Cityselect 6 And Metroguide 4 Autorouting Diff.?

[chainsaw_]

I have Metro Guide Canada v 4. I hear City Select v 6 uses a different company for their auto routing which is supposed to do a better job?

Metro Guide sometimes sends you off in some pretty obscure paths to reach your final destination! City Select v 6 does a better job???

Has City Select v 6 been shipped yet and can the guys out there with both packages do a comparison of the auto routing?

 

Thanks

[gpsindy]

I'm not sure about the comparison between City Select V6 and Metroguide. However, I will say that City Select V6 does a great job of autorouting.

 

Yes, V6 has shipped. I received and unlocked my V6 CD last week. I will say that I don't see much of a difference on the autorouting performance when compared to V5 (I'm still testing); however, V6 does add some features and more POIs. I would recommend V6.

Edited July 19, 2004 by gpsindy

[+Tail of Two Cachers]

What new features does V6 add?

[jonavin]

I prefer CitySelect v5 (haven't got the new v6 yet) for city autorouting. Metro Guide Canada 4 does weird things like telling you to go through the opposite direction of a one way street or go through a deadend with a fence barrier.

 

Although CitySelect v5's rural coverage is next to non-existent in Canada. v6 looks like it's a big improvement.

[Vlad]

in talking with Garmin a couple day's back one of the techs indicated that the road attributes for city navigator and city select were much more in-depth than metroguide canada and as a result would give better/more logical routing.

 

for example, one of these attributes is understanding the speed limit of a road/street. obviously, when this information is known an autorouting unit can create a more-educated route when it comes to fastest/shortest routes. he did not believe that metroguide canada stored this kind of road attribute data.

 

additionally, i know for a fact that if i do a lookup with city select on garmin's viewer and then with metroguide canada there are certain streets that do appear in city select that are not found on metroguide so obviously CS/CN are more uptodate.

 

as well, and this is somewhat off-topic - i asked what he thought the primary differences were between city select and city navigator - he said that the only difference was that city navigator could create routes more quickly than city select... ??

[Neo_Geo]

MG4 routed me from one street to turn onto a parallel street - Like turn from 22nd Street onto 23rd Street - it failed to mention the turn onto N Street in between. I tried three different known routes on MG4 like that, and all three routes produced bad instructions like that.

 

City Select 5 has worked very well in comparison. I have faith that version 6 will do as well or better.

[Neo_Geo]

What new features does V6 add?

Version 6 adds newer map data of course. My brother's street now appears on the maps - he moved into a new house 3 years ago!

 

Version 6 also includes all of Canada (I believe version 5 only included a few larger cities near the US border)! I'm sure a lot of Canucks will be very happy about that, as well as people who visit there.

 

As far as new functional features in the version changes...

 

Changes made from version 6.1 to 6.3:

Changed software version number from 6.1 to 6.3.

Updated some route calculation parameters for more optimal routing solutions.

 

Changes made from version 5.4 to 6.1:

MapSource 6.0 and newer will no longer support Windows 95. Also, for NT 4.0 computers, MapSource will now require Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater to be installed.

Updated the toolbar and menu layouts to simplify the experience for new users.

Changed the view toolbar so that the product selection box is not shown unless the user has multiple map products installed.

Added the capability to auto-detect all types of connected Garmin devices. This simplifies the process a user must go through to send/receive data with their Garmin device. Technology was also included into the auto-detection of devices to remember the last auto-detected device. Thus, if the user always has the same devices connected to the same ports, they should not have to search for their device more than once.

Updated various places where MapSource interacts with the GPS to use the new auto-detect technology, including transferring data to/from the GPS, getting the GPS’ unit id, renaming the GPS, and setting the PC Clock from the GPS.

Added ability for the user to associate file links or Internet addresses with waypoints, routes, and tracks. These links will be exported to text and DXF files when a file export is performed.

Added support for waypoint categories.

Added support for terrain shading display for products that have this information in their map data.

Added option to the main Maps tab to include/exclude terrain shading map data in map transfers to the GPS. This option is enabled if any maps in the selected map set contain terrain shading information as part of their map data.

Added support for vertical profiles of routes on maps that support vertical route profile information.

Changed the waypoint dialog to allow the user to show more or less detail. The default setting is to show less detail.

Modified MapSource to detect fully locked map products at start-up and notify the user of available unlocking options.

Changed MapSource to use the UnlockWizard for providing the user with map unlock services in non-Asian language versions of the program.

Added 'find recent' and 'find nearest' options to the route dialog.

Provided users with the capability to limit “find nearest” search results to those matches that “contain” specified words.

Added the ability for a user to perform a 'find nearest' search from the context menu of the via point list in the route dialog. This allows the user to find map features closest to the via point that the user selects in the list when he or she right-clicks to bring up the context menu.

