I have been using Basecamp for a while now and it has made huge strides from what it was to how it works today. Increase in speed is greatly improved and the new features are great. There are however a few improvements needed that would turn this into a truly awesome product. I have seen some of these pop up in this forum from time to time. This list is what would turn my Basecamp experience from good to fantastc. This is my opinion only, others may differ.
1. My Collection - List Control
Currently we have a "one or all" situation. By this I mean you can view either one or all of the lists, not a few selected ones. For instance I can view my Geocaches and not my other data. However if I want to show Birdseye as well then I have to show "My Collection" - all of it. Then all of my other tracklogs, waypoints and routes show up as well plus any other data I have. This makes for a very cluttered map.
Being able to turn individual items / lists in "My Collection" on or off at will would be a huge bonus to me. Most GIS software plus a few other mapping products offer this (Google Earth included), why not Basecamp?
2. Tracks - line style display.
It would be great to change the linestyle ( thickness, type), not only the colour. Sometimes the current way of displaying things clutters the screen particularly when working is a relatively small area. It is not always desirable to see each individual trackpoint either - Google Earth allows (unless this has changed) you to either display or turn them off. Makes for much better wiewing of the map.
3. "Tear off" Library, Properties and tools
Being able to use the F11 key to toggle the map display to full screen mode is awesome !!!! I get full use of my 24" monitor plus some selected tools by using keyboard shortcuts. The only drawback is that you lose the Library, Properties and some tools. It would be great to make the aforementioned "dockable" - those with dual screen setups could then make full use of their main monitor real estate and have the tools etc on the other. Mapsource allows you to dock the tools, surely this plus "tear off" menus must be achievable?
These are the main three items that would certainly improve my whole experience with Basecamp which I find I am using far more often now with previous updates.
4. Geocaching
a) Geocaching Icons
Currently we only get the "Treasure chest" icon. Basecamp works well with the newer Garmin units like the Oregon 450 and 62 series, all of which display the "correct" icon for the cache type. This would assist in planning for instance a days outing when you only want to do Traditional caches and not Multis etc. Surely this must be possible for Basecamp to display these icons as well on the map. They are shown correctly in the "Properties" tab, why not on the screen?
b) Read GPX 1.01. files
Curently importing a GPX 1.0.1 file results in Geocaches being displayed as Waypoints with the Treasure Chest icon and no cache details or logs. I have come across a few others on geocaching forums that are having the same problem.
c) "Moveable" Geocaches
Currently if you are creating, editing or even have a route selected, Geocaches can be moved by selecting the Move tool. This should not be possible / available.
5. Other stuff ....
a) Import CSV and Excel files
It would be great to be able to import these file types, I have data in the abovementioned format that I would like to use to create waypoints.
It is always great to see the developers participating in this forum, hopefully some of these items could make their way into what is fast becoming a most useful product for me and I'm sure several others as well.
