Giant colored void space outside of custom at5 map extent boundary

[SkunkApe]

When I view a custom .at5 map which my I generated on Reefmaaster, there's always a giant void space that persists after zooming into about 2 miles out and further in. I can still zoom into my custom map and it displays just fine, but the giant blocking orange (sometimes blue) rectangle stays active until I change the chart source away from my custom at5 map.

Are there any resolutions, workarounds, patches or something to make this eyesore go away and have the normal base map display outside my custom map borders?



Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[gregory]

Vector data is processed as blocks of data.  These blocks are replaced (rather than merged) in the base map.

The orange surrounding area is the block.

[SkunkApe]

Thank you for the response Gregory.

How is the area of extent for this vector data determined? When I create an at5 map, I do not specifically create or design any vector data that would encompass such a wide expanse outside of my area of interest. My maps have minor contours, major contour and isobaths, all of which are automatically generated by Reefmaster after I define the map boundary. Then I add a polygon that surrounds my image which in turn the image is clipped to. So there really nothing outside of my defined mapped boundaries which would be considered vector data. Just curious how these vector blocks are generated by the system and what I can do to either:
1. stop them from appearing over my base map
2. create or import some type vector data that could fill those blocks to make it look less awkward and defective when viewing my mapped area from a zoomed out perspective. 

Thanks again for your response.

Matt

[gregory]

They are hard coded block sizes.  The discussion of the specific block size and coordinating data is beyond this discussion.

I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the base map function in the beta version of the app that does exactly what you're wanting.

Join the Beta
Documentation on Feature

You can also set an atlas description so the map works by itself rather than being combined into the basemap.

[SkunkApe]

Gregory,
I've educated myself on base maps, I appreciate suggestion to do so. So now I want to generate my .at5 imagery map in Reefmaster using the .at5 map export function. To combine my .at5 map with a base map to the buffer blocks don't display (and are combined with the original base map,  Reefmaster instructions are as follows:

AT5 Vector Map with Open Street Map Data

"Open street map data is available for free download and can be combined with ReefMaster map data during the map generation process. Open Street Map data can be downloaded from http://download.geofabrik.de/  (choose the .osm.pbf format). Select the smallest region that covers the required area, to keep map generation times down. When using this export process, you will be prompted for the location of an OSM data file after clicking the Save button"

My maps fall in the Virginia region, however, the smallest region I can export from the .osm.pft collection is the entire Virginia region. Obviously this is way bigger that the extent of my .at5 map, so how do I clip small areas of the virginia.osm.pbf file to an area of extent that coincides with my .at5 map defined map area? I found other sites and resources that host Open Street Maps and allow clipping areas, however after exporting the clipped area, those files don't retain the .osm.pbf format which Reefmaster requires. I ran a test with a polygon clipped to my image file and included the virginia.osm.pbf file in the Add OSM Base Map of the Map Project utility, but it didn't clip the base map area and painted the entire United States and coastal waters in a orange color. I'll continue to run tests with different configurations, but just want to make sure I'm correctly understanding the instructions on how create maps without the buffer blocks as described in the Beta test group forum you referenced in your previous post.

Thanks again for guidance, I'm learning a lot,

Matt

[gregory]

This functionality is not supported through the Reefmaster program.  You'll want to export your vector data from Reefmaster and set up the IMC project yourself.

These are the basic steps...
1) Run the Virginia osm file through the base map processor (View->Processing Modes->Base Map Mode Window)
2) Include the Virginia osm base map as a source object along with your data (Add Folders->Base Map)
3) Optionally, set the BMB and/or BMM buffers in (Advanced Options->Vector Options).  BMM is fixed geographic distance and BMB is fixed block size dependent on scale.
4) Run the process