Related

Newbs impression of PC Basecamp

Former Member
Former Member
[OOPS, I misunderstood: I thought y'all were looking for input on Basecamp functionality, regardless of platform, and just chose the Mac heading cuz you had to choose one. My bad.]

First, some background:
I'm a Garmin newb with a Vista HCx. I mostly use it for mapping personally owned acreage on foot. But I also play with geocaching and sometimes use it in the Car.

I think I'm almost an expert at Google Earth & I am a systems engineer, so not a technophobe. Also, I've not read this entire thread, so apologies.

In general, I would like to use Basecamp (or Mapsource) to:
1. manage the data on my eTrex
2. calculate (and recalculate) routes for experimentation before the journey
3. record waypoints I've discovered and share them with others (who don't have Garmin's or GPS at all, maybe via close integration with Google Earth .kml/.kmz, Google Maps etc.).

Compare & Contrast w/ Mapsource:

* Basecamp seems to allow me to save routing methods with each route while mapsource does not. Good! I might have a foot route (point to point) and a car route.

* Basecamp doesnt have waypoint categories (BAD). I seem to use that a lot so that I can quickly pick out waypoints I download from my eTrex from the "semi-duplicates" I already have in mapsource.

* Basecamp will let me playback tracks with elevation (GOOD) but mapsource wont.

So, back to generalities, specifically item #1 above:
I bought the eTrex for its small size. The ideal GPS for me would be the size of a coin, but that's totally impractical: You need SOME real estate for a screen and input buttons. The smaller the device's size, the more dependence I have on connecting it to a PC to interact with it.... at "base camp". ;) The PC software should be able to (among other things):
* add/delete/modify waypoints, routes, etc directly on the device
* add/delete COLLECTIONS of these things on the device for a given task at hand (i.e. one collection for a road trip to my parents, another collection for hunting at the lease, and another collection for "day-to-day stuff around town like geocaching & bicycling in the neighborhood"). This is because having 15-jillion waypoints in the device all the time makes finding the one you are interested at any given moment more difficult.
* add/modify/categorize/delete POI's - be they collected from sites like POIFactory or supplied by the maps, or your own .csv files.
* manage the waypoint symbols that the device can support, or at least limit myself in the PC software to those symbols that the device has onboard.
* limit my input fields to those supported by the device (e.g. 14 chars for waypoints or routes on the eTrex).

Maybe, if I get a second or 3rd device for the car(s) (Nuvi or whatever), having software that can store collections of data for each device would be helpful. Maybe I'd put road trips on the Nuvi, then bike/foot trips on the eTrex, and a combination of these on the device in my Pickup Truck.


Hope you find this helpful,
  • 0
    [OOPS, I misunderstood: I thought y'all were looking for input on Basecamp functionality, regardless of platform, and just chose the Mac heading cuz you had to choose one. My bad.]

    No biggie, but I moved this to the PC section because many of your points are PC only.
    * Basecamp doesnt have waypoint categories (BAD). I seem to use that a lot so that I can quickly pick out waypoints I download from my eTrex from the "semi-duplicates" I already have in mapsource.

    The lists are intended to replace the waypoint only categories, but we do need to work on our integration with the devices. What do you mean when you say "semi-duplicates"? BaseCamp should recognize duplicates (another thing that will be improved) and thus you won't need to do anything. This is one big advantage of BaseCamp's MyCollection scheme vs. lots of individual documents.

    The PC software should be able to (among other things):
    * add/delete/modify waypoints, routes, etc directly on the device
    * add/delete COLLECTIONS of these things on the device for a given task at hand (i.e. one collection for a road trip to my parents, another collection for hunting at the lease, and another collection for "day-to-day stuff around town like geocaching & bicycling in the neighborhood"). This is because having 15-jillion waypoints in the device all the time makes finding the one you are interested at any given moment more difficult.

    If you want to delete data on the device from BaseCamp, you will need one of the new "datasync" devices, like Oregon x50 or Dakota. For the first time, data can be deleted from the device remotely with those devices.

    The idea of collections is one of the main reasons that we created lists. Using one of the above devices, you could delete any data you didn't want to retain from your device and then drag a list/collection to the device.

    * add/modify/categorize/delete POI's - be they collected from sites like POIFactory or supplied by the maps, or your own .csv files.

    When you say POI's are you talking about the Custom POIs greated by POI Loader?

    Maybe, if I get a second or 3rd device for the car(s) (Nuvi or whatever), having software that can store collections of data for each device would be helpful. Maybe I'd put road trips on the Nuvi, then bike/foot trips on the eTrex, and a combination of these on the device in my Pickup Truck.

    Hope you find this helpful,

    Thank you for your feedback and observations.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    I can definately see the advantage of lists vs different .gdb's (like I use in MapSource). Yes, dragging lists to device seems like a much easier way. Its a shame though that the eTrex Vista HCx cannot be"overwritten" by basecamp (or mapsource). I've gotten into the habit of deleting all waypoints and routes by hand on the device before transferring my data from BC or MS to the device.

    What I mean by semi-dupes is: if I create a collection of way points in mapsource, and some of their names are too long for the eTrex, then when I transfer back from the eTrex, it asks if I want to skip the ones that already exist. I say YES, but the truncated names come back. And, because the eTrex doesnt have categories, I select "No Categories" listing, and delete the truncated-names of waypoints I still have in the software. I made a feature request for mapsource to limit the length of names one can input, which would help make that a non-issue and benefit the user in other ways.

    A few posters in the original thread mentioned that hierarchical organization might be helpful, and I agree. However, categories are nice too because they can be applied in multiples, sort of like "tagging". So, one might select all items with a given tag, and if an item has multiple tags (categories) it'll appear in both selections.

    Yes, my reference of POIs was about those that POILoader installs. Perhaps its a limitation of the device, but ideally, I think it would be nice to be able to fold some of my "custom POIs" into the categories that display on the FIND screen. I've collected a lot of POIs I load with POILoander, and they are mostly my preferred vendors ranging from fuel to food, to general shopping to lodging. But if I'm out and about, and I need food, I don't see my preferred places under "Food", and in my Custom POIs, I have to wade thru non-food-related stuff to see my favorite restaurant (yeah, I know I can select a "database" within my custom POI screen - its just a bit clunky). It seems that "POI Management" is something that could really be improved upon, and help unlock even more potential from a ton of devices. Apparently, there's a bit of an underground marketing "cottage industry" out there where companies provide their locations in POI files.
    There may be some "non-custom" POIs I'd like to completely get rid of, or set a proximity alarm for (maybe an entire category or a large list of them that contain a particular string in their names). Others I might want to individually convert to an actual waypoint, or some waypoints I'd like to "backburner" by converting it to a POI. I know that Basecamp has better support for "non-custom POIs" than Mapsource, but it is still quite limited, and cannot do anything with custom POIs (least not that I've found).

    Hope that help!