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Softmap


Guest bradrobb

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Guest bradrobb

I have the Softmap set of maps and have been trying to connect to there web site to see if they have the GPS option ready for release. It seems they have disappeared? Anyone else having this problem?

 

Brad

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Guest mazda626

Brad

 

I saw a post on the GPS Newsgroup news:sci.geo.satellite-nav

saying that Softmap has gone bankrupt. The poster was also looking for the GPS option of their software with no luck.

 

Mike

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Guest mazda626

Bradrobb

 

All hope may not be lost. A recent post on the GPS Newsgroup news:sci.geo.satellite-nav said that "softmaptechnologies has not gone out of business, but rather was in bankrupcy protection, has made arrangements with 'the

banks', and is going to continue to operate."

 

However their web site is still down

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I haven't used my SoftMap app for a while, but having heard of the companies demise I was curious if my last copy of the GPS Option still worked. As some may know, it was always in beta with an expirey date. I believe the last one ended in December2001.

 

I retried it and it wouldn't work unless I turned the date back on my computer. Other than the date roll back the GPS option still seems to work.

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Since the company us gone... would you email me the GPS option PLEASEEEEE!!!! I just picked up softmap and I'm really disappointed with the inability to pull in all the Ontario Geocaches at once (Like I've done with MS Streets and Trips). I'm betting that with the GPS option I might be able to get a bit closer!

 

(Yes I know it is Beta and Yes I know I will have to roll my clock back!!!!)

 

Please please please please please!!!!! (With sugar and cream on top!!!)

 

------------------

MrCpu

mrcpu@myrealbox.com

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Guest AcStark

There was a thread in the newsgroup sci.geo.satellite-nav that had some American company selling Softmap off at half price because they were out of business. I missed out, they had sold them all, but www.Fedmaps.com say that they have taken over the company and will have a working GPS version out in a month or so. I understand that the maps are stored in a Proprietary format. The seamless scrolling sounds nice but I would like to be able to get the bitmaps out to use in other programs. Does anyone who has Softmaps have any information on the bitmaps. I just happen to know the main software developer for ACDSee, so if anyone wants to send me a sample Softmap Bitmap I'll see if they can decode it. AceStark@hotmail.com

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Guest mrcpu

quote:
Originally posted by bradrobb:

I did a search on Google and found a guy who has the GPS option posted. I download it and reset the date on my computer and it worked just fine.

 

http://www.bpsmicro.com/GPSOptionbeta12.exe

 

The link is above.

 

Brad


 

Thanks Brad! Unfortunatly it doesn't want to recognize my Etrex Venture GPS and the site they send you to for an update (not softmap.ca) seems to have died too!

 

Oh well, I guess I'll just use Softmap the way they intended and PRINT my maps!

 

That's OK because I've got other maps and software to use for other parts of southern Ontario.

 

 

------------------

MrCpu

mrcpu@myrealbox.com

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Guest bradrobb

I used it using other gps in the setup and it works with my global 100 from Lowrance.

 

The only problem I had is my gps had to set to a max of 4800 bauds.

 

Try again.

 

Brad

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Ok... with regards to bradrobb's question. I want to upload a set of Geocaches so they show up on the map. I have not found away to do this in Softmaps! I do this in MS Streets and Trips and it is very very handy when deciding what my next GC will be or how to get there.

 

For everyone else, I had an email conversation with someone form the company that used to be softmaps parent company. I was told that they corporation Softmaps Inc went bankrupt but the original people from the company are trying to get up and running with another similar mapping product.

 

I would not expect to ever see another release of Softmap, but who knows!

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

4525_1300.gif

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I bought softmap pre-bankruptcy. Essentially it is pan-able 1:50,000 map of Ontario. The interface is cludgy and the base version you can only add waypoints one at at time by hand.

 

Now for the good part... you can't get topomaps of all of Ontario ,from Sudbury down, for $70!!!!

 

It also does a great jorb of printing... once you figure out how to do it... like I said, kind of cludgy.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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quote:
Originally posted by gm100guy:

I think Olar would like that one as it would remind him of his CB days and talking skip.

 

But you still did not answer my question?????

 

I don't want to spend the money if it no good.

 

icon_biggrin.gif

 

gm100guy

http://members.rogers.com/gm100guy/cachepage.htm


 

"Good" is a reflection of expectations. If you want all the topos from Sudbury down in a CDROM format and calibrated and you DON'T want to mass import waypoints or use the map in another program then sure... it's a good product and worth the $70

 

On the otherhand, If you can double or triple your budget there is some software QV ( http://fedpubs.com/mpchrt/maps/topocd.htm ) that I heard from the guy at Fed Pubs office on University in Toronto, is far better.

