Basecamp address search - City Navigator Southern Africa 2013.3 NT

Former Member over 12 years ago

The mapset I am accessing with Basecamp is City Navigator Southern Africa NT 2013.3. I am struggling to gate the program to find addresses. As an example I'm trying to locate 10 Boland Street in Vierlanden, Durbanville, Cape Town. My search reads:
Find Address near Vierlanden, Western Cape containing 10 Boland Street, and I'm getting no result from the search. This is just one example, I tried many others, with exactly the same result.

If I load up my old Garmin SSA Streetmaps 2011.3 NT, the search identifies the location. Please help - I need to identify various locations in my suburb and can't go driving around each time a new address comes up - it's the main reason I bought the Garmin!

0 SUSSAMB over 12 years ago

Not a question of agreeing or not ... No mapping solution is ever perfect :)

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

No mapping solution is ever perfect :)

No it is not but many expect digital maps and those on consumer GPS products to be perfect. Before GPS became prevalent I used (paper) road atlases (MapsCo and Rand McNally in the US) and found them inaccurate at times.

Garmin doesn't not "make" their maps. They purchase, from one or more sources, map data and convert it to their format (i.e. for use in their products). The maps are therefore only as good as the source data. I have no idea where the data in SA comes from (govt?).

I've never been to SA so I have no idea of the road system or how addresses work there. In the US, especially in rural areas, house numbers can be very difficult to find. I've had Garmin, and other, maps tell me that an address was miles away from where it really was. In the UK they have a post code system (ABC-DEF) that gets you very close to an address. Here is the US I usually research, using Google Earth (street view) and other sources, to find a location before I ever get in the car. Why? Because I've wasted countless hours, in the past, driving around looking for an address even with GPS.

Sounds like CN SA 2013.3 NT doesn't work for you. Out of curiosity it there anything better?

0 AndyT3 over 12 years ago

There is Garmap SSA Streetmap 2011.3 (and later versions, this is the last version that I have) which shows up the required address 100% in this example and most others that I have looked for.
It is more up to date than CN and has most of the correct addresses.

The CN series does have advantages - junction view for those units that support it, it shows the correct speed limit for the road that you are currently driving on.
Address searching is poor however, sometimes the navigation choices made look a bit odd.

There are pros and cons to both mapsets, which is why I use both and pick the one that I know / think will work best for my current navigation requirements based on my experience with them.

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

There is Garmap SSA Streetmap 2011.3 (and later versions, this is the last version that I have) which shows up the required address 100% in this example and most others that I have looked for.
It is more up to date than CN and has most of the correct addresses.

Do you know if it uses the same source data (or perhaps additional) as Garmin's CN SA?

BTW I don't expect any map in the US to be accurate about addresses. It's just my experience that they're not. The same with POI's (Point Of Interest). However I know I'm the exception and that many expect both to be exact.

0 AndyT3 over 12 years ago

I would guess not. The Garmap product is produced locally, so I would imagine that they have established good links with the local municipalities that control street numbering and update them on a regular basis.
Ditto for road center lines etc.
Some of the POI's however leave a lot to be desired - there are several shops dotted around on top of Table Mountain which certainly do not exist, I have walked past several of them .......

As you state, maps are only as good as their source data and I have learned to accept them as such.

I have just tried to find my own address in basecamp using both mapsets - interesting result !

Using Garmin CN in Basecamp, if I hover over the cursor / hand tool over my house the correct street address shows up in the popup "bubble" - so it is in the database.
However I cannot get it to show using the Basecamp search feature ........

Using Garmap SSA, I can find it using both methods.

0 AndyT3 over 12 years ago

And to add - using Mapsource, both methods work on both mapsets !!

I tried my home address and the one posted by the OP, no problem .............

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

One day perhaps addresses (street + number) will be replaced by coordinates. Of course you'll then have to make sure you're using the same coordinate format and map datum :)

The UK did that (sort of) with their postcode system.

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Well I still use MapSource (for common things). I do use BaseCamp for some things that MapSource can't do.

0 SUSSAMB over 12 years ago

One day perhaps addresses (street + number) will be replaced by coordinates. Of course you'll then have to make sure you're using the same coordinate format and map datum :)

The UK did that (sort of) with their postcode system.

Which unfortunately while Mapsource allowed postcode search Basecamp does not :mad:

0 Former Member over 12 years ago

Why don't you just use MapSource? :confused: