Mapsource Canada Topo

[+PDOP's]

MapSource Canada Topo details at GPSCentral.ca

[+MMAD]

Looks interesting, a little on the expensive side for me.

Dan

[+PDOP's]

Looks interesting, a little on the expensive side for me.

Dan

Actually $160 or so for the entire country at 1:50000 sounds to good to be true. It may force me to upgrade to a mapping unit

 

Hopefully there'll be some more info out soon. There was still nothing on Garmin's site when I last checked.

[+John144]

GPS City has a slightly lower price ($153.95) and a more specific availability date (May 21st).

 

But I am wondering if this will allow us to download the topo maps to our GPSrs, or only use them in Mapsource on the PC to plan routes, and download those.

Phrases such as:

 

"The user has the ability to pre plan their daily adventures from the comfort of their own home, using MapSource on the PC."

 

and

 

"Let MapSource TOPO Canada help plan your next outdoor adventure!"

 

(emphasis added) make me think this, as does the repeated mention of the maps being vector-based.

 

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, and thinking that having the whole country on my GPSr in topo form (at 1:50,000 scale) is too good to be true. We should know more soon, if the product is really coming out in a month and a half.

Edited April 10, 2004 by John144

[+storm1]

GPS City has a slightly lower price ($153.95) and a more specific availability date (May 21st).

 

But I am wondering if this will allow us to download the topo maps to our GPSrs, or only use them in Mapsource on the PC to plan routes, and download those.

Phrases such as:

 

"The user has the ability to pre plan their daily adventures from the comfort of their own home, using MapSource on the PC."

 

and

 

"Let MapSource TOPO Canada help plan your next outdoor adventure!"

 

(emphasis added) make me think this, as does the repeated mention of the maps being vector-based.

 

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, and thinking that having the whole country on my GPSr in topo form (at 1:50,000 scale) is too good to be true. We should know more soon, if the product is really coming out in a month and a half.

i don't think they would release a product that was not downloadable. the last comment they make about even being able to use it on those gps's that do not have mapping capabilty also makes me think that the maps will be downloadable.

 

as far as being vector based, i think that the US topo software is also vector based & they say that it uses less memory...would this be a concern if you couldn't use it in a gps?

 

what gps do you have if you think you could get all of canada in it...would you have enough memory?

 

i'm excited about it as well & it almost seems to good to be true but i would bet that it's downloadable to gps?

[+PDOP's]

what gps do you have if you think you could get all of canada in it...would you have enough memory?

 

i'm excited about it as well & it almost seems to good to be true but i would bet that it's downloadable to gps?

When you look at the topo packages Garmin offers for the USA they cover fairly small areas, at least for their 1:24000 national parks series. I would think that all of Canada at 1:50000 would require a lot of memory. Maybe the new Canadian topo is based on the !:250000 maps.

 

Is the MapSource PC program similar to Ozi or Fugawi in functionality?

[+Goodguys]

The Garmin Mapsource PC program is vector-based, whereas Ozi works off a fixed-size graphic. So zooming in with Mapsource adds detail, but doesn't result in pixelation. It's like Streets and Trips in that regard, with added waypoint management functionality. You can get a demo of Mapsource on the Garmin site.

 

Zooming in with Ozi just magnifies the existing graphic.

 

We have Garmin Canada Metroguide V4, and expect the new topo to be similar in function. I would expect the topo of all Canada in 1:50k would require several hundreds of megs memory, and that I'll only be able to download the equivalent of 10 to 1000 square miles to my Rino at any one time.

[+PDOP's]

Thanks for the MapSource info Goodguys. Other than better zoomimg is the handling of waypoints, routes and tracks the same as Ozi and Fugawi? Can you download waypoints etc. into MapSource and how are they saved (individual files like Ozi or in a database like Fuagwi)?

[+Goodguys]

You can download waypoints, routes, tracks, etc or do an export/import from GSAK, for example. Mapsource seems to use a proprietary database format, so all waypoints, tracks, etc are stored in a single file per download.

 

Shops like GPS Central are pretty good at giving a demonstration of the software.

[+Red90]

Garmin site says the US Topo version is equivalent to 1:100000. It will be interesting to see the quality versus the scanned 1:50000 maps.

 

Garmin US Topo

 

If it is as good, the price would be amazing.

[+John144]

what gps do you have if you think you could get all of canada in it...would you have enough memory?

 

I have a GPS60C; I wasn't assuming I could fit the whole country in the GPSr at one time!

 

I certainly do hope the maps are downloadable; the choice of words in the announcement just made me cautious about it. We shall see soon enough!

[+storm1]

canadian topo map viewer is now up on garmins sites. they also show a screen shot of it from a gps so it must be downloadable.

 

gpscentrals's price looks wicked when you see what garmin has it listed for in US funds!!

