DeLorme Street Atlas 2006

[Jeff Snyder]

Just saw that SA2006 is now out, and was wondering if anyone has tried it out. Actually, I'm pretty sure nobody has, but this will be a thread for those who do get it and wish to do a review. You can get more info on it at http://www.earthmate.com/software/streetAtlas.asp? .... From what I've read in their forums, DeLorme made a big effort in sa2006 to ensure better road placement quality and make the roads as accurate as possible (which wasn't a big priority in previous releases).

 

[Karen Politte]

Wellllll....... :lol:

I think we use Delorme version 2004 - although I'm not entirely sure about that. However - this is a good oportunity to voice MY opinions on that piece of software......

Before updating to version 2004 I have no idea what we were using - some ancient version from 2000 or older. It worked great - and so, we assumed, would the updated 2004 version. Wrong!

The Delorme Street Atlas 2004 is a terrible piece of software - with many, many regressions from the older version/s that I can see. First of all - it is no longer really possible to use the mouse thumbwheel to zoom in and out effectively - which sucks, quite frankly. You CAN use it - but the increments it zooms you in and out would mean that it would take you half the day just to get the map at the zoom level you desire to begin your journey.

Secondly - this program arbitrarily decides to cut out placenames of important towns/cities at certain zoom levels. This means that - if you zoom out just one more level to see more of what is around you - you suddenly lose 50% of the placenames you had on the map. Really - it just shows a bunch of highways intersecting - and no town name! Suddenly.....you are back scrabbling for paper maps to see where the hell you are. I am sure anybody who has used software such as this for chasing any length of time will understand the annoyances this would cause......

Thirdly - there is absolutely no differentiation between paved roads and MUD. I won't make this post any longer - but because of this very factor, we end up in situations like this.

Well - just my 0.02,

KR

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

At certain times this season, I chased with a friend of mine who had GPS/Delorme 2004.

Quite Honestly, I found the best navigation was when I used paper maps to see road name/#s while using Delorme to hunt down county roads or approaching turns. As Karen mentioned, it drops out many names/numbers at zoomed out views... which didn't do much good!

Aaron

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by Karen Rhoden

Secondly - this program arbitrarily decides to cut out placenames of important towns/cities at certain zoom levels. This means that - if you zoom out just one more level to see more of what is around you - you suddenly lose 50% of the placenames you had on the map. Really - it just shows a bunch of highways intersecting - and no town name! Suddenly.....you are back scrabbling for paper maps to see where the hell you are. I am sure anybody who has used software such as this for chasing any length of time will understand the annoyances this would cause......

KR

I REALLY hope they fixed this with SA2006. All I ask is for a "zoom disclosure" setting that allows one to adjust the zoom levels at which different placenames will appear on the screen. Personally, I HATE having to zoom in so far to see town names, and I think they could display the names when zoomed out farther than is currently set without things getting too cluttered. I have to use MS Streets and Trips in order to get a good 'eyeball' of town names over a relatively large area, since I'd otherwise have to zoom in to a relatively local level in order for the town names to show up...

It would also help to have county names show up on the map... For this, again, I have to use Street and Trips, which displays county names rather nicely IMO. Heck, I even like paper maps over SA when it comes to eyeballing (such as areas of a tornado watch, etc).

LOL So, as you can see, I strongly prefer S&T when planning or 'eyeballing', but the GPS tracking greatly favors SA IMO.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Well I still use Delorme Ver 8 for chasing and then newer Microsoft 2005 for hotel numbers / eating places etc.

I just love the interface on the old Ver 8 and the fact that I can scroll / zoom the map without a mouse - great when driving.

One thing with Ver 2006... do you still have to programme in a route start? or can it pick this up automatically from the GPS. I use TomTom in the UK and all you do is put in a destination (as it already knows where you are) and it gets you there. The advantages of this is that once you go off the route, it works out the next bext route to the destination with out tell you to turn around. :roll:

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by Stuart Robinson

One thing with Ver 2006... do you still have to programme in a route start? or can it pick this up automatically from the GPS. I use TomTom in the UK and all you do is put in a destination (as it already knows where you are) and it gets you there. The advantages of this is that once you go off the route, it works out the next bext route to the destination with out tell you to turn around. :roll:

On SA2005, you could enter an ending location and have it calculate the route from your current GPS position... However, I'm not sure how to do this, because it would work sometimes and not work other times. There would also be an occassional problem with calculate a route by just going straight from the start to the end (straight as in a straight line), completely neglecting the roads...

 

[Kurt Silvey]

Originally posted by Stuart Robinson


One thing with Ver 2006... do you still have to programme in a route start? or can it pick this up automatically from the GPS. I use TomTom in the UK and all you do is put in a destination (as it already knows where you are) and it gets you there. The advantages of this is that once you go off the route, it works out the next bext route to the destination with out tell you to turn around. :roll:

2005 has the ability to do this. I’m not sure when it was incorporated, as I have not used any another version, but all you have to do is click use current position as start point. If you go off route, it will automatically plot a revised route (this revised route may be turning around, or it could be to proceed to the next turn.. what ever) I have been very please with the 2005 version, and would assume any changes in 2006 would only be for the better.