Improved interface for finder. Added “auto complete” technology that uses a drop-down control to display word matches while the user types.

Removed the color field from waypoint and track dialogs since MapSource does not use this value. The color value associated with a waypoint or track is still preserved as part of the item’s stored information so that it will still be present for GPS devices that utilize this value. However, users can no longer view and edit this value from the MapSource user interface.

Updated MapSource to use the new GDB file format.

Added capability to import files from the old MPS file format and export GDB files to the old MPS file format. When importing older format files, the base name of the files is preserved in an effort to simplify the conversion process.

Added the capability to copy and paste between this version of MapSource and other applications (including older versions of MapSource) which may use a different version of the data.

Updated the route dialog to copy a text version of the via-points onto the clipboard. Also provided the capability to copy the text of driving directions to the clipboard from the driving directions tab.

Added temperature and time stamp to waypoints.

Improved the vertical track profile by making the window resizable and adding keyboard support for scrolling and zooming.

Reorganized route and track dialogs to make more commonly used fields more readily accessible to new users.

Added a preference for avoiding unpaved roads while autorouting. Note that this preference may not be fully supported by some older Garmin map products.

Removed the use of the F3/Shift-F3 shortcuts, which were used for navigating the recently found places.

Added the accelerator Ctrl-Alt-F to bring up the Recently Found Places.

Changed the 'recently found places' dialog to automatically select the first 'recently found place' when it is brought up.

The strings specifying the types of files MapSource can export were translated so that they will appear in the same language as MapSource. The previous version always displayed these in English regardless of what language MapSource was using.

Changed the color of the question mark being displayed over the vessel (when its location is unknown) to white for enhanced visibility.

Modified the application so that all dialogs with system menus in the upper-left corner (such as the route dialog) will now display the MapSource icon for this menu. The previous version displayed the default Windows icon to mark the menu.

Added code so that MapSource beta builds now expire 60 days after their build date. After expiration, the application will instruct the user on how to update their application to the latest version.

Changed MapSource so that the entire map is not redrawn when the crosshair is enabled.

Added access to the “duplicate routes” function in applicable MapSource context menus.

Removed the “make waypoint” button from the finder dialog in situations where the user opens the finder from within the route dialog.

Changed style of MapSource toolbars to have “grippers” so that the individual toolbars are more easily visible to the user.

Added notification for transfers to the iQue reminding the user of the need to perform a Hot Sync with the device to complete the transfer.

Added new waypoint symbols to MapSource. Added the following symbols in the colors red, green, and blue: flags, pins, circles, ovals, rectangles, blocks, letters A-D, numbers 0-9, and triangles. In addition, added the following individual symbols: blue diamonds, blue squares, bike trail, police station, fishing hot spot facility, ski resort, ice skating, wrecker, no anchor, beacon, coast guard, reef, weed bed, drop off, dock, marina, bait and tackle, and stump. Modified the waypoint symbol previously called 'marina' to now be called 'anchor' to better associate it with the symbol.

Because of quantity of new waypoint symbols, the color descriptor for the waypoint symbol types that have colors was moved to the end of the symbol ID so that like icons would be grouped together by symbol type and not by color (for example, “red square” is now “square, red” and will be grouped with squares and not red waypoint symbols).

Added the RT 90 grid.

Modified the scale on map window to display text notifying the user when all map detail is locked and, thus, not visible or available for transfer to a GPS.

Added the capability to display a highway’s cardinal direction as part of its map label.

Added the capability to display tide stations notes when a station has this data available in the map.

Added the postal code parameter to address and intersection searches to allow users to limit these results to those in certain postal codes. The postal codes users are able to use are specific to the Garmin map product in which they are searching. Some map products may not support this capability.

Made the waypoint, route, and track dialogs consistent in the way that they handle repositioning and zooming of the map window that occurs while the user is in the properties dialog. Now, each dialog will remember the initial position/zoom scale of the map when the user opens the properties for a waypoint, route, or track. If the user exits the dialog by clicking 'cancel', MapSource will return to the position/zoom scale it was at when the dialog started. If they exit by clicking 'Ok', the dialog will remain in the last position/zoom scale that it was while the user was in the dialog.

Added new map symbol for non-dangerous underwater rocks.

Added inherent support for mouse wheel scrolling to the map window, vertical track profile, and tide dialog. This is necessary on both machines with Microsoft’s Intellipoint version 5.0 and newer (since Universal Scrolling was removed in version 5.0) and on machines that lacked Intellipoint.

Changed how MapSource interacts with the system clipboard so that users can cut and paste between instances of MapSource without having to leave Mapsource open for this to work. In previous versions, if you copied something to the clipboard and exited MapSource, the information would not be on the clipboard for pasting when you opened up another application. Now, MapSource data will stay on the clipboard until the next time the user does a new cut or copy.

