BaseCamp vs. Mapsource

[vabuckaroo68]

What's CNNA? Can I load it onto the Montana?

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by vabuckaroo68

What's CNNA? Can I load it onto the Montana?

Garmin City Navigator North America.

Cheers,

[DRTBYK]

If you are a Mac user and don't have a previous installation, you can go to the Mac App Store and download it.

Cheers,

[vabuckaroo68]

City Navigator, right. Yep bought that. It doesn't show trails up in Shen. Nat. Park or G.W. Nat. Forest.. So I'll be able to use the 24K maps on BC on my computer? I'm planning to get a mini-disc.

[DRTBYK]

If the 24K US Topo are the newer routable version they will install just fine.

Cheers,

[250senuf]

Originally Posted by vabuckaroo68

I'm planning to get a mini-disc.

Do you mean micro Sd? A lot of people prefer to get the DVD (or CD). It's a bit of a learning curve but with the DVD you can then put more than one mapset on a microSd chip (cheap to buy). If you load maps onto the preloaded chip you wipe out what is already there.

[Jon_PDX]

Originally Posted by DRTBYK

Whether Roads and Trails show on a map is a function of the Map not BC or MS. Typically, there are more/better water features (streams, rivers and lakes) on the newer Topos as well as some (not all) Trails. As for backcountry forest roads, I've found CNNA 2012 to have as much or better detail than the Topo's - at least in the Pacific Northwest.

Cheers,

Interesting, I would have thought the Topo would have better coverage.

Just to make sure is this the CNNA you are talking about?

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=253&pID=1456

Would I still need Topo 24 or Topo 100K for single track dirt bike trails in the Pacific NW?

EDIT: What map set would this be?
http://www.opencaching.com/#find/?&b....2388,-121.89&

It will let me zoom in all the way into a satellite image but the most I would need would be the zoom level just before it changes to the satellite image.

Looks like I may have got a little off topic for this thread......sorry.

Thanks,

Jon...

[DRTBYK]

Originally Posted by Jon_PDX

Interesting, I would have thought the Topo would have better coverage.

Just to make sure is this the CNNA you are talking about?

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=253&pID=1456

Would I still need Topo 24 or Topo 100K for single track dirt bike trails in the Pacific NW?

EDIT: What map set would this be?
http://www.opencaching.com/#find/?&b....2388,-121.89&

It will let me zoom in all the way into a satellite image but the most I would need would be the zoom level just before it changes to the satellite image.

Looks like I may have got a little off topic for this thread......sorry.

Thanks,

Jon...

Jon,

City Navigator NA is the best all-around map you can have. True, it doesn't show Hiking Trails and my not show Motorized Use Trails. US 24K Topo regional maps will also NOT show Motor Vehicle Use Trails per say. There may be local Garmin maps available through a local club/org. You will need the local Forest Service MVUM paper maps. There is a least one US Forest Manager that offers a Garmin Overlay Map for this purpose - Black Hills NF: very cool, and all USFS managers should be required to provide this type of digital maps.

If you want Imagery, try BirdsEye within BaseCamp. You can download a demo area. This imagery is multilayered and geo-referrenced just like a map.
Cheers,

[Jon_PDX]

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot

I've been playing with newest versions of Basecamp over this weekend, both on my Win-7 box and my Mac. I've noticed that it actually seems to run smoother on the Mac than it does on the PC. That was a pleasant surprise because I have held off making the full switch to the Mac because I could not use it for my GPS mapping needs.

Now all I have to do is decide between upgrading my Zumo 550 to City Navigator 2012 (current ver. is 2008), or just buy a new GPS

Jon...

[vabuckaroo68]

What I'm wanting to be able see on my 650T and BC or MS is the same roads and trails as USGS 24K maps. Should the Garmin 24K show the same information as the paper USGS?

[vabuckaroo68]

This is what I'd like to be able to see.

http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/catal...000000234)/.do

[ramz]

I have several 'topo' maps on my Montana/BaseCamp (Mac) and I grabbed some screen shots of an area where I ride known as the Bonanza area after the almost deserted historical mining town of Bonanza. I tried to get the same location, size, and shape and that worked ok for the maps on the computer but the Montana screen capture is far smaller.


Colo24KTopos in BaseCamp - a map sold by a local book author who has gotten into the retail map business.



A free map I found on GPSFileDepot in BaseCamp.



Edited to add:
Another free map (and newer) from GPSFileDepot on BaseCamp. This one is very different looking than the others.



The Garmin 24K Southwest topo map in BaseCamp.



The National Geographic TOPO map, only on my computer. It's a scanned copy of the USGS topo of the kind you were referring to that you'd like to see. It cannot be loaded onto the Montana - it's for use with the TOPO program on Macs and Windoze computers.





And lastly, the Montana screen capture of the Garmin 24K Southwest topo map.
Note the difference between this map and the one in BaseCamp shown previously.




You can have the actual USGS topo map on your Montana if you want to go to the work. Download the electronic version of the USGS topo map you want then use the Custom Map procedure described in the Garmin Trail Tech web pages to make the Montana usable map. Unfortunately, it will be just a picture and none of the roads, trails, streams, and other physical features will have any identity as such as you scroll around on the screen. The cursor won't notice it's passing over any feature and won't display it's little balloon. But it will look just like that TOPO map above (the last big one). Your track, routes, and waypoints will display right on the map, too.

Lastly, I'd like to call your attention to the differing ways the various map makers have interpreted the USGS topo map information. They do it all from databases and AFAIK there is no human graphical input at all. They do a pretty good job. It would be better if they brought more GIS info to the process, but I suppose they figure there's enough detail for our needs at the price we're willing to pay.

There's a fellow named Jager who will tell you more about this...


Forgot to mention - the first two maps that I captured in BaseCamp are also on the Montana and they look a lot like the Garmin 24K - lots of lines if you zoom out but entirely useful at 800 feet, where I have my Montana set to display.
If you print each map on a sheet of paper, you can really compare them easily. Just grab each one (with the mouse) and drag it to your desktop or a folder somewhere. Then print.

[wbbnm]

I have been playing with BC on and off for nearly two weeks now.

I have found a few features that I really like that are pushing me towards switching over from Mapsource. Minor roads in both CN and Topo show up at larger zoom levels. I like being able to see and have instant access to all my files. (I've loaded a couple of dozen track files that I use a lot.)

A friend and I have been scanning Benchmark and BLM maps and georeferencing them in Google Earth and then importing the KMZ files into BC into their own List folders. I can view them overlayed on a trip I am working on by moving them in and out of the trip List. This is really nice.

I ran into a problem today.
I use a lot of routes that I create by mixing CN and Topo regions. In Mapsource when I move a waypoint in Topo the route only gets recomputed on either side of that waypoint. But in BC it seems to want to recompute the entire route without road following. I need to investigate this some more.

[DRTBYK]

When you refer to Topo's are you using routable Topo's or non-routable Topo's?

Cheers,

[wbbnm]

I am using the old non-routable ones.