Electronic mapping

Anquet is good but tracklogs is better www.tracklogs.co.uk
Andy, the developer and his wife run it as a family business
are very approachable and Andy is a really nice guy and a
top cyclist - doing transalp this year.

I have both as full versions, the 3D mapping is great to
play with, routes in the lakes / peaks etc never looked so
intimidating :-)

Memory map seemed more expensive and less features when I
looked a few years ago

Russ

"Peter Amey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a brief
look at electronic maps. The mag recommended Anquet
(www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo 3-D imaging
to work using any combinations of PCs and DirectX drivers
that I have access to. I also found Memory Map (www.memory-
map.co.uk) which does work, has a very nifty route profile
feature but which seemed less good than Anquet for setting
up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these
or any other equivalent products?

Peter

[Copied direct to email as I'm not sure my news is going
anywhere at present]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:14:09 +0100, Peter Amey <peter.amey@praxis-

cs.co.uk said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a brief
look at electronic maps. The mag recommended Anquet
(www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo 3-D imaging
to work using any combinations of PCs and DirectX drivers
that I have access to. I also found Memory Map (www.memory-
map.co.uk) which does work, has a very nifty route profile
feature but which seemed less good than Anquet for setting
up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these
or any other equivalent products?

Peter,

I use Memory Map. I got a single region non-GPS map a good
few years ago and earlier this year took advantage of an
upgrade deal to get the whole of Central UK with GPS for a
fairly low price.

Memory Map now has two ways of generating routes, Tracks and
Routes. Routes involve a series of way points connected
together and they can be fiddly for wiggly routes. Tracks
are essentially drawn freehand and with a steady hand quit
complex routes can be drawn quickly. You can convert between
the two. The 3D imaging works but is limited to a fairly
small section of the route. It's fun but a bit gimmicky. The
route profiles are excellent for cycling except I seem to
have a glitch somewhere as Durham is at sea level and
becomes abruptly so just outside Durham! I don't upload to a
GPS but I have occasionally downloaded recorded routes to
Memory map and I found it straightforward.

I don't like MM's pricing, each CD has the program on it as
well as the relevant data set so to add new regions you pay
the full asking price rather than some sort of data upgrade
price. They would argue that this is because of the OS
licensing costs. Probably true to some extent but still not
satisfactory.

They are just starting to add 25:000 maps but only at
National Park level, and they are proportionately more
expensive though probably not so vital for cycling.

Printouts are straightfoward. I tend to do a series to
scale on A4 for longer routes. I do hide the tracks when
printing though as they abscure map detail, which is a
shame. A nice option would be for the tracks and routes to
be printed as transparent highlighter colours---not sure if
other packages do this.

I have no experience with Anquet.

Which ever you go for buy as much map as you can afford
unless you only need a small area.

Cheers,

Colin

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[Copied direct to email as I'm not sure my news is going
anywhere at present]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:14:09 +0100, Peter Amey <peter.amey@praxis-

cs.co.uk said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a
brief look at electronic maps. The mag recommended
Anquet (www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo
3-D imaging to work using any combinations of PCs and
DirectX drivers that I have access to. I also found
Memory Map (www.memory-map.co.uk) which does work, has a
very nifty route profile feature but which seemed less
good than Anquet for setting up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these
or any other equivalent products?

Peter,

I use Memory Map. I got a single region non-GPS map a good
few years ago and earlier this year took advantage of an
upgrade deal to get the whole of Central UK with GPS for a
fairly low price.

Memory Map now has two ways of generating routes, Tracks
and Routes. Routes involve a series of way points
connected together and they can be fiddly for wiggly
routes. Tracks are essentially drawn freehand and with a
steady hand quit complex routes can be drawn quickly. You
can convert between the two. The 3D imaging works but is
limited to a fairly small section of the route. It's fun
but a bit gimmicky. The route profiles are excellent for
cycling except I seem to have a glitch somewhere as Durham
is at sea level and becomes abruptly so just outside
Durham! I don't upload to a GPS but I have occasionally
downloaded recorded routes to Memory map and I found it
straightforward.

I don't like MM's pricing, each CD has the program on it
as well as the relevant data set so to add new regions you
pay the full asking price rather than some sort of data
upgrade price. They would argue that this is because of
the OS licensing costs. Probably true to some extent but
still not satisfactory.

They are just starting to add 25:000 maps but only at
National Park level, and they are proportionately more
expensive though probably not so vital for cycling.