 

post your comments after viewing it in the map viewer.

[+PDOP's]

TopoCanada information and viewer on Garmin's site. Looks like it's includes everything south of 60º latitude.

 

Some quick observations: it appears to be monotone - no shading to indicate forests, etc. Contours are in feet for the area I looked at around where I live. This may vary by toposheet as with the paper copies. Trails and smaller roads appear to be lacking.

Edited April 13, 2004 by PDOP's

[+John144]

Holy moley. I just ordered this, and can't wait to have it for my trip out east this summer.

[Dino Hunters]

FYI - Magellan told me this spring that they plan to release a Canadaian topo product this year as well. Now that Garmin has the pressure is on, so it should happen.

 

Of course a dash of "I'll believe it when I see it" may apply.

[+Olar]

I realize that the map-viewer is a bit cumbersome and klunky but what little time I've spent gives me the impression that all they have done is taken MG Canada V4, coloured everything pink, and drawn in contour lines and elevation labels. I'd want to compare a lot further before spending that kind of money.

 

Olar

[+PDOP's]

TopoCanada information and viewer on Garmin's site.  Looks like it's includes everything south of  60º latitude.

 

Some quick observations: it appears to be monotone - no shading to indicate forests, etc.  Contours are in feet for the area I looked at around where I live.  This may vary by toposheet as with the paper copies.  Trails and smaller roads appear to be lacking.

Some corrections to my initial observations as provided by a post to the GPS Newsgroup

 

"Garmin confirmed that the map (on their webpage) is incorrect, and that the actual coverage is what is shown in the online map viewer." It does include the Yukon, NWT and Nunavut but not all at 1:50000 - GPSCentral also has a copy of the coverage map from Garmin's online viewer on their webpage.

 

"Garmin confirmed that the online map viewer only shows contours in feet, but that in MapSource you have the option to select contour display in feet or meters."

[+John144]

all they have done is taken MG Canada V4, coloured everything pink, and drawn in contour lines and elevation labels. I'd want to compare a lot further before spending that kind of money.

The contour lines are the main thing of value, along with rivers. What else would you be looking for in a topo product? I think there is a lot of value in this as it is.

[+Olar]

all they have done is taken MG Canada V4, coloured everything pink, and drawn in contour lines and elevation labels.  I'd want to compare a lot further before spending that kind of money.

The contour lines are the main thing of value, along with rivers. What else would you be looking for in a topo product? I think there is a lot of value in this as it is.

Agreed that the contour lines are important particularly if you live in a very hilly or mountainous part of Canada. I suppose I was turned off when I first tried Fugawi Topos on my (non-colour) Palm. I found it difficult to distinguish between contour lines, rivers/streams and roads. The new colour GPSr's probably eliminate this problem. With Metroquide Canada Ver4 all rivers, streams, lakes, parks are displayed. Certainly much more than I expected from an auto-routing mapping package.

Currently having contour lines is not any benefit to me personally so I will just stick to MG 4 for now. At least I know if I'm on the correct side of the river and it seems no matter what cache I hunt there is always a hill involved so I'm prepared for that anyway.

 

Cheers, Olar

[Team Cache-away]

Perhaps I am old fashion and slow on the uptake as far as technology goes, but when they can make an electronic version of maps as good as the paper one in my pocket, I may consider it. My paper map and compass will always get me home after the batteries in my GPS have died.

[+John144]

I have MG4 Canada and I love it. I'm getting the Topo one because when I'm going hiking some places, I'll really enjoy seeing the details of the elevation as I go.

 

Who knows, perhaps it will even come in handy when geocaching, to figure out the best route to a cache!

 

The other nice thing about the Topo maps is that land relief features change less rapidly than the Points of Interest database (e.g. restaurants) does!

[+storm1]

anyone pre-order yet? who's considering buying it?

[Peregrine007]

I'm seriously considering a pre-order... but it is a little pricey. I wonder if I could convince someone to split it with me...

[jonavin]

Does the topo map cover roads in rural areas? I would check the website myself, but the areas I'm interested in, I'm not familar with the roads there. A quick check in the areas I am familar with looks like it does have the same roads mapped.

 

I have City Select 5 and while it's great in the major cities it's coverage is poor in other parts of Southern Ontario (missing small bodies of water and parks). Would the Topo map fill in the missing pieces (roads) if I'm not interested in POIs? Or should I just suck it up and buy BOTH MetroGuide and Topo?

[+PDOP's]

It'll be hard to get answers to your questions until the Topo is available. I've heard that some dealers have evaluation copies so maybe you could try contacting them.

 

I was condsidering getting both (MG4&Topo) but the GPSCentral.ca site says that Topo has "Routable street level detail is included for major cities." which may be all I want depending on which cities are included.

