mapping software?

[Bugner]

Hi,

Looking for opinons on mapping software. I have downloaded the free trial on Memory-Map and Tracklogs and from what I have seen, I prefer Tracklogs, it seems to have more features and is slightly cheaper.

So just wondering, am I missing a trick? as magazines such as CTC and Cycling Plus seem to champion and use Memory-Map?

Cheers

 

[andym]

I think it's a bit of six of one half a dozen of the other, but I recently bought the Tracklogs maps of Scotland because they were cheaper than Memory Map and I liked the way it worked. Mind you all mapping software has some irritating features - with Tracklogs I couldn't work out how to join one track to another.

Probably the one area where Memory Map scores over Tracklogs is the ability to export maps and tracks to a PDA, but if you don't have a PDA then that won't matter to you.

Memory Map also do very good value mapping for France. But if you want maps of France there's nothing to stop you getting the Memory Map.

 

[ufkacbln]

There is a problem with all ofthese and that is a limited lifespan.

Due to very aggresive copyright protection there is no cross compatability between versions. So you cannot update a map you already own, or buy new maps without an expensive upgrade. Even subsidised to allow me to use the latest National Cycle Network and my present mapping the aditional cost for the Lake District alone is £60! The total upgrade is over £400 - not finacially viable.

For instance I have MM 2004 with a number of maps collected over the years.

I cannot buy any further updates without buying V5 and even then the present maps will not work wit V5 and the V5 maps will not work with MM2004. Equally routes created on V5 will not load into 2004 for use on my present maps.

Beware that you will end up with several versions on your sytem, personally I now use "Bikely" or "MapMyRide" etc as these are more adaptable.

 

[andym]

There is a problem with all ofthese and that is a limited lifespan.

Due to very aggresive copyright protection there is no cross compatability between versions. So you cannot update a map you already own, or buy new maps without an expensive upgrade. Even subsidised to allow me to use the latest National Cycle Network and my present mapping the aditional cost for the Lake District alone is £60! The total upgrade is over £400 - not finacially viable.

For instance I have MM 2004 with a number of maps collected over the years.

Well yes, but I have a load of money invested in paper maps, if I want to get the more up to date version I have to buy all of the maps again - a much more expensive proposition than buying the digital maps again. Yes I'd be much happier if it were possible to get reduced price upgrades but the situation is no different than for paper maps: I know that the paper maps will stay, largely, unchanged and useable for quite a few years and the same is true of the digital mapping.

But it is deeply irritating that having bought maps I can only use them with Memory Map and if I wanted to convert to TrackLogs I'd have to buy the whole lot again.

Bikely and Mapmyride are good - but only if you're planning on sticking to the roads, and the mapping isn't as good as Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey seem to be experimenting with new approaches to making 'their' mapping available online, and their are some interesting experiments around eg

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/

which offers the best of both worlds. However at the moment it's a non-commercial service with a limit on the amount of mapping data it can serve. Hopefully it's the shape of the future.

Equally routes created on V5 will not load into 2004 for use on my present maps.

You simply need to export to GPX. OK it's a pain, but it's hardly a big drama.
In any event, while that may be a very legitimate criticism of Memory Map I don't know if the position is the same for Tracklogs.