“Fair Use” Download of Large Vector Maps
With my switch to vector maps, the dramatically reduced storage requirements now allow to have maps for whole countries on my Smartphone. Getting such maps still requires tile downloads, which sum up to millions of web requests and gigabytes of data downloaded. To avoid unfair and excessive load to the map provider web services, and to avoid triggering blocking thresholds, I created a python script that downloads maps at slow rates and puts the downloaded tiles into MBtiles databases. The script is intended to run in the background whenever the computer is on, and over days and weeks download maps. It works through a list of maps to download, and when finished with the last one, it starts with the first one again, updating it. In my case, I installed the script on my media center PC, so whenever a recording runs or I use the PC for watching a show or listening to music, also my maps get an update.