Google Maps

[jetstream]

I received an email from Google concerning changes to their Google Maps offering (in general, they want money!), an extract of which is:

'Beginning June 11, you’ll need a valid API key and a Google Cloud Platform billing account to access our core products.'

It quoted an API number at me and the only interaction that I can recall having with Google maps is through the facility in Trainsim World Editor.

Need I/we be concerned that this free facility will be lost?

[clarke]

I also have just received this email, the implications of which are unclear

to me, It would seem that a route builder may not use as many 'calls' to the 'map' as to be billed, but would still have to set up a billing account

It seems very confusing, I hope the email is genuine as we have opened it!

Does anyone know what it all means?

[Yamsi]

Read the above & checked my e-mail. I too have received the e-mail.

Reading further, my e-mail does say:

"Based on your project usage over the last 3 months and our new pricing plan, we estimate that your new cost will be less than $200 a month and will be covered by our $200 monthly free credit. This estimate does not include usage from other projects or keyless implementations."

Business as usual then

May have been a bit hasty with the 'Business as usual' comment
If like me you use a debit pre payment card be prepared for disappointment

Yamsi

[GT46MAC]

Sad indeed.

[jetstream]

Well. OK, but...............is the casual user still (thro' the Trainsim facility) going to have access as normal. Simple question requiring a highly technical (no doubt) answer.

And thanks for the replies - 3 in 70 views. I'm sure none of them have ever made use of the Google underlay.

[SkylineBoy]

I really don't think there is much to worry about as a TS user, these terms are aimed at commercial users who require vast volumes of data and 24hr tech support.

As an example for the $200 monthly free credit, this allows you 100,000 static map "loads" (what the overlay uses) per month. As someone who has been tinkering in the editor for around 10 days of the last month using the overlay, an account check on my API shows that I only used 1,445 "loads" in those 10 days.

Basically there is no way you can pass that 100,000 mark simply by using the editor. Simple answer for jetstream? Business as usual.

[acfreeman99]

As a fairly heavy user of this during route building I am also not too worried, in fact the email specifically stated that my monthly usage is within the free $200 limit per month, and I use it virtually every day many times a day.

The blurb does say that you can set up a monthly usage limit to ensure that you do not inadvertently exceed that limit but, having set up the billing, I can't seem to find out how to set the limit......if anybody has figured it out then I would be grateful if you could share.

Andy