crappy software - help ?

Former Member over 14 years ago

I am finding this software to be pretty user unfriendly. If the other posts are any evidence, others are too. Some questions for those of us who have managed to figure out the product:

1. I have a G2vision map (VUs003r). On my plotter (545s) I am able to see maps with satellite overlay, and increase/decrease transparency of the overlay. Can I do this in Homeport? If so, how? All I see are cartoony maps without the satellite level detail I paid for when I bought the G2 map.

2. There's an option to "view in Google Earth" - how is this supposed to work? That option is perpetually greyed out for me (I have both Homeport and Google Earth installed)

3. Why does it have to be so difficult to see my routes & waypoints in Homeport? My boat is slipped at a marina. I bring the plotter home whenever I leave the boat. I assumed I could just pop the SD card from my plotter into my computer, access my waypoints, add new ones, etc., and then re-open on the plotter next time I'm on my boat. Now I find out that I have to transfer my waypoints from my plotter to an SD card, THEN I can access them in Homeport. What a PITA! Now I have to wait until I'm at the boat to do this exercise since there's no way for me to power up the plotter without hooking it up to my boat.

4. zooming is poorly designed. Why do I have to use the slider? Isn't it pretty standard for mapping apps (such as google) to zoom upon double click?

I suppose I just expected better. Most software today is designed with a certain level of user-friendliness. Unfortunately, Homeport seems to be stuck 7 years in the past in terms of user interface and operation, and documentation for the product seems to be non-existent.

0 rwidman over 14 years ago

I am finding this software to be pretty user unfriendly. If the other posts are any evidence, others are too. Some questions for those of us who have managed to figure out the product:

1. I have a G2vision map (VUs003r). On my plotter (545s) I am able to see maps with satellite overlay, and increase/decrease transparency of the overlay. Can I do this in Homeport? If so, how? All I see are cartoony maps without the satellite level detail I paid for when I bought the G2 map.

You have to export the maps from your plotter to an SD card (you can do this with a 42XX or 52XX, I don't know about your plotter, read the manual). When you put the SD card into your computer, HomePort will read and display the maps.

2. There's an option to "view in Google Earth" - how is this supposed to work? That option is perpetually greyed out for me (I have both Homeport and Google Earth installed)

It works fine for me, it may be related to your not having the maps on the SD card.

3. Why does it have to be so difficult to see my routes & waypoints in Homeport? My boat is slipped at a marina. I bring the plotter home whenever I leave the boat. I assumed I could just pop the SD card from my plotter into my computer, access my waypoints, add new ones, etc., and then re-open on the plotter next time I'm on my boat. Now I find out that I have to transfer my waypoints from my plotter to an SD card, THEN I can access them in Homeport. What a PITA! Now I have to wait until I'm at the boat to do this exercise since there's no way for me to power up the plotter without hooking it up to my boat.

I copied my maps to an SD card so I could use it in my PC with HomePort. I can either use the same SD card for routes and waypoints or a different card. The cards are cheap, I have several. I have more routes than my plotter will hold at one time so I upload the ones I'll be using on a particular day or trip. It works for me. I leave my plotters (thery are flush mounted) on the boat.

4. zooming is poorly designed. Why do I have to use the slider? Isn't it pretty standard for mapping apps (such as google) to zoom upon double click?

Again, it works for me. Doesn't Google use a slider (I don't remember)?

I suppose I just expected better. Most software today is designed with a certain level of user-friendliness. Unfortunately, Homeport seems to be stuck 7 years in the past in terms of user interface and operation, and documentation for the product seems to be non-existent.

You paid $30.00. You can't buy a decent dinner for $30.00. What's the price of Microsoft Word these days?

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

still crappy

I agree that homeport is crappy and add unstable to that. I have been using computers since that age of COBOL and punch cards and this has got to be one of the most irritating programs I have ever used. Can't recommend buying it. Would rather have spent my $30 on a bottle of bourbon. :mad:

I have been trying to build my database of fish drops and I get duplicates that have to be weeded out and the past couple of times I have used it, some of my data just disappears. For example, I removed several duplicate fish drops (select on the left, right click, delete), simple enough. Then I go to do something with it 10 minutes later and about 50 fish drops are GONE. Not even showing up on the maps. To make it worse, this has happened before and the next time I will try to use the software - the data will have come back!!!!! Why The Face???? :eek:

And what is with those anchor symbols when I convert a track to a route?

It has been non-user friendly from the start. I paid some damn good money for my chartplotter and it would be nice to use it as intended. The software should be free to boot.

Looks like someone got the punchcards out of order on this one....

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

poor quality software

Mapsource was a good software. Homeport is a very poor quality software. I am very disappointed in Garmin for switching. Previously I was very happy to be a Garmin customer. I had a 176c which served me very well. I used Mapsource for route planning and review on my PC. This year I switched to a GPS map 541 and this junk software. If I had known about this software, I would have purchased another brand of GPS. All I can do now is warn other boaters about Garmin.

