Natmap Info
Submitted: Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 18:35
ThreadID:
42998
Views:
2084
Replies:
3
FollowUps:
10
This Thread has been Archived
Member - jeff M (SA)
I purchased the Natmap Raster 2005 Premium and was wondering if all the small roads are able to be identified.
At the moment I have the major Highways sused out but don't as yet know how to bring up all the small roads and their names.
Or can't this software help with the small roads????? or maybe I haven't played around with it enough yet..
Jeff M. (SA)
Reply By: Member - Fizz (NSW) - Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 20:43
Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 20:43
When you zoom in or out on a Raster map you don't get extra information or lose information. A Raster image is a bit-map image. As you zoom out you just go from it being so small you can't read it (because the pixels are tiny) to it being so pixellated (jagged) it is meaningless (because the pixels become very big).
It's only with vector-based maps (which are based on mathematical algoritms rather than pixels) that the actual amount of info can vary depending on how far you have zoomed in or out.
I'm not sure what software you need to use for vector-based maps, except that I know my eXplorist XL GPS uses them - which is why small roads start to show up as you increase the zoom. If anyone knows, I'd be interested to find out.
Fizz
AnswerID:
225915
Follow Up By: Im.away - Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 21:14
Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 21:14
You're right on the money Fizz. Natmaps are a good navigation source for occasions where the topography of the area is important. Natmaps at 1:250,000 feature all highways, most major roads and some tracks.
What it is really good at is displaying rivers, creeks, sandhills, rocks and mountains, lakes on so on. For example, when crossing the Simmo, the accuracy of the sand ridges on Natmap is excellent. They aren't even shown on most vector map software.
Discover Aus ( for Magellan GPSR's) is a good vector program that includes street names. Garmin have a similar product.
Ideally you could run both types simultaneously (I do, using one GPS and a program called GPS Wedge) and get the best of both worlds.
Russ.
FollowupID:
486837
Follow Up By: Member - Fizz (NSW) - Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 21:55
Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 21:55
Thanks Russ.
I've got DiscoverAus in the GPS, but it's not the Topo version. Has anyone used both the Topo and the non-Topo and can say whether they reckon it's worth spending $399 to upgrade to the Topo? Does the Topo show sand ridges?
Do you mean that using GPS WEDGE you can have DiscoverAus running on your GPS with (say) Natmap 250K running simultaneously on the laptop?
Graham (Fizz)
FollowupID:
486853
Follow Up By: Im.away - Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 22:46
Wednesday, Mar 07, 2007 at 22:46
GPS Wedge would allow you to run two different mapping programs simulataneously on a laptop. I do this and run the two Windows side-by-side so I can look at each without switching between them. You probably dont even need it to run one on the GPSR and one on the laptop.
This assumes that your GPSR is able to send NMEA sentences via its comms port as
well as runing Discover Aus.
FollowupID:
486873