Alternatives to Delorme Maps for PC?

[John Moore]

I have found it very useful to be have a mapping solution that shows my exact position on the road network, out in the field on minor roads. I have used Delorme Street Maps for real-time navigation during chases for nearly 20 years. Since the device knows where I am, then the cognitive time suck of tracking the position on paper maps is greatly reduced.

Also, I have seen large position errors from my mobile devices when near strong storms - as much as ten miles. This is because the sky view for them is limited because they are inside the car, and storms block part of the sky. My magnetic mounted roof GPS has avoids that problem, because it has a much broader view.

But, Delorme is getting long of tooth. Since Garmin bought the company, they killed off the product as far as I know - no more updates - the latest is 2015.

I've been looking for alternatives without much success.

I run a Macbook Pro in the car, but can run Windows 10 or Linux as a VM. That's how I have run Delorme the last couple of years. So a solution for Windoze, Linux or Mac OS would work.

An alternative solution would be a way to send position from an external GPS to my Android tablet or phone. I know that can be done with Bluetooth through a hack (use the developer mode, and a special app, to read the GPS and give the device a "mock position"). But, that's a hack, and I don't have a Bluetooth GPS, and I have not seen one with a magnetic mount.

Any ideas?

 

[ericjkelly]

I hear your struggle John. I LOVE using back roads to navigate the chaser convergence etc.

I am experimenting with newer shapefiles for Grlevel3. Tiger kicks out new shapefiles every year, I am trying to get 2017 loaded. Having some issues, so not sure the end result but I would start here!

 

[RRogers]

I hear your struggle John. I LOVE using back roads to navigate the chaser convergence etc.

I am experimenting with newer shapefiles for Grlevel3. Tiger kicks out new shapefiles every year, I am trying to get 2017 loaded. Having some issues, so not sure the end result but I would start here!

My buddy put a lot of time and effort into making individual state shapefiles for use in GR. They’re awesome when paired with a gps. Their main drawback is the lack of differentiation between dirt tracks and paved roads. It hasn’t happened often but we have occasionally found some errors in the depiction the hard way. They can be found along with the place files at www.redteamwx.com/ in the grlevelx section. These files can be quite large (esp Texas)


Sent from my iPhone using Stormtrack

 

[ericjkelly]

R do you know what year they were developed? Are they 2010?

 

[RRogers]

R do you know what year they were developed? Are they 2010?

He did most of the work back then with some minor additions since. They are not the newest files from tiger but in my experience they’re still good. Not many dirt roads just go away but definitely something to keep in mind when using these files


Sent from my iPhone using Stormtrack

 

[ericjkelly]

Here are others from 2012ish. http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/~slincoln/GRS/shapefiles/