UK POSTCODE search in Basecamp

BaseCamp Find

I think simplification should be done at user interface not at search algorithm. I'm not able to guess why Garmin trashed good code from Mapsource and Mobile PC and left BaseCamp without indexed search.

The Find feature in BaseCamp is the most appalling piece of software I have ever encountered in the GPS and Mapping environment.

The search in MapSource was brilliant. I cannot imagine why Garmin Developers tnhought it was difficult to use. The BaseCamp find is much more difficult and complicated to use and even then it does not work.

Almost evey other Mapping Program, even the free ones, provides extremely good searching facilities and they all include rapid postcode searching. Try GoogleEarth it is instantaneous as is the Ordnance Survey GetaMap. Other programs include Googlemaps, StreetMap, Bing (was MultiMap).

Garmin Developers must be extremely embarassed at the appaling software they produce these days. They used to be so good. the fact that people are having to use unsupported software instead of the latest offerings says it all.

Worse still, their support department member Will Taylor, yesterday told a colleague of mine that PostCodes could be searched using "Address" in the Find feature.

Is there any hope for us when thier own staff do not know theor own software?

The idea was to simplify find and get away from all these different search forms in MapSource. Nowadays people expect to just type in a search phrase and have it just work, and not be forced to fill out an elaborate search form.

You seem to have missed the point entirely. Yes we do expect to enter things and have it "just work" but what you've done is replaced an old-fashioned approach with "the computer said 'no'"

We'll see what we can do about the postal code search.

That really doesn't cut it does it? The leading supplier of mapping kit makes no provision at all for, in the UK at least, the most common (not to mention most convenient) means of identifying a location and the best you can do is "we'll see what we can do", really?

How about publishing the roadmap for BC and giving some clue as to when you will be providing this major and much sought after feature.

First post but you make a good point :)

Currently I use Mapsource to locate an address using the postcode, then copy the location into Basecamp. Postcodes/zip codes are so widely used these days that you would have though it would be a very high priority :confused:

That really doesn't cut it does it? The leading supplier of mapping kit makes no provision at all for, in the UK at least, the most common (not to mention most convenient) means of identifying a location and the best you can do is "we'll see what we can do", really?

How about publishing the roadmap for BC and giving some clue as to when you will be providing this major and much sought after feature.

We are aware that this is a much desired feature. We tried to get this into 4.1, but it didn't quite make it. There is a good chance this will work in 4.2.

I trust that search by postcode in BaseCamp will work for all countries that use postcode, not just for the UK.

not having postcode search these days is rubbish, why replace mapsource when the the replacement isnt as good and has less features? has more trendy features but less useful ones. keep basecamp for hikers, make mapsource work for newer auto models.

Can I re-endorse all that is said in this thread in support of the plea for proper post code search?

I first raised this issue as long ago as January 2011, see: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?22261-Find-Address-Post%28al%29-Code

I repeated the point in June last year: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?28281-Post-Code

And, despite the response of AugustFalcon, I repeat what I said then: Basecamp is *effectively* useless as route planning software (certainly in the UK) without such funtionality. With a post code Mapsource can find me a location somewhere at the other end of the country within seconds; Basecamp (a) can't use the postcode and (b) won't even begin to find a place unless it is 'near the centre of the map' or somesuch - which would be tolerable, but still broken, if I knew where the place was. Surely the idea of search is to be able to find something when you don't know where it is? Post codes are used in precisely that way by all sorts of commercial undertakings: they don't ask for an address, they ask for the post code and find the address from it. That is precisely the very effective functionality provided by MapSource.

And, of course, that is precisely the way in which the PND is able to function. It asks for a post code and finds the location and is able to navigte the user to the vicinity even if the street name or number is not known.

The issue of the absence of post code search in BaseCamp (indeed the absence of any *effective* search function) has been raised in numerous other threads and I find the lack of effective response from the company (not the developers who participate in this forum) profoundly disappointing. They replaced a functional, effective, piece of software with one which has all the appearance of a kludge.

So, please may we see some priority given to the development of BaseCamp (or, preferably, some other, less bloated, software) which meets the needs of a significant proportion of the user base.

To me nothing sums up the stupidity of the current position on postcode search is that it works on the GPS devices itself, but doesn't in Basecamp. Can I make a plea, if you do decide to standardise your code base then PLEASE, PLEASE do not brain damage your GPS units with the same brain damaged approach as Basecamp.

No if I could jsut work out a way of getting the detail back into Mapsource Ill happily ditch Basecamp until such time as it does become usable

This thread just makes me think again, "WHY did I buy Garmin and not a TOMTOM???"

Such a shame on Garmin... I have a nuvi 1390LMT and now feeling like wasted my money. I still find it too fiddly to search any address on the SatNav itself, and now I have to fiddle with it even more to setup the addresses on a PC... It takes about 1 minute for the SatNav to start, and another 5 minutes to find any address on it, unless I already saved them before...

You bought a Garmin because overall they're better than TomToms :)

But I agree, the lack of postcode search in BC is currently a pain. I'm surprised though it takes you 5 minutes to find an address on your nuvi, about a minute tops surely?

I assume you've downloaded the maps to your PC? You could do what many of us do, use Mapsource for the post code search and having found the address copy/paste the waypoint into BC.