Printouts are straightfoward. I tend to do a series to
scale on A4 for longer routes. I do hide the tracks when
printing though as they abscure map detail, which is a
shame. A nice option would be for the tracks and routes to
be printed as transparent highlighter colours---not sure
if other packages do this.

Anquet doesn't, Tracklogs does

Quoted message said:

Which ever you go for buy as much map as you can afford
unless you only need a small area.

Agreed Russ

Russ said:

Anquet is good but tracklogs is better www.tracklogs.co.uk
Andy, the developer and his wife run it as a family
business are very approachable and Andy is a really nice
guy and a top cyclist - doing transalp this year.

I have both as full versions, the 3D mapping is great to
play with, routes in the lakes / peaks etc never looked so
intimidating :-)

Memory map seemed more expensive and less features when I
looked a few years ago

Russ

Thanks for the tip. I have just tried the Tracklogs demo
and I think it might be the best of the 3 I have looked
at so far.

Peter

Colin Blackburn said:

I use Memory Map. I got a single region non-GPS map a good
few years ago and earlier this year took advantage of an
upgrade deal to get the whole of Central UK with GPS for a
fairly low price.

I bought some of the early Memory Maps where you had to
manually link all the tiles together. A year later they
bought out an upgraded version with height profiles and auto
tiling etc. I wrote to customer support to ask if there were
any upgrade deals for existing customers. They didn't even
bother to reply.

Tony

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004 18:01:58 +0100, Tony Raven <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I bought some of the early Memory Maps where you had to
manually link all the tiles together. A year later they
bought out an upgraded version with height profiles and
auto tiling etc. I wrote to customer support to ask if
there were any upgrade deals for existing customers. They
didn't even bother to reply.

Same here. Terrible customer service. However I noticed, by
chance, an upgrade offer on their website. It was past the
closure date for the offer but the online ordering system
accepted my details and charged me the right (discounted)
price. If it hadn't have been for that chance I'd have
probably looked elsewhere.

Colin

Peter Amey said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a brief
look at electronic maps. The mag recommended Anquet
(www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo 3-D imaging
to work using any combinations of PCs and DirectX drivers
that I have access to. I also found Memory Map (www.memory-
map.co.uk) which does work, has a very nifty route profile
feature but which seemed less good than Anquet for setting
up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these
or any other equivalent products?

I have no experience of this stuff but I've been thinking
about buying a gps gizmo recently and have also been looking
at mapping software.

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi
(www.fugawi.com). I don't know how it compares with these
others, but it's something else to consider.

Paul Rudin wrote: [snip]

Quoted message said:

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi
(www.fugawi.com). I don't know how it compares with these
others, but it's something else to consider.

I am afraid to say I immediately read this company name in
the sense of "where the fugawi?" and a tea spillage moment
as a result :-)

Peter

Paul Rudin said:

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi
(www.fugawi.com). I don't know how it compares with these
others, but it's something else to consider.

I have had Fugawi for a few months now; after a spot of
research I chose this one because it came with the most map
for the money. IIRC Anquet came with smaller regions and
TrackLogs came with little more than individual counties; I
would have needed about four of them to cover just local
rides around here, whereas with Fugawi £45 gets you the
entire width of Britain up to just north of Worcester, which
I think is excellent.

The only major downside I've run into is that the route
editing features are rubbish; to add a new point you have to
export the route to a text file, copy some points in a text
editor, re-import the file and move the new points to where
you want them.

It doesn't have a 3D mode, although from what I saw of the
Anquet one it was little more than a cheap gimmick anyway,
it looked very much an afterthought. It does have elevation
data and route profiles, which is useful. A cumulative
distance field on routes and tracks would have been useful
too, but that's a pretty minor thing.

I haven't tried TrackLogs; the lack of a demo version and
small maps made me ignore it pretty quickly. I would like to
see what TrackLogs is like, but right now if I had to choose
one over again I think I'd still go with Fugawi.

Phil
--
"Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."

"Paul Rudin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Peter Amey said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a
brief look at electronic maps. The mag recommended
Anquet (www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo
3-D imaging to work using any combinations of PCs and
DirectX drivers that I have access to. I also found
Memory Map (www.memory-map.co.uk) which does work, has a
very nifty route profile feature but which seemed less
good than Anquet for setting up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these
or any other equivalent products?

I have no experience of this stuff but I've been thinking
about buying a gps gizmo recently and have also been
looking at mapping software.

