Another lame question

[+NickandAliandEliza]

Right, so I got my Vista last weekend.

 

Someone has promised to buy me some software for my b'day.

 

Whats the difference between Mapsource 'Roads and Recreation' and 'Metroguide Europe' ?

 

As far as I can tell, the Metroguide is more detailed in Cities - with addresses and such like, but I've got no interest in knowing what the co-ords are for 23 Acacia Ave. Is that the only difference? I tried asking a couple of shops, but I got the impresion that they were either trying to blind me with science or didn't know what they were talking about.

 

Thanks again in advance.

[Moss Trooper]

Basicll.. yep thats the difference.. and the amount of maps you can download to the vista.. Go fer Roads an Rec if yer not bothered about 23 Acacia grove.. The place is still on the Roads an rec.. yer just cant search fer it.

 

Thats it in a nut shell

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

 

OK. so I'm under the afluence of inkerhol as some thinkle peep I are!!!!

[+Richard & Beth]

It is also worth noting that the ONLY address searching that Metroguide can do is house numbers. The database does not include anywhere with house names, or building names, and also does not include the complete postcode. Basically the software is written for US format addresses, so it has limitations handling UK adresses. The Roads and Rec still has places of interest, which are still searchable.

 

My advice would be similar to Moss T, unless you specifically require the address searching, get Roads and Rec.

 

Richard

[+Longitude]

Does R & R work out routes for you like MG does? It's a useful feature which I wouldn't want to be without.

[dodgydaved]

quote:

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Originally posted by Longitude (formely martic10):

Does R & R work out routes for you like MG does? It's a useful feature which I wouldn't want to be without.

---

 

I don't think it does, at least, if it does, I haven't found out how yet!!

 

dodgydaved

 

I'm NOT lost, I know exactly where I am, I'm here!

[+jeremyp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Longitude (formely martic10):

Does R & R work out routes for you like MG does? It's a useful feature which I wouldn't want to be without.

---

 

No, I bought RR because it was cheaper and I've used Autoroute 2002 for a long time for working out the routes, so that functionality would be a duplication. I have to manually transfer the routes to RR, but that actually helps some times. I was also under the impression that RR was slightly more detailed than MG in terms of country roads, but that's probably not true.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[+Sue and Bernie]

...is very detailed as to the depth of its road mapping. In fact, it appears to have the same level of detail as MS AutoRoute 2002 when I look around my locality.

 

I use MG E to generate cycle routes using small Norfork roads. It has taken us down roads in the car that were designed for horses! For example, once we came to a fork which indicated two roads of equal size in the software. The tarmac went left, the right option was a dirt road! Okay for bikes but we wouldn't have driven a car down it.

 

The next "cross-road" was just another flint-laden farmer's road traversing our track.

 

One thing to watch is that the autoroutes generated eat up the 50 waypoints very quickly. The first time I used an automatically generated route, we found ourselve "Approaching Destination" only half-way on our journey.

 

I now use the autoroute function to generate the shortest routes (for biking) then I place my own WPs along it. I then join the dots to create the actual route, turn off the autoroute and the program shows the usual straight-line-between-WP route. You can then check that appropriate turn indications will be produced and add addition mid-WPs as required. It is quicker to do than explain.

 

JeremyP, re handling MS AR routes, have you tried:

 

www.gpsu.co.uk

 

for a shareware program that will load in MS saved routes, allow you to muck 'em about then save the results to your GPS unit.

 

Sue & Bernie

[+jeremyp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sue & Bernie:

 

JeremyP, re handling MS AR routes, have you tried:

 

http://www.gpsu.co.uk

 

for a shareware program that will load in MS saved routes, allow you to muck 'em about then save the results to your GPS unit.

 

Sue & Bernie

---

 

No I haven't. I have some Unix shell scripts that I use to get Mapsource text output files into Autoroute compatible input. I then program the generated routes back into Mapsource by hand a) because otherwise I'd have too many waypoints, because it helps me to get mentally familiar with the route and c) because I can give the waypoints names that help navigate (e.g. "L A33" means turn left here onto the A33).

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[Moss Trooper]

The shareware version of GPS Utility will only allow a limited number of waypoints to be loaded.. I think it is about 30..

 

I bought a licence as it allows you to read, as it was then AR files, directly, and then save em to yer GPS. It is also good for manipulating waypoints tracks and routes.

 

These days it handles most GPS waypoint data files.

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

[+Sue and Bernie]

I have compared the two programmes again, I see little difference in the detail. With both installed, you can flick between the outputs of both at a given location and do a direct comparison. I noted, when looking around my son's place in Hendon, zoomed in close, that the postion of Hendon Underground station moves significantly south to where it actually is on the later programme.

 

One major difference I noted was the size of the maps for downloading. In MG Europe, the tiles are much larger in size thus you have to upload large, possibly unwanted segments. R&R, covering only the UK, has smaller segments. This is probably not too important for Vista owners with their whopping 24 megs, but humble Legend owners (moi, with my conservative 8 megs) will find R&R more flexible in the selection of map sets. For example, by not selecting the four segments for the south part of London, I can add most of the whole of Kent.

 

Sue & Bernie

[+cone_dxf & family]

Roads and Recreation and Metroguide use the same version of the Mapsource program, the basic difference between them is that Metroguide maps contain informatiion that allows autorouting e.g. your GPS if suitable, or your PC can automatically calculate the route on roads between 2 points. R&R Maps cannot. You can download Metroguide maps to your GPS without the routeing information, which then makes them the same size the R&R ones.

The decision about which to buy depends on your model of GPS, If your GPS doesn't support Autorouting, theres little point in my opinion in buying Metroguide.

 

Mark

[Moss Trooper]

If I download R n R maps I can get about 60 - 70% of the country onto my Vista.. if I use Metroguide it drops to about 30%

 

Check it out on Mapsource.. as you add maps the download size increases.. Same area on Metro is very much different to R n R

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

[+jeremyp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Moss Trooper:

If I download R n R maps I can get about 60 - 70% of the country onto my Vista.. if I use Metroguide it drops to about 30%

 

Check it out on Mapsource.. as you add maps the download size increases.. Same area on Metro is very much different to R n R

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

---

 

Is that with the routing calculation stuff in MG disabled? If the answer is yes, it implies that MG maps have more detail on them (might just be the address info of course).

 

Even if the maps were the same size for the same area, the smaller tile size of RR is quite useful if you have either limited memory or limited time. It takes ages on my Vista to download a large map area. If the minimum you could download is - say - the whole of Kent, I imagine it could get quite tedious.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[+NickandAliandEliza]

Thanks for all the advice. That's settled then - R + R........I think.

 

[+NickandAliandEliza]

Today I got Roads + Recreation Europe.

 

I've attempted to start to upload maps into my Vista of the London area. I got a message come up saying that if I go further the Garmin preloaded map database will be permanently lost should I try and save the maps I want to upload......after seeing this message I haven't gone any further. I can't see anything in the instructions concerning this message and don't know whether its just a standard one or what. Obviously I want to chop and change the maps I upload- depending on where I'm going. BUT, how can I do this if the basemap -if thats what the message means- has been permanently lost?

[+Richard & Beth]

Ok, I've closed off this thread as nicktinknick has swapped over onto a new Part II thread.

 

R