Changed the precision of the display of inter-tidal depths to be one tenth of a unit. Also, changed the way inter-tidal depths that are actually heights above the water are displayed to be consistent with the manner in which they are displayed on paper charts.

Updated the map transfer process so that if the user selects a map set that is too large for his or her destination device, MapSource will provide them with a more useful error message. The message lets the user know how big their selected mapset is and how much room the destination device has, so that the user will have an easier time determining how many maps must be removed from the current set in order for the new set to fit.

Moved via point properties button on route dialog from the route dialog’s toolbar to a standard button labeled “Properties”.

Changed how waypoint name conflicts are handled. We now will automatically resolve these conflicts when possible. If this is not possible, we have added a more informative error message for situations where the user must make a decision about how to handle the conflict.

Updated the Austrian datum to match the new standards.

Modified the route and track dialogs to allow the user to paste into the dialog when no item is selected if the route or track is empty.

Updated route dialog to allow copy, cut, or delete when the item is selected.

Changed transfer to GPS code to strictly enforce Garmin-defined waypoint specifications. This was done to prevent failures that occurred on some GPS’ when waypoints with extremely long names/descriptions were transferred.

Updated waypoint dialogs to only change the symbol and display type after the user exits the field when they have made a change to the value. The previous code would change the icon every time the field changed which resulted in the icon changing while the user was merely scrolling through the list using the arrow keys.

Provided some optimizations for improving the drawing speed of the map.

Changed right-click menu option on tide stations from “Feature Properties…” to “Predict Tides…” for added clarity as to what this menu selection actually does.

Changed the menu option for bringing up map data unlocking features from “Unlock Regions” to “Unlock Maps”.

Added menu shortcut key ‘M’ for the File menu’s “Send Mail…” feature.

Added the ability to export waypoint categories to DXF and tab-delimited text files.

Changed medical facility symbol to a blue cross.

Added ability to receive tracks from the ForeRunner GPS.

Added access to duplicate routes function in the context menu you get when right-clicking on routes in the Routes tab.

Added the ability to search for partial strings in the finder for feature search feature names and city search city names.

Updated the trademark symbol after the name 'MapSource' in the splash screen to be a registered trademark.

Modified file export dialog to automatically fill in the base name of the current gdb file as the default name for the exported file.

Modified track stats display so that if a track is selected from either the tracks tab or the map window, the statistics display will always show the track stats for the entire track.

Added capability to remember the last file extension type from which the user imported.

Corrected issue where the product selectors in the view menu and view toolbar were not always showing the same product being selected.

Added code to more robustly handle an issue where MapSource would fail if the map product registry key became corrupted.

Made changes to decrease the amount of flickering that occurs when resizing certain dialogs in MapSource.

Changed software version number from 6.0 to 6.1.

Updated address searching for compatibility with some new map products.

Added the display of a 'wait cursor' when doing potentially lengthy operations saving the current file to disk or exporting it to MPS format.

Edited July 21, 2004 by Neo_Geo

[+Team Shibby]

Metroguide also has lots of roads that are not "public" roads and will try to navigate you using those roads. City Select as far as I have noticed, either does not have these older roads listed or it will not route you on them, especially if they are un-named and/or are private roads.

 

Kar of TS!!

[jonavin]

Routing on "private roads" are not very useful. In most cases we're talking about large mall parking lots and stuff like that. You can usually see where you're going and there are enough signs to get you on the main road anyways.

 

It's more critical that new subdivisions are mapped. I guess at a stage in my life where all my friends are buyign new homes... often in these new subdivisions that don't show up in MG but is there in CitySelect, even in v5. v6 just fills the gaps in the rural areas.

I just think CS is a better product for auto-routing.

[mam]

Sorry to say that if you read the small print Metroguide

is not for autorouting GPSs where as the City Select range of software is.

[mam]

Sorry to say that if you read the small print ,Metroguide

is not for autorouting GPSs where as the City Select range of software is.

Metoguide dose not have the extra data required to autoroute!

[+Hemlock]

Metoguide dose not have the extra data required to autoroute!

That is incorrect information. I have MetroGuide 4 and it does routing just fine, albeit not as well as City Select 5.

[SergZak]

That is incorrect information. I have MetroGuide 4 and it does routing just fine, albeit not as well as City Select 5.

That information is partly correct/incorrect...

MetroGuide USA *v5* does not contain, nor send autorouting data with the mapset to supported units that perform autorouting within the GPS unit.

Edited July 22, 2004 by SergZak

[Vlad]

Metroguide Canada v4 autoroutes, oh yes indeed.

Edited July 23, 2004 by Vlad

[shadango]

Version 6 adds newer map data of course. My brother's street now appears on the maps - he moved into a new house 3 years ago!

 

How does one get the v6 updatefor the maps??? I went online and got the update for the program and the prgram itself updated but it didnt seem like I got any new map data....

 

Or do I have to buy the CD or something???