 

[fplowman]

I have to agreee with some here.. There is a learning curve with delorme 2005 and furthermore Im unsure if its not just a learning curve but just a bad piece of software. yes it works great at many times but i find some of the same issues as others have posted here when trying to use it.

What i hated most was trying while driving to see another town where the radio or Grlevel says is a cell you want on.. Well if you try to pan over to it while the GPS is in operation it would not let you.. It would snap back. im unsure if there is some buttoin to click to stop that or not???

Then you try to zoom out to see it and like Karen says the names disappear.. So i guess as software it wither sucks.. Or Im not using it right and it is user error..

I have seen some other software programs that interested me. Tom Tom is one. Any Tom Tom users??

 

[Dan Cook]

I'm gonna see if Fry's has it in stock this weekend. If so, I'll post a review.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by fplowman

What i hated most was trying while driving to see another town where the radio or Grlevel says is a cell you want on.. Well if you try to pan over to it while the GPS is in operation it would not let you.. It would snap back. im unsure if there is some buttoin to click to stop that or not???

Fred,

It zaps back to center on the GPS. This can be prevented by clicking on the "Center on GPS" button (well, it's clicked on by default, so unclick it).

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Took me the longest time to figure out that 'center on GPS' button, but once I did it made things MUCH easier.

Wondering also if anyone has tried using DeLorme Topo for chasing - it seems like David Drummond has used it if I remember right, but wondering what people think. It would seem like it might be a good resource from the standpoint of being able to pinpoint areas that might have a good view/free of trees - but just wanted to get some ideas before trying it next season.

 

[fplowman]

Originally posted by Jeff Snyder+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeff Snyder)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-fplowman

What i hated most was trying while driving to see another town where the radio or Grlevel says is a cell you want on.. Well if you try to pan over to it while the GPS is in operation it would not let you.. It would snap back. im unsure if there is some buttoin to click to stop that or not???

Fred,

It zaps back to center on the GPS. This can be prevented by clicking on the "Center on GPS" button (well, it's clicked on by default, so unclick it).[/b]

Thanks Jeff.. i will fix that right away.. heading for colorado next week for some much needed R&R and i will need it.

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

The topo version would definitely be nice if you are chasing in an area that is prone to flooding. I had never thought of using topo maps to look for the best vantage point. That could come in handy here in the Flint Hills 8)

Tim

 

[Chris Nuttall]

Originally posted by Mike Peregrine
Wondering also if anyone has tried using DeLorme Topo for chasing - it seems like David Drummond has used it if I remember right, but wondering what people think. It would seem like it might be a good resource from the standpoint of being able to pinpoint areas that might have a good view/free of trees - but just wanted to get some ideas before trying it next season.

I've thought about getting this for chasing. However, I don't really have a beefy enough laptop to run it though. It would get REALLY slow when rendering the 3D views. I think I'm probably going to order SA2006 next week. I'm a registered Delorme user so I can get it for $39.95. When I get it, I'll post something.

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by Mike Peregrine
Took me the longest time to figure out that 'center on GPS' button, but once I did it made things MUCH easier.

Wondering also if anyone has tried using DeLorme Topo for chasing - it seems like David Drummond has used it if I remember right, but wondering what people think. It would seem like it might be a good resource from the standpoint of being able to pinpoint areas that might have a good view/free of trees - but just wanted to get some ideas before trying it next season.

I did use it some this year. I was able to run both simultaniously off the same Delorme GPS at that. I didn't get to test out the 3d version as much as I liked due to the fact 99% of my tornado chasing this year was right out here on the flat south plains! I like what I see on it though.

 

[Karen Politte]

After checking the laptop last night - I can now say that it is in fact StreetAtlas 2005 that we were using - not 2004. And it still sucks.

KR

 

[Bob Hall]

I use Topo USA 4.0 and Mobile threat net at the same time while chasing. Both are very resource intensive and apparently have memory leaks. At about five hours the entire system will come to its knees and require a reboot. My laptop has 512 Meg of memory, a friend running a full gig of memory can by without the reboot.

Topo is nice it that it will help you find the hills, which can enable you to hit that remote repeater and also get a better view of the storm.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Originally posted by Bob Hall
I use Topo USA 4.0 and Mobile threat net at the same time while chasing. Both are very resource intensive and apparently have memory leaks. At about five hours the entire system will come to its knees and require a reboot. My laptop has 512 Meg of memory, a friend running a full gig of memory can by without the reboot.

Topo is nice it that it will help you find the hills, which can enable you to hit that remote repeater and also get a better view of the storm.

Hey Bob does Topo USA also do the same as StreetAtlas? I mean do you get the same roads or does it show the roads better than StreetAtlas or the same but with hills?