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MS Streets and Trips discontinued


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For the past 10 years I've used MS Streets and Trips to map my caches. Using GSAK, I would create a different color pushpin for each cache type so at a glance at a printed map I could tell if I needed some extra time for multi or if a puzzle cache had be solved. I also use it for all my road trips and vacations travel plans which I may change on the fly. It is important to me to have the program offline in my laptop or desktop computer. But now, MS Street and Trips 2013 is the last release and the series will be discontinued at the end of this year and support soon afterwards.

 

I would like to purchase a program which can do the above plus provide updated POI's. I'm open to any suggestions. I would like to keep cost down under $100.

 

Thanks for any ideas...

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The program will continue to function for some time into the future so I see no need for immediate replacement. Perhaps is a few years there will be a suitable replacement. MS recommends using Bing. right, good for point a to b.

 

I'm away that I can use it for quite some time however, I have S&T 2013 and it already will show me driving in cow pastures where housing now exist. Also, the POI list is getting rather outdated. Updates are important to me. I do like your idea to hang in there a bit long for a replacement. As far as Bing goes - I still don't know how to use it. I'll stick to Google Maps.

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Why not just do it for free???? Download Garmin's BaseCamp and download the free OSM street files. There are also free topo maps, free bike maps etc... You can color or make the icons different also.

 

If you own a Garmin auto gps, the program will transfer all the map files from your unit to BaseCamp.

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I use BaseCamp a lot but I'd admit that I don't know all the ropes with the program. Perhaps it is a setting I have wrong somewhere but although it will map a trip for me it does often take me down weird detours and back roads although a freeway may be the best route. Also, I like to color code my caches on S&T so that I can see the type of cache I may go after. I don't see how that is done with BaseCamp.

 

With MS S&T I would select which caches I wanted to attempt by marking each one and then having S&T determine the best route to nab those hides. It has worked very well over the years. It would also let me highlight current places to eat, ATMs, gas stations, etc. but those POI's change over time thus the need to upgrade.

 

Thanks for all the input. I want to upgrade but I'm going to wait until I can get a program which can do what I'd like it to do.

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Does Basecamp do the traveling salesman solution? S&T does a fair job of that.

 

Yes.

Have not been able to find anything on that. Got any pointers or links?

 

Create a route and open it up. Choose "optimize". The program is free, try it yourself.

I did and my opinion is that it is a bad joke, which is typical of Garmin software.

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I did and my opinion is that it is a bad joke, which is typical of Garmin software.

 

In what way?

 

For a start I could not get it to use the starting point as an ending point, even as a separate waypoint. With S&T this is easy. Once I loaded the waypoints I had to add them one at a time. At least with S&T I could put a rectangle around them and select to add all points at once. I didn't see anyway to add a stop time on the waypoint. I guess optimize works, but without the loop it is pretty useless. I did manage to find the overall route time, but without the stop times that leaves a lot to be desired.

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For a start I could not get it to use the starting point as an ending point, even as a separate waypoint. With S&T this is easy. Once I loaded the waypoints I had to add them one at a time. At least with S&T I could put a rectangle around them and select to add all points at once. I didn't see anyway to add a stop time on the waypoint. I guess optimize works, but without the loop it is pretty useless. I did manage to find the overall route time, but without the stop times that leaves a lot to be desired.

 

I'm not sure what you are doing wrong, but I have no problem doing any of that. I'll show an example later.

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So here is an example with routing back to the start and optimized. Select the waypoints you want from the list, right click and select "create route using selected waypoints". Open the new route and add a waypoint. Add the start as the last one. Then "optimize" and it will rearrange the intermediate waypoints to the best route based on your routing profile settings. seems to work fine to me and is simple to use.

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Thank you Red90 for the info on BaseCamp. I've been playing with it using your suggestions and I finally got it to select my route and to map it out. However, I don't seem to be able to print the whole area. I've been playing with the print options with no good results yet. I see no way to color code my waypoints to the type of cache I'm going after which is a big minus in my book but as you have stated, this is a free program. I'm not getting the POIs I'd like but I assume that is from the free mapping software which I am using. I also assume that the purchased Garmin maps would do a much better job at routing and providing POI's but that's a $100 program. I'm willing to pay that amount but only for a travel program which can meet the same needs which MS Streets and Trips was providing including colored waypoints and good printing options.

 

I am going to research BaseCamp and view their training videos to see what else I can learn. Thanks again for pointing out this line of thought.

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If you want maps, it best to buy a Nuvi....as the maps come free with the GPS and then you can use it in the car as well. Get one with lifetime maps and you get 4 updates a year and a copy on your computers.

 

You can't change colours of caches. You can change colours of waypoints.

 

I'm not sure what your exact problem is with printing. All of thes equestions are probably better asked on Garmin's Basecamp forum.

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If you want maps, it best to buy a Nuvi

 

You can't change colours of caches. You can change colours of waypoints.

 

I've had a Nuvi along with my dedicated GPS for years. Nuvi works great for getting me in the general vicinity of the cache.

 

If you use custom POIs you can get the familiar geocaching icons on your Nuvi. (Make sure your Nuvi correctly handles Custom POIs)

 

I also use trips and streets and will continue to use the current version for quite a few years to come.

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There was a time when Microsoft was a brand name that the average PC user was exposed to several time a day. Now, not so much. The PC is gone (Lenovo), the operating system has several competitors (Linux and derivatives)and now MS Streets and Trips has been chucked overboard. The program aged well and I am "guessing" that the financial hurdle to update it exceeded the expected profitability target. So, dedicated users, RV users, etc. will have to find another product. I hope that there is an entrepreneur out there that will recognize the possibilities to build on an existing customer base and put this program back on the road.

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