from the Layers catalogue to be in my “map pool” but neither the 2016 (white) or the 2013 (white) maps. When I look at my USFS 2016 map, I can quickly pick from a secondary dropdown (like on the old version) the other two versions of the map, even if they’re not in my “map pool.” This way I can still get a full utility from my mapset, but without having to clutter up the “map pool” with maps that only get used every once in a while. This way I don’t have to go into the Layer Catalogue, enable a layer, go back to the “map pool,” turn on the layer, and then reverse the process for maps that are rarely-used but adjacent to maps I use on the regular.
3. The Layers Catalog was a good idea, but needs work to be implemented better. Right now it’s useful to someone who knows what they’re looking for, but not great for a newer user. It’s hard to actually see what each map/layer looks like meaningfully without adding all of them to the “map pool” and clicking through one-by-one. Additionally the descriptions of each layer are (understandably) terse, but don’t offer a great level of detail to a new user (why would you choose slope angle shading versus gradient shading is really left as an exercise to the reader, even if they go to the help section of Caltopo).
-Retain the current UI for selecting maps, but provide a second mode that allows you to preview the map type and expand the description to the full description you use in the Help/Training section. This way someone who isn’t familiar can “try out” different map types and easily read the reasoning why they should pick one map type over another. Essentially giving a mode for people to “tutorialize” themselves with maps would be a boon to quick understanding and preference choice.
I love Caltopo and that’s why this sudden and in some ways regressive change is so frustrating and disappointing. I’d love to give you my money when things are right again.
Great Suggestions. I concur.
Matt you might want to rethink the statement that you are unwilling to do a wholesale revert. This is going to cost you subscription revenue. I’ve maintained an 80-100 seat team account for years and have been a champion for your cause encouraging every group I affiliate with to invest in a team account. You’ve listened to my ideas in the past and implemented them as feature requests. As a team, we push CalTopo to its limits and it performs every time. There has to be a way to offer a classic menu option. There are a myriad of platforms that offer new user and expert menu configurations.
Please don’t do us dirty like this. We’ve stayed loyal thru subscription cost hikes knowing that we are supporting a growing grassroots movement. I’m willing to keep our team invested in Caltopo if you’re willing to invest in our feedback.
Ben Coray
Millard County SAR
Utah
This upgrade plainly just sucks. I’m a SAR Coordinator, run about 150 missions a year. The map sidebar is cluttered, hard to see whats actually toggled on in low light. I had to go looking for layers I normally use. Not user friendly as before.
I consider SARTOPO a mission critical application and have been a long time user for SAR and Fire. But now I have to consider that it may be unreliable. This change came with no notice and no real documentation creating a challenging issue during an already challenging SAR mission on a fatal avalanche scene. I have not used the new format enough to have an opinion on the functionality (although the old version was awesome) but I do know that changing critical systems without notice is not ideal. Would ask that CALTOPO provide notice, opportunity to beta test, and clear documentation before any future significant upgrades.
Amen. We are in the same boat with an 80 seat team account. No way to train all 80 of our users in time for the next callout. CalTopo cut your losses and just go back to the info dense menu. It was so clean and beautiful.
I just joined a local SAR organization and they use this app. I’m trying to learn how to use it effectively and it just became much less intuitive. For my personal use, I’ll stick with ON X.
I wrote CalTopo the day it came out and mentioned that they are probably doing this to compete with firms like OnX but they will only succeed in driving subscribers to OnX. This new layout is cluttered and less efficient. Frankly, it is a huge step backwards. And rolling it out with no notice and it would appear (based on the widespread dislike of the less efficient design) that they did not beta test it with their users. What a mess.
I don’t have OnX and didn’t want OnX, but now I guess I need to look into it.
I’m a long time recreational user- I HATE this update. It’s just awful. Ugly, takes up space. Hard to use.
I have been a CalTOPO user for many years and I like this upgrade. For all the people who are upset about it perhaps they didn’t see the “Reset to Defaults”? While I’m not sure if this will unclutter your screen it might give you more control over your what has been chosen for you?
