Metroguide Or Canada Topo

[+Rogue_monkey]

I am looking at gettin one of these map programs and was wondering what people think the better one was to get. i do a fair amount of driving and also a fair of back country travel. normally i carry paper maps in the back country both by habit (just got gps) and because of the batteries and accuracy of the gps. so which one is better to get. i live in southern Ontario and have a legend if that makes much of a difference.

thanks.

[+logger&trail]

Metro guide 4 is the way to go, unfortunately with 8 megs of ram if you do a lot of driving you will be changing maps often. I found that a combination of Metroguide 3 and 4 fits nicely into a Legend and gives you pretty good mapping power.

 

Happy Caching

 

Logger

[+tirediron]

What L&T said! MG 4 is definitely the way to go. I haven't played too much with Topo yet, but I think MG with a paper Topo is far more useful combo. I have never looked at ON, but out here on the left coast, I can get all of Sourthern Vancouver Island, and part of Greater Vancouve loaded into the 8mb of my Legend... shouldn't be too bad unless you go really far afield for your caches.

[+PDOP's]

I would take a look at Topo with the reasoning that Topo will include all the roads but MetroGuide wouldn't have any contours. I don't have either yet but looking at the viewer on Garmins site in Topo all of the streets in the smallish town (10,000) where I live are shown.

 

MG4 offers address to address autorouting while Topo has "Routable street level detail is included for major cities." I believe your Legend doesn't support autorouting so this shouldn't be a factor for you.

 

There's more on Topo in this topic.

[+Rogue_monkey]

thanks folks i've been lookin a both lately and have started to think more about topo after pdop's comment. my next question is can you use topo real time on a laptop like you can with mg4. thats a cool feature as far as i'm concerned.

[+PDOP's]

Yes you can. For info you can download a Mapsorce tutorial here or try downloading the program here. I'm not sure if it's locked somehow.

[+logger&trail]

The problem with going with Topo only is that it doesnt provide POI (point of interest) database. Let me tell you its very handy to be able to locate the nearest gas station when your in the middle of nowhere or need the phone number and address of a local hospital. I use the POI's far more than the contours, besides if I am planning a cache outting I can go to Claimaps and get the contour maps for anywhere in Ontario prior to heading out. Also the trail support on Claimaps is far better than the Garmin Topo's. The Garmin Topo's are nothing more than MG4 with contour lines minus POI's. If you use your GPSr for driving MG4 is the way to go IMHO.

 

Happy Caching!

 

Logger

[+Rogue_monkey]

thats a good point logger, i believe i have made my mind up. I think i will get mg4. and btw logger made the frist proto type today looks pretty good.

[+logger&trail]

Excellent news RM .... You might have a cottage industry started there

 

Happy Caching!

 

Logger

[+Delta_flyer21]

I've been using my Topo Canada for about two weeks now, and although the entire Bruce Trail and others are not included, most high traffic areas of trails are. Moreover, contour lines are a gift when you are in a ravine, or hilly area, and the contour lines can tell you where the cache is altitudewise. I agree that POI is awesome to have, but my girlfriend and I do more trailing, so having Topo Canada was paramount (can you get a POI stand alone upgrade I wonder?). Topo Canada is probably the most versatile of all the mapping software-anyone agree/disagree.