Initial Impressions Of Driectroute From A Newbie

[SnaptheFrog]

I should start out by explaining that my reason for getting the Explorist 500 was because I wanted a portable GPS that I could use in my car, or on my motorcycle (mostly that). I wanted to find my way around any place I wandered into and more importantly, when my adventurous nature was gone, find my way back home.

 

Some of the roads I travel on my bike are out of the way, so getting unlost and knowing how many miles I can allow myself to fiddle around is very handy when the gas guage is getting low.

 

I got DirectRoute last night. I loaded it and have been playing with it since. My initial impression is a bit luke warm. It's not fair to make an outright judgement this early. I haven't uploaded it to the 500 yet. I need to get a card reader and card. Here's my thoughts so far.

Creating a street route takes more work than it should. You have to place the start flag on the map location and the same with the end flag. Why can't you simply select a start and end from a list. This is much easier than scrolling all over the map.

 

The street routes DR creates don't make sense. I'm a minute from a freeway on ramp, but the route DR makes, has me going down surface streets, paralleling the freeway until the next on ramp which would add more time to my trip.

 

I can't change or modify the street route once it's created. And, I can't get DR to create an alternative.

 

I'm sure (I'm hoping) there's more to this program that I haven't found yet. And perhaps my expectations are too high. I was at the SEMA show in Las Vegas and there were a number of GPS companys there. The units they had on display were really impressive. As small as the 500 and they were very smart.

 

I think, that's the thing that I'm not really seeing here. DR doesn't seem very smart or flexible. I don't want to get anybody's dander up, so for those who love this software, understand this is just my opinion.

 

I'm going to be spending the day getting to know this software and device, and think that by the end of the day I'll have a better understanding of what it can and can't do, such as create a route from where ever my current location is to a POI without having to go through a laundry list of steps.

[+embra]

Well, DR is sorta WYSIWYG. You won't find to much depth. As a mapping program, it is not nearly as sophisticated and versatile as Streets & Trips or Delorme's Street Atlas.

 

That being said, I personally don't look for it to do that much more on the computer. I use my $20 Streets & Trips when I need something that DR can't do. It's on the GPS where DR becomes useful. Having turn-by-turn directions to anywhere on your detailed map all in your pocket comes in really handy in unfamiliar territory. I spent a week in New Mexico recently, a place I know little of, and DR on my Meridian was my guide to everywhere.

 

I concur wholeheartedly with your last two crits. DR gets you where you want to go, but it always picks what it thinks is fastest. It's often wrong on that count, and you may have very good reason to go an entirely different way. Currently you have to use intermittent destination POIs in your GPS to calculate a chain of autoroutes to subvert DR's inclinations.

 

Hope remains that the long promised update of DR (the current version is essentially unchanged since it first came out over a year ago) will address some of these concerns. I can buy what's here as a first release, but I want to see implementation of our requested features. Garmin gets it better on this count.

[SnaptheFrog]

Yes, it looks like you have to do some thinking for yourself when it comes to dealing with the street routes DR gives you and not take it at face value.

 

I was hoping it would be a bit closer to something like a Street Pilot 3 in that respect.

[+Jamie Z]

I need to get a card reader and card.

If you are an Explorist owner... no you don't.

 

The Explorist has 16 megs of on board memory, of which 8 (or so) is used for the basemap. Leaving you 8 megs for loading maps or waypoints or whatever you want. Of course, an SD card will dramatically increase your storage capacity, but on the Explorist (unlike the Meridian), the card isn't necessary to load maps.

 

One of the really cool things about the Explorist is that the internal memory and the SD card memory are almost seamless.

 

And you'll never need a card read because the Explorist looks just like any other drive to your system. In fact, it is a card reader.

 

Jamie

Edited April 17, 2005 by Jamie Z

[tiber]

Instead of making a path, whicih is useful for sanity checking the route, why not consider putting your dest in as a waypoint and all the caches in as waypoints? The route is OK, but the GPS can route automatically. If you're worried about being off course, make it do the word for you. Slam that GOTO button twice while you're on a Street route and it'll reroute you.

 

So, to get somewhere, go fire up the GPS and toss it in your car. Hit GOTO and choose "Street Course" (something like that) and select USER WAYPOINT. Choose your destination, and it will route for you. You do NOT need to make a predefined route.

 

Secondly, the software was pretty much written how you expect it to be written to reduce screen clutter. Try clicking on that waypoint and choosing "set start point". Now right click on the other waypoint (on the waypoints list) and choose "set end point". It will make a route for you.

 

It's a LOT better to make the GPS do it, however, since it uses less memory. Storing the street route you made uses memory. Might as well make the route dynamic and put more cahces in your GPS.