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi
(www.fugawi.com). I don't know how it compares with these
others, but it's something else to consider.

It's been around a lot longer than the others and was
something I looked at (but discounted) 5 or 6 years ago when
I first got into GPS stuff. Was a decent enough program then
but doesn't appear to have even height data for OS maps let
alone 3D mapping. I'd go for one of the UK based products
with the added functionality if it was me.

Russ

Phil Himsworth said:

Paul Rudin said:

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi

Quoted message said:

I haven't tried TrackLogs; the lack of a demo version and
small maps made me ignore it pretty quickly. I would like
to see what TrackLogs is like, but right now if I had to
choose one over again I think I'd still go with Fugawi.

Phil

Tracklogs do a free fully working demo disk on request, see
tracklogs.co.ukcgiOpen ↗
bin/publ/user.cgi?obj=home&page=softup&id=2000

In message <[email hidden]>, Peter Amey <peter.amey@praxis-
cs.co.uk> writes

Quoted message said:

Inspired by this month's CTC Cycle mag I have had a brief
look at electronic maps. The mag recommended Anquet
(www.anquet.co.uk) but I couldn't get the demo 3-D imaging
to work using any combinations of PCs and DirectX drivers
that I have access to. I also found Memory Map (www.memory-
map.co.uk) which does work, has a very nifty route profile
feature but which seemed less good than Anquet for setting
up bendy road routes.

Anyone able to offer practical experience of using these or
any other equivalent products?

MM is much better than Anquet for route planning -
especially for the bendy bits! It is also much easier
[unless there have been any very recent upgrades to change
it] to edit routes in MM. Route profiles are better in MM.

3D mapping is better in Anquet though.

HTH
--
Philip Powell Looking north across the Derwent Valley and
Northumberland to The Cheviot

Paul Rudin said:

=

Quoted message said:

Peter Amey <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

I have no experience of this stuff but I've been thinking
about buying a gps gizmo recently and have also been
looking at mapping software.
=

Quoted message said:

Nobody has yet (as far as I've noticed) mention fugawi
(www.fugawi.com). I don't know how it compares with these
others, but it's something else to consider.

I bought Fugawi from Dream Direct earlier this year. They
were selling th= e product at =A335 each for the four GB
CDs. Having the whole 1:50000 landranger series
electronically for =A3150 was too tempting to ignore.

To answer Phil Himsaorth's comment

Quoted message said:

The only major downside I've run into is that the route
editing feature=

s =

Quoted message said:

are rubbish; to add a new point you have to export the
route to a text =

Quoted message said:

file, copy some points in a text editor, re-import the
file and move th=

e =

Quoted message said:

new points to where you want them.

You can also add points to a route by opening up a new route
in the Route=

tool, and copying and pasting blocks of points from the
original route, a= nd the additional points. This is still
fiddly, but I don't need to export to text and use a separa=
te editor.

Russ said:

It's been around a lot longer than the others and was
something I looke=

d at

Quoted message said:

(but discounted) 5 or 6 years ago when I first got into
GPS stuff. Was =

a

Quoted message said:

decent enough program then but doesn't appear to have even
height data =

for

Quoted message said:

OS maps let alone 3D mapping. I'd go for one of the UK
based products w=

ith

Quoted message said:

the added functionality if it was me.

The elevation data is present on the CDs, but needs to be
installed separately from the product. It shows elevation
profiles, but no 3D.

I think I have found a bug with the elevation profile
display. In track view mode, if you display the elevation
profile and switch repeatedly between feet and metres it
converts from feet to metres, but not back again. After
switching a few times I managed to get the summit of Goat
Fe= ll on Arran up to 10000 feet, thus making my day's walk
look more impressive=
!

I like the ability to construct my day's route as a track,
rather than route as my GPS (basic Garmin eTrex) can store
several tracks, but only o= ne route.

I haven't made much use of the printing facility, so I can't
comment on that. I mainly work between Fugawi and the GPS.

Mike K Smith said:

I haven't made much use of the printing facility, so I
can't comment on that. I mainly work between Fugawi and
the GPS.

I use Fugawi too, and the printing is limited to
printing what you can fit on a single page (no tiling or
anything to spread over multiple pages). I think that
restriction is placed on Fugawi by the Ord Survey as
part of the map license.

I've put a few Reading area routes on
looseend.orglooseend.orgOpen ↗ . I've made more, but not
uploaded them.

John