Considering that many, if not most of us, know this program back and forth and upside down. I would think we could give the Matt and the rest of the CalTOPO team a break and appreciate what they are trying to do for everyone who uses this program not just the gear heads who want this to stay the same bare bones program it started as 10 years ago.
Kudos CalTOPO!
Sorry, I and obviously many others just disagree. No point in telling them thank you for their work when we objectively believe they made the product worse and it appears that they did so without cooperation with or consultation with their core users or commercial accounts.
Simply not well done.
Hey, Coach Cignetti did not get the Hoosiers to the College National Championships this year by telling them “good job” when they executed a play wrong.
Even if the improperly executed play made positive yardage and in the end the team won the game. Complimenting poor execution does not lead to continuous improvement and success.
In this game, the play failed and yardage was lost. No kudos.
It’s working for me. I get the criticism. The height of the sidebar items could be cut by half to fit more on the screen and still be plenty readable. The red/green thing is legit and an easy fix. Why not revert and release this as a beta and ask for feedback?
Not happy starting up Sartopo for a task and finding out it has a new interface that is a pain to use while you are trying to get a task completed. I will reserve final comment until I have the time to go to the learning page and play with the interface. A heads up and a way to just go back until time was available for training would have been better.
It’s okay, we all make mistakes sometimes. Now let’s go back to legacy version and try again. 🙂
From a SAR point of view – and trying to focus on enhancement requests:
– categorization of layers is actually very helpful, regardless of the thumbnails / real-estate question. Can the categories be made collapsible, in both the layer palette and in the catalog? This would go a long ways towards bringing back the compactness / conserving real estate, while hopefully still meeting the goals you had in mind for the overhaul, and enhancing clarity at the same time. Even for single-entry categories that do take up real estate, like Map Sheets, or like any category that only has one entry enabled from the catalog. As an outlier example, our team has a long list of custom overlays (radio repeater viewsheds) which aren’t used that often but do take up a LOT of real estate. If we could define a category and put them all in that category, and then the category were made collapsible, that would really help. We do have other custom overlays that are not in the same category, so, some means of defining categories for team layers would be needed. Maybe just sub-folders in the team accounts layers folder?
– can an icon-size-picker be added, that would affect all thumbnail sizes, much like the View menu in a file browser? If one of the options could be ‘None’, that would win. One of the other commenters pointed out that the thumbnails are only marginally useful. It seems like the real intent of unique icons is to be quickly visually distinguishable from other selections in the same menu – that would lend itself to icons (artwork / emojis, which can be unique when tiny) rather than thumbnails (small versions of real images, which rarely convey meaning when tiny). That real intent is kind of lost with less-unique thumbnails – moreso as they are made smaller. So far, personally, I’ve seen that there are thumbnail images there but I have not had any visual connection whatsoever with the thumbnail and its functionality – but maybe that varies user-to-user. In other words, if the menus were to be thumbnails-only-without-words, I don’t think it would be usable. Emojis-only would be more recognizable than thumbnails-only. (Both just hypotheticals… certainly not requests!)
– Does the Shaded Relief category really get used enough to merit its own permanent chunk of real estate? Can it be moved back to the catalog and removed from the palette? Shaded relief is real nice, but, rarely used in my experience. I’d be surprised to hear that enough folks have requested it to the point that it merits a permanent spot. Even if it does remain, it’s a great example of a single-item category that would benefit from collapsability.
– can the catalog settings be saved along with the map, just like the layer visibility settings? Doing so would probably streamline the workflow for everyone on the same incident by giving all users a more consistent initial experience.
– defaulting layer categories to be collapsed, if none of the child layers are visible, seems like it would be a win too. Maybe this could be done at the browser / app level at map load time.
I’m very impressed by all the thoughtful comments like yours.
But I’ll still just complain: It should be obvious that 99% of these issues would have been easily identified and optimized had CalTopo worked with its experienced / commercial / SAR professionals to run a Beta test.
