A Good Maping Program

[Charles Iverson]

is there a better maping program out there other then mapsource

that someone can recommend???

i have been using mapsource for many years to upload my maps to my etrex gps's

then i checked my tracks on a sat map and they were dead on the road so my gps is fine!

 

but in mapsource they are off by a 100 feet or more!!!

it even shows one of my caches in a river

and i do a lot of maping well camping and hikeing and planing outtings for my troop

and i want it to be dead on

 

so i think its time for a change of software

 

edit: fogot a s

Edited June 5, 2005 by Charles Iverson

[+webscouter.]

If you want to upload maps to the etrex the mapsource program is the only one that you can use.

[Charles Iverson]

OK i was worred about that

mapsource is so off on its maps

[peter]

mapsource is so off on its maps

"MapSource" is just the software program to load and display maps - it doesn't have any maps directly but will work with a variety of Garmin (and 3rd-party) sets of maps. Those maps have varying applications, dates of issue, and accuracy considerations, so you have to be more specific as to which maps you're using. AFAICT, the Garmin BlueChart maps accurately reflect the NOAA marine charts on which they are based. Similarly, their US TOPO maps reflect the USGS 1:100,000 series source material, and CitySelect-NA the current NavTeq streetmap database. None are perfect, nor would I expect any map to be free of errors, omissions, and misplacements - at least I have yet to find such a map.

[+JeepCachr]

Mapsource is the only one that will load maps into your GPS. There are many other mapping programs that you can take the data from your GPS and use it.

 

Heres a great review on 3 products-

GPS Passions website PC mapping review

 

There are other programs like oziexplorer, usa photo maps and expert GPS that can take your GPS data (waypoints, tracks and routes) and plot them on free satelite or topo maps from the internet.

[+briansnat]

National Geographic Topo is excellent. It will work with your GPS, meaning you can create routes and waypoints on it and upload them to your GPS, or dowload tracks and waypoints from your GPS to the maps.

 

You can't however put the maps on your GPS. As others here said, you need Garmin's Mapsource maps for that.