ATAK for Hikers

6 min readJan 16, 2021

ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit) is an open source geospatial mapping software developed by the U.S. Government for a variety of purposes. It is now available for free on the Play Store.

ATAK can use a wide variety of imagery sources (i.e. maps) and elevation data. It allows for easy route-planning, 3D View of an area, and many other cool features. Most importantly all of this stuff is free — in this guide we’ll set up an ATAK install for offline use. Note that ATAK is VERY feature-rich so we’re only going to cover some of the features here, please poke around in the app and see what works for you.

Install ATAK

First you will need to install ATAK-CIV from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.atakmap.app.civ

Add Mapping Sources

One of the ATAK Discord users has made a convenient package of map sources, to install these on your device:

Download this file on your phone: https://github.com/joshuafuller/ATAK-Maps/releases/download/v1.0.0/ATAK-Maps.zip
Import the ATAK-Maps.zip file into ATAK:

Adding Elevation Data

Elevation data (DTED) can be added to ATAK to allow it to render maps in 3D and to give you information on elevation gain/loss across routes. To add DTED data to ATAK:

Download a file for your region here: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AOTcO3xOs07Xftk&id=5B552B8593A4C98B%2126539&cid=5B552B8593A4C98B
There is also a lower resolution worldwide DTED that is worth having: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AGU0a369qNZC0Po&cid=5B552B8593A4C98B&id=5B552B8593A4C98B%2135315&parId=5B552B8593A4C98B%2133943&action=locate
Import the zip files as DTED:

Select the DTED0 World and your region zip file

Pick Zipped DTED directories when prompted

If your region is not available you will need to create your own DTED using EarthExplorer.

3D Map View

Once you’ve got elevation data loaded, you can have ATAK display maps in 3D View:

Long-press on the direction indicator in the upper left corner, then click 3D to enable 3D Mode

Drag up with both thumbs at the same time to tilt the map

Viewshed

Unsure whether you’ll be able to see a natural feature from a high point? The Viewshed tool can tell you! To use it:

Set your height and radius for the Viewshed and then click the icon to place

Place your POV where you like, green areas will be visible from the selected viewpoint

Downloading an Area for Offline Use

One of the best things about ATAK is the ability to download areas of a map for offline use. To download an area for offline use follow the images below:

Click on the Maps & Favorites tool, then the Mobile tab, then open the arrow dropdown

Use the Area Selection Shapes to define your area

Set the resolution to download to what you like and click Download, make sure the number of tiles is reasonable (30k will take a while)

Add your imagery to a new or existing tileset

Name your tileset if you’re creating one

Download progress will show along with an ETA

Once your maps are downloaded you can see them in the Imagery tab. Maps in different tilesets from the same map source will all show under the same map source name in this tab.

Import a Route / Track

To Import a track (e.g. GPX, KML) go to the Import Manager

Here I’m importing a track I downloaded using Chrome

You can choose either one here, I like Route

Export a Track

Pick the Track and click the Export icon

Creating or Editing a Route on the Fly

ATAK has an easy to use tool for route creation and editing on the fly. This can be really nice if you want or have to change plans or want to compare alternative routes on things like elevation change.

To work on a route, open the Routes tool:

Tap the map to add points, you can long-press to edit and move points

You can also use Turn by Turn Navigation and the Viewshed tool on Routes

Creating a Data Package of a Trail / Trip

If you’d like to share points of interest, routes, and even pictures of an area with your friends you can create a Data Package and transmit it to them through a variety of means (e.g. email).

An example trip we’d like to share with a friend

Select the items to include in the Data Package

Either create a new Data Package or add to an existing one

Name your Data Package if you’re creating a new one

To send the package, click the Send icon next to its name

Choose Application will take you to a list of Android apps that can transmit the file (e.g. email)

Off-grid Communication

There are a few solutions for off-grid ATAK use in the works. Radacat is planning to release a plugin for their devices and I have written a plugin to integrate with Meshtastic devices that will be available on the Play Store soon.

You can read more about the plugin here: https://github.com/paulmandal/atak-forwarder/