Offline Map for Private Property with Navigation in iOS

Question

I have an idea of building offline Map for my University Campus (its covering almost 3-4 miles). Like new students or guests can navigate to various blocks in campus. Student can see himself/herself marked on map at current location & can chose destination from pre-defined list of places and application will navigate them.

I have explored alot like maptiles can help me in showing maps. But is there any other efficient way of showing campus map ? And I have no idea how will I navigate user (since being a private property area is out of reach of Google's Maps (or some other) API).

Any suggestions will be helpful. :)

EDITED

Here is Google Map link to my place.

I am studying ArcGIS from last few days, learned to create its 'geodatabase' using 'ArcGIS for Desktop' for rendering offline maps on iPhone.

However, now my concern is how to Navigate user.

And I will welcome any suggestion/idea for accomplishing it using any different approach.

Hellcat

What have you tried? You are not new to SO, so you must know that it is not a place to go for complete solutions and ideas :) At your place I'd begin with displaying the campus map (even as an image) and trying to map user's location from GPS on it and then work from it. – Satiable

@Satiable Edited question. :) – Hellcat

I'd look here : developers.arcgis.com/ios Get the SDK that lets you build mapping apps for Apple iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices! Integrate a wide range of mapping and GIS tasks online or offline, including editing, geocoding, **routing**, mapping, and data visualization. - It seems that everything is there, in just 3 clicks. – Satiable

I agree. :) But routing is not navigation. :) – Hellcat

I feel bad for doing this - developers.arcgis.com/ios/objective-c/guide/routing-task.htm, go to Driving Directions. Just put a little effort to looking through these docs. – Satiable

@Satiable I had already gone through docs, sample codes etc. Its offline routing just returns path between 2 or more points on map. Doesn't navigates user. – Hellcat

Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Satiable

Answer 1

You can achieve that with MapBox.

MapBox is an alternative to GoogleMaps and supports offline maps.

Mapbox iOS SDK
There are three methods available to the Mapbox iOS SDK for offline maps. With cache-based methods, the RMTileCache for an RMMapView can be configured to keep map tiles around based on their count or based on their age in the cache.

Caching based on previous user interaction

Tiles are automatically cached once they are downloaded for display based on the user’s panning and zooming of the map. For example, if a user views the map, then zooms out, then zooms back in later when offline, the original tiles will be present in cache and will display without need for a network connection.

Proactive background caching for certain map regions

Using RMTileCache and the RMTileCacheBackgroundDelegate protocol, the developer can enable the user to download a certain bounding box and zoom range in the background in advance of actually displaying them on screen. Callbacks trigger, allowing the developer to report progress to the user or even to cancel a download in progress.

Tiles that already exist in cache will be skipped over during this background download instead of re-downloaded.

MBTiles prepackaged tiles

Using the MBTiles format for map tile storage, developers can build apps that read the tiles straight out of the MBTiles file and do not ever need a network connection. Since MBTiles is an open format, files can be created manually or with TileMill, as well as many other applications and utilities such as mbutil.

You need the last one (i.e. MBTiles prepackaged tiles).

Source: https://www.mapbox.com/help/ios-offline/

Decay

Yes, it seems its only the best option out there. – Hellcat

Mapbox doesn't yet provide Custom Routing on Custom Routes. – Hellcat

Please contact them. Maybe they will suggest you a better way to achieve your goal – Decay

How about trimaps.com ? However, they too do-not provide routing. – Hellcat

What do you mean by saying that they don't support routing? Do you mean a directions API? – Decay

Yes, direction API in offline mode. – Hellcat

Hmm. I don't think that you can find something like that. – Decay

Thnxx.. for your support. :) – Hellcat

Answer 2

If you go the OpenStreetMap way (map your property directly in OpenStreeMap) then you can also use the Scout SDK.

It's OSM based and provides full support for offline maps, offline routing & TBT navigation. If you properly connect the road segments then the SDK will be able to create car, bike & pedestrian routes on your data.

While not free, the Scout SDK has a free tier that might be large enough for your particular needs (if not you'll move to a "pay-as-you" model)

Gloaming