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Summary: National Geographic TOPO Colorado
Review: Expected the product to display detail of standard USGS 1/24,000 maps. Product did not meet expectations. Needless to say I was disappointed in the lack of detail. I was hoping to use the product with my Garmin GPS 72 to download way points. National Geographic Topo Colorado did not list my GPS in the GPS setup.
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Summary: difficult to install
Review: I found the Topo! gis product unuseable. I've installed it several times and called tech support for a license. Tech support is a voice message service, where you leave a message and hope that they return your call. Which they didn't. After 6 imploring messages and many many emails, I just returned the product. The box sure is pretty but, thats not really why anyone buys it.
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Summary: STATE Products are Great!!!
Review: I have been using the Pennsylvania State version of this -- five CDs cover the state. It is great --- AFTER you install the updates available on the internet. Prior to the update I could not get the program to connect with my eTrex Legend. Anyway, all owners of this product should visit [the website] -- some good freebies available for download.The most valuable maps are the 7.5 inch -- which have incredible detail. (I DON'T KNOW IF THESE ARE AVAILABLE IN THE US PRODUCT -- I doubt it). Copying the CDs for your area to the hard drive will save having to constantly load CDs ---- if you have the memory available. The product functionality is fantastic -- I particularly like the ease of building an elevation profile. Transferring back and forth between a GPS is a breeze. If you hike, or mountain bike this is a great product.
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Summary: I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with this software
Review: I have used lots of mapping packages and in my opinion the National Geographic TOPO! state series is among the very best. You get five different zoom levels which include all of the USGS maps at 1:100,000 and 1:24,000 scale - and you can pan seamlessly across the entire state. The resolution and image quality of the maps are super and you can annotate the maps, draw upon them and print them very easily in either normal or shaded relief. However, what impressed me the most was how easily the software interfaced with my GPS. It will instantly plot the waypoints, labels and routes that you collect in the field once you have the proper settings for your GPS unit specified in the program. You can also create waypoints and routes within TOPO! and upload them into your GPS - this feature enables you to plan your fieldwork or fun at your desk and then navigate right to the spot you have selected. Finally, you can plot UTM or Lat/Long grid lines atop of the map to facilitate their use in the field with your GPS. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with this software - you get exact copies of USGS topos and can customize and print them to suit your needs. Like all software you will need to spend a little time experimenting to become good at using it. Happy mapping :)
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Summary: Good tool for continental US
Review: I just bought this map of the USA. The last time I looked the United States of America included Alaska and Hawaii. Well in small print on the box this product is only for the 'continental USA'. Besides missing two areas I wanted it is good for mapping out a trip and finding the mileage. I have not tried loading to my GPS or Palm Pilot yet.
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Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I live in Idaho, and actually, really, go into the wilderness. The level of detail provided by garmin's u.s. topo offering is honestly not sufficient for accurately setting waypoints. National Geographic's state series is indeed sufficient (in fact it's the best for Idaho). Not to be cruel, but being able to download inadequately detailed map source is not nearly as important as being able to download truly accurate waypoints. Buying both packages would obviously be the best solution, but really you can set up all the detail you need (for getting in & out) using just national geographic (whereas you can't with garmin's u.s. topo stuff). Critical note: I strongly recommend not carrying *just* electronic maps if you really, truly, go into wilderness. Electronic toys aren't foolproof - they break through no fault of your own, they get dropped, can get destroyed if you fall, etc. Paper maps should *also* be carried - ideally ones printed out just for your current trip. The garmin hardware itself is truly impressive. Their mapsource topo offerings, on the other hand, need a lot of work. It's as if the people who did them never visited the U.S., and/or never really went into many of the U.S.'s real wilderness areas.
