Automatic GPS Drawing

Owned by Michael Conlan
Last updated: 01 Nov, 2020
7 min read

Konect Automatic GPS Drawing allows users to create or update line or area features with a recorded GPS path. The path is a recording of GPS positions. New positions are automatically included in the path when the GPS has moved a configured distance from the previously recorded position. GPS positions can also be included manually into the path.

The Automatic GPS Drawing path is used with the drawing tools in either the add new feature or update existing feature drawing modes. Users can save the path as is to a new feature or use the drawing tools to add additional points anywhere within the path to new or existing feature.

Automatic GPS Drawing Settings

The Automatic GPS Drawing settings can be found on the bottom map drawer next to the project picker.

Users can change:

  • If the Automatic GPS Drawing tools are enabled on the main map

  • The colour the Automatic GPS Drawing path is displayed on the map (no display, blue, green, magenta, yellow, or cyan). The default is blue.

  • The distance filter which configures the distance the GPS position must be from the previous position to automatically be included in the path. The default is 20 metres.

    • Please note initially the second position in the path will be updated closer than the configured distance filter until the second position is further away.

  • Whether to automatically clear the Automatic GPS Drawing path after it has been used in a saved feature. The default is to clear the path.

Location Tolerance and Battery Concerns

While Automatic GPS Drawing is actively recording positions the konect app and the GPS will continue to run even in the background. This will consume additional battery. The lower the location tolerance settings the higher the battery consumption will be.

Some devices may flag the konect app as a high battery consuming app when using the GPS and may kill the app in the background under some circumstances. More information can be found here: https://dontkillmyapp.com/

Feature Quality and Performance Concerns

Having a low value for the distance filter can make the Automatic GPS Drawing untidy and jump around (particularly while stationary) depending on the quality of the GPS fix.

Having a low value for the distance filter can also make any created features very large and complex. The Automatic GPS Drawing feature has a cap of 10,000 positions. If this cap is reached, create a feature with the path and start another. Large features can slow down konect and other GIS applications that may use them. A post processing procedure to thin nodes may be required for features with more then a few thousand points to allow konect to work optimally.

How to Use Automatic GPS Drawing

  1. Ensure the GPS is enabled

  2. Ensure the Show UI on main map is enabled from the Automatic GPS Drawing settings

  3. Open a konect project to the map and press the Automatic GPS Drawing popup menu button from the left-hand toolbar. This button will always be available (if enabled) regardless of mode and when it is highlighted there is an active path.

     

  4. Press the start button from the Automatic GPS Drawing popup menu. This will start the Automatic GPS Drawing collecting locations.

     

    1. Pressing the pause button will keep the path, but prevent new positions from automatically being included. Press the start button again to resume automatically recording new positions

    2. Pressing the clear button will clear the Automatic GPS Drawing path from the device

  5. The Automatic GPS Drawing path will be displayed on the map in the colour specified in the Automatic GPS Drawing settings.

  6. Walk/ride/drive the path you wish to record; new positions will automatically be included in the path when the GPS is further away from the previously recorded position then the configured distance filter.

  7. Additional GPS positions can be included by pressing the manually add GPS position button. This will add the current GPS position to the path. This feature is useful to add finer detail to the Automatic GPS Drawing path then can be captured by the automatic recording.

     

    This button becomes active when the Automatic GPS Drawing path is started, can be used when the path is paused and is available in all modes.

How to Create a New Feature with the Automatic GPS Drawing

  1. Open a konect project and enter the add new feature mode

  2. Choose a dataset to draw that is a line or area

  3. Use an existing Automatic GPS Drawing path or create a new Automatic GPS Drawing path to use for the feature

    1. Pausing the Automatic GPS Drawing path while drawing will ensure no additional GPS positions are included (this can occur when there is poor GPS quality)

  4. Press the add Automatic GPS Drawing path to feature button. This will append all the positions from the path into the new feature. This button is only available when a path is active and a line or area dataset has been chosen.

     

    1. If any points were already drawn the copied path will be appended to these points.

    2. The drawing tools will continue to work as normal allowing you to append points to the end of the feature or to edit any points within the feature including the appended path

    3. The undo button will roll back the add Automatic GPS Drawing path to feature action removing the entire path

  5. Press the save button and fill in the form

  6. If the automatically clear Automatic GPS Drawing path setting is enabled and the path was used in the feature the Automatic GPS Drawing path will be cleared.

How to Update an Existing Feature with the Automatic GPS Drawing

  1. Open a konect project and enter the update existing feature mode

  2. Select a line or area feature to update

  3. Use an existing Automatic GPS Drawing path or create a new Automatic GPS Drawing path to use for the feature

    1. Pausing the Automatic GPS Drawing while drawing will ensure no additional GPS positions are included (this can occur when there is poor GPS quality)

  4. Press the add Automatic GPS Drawing path to feature button. This will append all the positions from the path to the end of the feature. This button is only available when a path is active and a line or area feature has been selected.

     

    1. The drawing tools will continue to work as normal allowing you to append points to the end of the feature or to edit any points within the feature including the appended path

    2. The undo button will roll back the add Automatic GPS Drawing path to feature action removing the entire path

  5. Press the save button

  6. If the automatically clear Automatic GPS Drawing path setting is enabled and the path was used in the feature the path will be cleared.

Proof of Service

Konect proof of service is a second Automatic GPS Drawing path used for proof of service style use cases. The proof of service path is run in the background with minimal user interaction, so as not to interfere with the primary Automatic GPS Drawing. If this cut down version of Automatic GPS Drawing is not suited to your proof of service use cases, you can still use the primary Automatic GPS Drawing function instead.

The proof of service Automatic GPS Drawing path:

  • Can be recorded at the same time as the primary Automatic GPS Drawing function

  • Will use the distance filter defined in Automatic GPS Drawing

  • Suffers from the same battery and quality issues as the primary Automatic GPS Drawing

    • Including a 10,000 position limit

  • Will not be displayed on the map

  • Cannot be paused

  • Can only be used to create new line features

  • Can record 2 additional autovalue fields configured through konect manager

     

    • Start date and time of the first recorded GPS position

    • End date and time of the final recorded GPS position

How to Create a Proof of Service Feature

  1. Ensure the GPS is enabled

  2. Open a konect project to the map

  3. Open the proof of service UI found on the bottom map drawer next the project picker and Automatic GPS Drawing settings

     

  4. Press the start proof of service button

    1. Pressing the clear proof of service button will clear the proof of service path from the device

  5. Continue to perform your regular shift work

  6. At the end of the shift open the proof of service UI again

  7. Select the dataset to save the proof of service path to

    1. The dataset list will only contain datasets that can create new lines

  8. Press the save button, the dataset form will immediately open storing the proof of service path as the feature’s geometry

  9. Fill in the form and form save button

  10. The proof of service path will be cleared on closing the form