PQs based on a polygon area

[+supertbone]

I really loved being able to create PQs base upon a route. Having this ability greatly enhances the sport. The current method of searching based upon a radius from a point or upon a route provide caches based upon the cache's distance from a point or an arc/line. How about we take this ability and take it up a notch and be able to create a pocket query based upon a polygon, similar to the polygon filter in GSAK? The user could identify a set of at least three or four coordinate points (or more) to pull in up to 500 caches with in the closed area created by those points. This would provide a way to create irregular shaped search areas that current system does not provide. This ability would allow the user to define where exactly the caches to be and refine the area of search and could reduce the need for multiple PQs to cover one large area, when only a portion would be needed.

Edited January 19, 2007 by supertbone

[+The Cheeseheads]

As someone who maintains an application that uses something similar to determine caches that fall within a particular county based on the coordinates that define the shape of the county, I can say that the math for doing that can be expensive, processor-wise as compared to just finding all caches that are within a certain distance from a point. While it would be a welcome feature, I think it would bog down the server that generates the PQs.

[+fizzymagic]

How about we take this ability and take it up a notch and be able to create a pocket query based upon a polygon, similar to the polygon filter in GSAK? The user could identify a set of at least three or four coordinate points (or more) to pull in up to 500 caches with in the closed area created by those points. This would provide a way to create irregular shaped search areas that current system does not provide.

For all but the most pathological cases, you can do this with a search along a route. Make a spiral-shaped route with the outer part parallel to the outside of your polygon, and then make the route fill in the rest of the inside.

 

Here's an example for a rectangle of 35 x 24 miles, where the maximum distance from the route is set to 5 miles. The total route length is 210 miles.

 

 

You could make the corners better with a smaller maximum distance, but then the route would have to be longer. But seriously, that's a pretty big area!

Edited January 19, 2007 by fizzymagic