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Summary: If you can only afford one, buy national geographic's topos
Review: I live in Idaho, and actually, really, go into the wilderness. The level of detail provided by garmin's u.s. topo offering is honestly not sufficient for accurately setting waypoints. National Geographic's state series is indeed sufficient (in fact it's the best for Idaho). Not to be cruel, but being able to download inadequately detailed map source is not nearly as important as being able to download truly accurate waypoints. Buying both packages would obviously be the best solution, but really you can set up all the detail you need (for getting in & out) using just national geographic (whereas you can't with garmin's u.s. topo stuff). Critical note: I strongly recommend not carrying *just* electronic maps if you really, truly, go into wilderness. Electronic toys aren't foolproof - they break through no fault of your own, they get dropped, can get destroyed if you fall, etc. Paper maps should *also* be carried - ideally ones printed out just for your current trip. The garmin hardware itself is truly impressive. Their mapsource topo offerings, on the other hand, need a lot of work. It's as if the people who did them never visited the U.S., and/or never really went into many of the U.S.'s real wilderness areas.
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Summary: Excellent mapping software
Review: I use this software with my Garmin Summit GPS receiver. The combination is awesome. I no longer get lost on hikes. Definately, recommended.
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Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I wanted to use TOPO to map the trails in the parks around South Eastern VA. by importing the GPS tracks obtained from walking/riding the trails. TOPO would almost do what I wanted, but its disappointing lack of editing and viewing tools made it impossible to accurately draw or display the routs. If I import the tracks as individual waypoints, the waypoints are displayed as HUGE diamonds on the map that overlap and make it impossible to follow the track. The max zoom is insufficient to clearly display the tracks, but the magnify option zooms in nicely. The only problem is the magnify option also magnifies the waypoint icons, so they still overlap. For the Mid-Atlantic map, these waypoint diamonds are about 200 feet corner to corner. If I bring the tracks in as complete routs, there is no way to make small changes to fit the track to the minor inconsistencies in the elevation map. For example, when the GPS shows me walking a mostly flat section and TOPO has me descending into a ravine; if I remember navigating around the edge of the ravine, it's obvious the track in that area needs to be tweaked to miss the ravine. I might be able to draw a new track if the lines of the existing track were a little thinner, but as with the waypoints, at max magnify the lines are very thick and obscure the topo lines. When I try to start a new track, the draw tool functions as a track selector over the existing (too thick) track, so I can't correct what is already there. The only option is to delete small sections of the map and try to redraw them from memory or a print out. This process might work, but I think I could do it a lot faster in a paint program. There doesn't seem to be any way to turn off a waypoint or track display completely, since all the waypoints are ultimately displayed in the "All Waypoints" master list which won't turn off. Strangely, if I delete a waypoint in a custom rout, the waypoint is also deleted from the master list, so once a waypoint is added to a rout it can't be removed without also removing it from the entire map. Overall it's a nice program and probably works fine for mapping out long, straight paths. It's useless for my purposes, though. They need to add some better editing and viewing features, such as interactive rout editing with drag handles on the waypoints, and some control over how and when the waypoints are displayed.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good. Must have realistic expectations
Review: If Topo maps still cost $2.50, I never would have purchased this product. Now that they cost upwards of $8, this product pays for itself fairly quickly.
I like setting the waypoints on the map and then uploading to my Garmin eTRex (serial) GPS. I do not go the other way from GPS to map. The quality of the map printouts is good, and scaling is good although I wish you could set the variable manually instead of using the preset values.
The paper is expensive but very durable. Best to make test prints on regular paper until ready to print for real. The paper size is a limitation (unless one has a large-format printer).
If you want to just use this to browse topos, it's not a great tool. It's much better to have a larger format topo, say 1:25000 to get a rough idea of your route, and then use Topo to scan a small area. The screen real estate of a computer monitor is tiny, and really does not lend itself well to casual map browsing, especially at 1:24000 scale where it takes 8 screens to pan a map, whereas a real map can be panned by the naked eye.
Anyway, I'm happy with the tool as long as the limitations are understood. This is for the PC version on W2K for Topo California. I just bought a Mac (yes!) and I hope the conversion utility works!
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