Hi,

I’m a total nub with MapPoint, started working with it a coupleof days ago. I am trying to develop an application that will allow recording in (near) real time the route a vehicle has taken - as opposed to planning a route. It is not known in advance where the vehicle will go and which roads it will take. I need to know where the vehicle has been and which roads were used to get there.

I am working with Delphi and MP 2004 and for now all I have working is the basic map display, dynamic update of the vehicle position and a trick or two with pushpins, plus some minor stuff here and there.

I tried plotting the route the vehicle has traveled using AddLine every few seconds but soon I realized this is taking a lot of resources and causes a lot of flicker after a number of line objects have been added.

Is it possible to draw pixel level lines/dots on a map to track the route the vehicle has traveled so far? Any other resource conscious ideas?

Thanks.

Hi,

yan connect the positions with arrows.

I would be happy with just marking the positions with dots, without using arrows,which I understand are the same class as lines.

Arrows would then put me back in square one, or am I not understanding your suggestion correctly?

Hi,

Nooo it was me who was not understanding your question. Use

Code:

Mp.ActiveMap.AddPushPin(Loc, Name);

I tried that.

After adding over 2000 pushpins a 1.73HGz laptop with 1 GB of RAM and 128MB ATI card would take forever to refresh the screen.

I guess MP is not really suitable for my purpose. A dissapointmet because I thought dropping pixels on a map's canvas would be a pretty basic operation one might need.

I'll try to ask around Delphi developers if someone has an idea how to write to MP's canvas through Windows API

Thanks for your help.

Hi,

You can also add the pushpins when they are needed. For example depending on the user, depending on the size of the map.

If you really need so mutch at same time I have other suggestion. Copy the map to a TImage and draw the puslpins in Delphi. Maybe this go mutch faster. I think the copy of the map image will go very fast.

Or even better. Make a Transparant Form. Put the form in exact same size and position as your main form where mappoint is on, and keep it a s shuch. then draw icons on the transparant form. This way you have mappoint with layers and super speed drawing Of corse yoiu have to keep this form on top of mappoint form, maybe tricky here and there ?.

I did the TImage thing yesterday and and set a GPS simulator to run overnight. I was pleased to find my vehicle icon 7 hours later, having travelled from Niagara, Ontario to the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the system was very much responsive. Redrawing was faster too, and I now have the options to put whatever I want on the canvas.

I still have a mountain of issues to address but for now I may be seeing a little spark of light glimmering at the end of the tunnel

I will try your suggestion of the transparent form over the weekend.

Thank you for your suggestions.