[jonavin]

"Routable roads and trail". Interesting. I guess I'll wait until Topo comes out before I decide whether to also get MetroGuide or not.

[+PDOP's]

GPS Central now has the "Map Size Lists (for GPS download, with route calculation data included)" up on their website.

[+Insp Gadget]

I was speaking to GPSCentral.ca and they think they will have the topo maps on Monday, depending on how good customs is!

[+Amazon Annie]

Does the topo map cover roads in rural areas? I would check the website myself, but the areas I'm interested in, I'm not familar with the roads there. A quick check in the areas I am familar with looks like it does have the same roads mapped.

 

I can tell you that the online version has skipped my road (a concession rd) but has the one just south of me. sw of me and north of me. Mine is a fairly well travelled and has a light down the end of it. Magellan has it on their maps but not on Garmin. I can see the river that's down behind my property though!

[jonavin]

I just noticed gpscentral has it in stock. Anybody ordered it yet?

[+Insp Gadget]

I ordered it ages ago and am expecting it this morning. Can't wait!!!!

[+Dog Knows]

Yep, mine is showing up this morning too. I would have had it yesterday, but I messed up the credit card information on the order.

[+Insp Gadget]

Just got my Topo maps in and am installing it as I type this!

[+Insp Gadget]

Well I installed my maps on the GPS and went for a quick drive. I like the new maps. Since I do a lot of hiking, I find they are excellent for my use, however other than the topo lines, there really isn't much info on here. And they take up a lot of space! With Mapsource I was able to get all the Maritimes, PQ and Ontario on my 60C. I just quickly d/n half of NB onto my 60C and it took something like 24mb!!!

[jonavin]

Do you have the Metro Guide Canada v4? I interested to know what differences there are between the two. Is the Topo map basically just the MG4 maps with elevation lines?

[+Insp Gadget]

Do you have the Metro Guide Canada v4? I interested to know what differences there are between the two. Is the Topo map basically just the MG4 maps with elevation lines?

Pretty much. It SEEMS to have all the same street level detail as MG. It adds the topo lines, but removes all the POI's. When I select Find with the Topo maps there are very few selctions compared to the MG.

[+PDOP's]

I've never worked with MapSource. Could somebody comment on the functionality of the desktop MapSource program and these maps? Is it comparable to Ozi or Fugawi and Spectrum Digital Imaging topos? I know that the topos won't have the same detail but are the waypoint and track functions pretty much the same? Can you edit data downloaded from your GPSr in MapSource?

 

Would Mapsource and CanadaTopo be a valid substitute for Ozi or Fugawi?

[+The Two Navigators]

With the new Topo Canada are the roads routable and can you look up addresses on your gps?

[+Insp Gadget]

With the new Topo Canada are the roads routable and can you look up addresses on your gps?

You can route, but there is no address lookup..

[+Red90]

On the computer side, I'd like to see what how it compares to Fugawi or Ozi, also. Maybe some screen shots of the same area, if possible. Get them to PDOP for compare at his map sample page.

[+Olar]

If someone could throw up a screen shot from Mapsource Canada Topo I could do the same for Fugawi and also Canada MG4. A good spot for comparison would be the Mount Nemo area near Burlington. Centre on: N43° 25.529, W79° 52.668

 

I will do the screenshots when I get home later today.

 

Cheers, Olar

[+Olar]

As promised here are screen shots of the Mount Nemo area from Fugawi Topos (old style) and Mapsource Canada Metroguide 4. If someone can post a screen shot from Mapsource Canada Topo then we can compare.

 

Fugawi Topo

 

 

and MG4

 

[jonavin]

That's MetroGuide. I thought you were going to post the Topo maps.

[+Insp Gadget]

If someone could throw up a screen shot from Mapsource Canada Topo I could do the same for Fugawi and also Canada MG4. A good spot for comparison would be the Mount Nemo area near Burlington. Centre on: N43° 25.529, W79° 52.668

 

I will do the screenshots when I get home later today.

 

Cheers, Olar

I'd love to send a screen shot. Mind you I have no idea how, but I would love to....

[+Red90]

Read Here

[+PDOP's]

Bump A Topo screenshot pleeease

[+Insp Gadget]

Bump A Topo screenshot pleeease

Sorry. I have been on the road all week and my topo maps are home. Would a pic of the maps on the GPS be of any use?

[+Dog Knows]

Okay, I'll give the screenshot thing a try.

 

 

I can redo this shot larger and sharper if requested.

[+Olar]

Thanks D-K.

[+PDOP's]

Thanks Dog Knows and Olar. I've used your shots for a comparison of the Garmin (top) and Fugawi topographic features. On a desktop I'd really miss the shading but it looks like the contours are all there.

 

Edited May 19, 2004 by PDOP's