Course Tool "elevation" problem

[adam]

Sasha,

I've tried using the course tool yesterday and this morning with both explorer (which usually doesn't work for me) and firefox (which always does), but every time I mark a point a box pops up saying "error course elevation". I click OK, then make another point, and it pops up again and again as long as I make points on the map.

[adam]

Also, sometimes when I measure out a course it says it is the right distance, and then after I submit it and go to analyze it says it is a completely different distance. The AF Steel Days course I marked out said 3.11 when I submitted it, but when you click on it now, it says 3.96 (and analyzes it that way).

[Mark Olson]

Sasha,

I've tried using the course tool yesterday and this morning with both explorer (which usually doesn't work for me) and firefox (which always does), but every time I mark a point a box pops up saying "error course elevation". I click OK, then make another point, and it pops up again and again as long as I make points on the map.

I'm experiencing the same problem.

[Sasha Pachev]

Will look into it.

[Sasha Pachev]

Problem fixed. USGS service gave us a bit of surprise by changing some things in the web service response formats. So the elevations were being reported as 0, which would send you down to sea level from 4500 feet if you are plotting a course in Utah. Thus 3.11 becomes 3.96 because of the drop down the pit.

I have also run the script to fix the elevations in all the courses that had them recorded improperly.

Also added a new feature - you now see only the courses you own by default and can toggle the view between My Courses and All Courses.

[adam]

thanks for the quick response and your work

[Adam R Wende]

Sasha, Thanks for adding the quick start of your personal courses. However, I'm still having a missing elevation problem. Any thoughts? Thank you!

[Sasha Pachev]

The elevation errors are caused by the disruptions of the USGS web elevation service upon which we depend for elevation lookup. Not much we can do about it unless we can discover a more reliable alternative. Any suggestions are welcome.

In the meantime, if you get the elevation error, just ignore it, and keep on plotting. Ignore the weird distance. Each time you save the course, the Course Tool will try to look up invalid elevations and correct them.

[Sasha Pachev]

Made some fixes in the Course Tool to address the elevation issues. Details at

http://sasha.fastrunningblog.com/blog-A-M-Talked-to-Curt-last-night-and-reali/08-08-2008.html