 

My biggest beefs with Softmap are the inability to mass import waypoints and the fact that the maps are completely proprietory and you can only use them from the softmap software.

 

I would gather that the GPS add-on is probably able to mass download waypoints from your GPS. I've contacted them and they say they have not considered GPX format yet.

 

Personally, I find the online maps (Toporama and others) to be sufficient for my purposes. I've also started buying tyvek maps at fedpubs for the areas I go to. (Fedpubs store is on my way home!)

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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quote:
Originally posted by gm100guy:

I think Olar would like that one as it would remind him of his CB days and talking skip.

 

But you still did not answer my question?????

 

I don't want to spend the money if it no good.

 

icon_biggrin.gif

 

gm100guy

http://members.rogers.com/gm100guy/cachepage.htm


 

"Good" is a reflection of expectations. If you want all the topos from Sudbury down in a CDROM format and calibrated and you DON'T want to mass import waypoints or use the map in another program then sure... it's a good product and worth the $70

 

On the otherhand, If you can double or triple your budget there is some software QV ( http://fedpubs.com/mpchrt/maps/topocd.htm ) that I heard from the guy at Fed Pubs office on University in Toronto, is far better.

 

My biggest beefs with Softmap are the inability to mass import waypoints and the fact that the maps are completely proprietory and you can only use them from the softmap software.

 

I would gather that the GPS add-on is probably able to mass download waypoints from your GPS. I've contacted them and they say they have not considered GPX format yet.

 

Personally, I find the online maps (Toporama and others) to be sufficient for my purposes. I've also started buying tyvek maps at fedpubs for the areas I go to. (Fedpubs store is on my way home!)

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

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WalMart in west Edmonton is stocking several titles of the SoftMap software and has them on sale for $62.95. They appear to be the pre-bankruptcy versions and have a Rand McNally Canada Inc. tag on them.

 

I picked up the last copy of the southwestern Alberta Topo 50 but the clerk indicated that more were on back order. There were also several copies of BC maps in stock.

 

Has anybody tried their new GPS Option yet?

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I purchased Softmap from maptown.com and installed and used the software for a couple of days - though I knew after about an hour that it is garbage. You cannot do any editing or personalization. I called up Maptown and complained, they agreed that the Softmap software is not worth the money and would allow me to return it for a credit (not usually allowed). I went back to using OziExplorer and E topo maps. This in my opinion is second to none. I don't know what cannot be done with OziExplorer and would highly recommend it to everyone.

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Canadian Geoquester did you buy the GPS option or just the maps which come with the SoftMap Plus viewing software?

 

I agree with gm100guy that the package is worth the price just for the maps when you compare paper maps for $11.50 or $1.56 per map for E-Topo. Softmap maps comes in at less than $0.50 each.

 

It would be nice if they demo'ed their GPS interface.

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I've been playing with the GPS Option (thanx GM100guy) only to discover that it doesn't want to recognize my Garmin GPS 12. I know that MrCpu had the same problem with his Etrex Venture but it is a lot newer model than my 12 which has been around since 1997.

 

I'm wondering if beta vesion is disabled in some way that it'll only work with NEMA output. Has anyone got it to recognize any Garmin model?

 

Although I couldn't test up/down loading of information due to the above it was kinda neat to use the Nema output and the simulator function on the GPS 12 to fly around on the map

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quote:
Originally posted by PDOP's:

Check out this http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=5740990093&m=8900952145 in the GPS Units and Software forum. The poster is saying that the newest version of Fugawi can use SoftMap maps.


Its true. I just upgraded to the new version, popped in a Softmap disc and voila. Works fantastic. In fact it's better because scrolling in whatever direction is seamless until reaching the limit of that particular disc then it prompts you to put in the next one. I can display all my waypoints, routes and tracks and overlay "Canada Streets" (free with the Fugawi software) which is smack on the topo streets.

A tip of the hat to Fugawi for providing this capability. Now where can I buy additional sets? Is all of Canada available?

I presume the GPS works as well as it did with the previous version. dadgum I wish I had a lap-top!

Cheers, Olar

 

wavey.gif

"Pi 'r not square, Pie 'r round you dummy!"

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Olar that's great news. Is the upgrade from Fugawi free?

