Eric Smith
Reviewed: 18 October 2003
MAKES THE MOST OF YOUR GPS
Absolute simplicity; digital map, so no cheapo scans; a real benefit for GPS use.
Not specifically hillwalking orientated (more hunting and sailing!?!); doesn't seem to import like you'd think it should.
I struggled along by manually inputting to my GPS before I downloaded the trial version of this, then I just had to buy it (it was £160 then!). If you've got a GPS and like going up hills, but you don't have mapping software such as this, then all I can say is you don't know what you're missing. If you're so inclined, I reckon you could plan a complex route and upload it to your GPS in less than a minute (as long as you don't mind meaningless computer-generated waypoint names). After the walk, you can download the track and see on a 1:50000 OS map exactly where you took that wrong turning and what time it was that you were there. Annoying niggles are 1) there's no summit icon, so you can't tell the difference on the GPS display unless you manually change it on the GPS itself, which kind of defeats the point of splurging out big bucks on labour-saving software; 2) although it knows the altitude of any spot, it can't be bothered to transfer that to your GPS, so more time-consuming manual inputting is necessary to get the full story; 3) it can't read my French and German mapping CDs, although I thought it was meant to be multi-linguistic and could read almost any software. These niggles are what stop this from being 100% on the usefulness scale, but you can live with that. It's good to be able to print out small sections of those OS maps that aren't worth spending money on and I print out a copy of my route map area (showing my route) so that I don't need to keep taking my proper map out when I want to check my position from the GPS. All-in-all, I'd say that you'd be much better off buying a basic GPS unit and putting the money saved towards this type of software, rather than getting seduced by talk of barometric altimeters, electronic compasses, heart rate monitors, pop-up toasters etc.
