Is Mapsend software as horrible as the reviews say?

[Boof]

I'm a newb to GPS, however seriously considering buying either an Etrex Legend or a Magellan Sportrak Pro. I want something affordable, small, and with decent mapping software that is useful in cities and rural areas. Every review I've read makes Mapsend Streets sound like it's totally innacurate. I'd like to get the Sportrak, but I'm really hesitating over the software issue. On the other hand, I've heard good things about Garmin Mapsource. If Mapsend is Magellan's Achille's Heel, then perhaps they should either allow any maps to be uploaded to their GPS units or charge more and get some real mapping software for buyers. Even though the Legend does not have the antenna the Sportrak does, if the Sportrak's maps are innacurate, then what does it matter if you can lock under trees or not?

[+leatherman]

I was on the line between a Meridian and a GPS V. I never read anything that lead me to believe that Mapsend or Mapsource was more accurate than the other.

They both have their short comings. You can't pack the entire US onto a CD and be completely accurate. Streets and terrain is changing all the time. You can't make updates every day to keep up with all the change.

Back from the tangent. Fundamentally they do the same job, and they are easy to use.

I compaired screen captures and screen resolution.

For me it came down to the GPSr fetures and capabilitites. Not the software.

 

Just have fun.

 

Preperation, the first law to survival.

[+leatherman]

I was on the line between a Meridian and a GPS V. I never read anything that lead me to believe that Mapsend or Mapsource was more accurate than the other.

They both have their short comings. You can't pack the entire US onto a CD and be completely accurate. Streets and terrain is changing all the time. You can't make updates every day to keep up with all the change.

Back from the tangent. Fundamentally they do the same job, and they are easy to use.

I compaired screen captures and screen resolution.

For me it came down to the GPSr fetures and capabilitites. Not the software.

 

Just have fun.

 

Preperation, the first law to survival.

[+Ranz]

I have a MeriGold and MapSend software. A coworker and fellow Geocacher owns MapSource. We have analyzed the maps in our area and have found things wrong in MapSend that MapSource had correct, and things wrong in MapSource that MapSend had correct. Some things neither had correct.

 

Depending on how anal we got, we could come up with several small (minor) inaccuracies in both programs and could not say that either was better. By the time we decided it was a stupid argument, we had found an equal amount of errors.

 

Leatherman is right. Things change too often for any program of this type to be completely accurate. Inaccuracies aside, MapSend has done a good job for me, and MapSource has done well for my coworker.

 

Pick your GPS based on the features you want and use the mapping software designed for it to enter detailed maps. Then, use one of the other excellent programs for better mapping, such as ExpertGPS, Delorme, or NG TOPO.

 

There are always ways to get you where you are going. Just be happy with what you are holding in your hand along the journey. (I mean GPS of course)

 

 

[This message was edited by Ranz on June 16, 2002 at 09:55 AM.]

[+Ranz]

I have a MeriGold and MapSend software. A coworker and fellow Geocacher owns MapSource. We have analyzed the maps in our area and have found things wrong in MapSend that MapSource had correct, and things wrong in MapSource that MapSend had correct. Some things neither had correct.

 

Depending on how anal we got, we could come up with several small (minor) inaccuracies in both programs and could not say that either was better. By the time we decided it was a stupid argument, we had found an equal amount of errors.

 

Leatherman is right. Things change too often for any program of this type to be completely accurate. Inaccuracies aside, MapSend has done a good job for me, and MapSource has done well for my coworker.

 

Pick your GPS based on the features you want and use the mapping software designed for it to enter detailed maps. Then, use one of the other excellent programs for better mapping, such as ExpertGPS, Delorme, or NG TOPO.

 

There are always ways to get you where you are going. Just be happy with what you are holding in your hand along the journey. (I mean GPS of course)

 

 

[This message was edited by Ranz on June 16, 2002 at 09:55 AM.]

[vagabond]

I would have to agree with Leatherman and Ranz

I have Mapsend Topo and think its great. I also have mapsource and it is good also.

As to the GPSR unit go with the one that suits you.

Like Ranz I also have the gold

 

All who look are not lost

[+Night Stalker]

I was having the same questions you have about a week ago. I eventually bought the Sportrak and the Mapsend Topo software. My brother-in-law has the Garmin GPS V. We went Geo Caching together this weekend so we had plenty of time to compare. His software might be a little more accurate, though that would be hard to prove. The one thing I can say for certain is that the compression ratio on the Mapsend is greater so you can put larger maps into the Sportrak. With that said I can't see how you could go wrong with either one. By the way my Sportrak held a signal a little better in trees then the GPS V.

[+1pilot]

I also agree with everyone, both have their drawbacks. Mapsend works ok for me on my Meridian and usually shows the streets as they appear in real life, aside from the newest additions( a lot of new devlopments here in Vancouver WA) but I rarely need street maps for the cache hunt as most are in areas that have no streets and the discriptions don't often give directions to the cache using street names or numbers. I will say this for accuracy, on a recent cachers get together, we had several Garmins and two Magellans looking for a cache that was placed, and the Magellans were getting seven to eight sat's in tree cover, while the E-machines could only find two or three. A Magellan found the cache. Bob G. (1pilot)

 

[This message was edited by 1pilot on June 17, 2002 at 02:32 PM.]

[philipTB]

I have Mapsend Europe and continue to be astonished by how accurate it is. For example, I live in a tiny village in rural Cambridgeshire, UK and the top of our lane, where it meets the main road bifurcates leaving a small patch of grass no bigger than 5 metres wide. Mapsend shows this bifurcation and my Meridian shows it to be spot on.