 

A reminder to all that Radio Shack has the Fugawi software on sale for $99 at selected stores (not online unfortunately) and that Walmart sells the SoftMap packages for $63.

 

I may have to give myself an early Christmas present. icon_biggrin.gif

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quote:
Originally posted by PDOP's:

Olar that's great news. Is the upgrade from Fugawi free?


Yup! You can get it here.

I'll be visiting 1 or 2 Wallymarts myself although the Southern Ontario set already covers what I usually need.

 

Cheers, Olar

 

wavey.gif

"Pi 'r not square, Pie 'r round you dummy!"

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Here's the web page for Fugawi at Radio Shack.

 

The SoftMap/Fugawi combination must now be the cheapest for digital mapping/GPS software for Canada.

 

Olar a couple of questions for you. Did you have to do any sort of calibration when using the SoftMap maps with Fugawi? Also the SoftMapPlus software allows the installation of the map CD's on your hard drive. Will Fugawi allow you to do the same?

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quote:
Originally posted by PDOP's:

 

Olar a couple of questions for you. Did you have to do any sort of calibration when using the SoftMap maps with Fugawi?


No calibration necessary that I could see. After the upgrade the Softmap reference shows up on the File menu. Clicking it prompted me to put in one of the Softmap discs. From there all actions are shown on the Softmap Topos like displaying waypoints or tracks. If you close down the map and double click on a waypoint it appears that the it will default to the Fugawi topo first.

quote:
Also the SoftMapPlus software allows the installation of the map CD's on your hard drive. Will Fugawi allow you to do the same?

Thats a question I had also. I thought I would email Fugawi to ask them. It would certainly save time changing discs and waiting for the CD-ROM to fire-up.

Cheers, Olar

 

wavey.gif

"Pi 'r not square, Pie 'r round you dummy!"

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Anyone tried the new GPS option available from Softmap? - about $60 as a download or $80 as a CD (my local Walmart didn't have it but then they don't have Softmaps either). Softmap advertise it as being developed by Fugawi so is it the same thing? I recently got the Softmap maps (Southern Ontario) despite some of the negative comments in this thread and am not complaining - it seems to work just fine for what I wanted but the GPS option would be a useful add-on.

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I also picked up this software recently and quickly realized that the GPS option was not included. After some searching, I stumbled on this post and realized that hey, I'm not the only one.

 

PDOP'S or GM100guy: Could one of you please email me the GPS option so that I might give it a shot with my Garmin Etrex Legend? I would appreciate it.

 

Tripper

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Hard Oiler

 

I wasn't able to find anyone who had used the recent version of the GPS Option either here or in the GPS news group. Map Town here in Alberta carries the SoftMap products but not the GPS option. Their sales staff indicated that they were not even able to get a demo copy for their store. icon_confused.gif

 

As far as I know it's only available from SoftMap so it'll be hard to try it out before buying. Maybe check on their return policy to see if they'll allow you to return it if you don't like it.

 

FUGAWI does have a downloadable demo on their site and it's on sale at Radio Shack for only $20 than the hard copy of the GPS Option

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Tripper

 

It's to big to e-mail. GM100 Guy was nice enough to temporarily put it up on his site for me to download. Not sure if he still has it there.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Tripper:

 

PDOP'S or GM100guy: Could one of you please email me the GPS option so that I might give it a shot with my Garmin Etrex Legend? I would appreciate it.

 

Tripper


 

The Beta demo is disabled so that it'll only work with a NEMA input which won't allow upload/download of waypoints, ect. About the only thing you can do is show your present position or use the demo function of your GPSr to move around on the map.

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quote:
Originally posted by PDOP's:

 

The Beta demo is disabled so that it'll only work with a NEMA input which won't allow upload/download of waypoints, ect. About the only thing you can do is show your present position or use the demo function of your GPSr to move around on the map.


 

Hmmm. Too bad. Thanks for the info PDOP.

 

Tripper

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PDOP: Well I decided to give Softmap a try and got a copy of the Softmap GPS Option - partly because the local Softmap dealer turned out to live just round the corner so picked it up on the way to the grocery store:

 

http://www.jamesstr.com

 

So far it does most of what I wanted - as I haven't tried other software I'm not a good reviewer but had no problem interfacing with a Mag 315. It upload and downloads waypoints and routes fine but I had problem with tracks so I've e-mailed Softmap tech support and will see what they have to say about this and a couple of other minor niggles. Will keep you posted on how I make out with them.

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