Surely Caltopo staff are very smart and well intentioned. So they must have had a reason for avoiding the Beta test.
To get to the root cause of this “mis-step” it would be good to know why a Beta Test was not executed. That might help inform “us” on WHY they did what they did and what direction the enterprise is going in the future.
We upgraded in order to make things harder to use… Now I am stuck with a screen I don’t want and cannot change it back.
This is a “New Coke” disaster for CalTopo. “Classic,” please!
I was in the middle of a mapping project when this update was dropped, doing a few hours of work a day over a month. After the update, I found the work I was doing to take at least twice as long. The new layouts weren’t a problem. The fact that there was a change was not a problem. I could find everything I needed to find. I’m not opposed to change. I’m open to supposed upgrades and improvements that just take some getting used to.
It comes down to what others have called information density. Everything is now buried in long menus that require time and attention to scroll through. There are just so many more mouse clicks needed to do the same thing, so much more attention necessary to find and modify objects, so much more time needed to do simple tasks. Features I use often have disappeared. I’m also one of those who used to preach to others about how powerful and usable Caltopo is (was). Wow, if there was another Caltopo out there like the old Caltopo, I’d go there immediately.
If someone were doing a survey about the Caltopo “upgrade” I’d say frustration is my primary reaction. Not due to the change, but due to the downgrade in usability. My mapping life is now harder. Is that what the development team wanted with this “upgrade”?
Reading the feedback from Matt on this comment chain, I’m not at all convinced, given what he says, that he or Caltopo “gets it” about the usability problems with the new version. Thumbnail size and eyeballs or checkmarks in the layers is an issue, but focussing on that as one of the primary problems is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s symptom, not a cause. In addition, the comment “we are not able to support old and new versions of the UI in parallel” felt like a slap. Like the development team isn’t listening. Matt’s comments make me feel like Caltopo is prioritizing, and making major changes, based only on feedback from inexperienced users.
Here is the message from an experienced user: There is not a need for “old and new UI versions”. There needs to be options available in a single UI version that supports both experienced and inexperienced users. The answer is UI sophistication, not simplification.
Chris – would you mind emailing help@caltopo.com with an example screenshot showing what the UI looks like with the layers you’ve enabled, and particularly which ones are visible with and without scrolling? We’re still working on some options internally, and would like to validate what things are looking like for users with significant scrolling. Thanks.
Not the feedback I suspect you want to hear, but we are not liking these new changes. Your changes were driven by “Some users have expressed the desire to hide layers?” How much did you consult with the SAR community? It has been slowing us down on SAR missions (not the time you want to be bogged down!) – I admit some of this might be learning curve. Finding it more cluttered (layers not as compact as prior to this change) and harder to navigate, especially on a small mobile device. I can never find the “green eye” as mentioned in your instructions. We can no longer use FSTopo or OSM as the primary base layer? – Richard Yocum; President, Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit; Operations Leader, San Diego Mountain Rescue Team; Search Manager, San Diego Sheriff’s Office SAR Team
I’m firmly in the dislike camp for this update.
I was a big fan of how simple and easy it was to see what layers were on via check box. Now it’s very hard to see the “glow” around the boxes.
I very much dislike the animations.
Way too much scrolling because icons are HUGE (even after the adjustment). Thumbnails are meaningless (and pointless). They only distract and make things longer to scan through. Just look at the before/after image on the blog post. The OG menu had 18 options available on the screen, the update… just 9 in the same screen real estate. So we get half the function with this update.
If you wan’t to increase functionality, I would suggest the following:
Go back to the old style of menu but add a “gear” menu (like you have) that allows us to hide and rearrange the layer selections. That would allow us to place them where we wish and hide those we don’t use, all while keeping the compact and information rich layout that we originally paid for.
I appreciate the effort to keep making caltopo better, and all-in-all I’ve been impressed over the years. So I give you much praise for what you’ve done. But this was a mistake and we’d all appreciate its reversal. Thank you.
Hate this update. Would be willing to pay more for an interface that isn’t designed for a child.