0 aftergolf over 14 years ago

I agree with your assessment of the s/w, it is poor at best.
You can always continue using MapSource with your new device as I have with my 4012. Some people like the new s/w, but I won't use it until it is much, much better. But, as they say, you get what you pay for, and we did not pay much. I believe Garmin would have been much better off never releasing the product, but continuing with MapSource, but I understand that was developed by a 3rd party and that relationship came to an end.
Garmin is great in the h/w side of the house and their graphical s/w on the machines, but the pc versions stink to be nice about it.
Just my personal opinion.

0 rwidman over 14 years ago

BOSLAW, FIANOMAN, DANDEITZ, EDPUPA;

So your plan for getting suport and help is to join the HomePort support forum and call the software "crappy"? :rolleyes:

I spent a few years supporting computers and users, and I can tell you from personal experience, this is not the best way to get people to help you with a problem.

HomePort has a different "feel" than MapSource. If you're used to the "old" software, it will take time to get used to the new. It's not unlike getting a new car or boat. Use it, use the "Help" section, and just experiiment until you are comfortable with the product.

HomePort will do some things MapSource will not do. One major difference of course, is that it will read maps downloaded from your plotter. With MapSource, you had to purchase a CD and pay to unlock each region you wanted to use. I have personally paid for three such regions because I moved and my new home base is near the border of two regions.

DANDEITZ, saying that if you had known about the software you would have bought a different brand of plotter is a little extreme. Same with your "warning other boaters about Garmin". You paid $30.00 for HomePort. You can't buy dinner at a decent restaurant one time for that price.

I don't work for Garmin and have no stake in the company other than as a customer, but really, I believe you all will get more response to your questions if you present them as questions, not complaints.

Think about it.

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

We don't mind complaints, but if they were a little more specific than "it stinks" that would be most helpful.

What bothers you, which functionality are you missing, what errors are you experiencing?

HomePort is not developed by a third party.

0 aftergolf over 14 years ago

If you would like a list - see below

1. The software runs extremely slow and takes forever to pan, zoom, and many other basic commands
2. The routing and symbols has very poor operation and the symbols are unusable
3. The way the Collections work is very confusing and difficult to navigate for the casual user
4. Waypoints, tracks and routes cannot be separated for viewing as in Mapsource
5. No way to sort waypoints by symbol

I have not used it in a while, so there may be other issues with the software.

From Machria -
To simply create a new route from some saved track points and part of another existing route just took me over 1 hour. This would take me 30 seconds in Mapsource. The reason for time? No sorts or filters. So I have to create a fake route, then select the track I want to start with. Highlight the track points in the list I want to copy, copy them, now scroll down the list of 1200+ items (wp's, tracks, routes...) to find the newly created Route, select it, now position the curser at the front of the data list, Past the track points in. Now find the couple of fake track points I used to create the route, delete them from the route. Now go back to the 1200+ data list and scroll around and try and find those coupel of "fake" points, to delete them from the data. Now scroll around the 1200+ lsit again to find the route I want to copy some WP's from, select it, then highlight the WP's in that route I want to copy, select copy. Now again scroll down a giant 1200+ list again to find the newly created route, select it, now scroll down the data points in the route to where I want to insert the copied WP's, Past them in.

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

Thank you for your reply.

Have you tried the latest version (2.0.4)? We have made speed improvement from 2.0.1 to 2.0.4 for sure.

Could you elaborate on point #2?

Point #3 is just a different data model, we cannot force you to like it, but there are helpful pointers on these forums explaining how to make best use of the folder model.

Numbers 4 & 5 should be taken care of when we re-release (look at current BaseCamp to see how this might pan out).

Again, thank you for your reply. This is most helpful, we will look back at these posts and try to create a better user experience with the next release. Your input is much appreciated.

0 aftergolf over 14 years ago

Yes, I have loaded the new version, and still have issues with speed. I have no issues at all with Mapsource, and use a new laptop with plenty of speed and memory.

For #2, I am referring to the awful anchor that is displayed and not able to change the default to a small point or something that does not consume the screen when there are a lot of waypoints in a route, such as plotting a route in the ICW or in a creek to the inlet.

#3 - Is not intuitive at all. Takes a lot of usage and user recollection/memory to figure the data storage strategy that is implemented in the software. Why not do a simple data storage structure with data such as in Mapsource. I understand it is how it was developed, but it was done by a software guy, not a user who is a boater and a casual user.

I will wait until the new release to make any other comments. When will the new version be available?

0 Former Member over 14 years ago

I am afraid company policy does not allow me to give estimates for release dates but it still might take a while.