 

Sure there are places I've been where map features seem to be a bit out (sometimes up to 50 metres) but overall I think the accuracy is pretty good for navigating by road.

 

The latest firmware from Magellan makes switching between maps stored on card really easy. My only wish is that Magellan would get their finger out and issue an update (as promised) for Mapsend Europe that allows regions bigger than 16MB to be produced.

I wish Magellan

[nemethmik]

Mapsend TOPO is acceptable, but if you really want a light-weight, mobile (still powerful) mapping solution I highly recommend to buy an iPAQ H3650/70 on eBay for $200 - $300, MS Streets and Trips 2002 for $30, National Geographic TOPO! YourState for $80 - 100, TOPO! Sync USA for $35 (see trailexplorers.com ).

MS Streets and Trips is unbeatable in accuracy when in urban areas. NG TOPO! is the most reasonably priced mobile-ready (via TOPO! Sync) topographic mapping solution.

As I said Mapsend TOPO is OK, but it can be regarded as a toy compared to the PocketPC-based mapping tools. However, if you do not have a PocketPC, Mapsend is the only solution for your Garmin gizmo.

[dtrayers]

Here's a post I made a few weeks ago...

 

http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=5740990093&m=9010939964

[+phantom4099]

I found microsoft Streets and Tips horrible in accuracy, they have the streets names off by more than 5 miles, the address look up feature is terrible and only works in towns. Mapsend address feature appears to be pretty much right on (20 feet). I finnaly got to really use and test my meridian and TOPO during a 100+ Mile bike trip in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I found it to be extremely useful (even in canyons and under tree cover). The maps appeared to be accuracte and the TOPO lines were so good it hurt (uh no, 10 more miles up hill).

 

Wyatt W.

 

The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions.

[+ClayJar]

I've been using MapSend Topo for quite a long time now (on a MAP 330, and now on a MeriGold), and it's been everything I've needed it to be.

 

On one cache hunt, I was in northern Louisiana on some back roads going from one cache to the next one on my itenerary. I encountered some rather high water (as in, the stream started here and the bridge was about 150 feet forward). So, I looked at the maps and found the next best road to take to the cache... and found another bridge-turned-island. I looked at the maps again and found yet another route, and yes, it was also completely impassable. (Oh, and did I mention that all of these were *dirt* roads -- not even gravel.)

 

Anyway, I ended up turning back to get to the main highway (which was high enough to cross the stream above water), but I was impressed with the maps, to say the least.

[+headmj]

I am using a merigreen with mapsend and a 16m sd card. Works great and the maps have been right on. Still have room for more in the 16m card.

[Avatar]

I have both a Garmin eMap w/ MapSource software and a Magellin SporTrakPro with ManSend software and, although the maps may differ slightly and contain different points of interest, I found the MapSource software easier to use.

[nemethmik]

quote:

---

Originally posted by phantom4099:

I found microsoft Streets and Tips horrible in accuracy, they have the streets names off by more than 5 miles, the address look up feature is terrible and only works in towns.

---

I never experienced these problems neither with MS Streets & Trips (S&T) 2002 nor Pocket Street (PS) 2002. I enter the lat/long coords of caches in S&T and it displays the location perfectly. There are a lot of things which I do not like in S&T and PS, but the accuracy of its maps are the best, at least here in California from Mendocino to San Diego.

[vagabond]

I have been using one version or another of this software since about 93, when it was called AutoMap and I've been very happy with it I do not have 2002 but I do have 2001 and did have 2000 until a little gremlin broke the cd ) and for what its worth I liked 2000 better because you could change the lon lat format. Although you didn't have the whole world to play with.

 

All who look are not lost

[vagabond]

I have been using one version or another of this software since about 93, when it was called AutoMap and I've been very happy with it I do not have 2002 but I do have 2001 and did have 2000 until a little gremlin broke the cd ) and for what its worth I liked 2000 better because you could change the lon lat format. Although you didn't have the whole world to play with.

 

All who look are not lost

[+Ozarktroutbum]

My Meridian Green and Mapsend topo work great. I bought the 64 meg card and carry nearly 3 states of topo. I've noticed that if mapsend is wrong, most of the other maps I have are wrong too.

What did bug me is the PC interface. It's not exactly what I'd call feature rich or robust. I think they need to do a complete upgrade. Come to think of it, they need to stick to making great hardware and let a third party develop the software.

 

When GPSr's are outlawed, only Outlaws will have GPSr's.

[uocooper]

It's interesting how conflicting the views seem to be about mapsend. It seems like the consensus is that it's far from perfect but then so are all the other products. After reading the reviews at amazon.com, it would seem that mapsend is a big waste of money. I don't care as much about streets as I do hiking trails and wilderness areas in the pacific NW.

 

After reading about other products on these boards I got the impression that the National Geographic Topo maps would be the way to go but according to their web site they won't work with my Magellan Sportrak Pro. Is this correct or has topo.com just not updated their supported GPS page?

[+The Hornet]

I've got a bit of a thing about maps and mapping software and in my time I've used a lot of different map programs.

 

I've just bought a Meridian Platinum and Mapsend Streets for Europe (I live in England) and have to agree with philipTB that its accuracy is very good. I find the street maps very useful when driving to geocaches.

 

However apart from downloading the maps to the GPSr the program is an absolute nightmare to use. Route generation is so bad that I still use my favourite software (MemoryMap Navigator) which only supports Garmin. I then download the routes into the Garmin, upload them into EasyGPS and then download them into the Magellan. Even this beats trying to use Mapsend!

 

Mind you the Magellan is a great bit of kit and I would agree with those who say buy the GPS on the features you want and not on the available software.