Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mapping software

Hey all, have been looking at mapping software from National Geographic. Specifically the TOPO! California. Or the Weekend Explorer. Just wondering if anyone here uses either of these and there feelings on them. I know I could just buy the individual maps but its also kind of fun to look at them on your computer. Thanks in advance!!!

I'm a big fan of www.mapcard.com
, which is an online subscription service. They have two services $20 or $30 per year. You have access to topo mapping across the entire US and there is no limit to the number of maps you can print or store.

I've been a subscriber for 4 years now. It's good for short day hikes because I can print a trail description and topo map on a standard sheet of paper and give one to everyone in the group.

You can also create custom 36" X 44" maps for $10 that are sent to your door. This is helpful when your trail passes through only a corner of a standard quad map.

I recently purchased the National Geographic TOPO! California software. I am very happy with it. It is definitely worth the purchase. When I do a hike I will usually print two copies, one for myself on the trail, and one for my wife with notes and approximate turn around times in case I don't make it home. I haven't learned all the tricks to using the program yet but I intend on diving into it this Summer. One peak that I climbed last fall,Eagle Rest,lies in the boundary of 4 topos and with this software it was easy to get a print of the area instead of buying 4 separate maps. I do 99% of my hiking here in California. If I wanted to hike elsewhere it would be easy to get on topozone.com or terraserver-usa.com to make a topo like I use to in the past.

Rafael...

I have been using TOPO California for years. It's great. You will go broke buying paper maps to get the same coverage. It seamlessly crosses the boundaries between individual maps eliminating the problem where an area of interest is on the edge or corner of several maps. The elevation profile feature is nice too. Try doing one by hand. Overall, TOPO is a product well worth the money.

I have been using TOPO! for 10 years and have been very happy with it. Rafael points out one advantage of mapping software in general: You don't need 4 large maps because the area you are headed into is a corner of a paper map. It's also easy to measure distances, do elevation profiles, inport GPS tracks, export GPS routes, etc. TOPO! is pretty easy to use. And, yes, there are other products that allow you to do such things.

I use TOPO! CA also and am very happy with it. I had been using an older version and I recently upgraded to the latest software and the improvements are wonderful. The only thing I forgot to ask is if it is compatable with Windows Vista.

I've used TOPO! California for a while but for planning only. I love my USGS 7.5' quads...or should I say geezer eyes love the format. ;-)

I love my TN by maptech - in addition to seamless views and better integration with my GPS - the viewing of maps in 3d is very helpful when reviewing proposed track alternatives

I use Topo! for printing maps...and I use Garmin Map Source Topo for loading topo maps into my GPSMap 76...

Chris

Interesting thread, TOPO! State Series seems to be popular. Does anyone have experience with Topo USA from DeLorme? For the same prize as a single state for TOPO! it includes all 50 states. Topo USA seems to provide more or less the same functionality and is also based on 1:24,000 maps, or am I missing something here?

Yesterday, I discovered Bob Burd\'s extraordinarily awesome website and realized that I need to move my mapping techniques into the 21st century.

Like many of you I too use the Topo California. Great for planning trips and passing out to others in the group. I like to make trail notes on the back of my maps so I created a little grid in Excel. It has fields for date, start and finish time & temp and names of the hikers in the group. It also has columns for plotting time, temp, elevation and notes/conditions related to way points on the map. After I print out my map on the front, I print out my grid on the back. I drop the map and a pencil in a zip lock with my compass. Works for me.

I bought the DeLorme Topo program a few years ago. Sure it covered the entire USA, but the level of detail was very poor compared to TOPO!.

It may have improved considerably by now, and I would be interested in hearing about more recent experiences. But I am naturally skeptical about getting 50 states' worth of data at a fraction of the cost of a single state.

AlanK, your assessment is correct about DeLorme's TopoUSA. I have the 2006 version, and it does not have the precision or detail of Topo! by National Geographic. I also have Garmin's MapSource TOPO. Again, it does not have the detail of Topo!, but has the advantage of being downloadable to my Garmin GPSmap 76CS, which I use all over the United States, Canada and Europe--on the ground, in the air and on mountain tops. I've been a very satisfied customer of Topo! since it was created by Wildflower in San Francisco (my home town) and subsequently sold a number of years later to National Geographic, which I think has been a good deal for us consumers.

Thanks, Wayne and Alan, for clarifying this, I will be buying TOPO! next week. Kurt

One more vote for National Geographic Topo series. I only have the California version, but have also picked up some of the major National Parks on disc to go with it.

One final vote for National Geographic TOPO! State Series. I only have the California disks as well but have been extremely pleased with their accuracy and features. I've planned all my SoCal, JMT, HST and Mt. Whitney hikes with this software and am planning on transferring my waypoints to my GPS (as soon as I can decide on a good unit to buy! Any suggestions??) These TOPO! maps are great!

I don't feel like re-reading a bunch of old posts... is the NG Topo software available on DVD yet?

The Delorme Topo USA is definitely inferior to the National Geographic software. The Delorm product fits the entire US onto a CD, yet it "zooms in" farther. It doesn't actually have more resolution, but instead does some kind of interpolation algorithm. It does not make good maps. I've tried both, and ended up returning the Delorme product.

My only complaint with the National Geographic maps is getting stuck in metric when I want imperial units, though I suppose it's not the software's fault (since, as I understand it, it's just scanned USGS 7.5' quads). Does anyone know if you can change the data set (e.g. use an earlier USGS version)?

I'd also say that despite the advantages of computer maps (as everyone points out, they are great when you're at the boundary of four quads), they are limited by your printing capacity. 8.5" x 11" is OK, but obviously a larger map is better sometimes, and not everyone has access to a large-scale printer.

SCORE!!! I went to the REI member scratch and dent sale. And what do I see?? TOPO! California for 30 bucks!!!!! The catch was that the third disc doesnt read which is why it was returned. The disc is for the northeastern most part of Cali. I can live with that considering how chaep it was....Do you think if I call them they will replace the defective disc? It shows no signs of damage so its a manufacturing defect...worth a try....Unless someone here wants to make me a...Oh nevermind!!!

nvrsummer2,

Just register the product at National G and e-mail the customer service with your problem. I have found those folks to be most helpful.