Use the system
Trails & overlays
Known snow-machine and boat trails, installed automatically on every device as data packages.
Known snow-machine and boat trails are loaded on the server as data packages. They show up as lines on the map — helpful for planning routes and knowing where travel is normally safe.
For the team: you don’t have to do anything
These trail packages are set to install automatically. When your device connects to the server, the trails download and appear on your map on their own — on both iTAK (iPhone) and ATAK (Android).
- First time: connect to the server (be on WiFi/Starlink), open the app, give it a moment. The trails appear as overlays.
- If you don’t see them: fully close and reopen the app while connected, so it re-syncs with the server.
- Turn overlays on/off in the app’s Overlay Manager (the layers/stack icon) if you want to hide them temporarily.
Downloading packages by hand (optional)
If a package is not set to auto-install, you can pull it yourself while connected to the server:
- ATAK (Android): open the menu → Data Packages (or Import Manager) → the server’s packages are listed → tap to download.
- iTAK (iPhone): open the server/sync area and browse available packages → tap to download.
The exact menu wording moves between app versions. If these taps don’t match your screen, tell the admin what you see and we’ll pin down the steps for your version.
For admins: managing trail packages
- Upload/replace packages on the server’s Data Packages page (web UI).
- Filenames must be unique. To replace a package, delete the old one first, then upload the new file — uploading a duplicate filename fails with a collision error (and can leave the package temporarily missing).
- To push a package to everyone automatically, set install on connection (an admin can flip this; QSAR’s trail packages are set this way). New devices get it on their first connect.
- Server-side details and the API:
server/VPS-DEPLOY.md.