Map Point 2004

**65Stang** · 06-11-2004, 03:10 PM

Map Point... hmmm nope... Streets And Trips is much better... using it with a Magellan GPS via NEMA... works like a charm... easy to read on a 7" screen... when fonts are adjusted... and great with a wireless keyboard for hot keys... only wish it did auto routing and re-routing when you go off course... could also be helpful to have turn by turn voice comands... Just used it for a trip to York, PA for a car show... directions were 95% accurate from Niagara Falls down...

**jpelzer** · 06-15-2004, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by 65Stang

Map Point... hmmm nope... Streets And Trips is much better... using it with a Magellan GPS via NEMA... works like a charm... easy to read on a 7" screen... when fonts are adjusted... and great with a wireless keyboard for hot keys... only wish it did auto routing and re-routing when you go off course... could also be helpful to have turn by turn voice comands... Just used it for a trip to York, PA for a car show... directions were 95% accurate from Niagara Falls down...

MapPoint and Streets and Trips are exactly the same program, AFAICT... Same interface, at least. The big thing about MapPoint is it allows plugins and embedding... So you can write your own app that uses MapPoint's data + routing. So if you like Streets and Trips, you'll like MapPoint too.

MapPoint is very usable one you add AGPS, it gives you the turn-by-turn voice prompts and the re-routing.

Regarding Delorme Street Atlas... I bought that first, since it was cheap and seemed to have so many features... Voice prompts, rerouting, etc. Well, it does, and they work reasonably well... Only problem is, the maps are EXTREMELY low quality. For instance, I live in NJ just outside of NYC (not exactly the boonies) and the maps are missing a 4-lane road that has been there for at LEAST 10 years. It is the most-traveled road in the area, aside from the highways going away from NYC.

That makes Delorme routing useless in my area, and gives me very low confidence in the quality of its maps in other areas. On top of that, it looks like many of its other data points were recorded back when GPS was less-accurate than it is today... So locations will be off by 20-30 feet, not unusable, but certainly annoying.

Final gripe about Delorme is that it freaks out when you have to take an underpass off the highway... It decides that you're somehow back on the highway, and redirects you to the exit. Just silly.

So, I won't be using any mapping software that doesn't use Navtech maps in the future... They seem to be the most complete, as well as the most accurately recorded.

Cheers!

**lbk** · 06-18-2004, 05:09 PM

I have mappoint 2004 and was really looking forward to it because of the SDK, and it no longer has the 15 second delay. I want to write my own interface, but ever since I've installed it on multiple machines the second you try to search for something it crashes. No one else is experiencing this with Mappoint 2004?

**Laidback** · 06-18-2004, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by lbk

I have mappoint 2004 and was really looking forward to it because of the SDK, and it no longer has the 15 second delay. I want to write my own interface, but ever since I've installed it on multiple machines the second you try to search for something it crashes. No one else is experiencing this with Mappoint 2004?

Nope!

**Gremlin** · 06-18-2004, 05:52 PM

You could try out AutoTouch (http://www.sarinarts.com/autotouch.htm) which has point to point routing with MapPoint in it. I've got a version now which includes voice navigation

-G

**samc** · 06-18-2004, 06:26 PM

I haven't touched mappoint 2004 much but it looks like more of a mapquest.com on your HD. I noticed it does respond to my gps receiver but it really just shows me where I am. Again I haven't played with it much but from first appearances I don't like it.

**veetid** · 06-18-2004, 07:15 PM

Mappoint has an SDK which gives you the ability to make it do anything you want... Mappoint 2004 by itself is not meant to be a fully functional car GPS softare, it was never advertised as that... Where Mappoint shines is the ability to make it do anything you want.. Look at the VOICES frontend written by SA... He made Mappoint have most of all the functionality of a Full GPS softare, but he wrote all that in himself, only using mappoint for geocoding, reverse geocoding, point plotting, manupulating its routing functions, etc.... For example using the Mappoint SDK I was able to write my own front end that gets traffic data for CA, where I live, and integrate it fully into the maps... As for the GPS part of it... I control it myself.. I connect to the serial port and parse the NMEA line myself and get the lat/long and then only pass that information to Mappoint to display it on the map.. If you are looking for a ready built gps car mapping software, then Mappoint is not the best, unless you grab one of the many already built frontends for it... Mappoint by far has the most detailed and best maps in the market today, and the strongest SDK.... When it comes to integration into these various frontends, Mappoint is a great option because of this... you can customize using the SDK to integrate GPS into your existing application.. You can't do that with something like Routis.. It has no SDK.. It is "What You See Is What You Get"..

**veetid** · 06-18-2004, 07:22 PM

Microsoft most likely spent no time at all building that basic frontend GUI that comes with Mappoint 2004... That is not what most people use Mappoint for.. I'm a softare engineer in the Banking Appraisal industry and we use Mappoint and various other products for geocoding and address standarization... The power of Mappoint 2004 is its SDK and having the best quality/detailed maps.. So think of installing Mappoint 2004 as installing maps and a bad *** engine on your computer... You then have to get something to run it... VOICES, AGPS, MediaCar...

**veetid** · 06-18-2004, 08:34 PM

Sorry for three posts in a row... I actually installed Routis 2004 in my car at work today and used it when I drove home... I really love this software... Up to this point I had only used Mappoint and seen Destinator... I really miss the detailed/good looking maps of Mappoint, but Routis was really smooth... I will keep Mappoint to use with my custom GPS/Mapping stuff I write, I still like VOICES, and for the detailed Mappoint maps, but I can't wait for the suppose new Routis 2.0 maps coming out sometime really soon.. Routis with more detail, parks, rivers, oceans... that will be smooth...

**Laidback** · 06-19-2004, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by veetid

Sorry for three posts in a row... I actually installed Routis 2004 in my car at work today and used it when I drove home... I really love this software... Up to this point I had only used Mappoint and seen Destinator... I really miss the detailed/good looking maps of Mappoint, but Routis was really smooth... I will keep Mappoint to use with my custom GPS/Mapping stuff I write, I still like VOICES, and for the detailed Mappoint maps, but I can't wait for the suppose new Routis 2.0 maps coming out sometime really soon.. Routis with more detail, parks, rivers, oceans... that will be smooth...

Destinator 3 maps are as good as MapPoint's, if not better!