Searching in BaseCamp (Mac)

Sub titled "An Exercise in Futility"

I'm just now getting around to using the latest BaseCamp release. I've been using Garmin software, specifically MapSource, for route planning since day one and Garmin hardware from the days before they had maps. I'm that old. :) I've followed BaseCamp from it's beginnings as BobCat, through RoadTrip to it's current incarnation. I plan motorcycle road routes in CNNT, both in North America and Europe, dual sport motorcycle routes and tracks in Topo and use the auto routing feature on occasion for car trips into the city. You might say I've developed a workflow that is both efficient and predictable for me. That's the history, now the rant.

I know that the dev team is sick and tired of hearing about the difference between MapSource and BaseCamp. I've been around here long enough to remember a dev team member stating, "The last thing we're doing is porting MapSource to the Mac. It's dead" or something to that effect. I find it curious then that many MapSource features have slowly appeared in BaseCamp, most at the request of users. I've been a very vocal critic of BaseCamp but the evolution has been positive if a bit slow. Now comes this latest release.... No fix for the map distortion issue. No true waypoint categories. No configuration option to disable/hide "Adventures", and so on. Instead we get a new and improved version of Find/Search. Well let's try it out. I've got my map centered on Denver as that's where I'm currently planning, and I want to find an address/intersection/POI/postal code in Edmonton Alberta. In MapSource, no problem. Click "Find" in the menu and then "Find Places" from the drop down, or just key Ctrl+F. Oh, did I mention that I don't use toolbars? They take up too much screen real estate on a small laptop screen. So, Ctrl+F and I get this.

Everything I need in one easy to understand and use dialog box. Fill it in, click Find and quickly, almost instantly my map re-centers on the city I've designated and guess what... There's my address.

Now let's try it in BaseCamp.

First Cmd+F. Ok, I get a search side bar but no input box. Just a list of every option available

To be continued.......

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Basecamp v. 4.12 Mac

After searching for an item, for example the word "culvert" in "my collection", I get a list on the right side of the screen.
Two questions: 1. Is there some way to select or highlight those items, so I can export them as a gpx file? They dont seem to be highlighted in the "my collection" list on the left. I dont seem to be able to select more than one item at a time.
2. How does change the search radius? Or can I search from the whole of "my collection" without using a search radius?

Tony Macleod

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Basecamp v. 4.12 Mac

After searching for an item, for example the word "culvert" in "my collection", I get a list on the right side of the screen.
Two questions: 1. Is there some way to select or highlight those items, so I can export them as a gpx file? They dont seem to be highlighted in the "my collection" list on the left. I dont seem to be able to select more than one item at a time.
2. How does change the search radius? Or can I search from the whole of "my collection" without using a search radius?

Tony Macleod

1. You cannot select more than one of the items in the search results at a time.
2. To change the search radius go to Preferences->Find-> and type in your desired search radius.

They are suppose to be making some Search improvements for v4.2 but I don't see anything so far that would help you out.

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Thanks Dan

Some useful search features in future versions would be
1. ability to search a list and save the search results to a given folder or new list, or export it, all at once, not one at a time. That doesn't make much sense.

2. Select a map area and search in only in that area. Its possible that is kind of what its trying to do at the moment, because if I zoom in on a map, or shift the center of the map around it randomly changes the "search radius". I tried the preference "find radius" and that was set to 500 miles, but the search results are only from a 5 km radius according to the search window. When I shifted the center of the map it changed from a 5.2km radius, to a 7.9 km radius, perhaps based on what it found?

3. There is very little in the way of "help" for detailed searches of data other than addresses on a map, which to me is not useful.

Anyway, its a work in progress.

Tony Macleod
Salt Spring Island

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Thanks Dan

Some useful search features in future versions would be
1. ability to search a list and save the search results to a given folder or new list, or export it, all at once, not one at a time. That doesn't make much sense.

2. Select a map area and search in only in that area. Its possible that is kind of what its trying to do at the moment, because if I zoom in on a map, or shift the center of the map around it randomly changes the "search radius". I tried the preference "find radius" and that was set to 500 miles, but the search results are only from a 5 km radius according to the search window. When I shifted the center of the map it changed from a 5.2km radius, to a 7.9 km radius, perhaps based on what it found?

3. There is very little in the way of "help" for detailed searches of data other than addresses on a map, which to me is not useful.

Anyway, its a work in progress.

Tony Macleod
Salt Spring Island

I didn't seem to have this issue in v4.1.2 but in the current beta v4.2.0.2, when I do a search with a preferred radius of 100mi, the search stops at what seems like an arbitrary distance well short of the 100mi radius. For example, when I search for Fuel, the search stops at 18.3mi from the center of the map and there are obvious locations that were not searched well within the 100mi radius on the map.